Children of Silentown

About Children of Silentown

Children of Silentown is a point-and-click adventure by Elf Games, the makers of Little Briar Rose, made with Luna2 Studio and published by Daedalic Entertainment. It came out on January 11, 2023 on PC, PS4 and PS5, Xbox and Nintendo Switch.

Lucy lives in Silentown, a village in the middle of a forest. In daylight the forest is calm. At night the roars of monsters echo through it, and they keep Lucy awake; her dreams are no safer. People in the village disappear, and that is nothing unusual there. This time Lucy decides she is old enough to find out what is going on herself.

The game falls into two halves. The first several hours stay in the village: you run errands for Lucy's mother, play a prank on a grumpy farmer, try to join the other children's games and look for clues, while the adults keep warning everyone to stay quiet so the monsters do not come. Inventory puzzles carry this half: you combine items, sometimes with strange results, to get past each problem. Later Lucy goes into the forest, where she has to slip past large shapes moving through the undergrowth, and the play leans more on logic puzzles.

Lucy picks up sounds as she explores and turns them into short songs. When a villager will not open up, or something blocks the way, singing the right song starts one of three kinds of logic puzzle: guiding a thread between buttons on a patch of cloth, turning tiles to make an unbroken path, and crossing beams of light on a board. Reviewers found these engaging at first but repeated too often in the forest half.

The art is hand-painted, with children whose wide white eyes are their only features, black-and-white dream scenes, and a forest of dangerous reds and calm blues. Piano music carries much of the mood, and a narrator is the only voice. The fear is quiet and creeping rather than sudden: a village where people vanish, and a forest Lucy is told never to enter. The story has four endings, chosen at the very end, and since the game autosaves, seeing another one means playing it again from the start.

It suits players who like dark fairy tales and adventure puzzles more than chases, and it is a gentle place to start for younger or more easily frightened players.

How to play Children of Silentown

1. Click to walk Lucy around Silentown and talk to the villagers and children.
2. Look closely at each scene and pick up anything that might be useful.
3. Combine items in your inventory, and use them on people and places to get past problems.
4. Learn songs and sing them when a scene calls for one.
5. Follow the clues about the people who disappeared, and stay out of the forest until the story takes you there.

Tips

• Talk to everyone again after something changes; villagers often have something new to say.
• Try combining items even when it seems odd; the game rewards unexpected combinations.
• Keep the songs Lucy learns in mind; when you are stuck, one of them may be the answer.
• Play the minigames with the other children; they are part of village life and part of the story.
• The game autosaves, and the ending depends on a choice at the very end, so seeing another ending means playing it again from the start.
• There is a hidden fourth ending that needs an optional song; forest areas can close once you move on, so explore each one fully before you leave it.

Questions