Review for Fade to silence. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 30/04/2018
At their essence, videogames are basically a sophisticated means of time killing, a little story, a little physical and mechanical commitment, a little philosophical-digital evasion. But, of these three fundamental conceptual supports, in recent times the number of electro ludi who dedicate themselves body and soul to mechanical difficulty, have grown exponentially. And this is a bit of the sense of Fade to silence, a production conceived and made by THQ Nordic, which makes complexity its cold and pungent soul.
A game that from the very beginning will try to create in us a sort of oppressive and irreversible sense of end and annihilation, of the inevitability of failure to which we will have to oppose by any means.
Fade to silence is an action game with survival and role-playing elements, set on a very high difficulty level. At the beginning, the game will make us choose between an "exploration" mode, suitable for those who want to enjoy the narrative plot and therefore without difficulty, or a mode called "survival", which will have a much higher level of difficulty, with tougher enemies, scarcer supplies, and permanent death. As it is logical to expect, the real soul of the game will obviously be the second mode, based on a hostile environment, scarce resources and a continuous and always complicated struggle for one's survival.
The difficulty of the game is intuitive from the very first bars: we will be greeted, after dying, by a gloomy spiritual being who will welcome us underlining how our actions will be useless, because we are destined to death. Comforting narrative premises aside, Fade to silence it will introduce us to its tough game world with a rather basic tutorial, with brief hints to the basic mechanics and leaving us the thankless task of discovering (dying) what to do and what not to do. To welcome us, a dark incorporeal entity that seems to use our fallen limbs as a mere pastime and display of power. To hinder us, a large heap of horrible presences, terrible emanation of a dark evil that has deeply consumed the entire game world, condemned to an irreversible end and now bare and abandoned.
From a mere gameplay point of view, Fade to silence It will basically require what all games of this genre require of us, namely to survive. To the bad weather, to the cold that will catch us in the form of snow storms, to hunger and to the horrible creatures that populate the candid and decadent game world. Our protagonist will in fact be forced to explore a sort of post-apocalyptic tundra populated by horrors of various kinds, in search of the essential materials necessary for our survival, also exploiting a particular power of our character that will illuminate useful objects, but also with the purpose of purifying the earth from the evil that grips it, destroying huge crystals that seem to act as a repeater of the corrupting endemic.
Once the inventory is filled, we will have to return to our camp, trying to avoid the grip of the frost and the danger that lurks in the snowy blanket that will try to feast on our cold meats at our every unwary step.
The combat, in addition to being mechanically "heavy" and in some ways conceptually similar to a classic soulslike with the presence of strokes and movements that will have a specific cost in terms of stamina, will also be difficult to support at the level of objects: exploring will not be easy and, despite a not particularly large game map, the wastelands we will visit will not be exactly generous in ingredients or particularly safe.
Here it is, Fade to silence, will ask us a question: is it better to escape and save resources, or take down enemies at the cost of wasting important ingredients to continue exploring? Another nice addition, in addition to intuitive crafting and combat, will be the possibility of expanding and enriching our field so that we can, among other things, welcome new survivors into your tribe and unlock new skills related to your character. .
The management of the survivors, which will be fundamental for the unlocking of important upgrades, will have to be carefully evaluated since letting them perish would mean perishing in turn. What's the icing on the cake? Permanent death, of course: in Fade to Silence, our character will have six attempts before finally perishing and losing everything that has been done, except for character upgrades. Speaking of these, the THQ Nordic title will put on the plate a somewhat particular mechanism to manage everything: there will not be a classic system based on experience in the game, but we will have to explore and collect particular crystals which will contribute to the increase. of the character's stats. This system, although it stimulates even more exploration, could prove to be particularly punishing if, after having explored a lot and built a lot, you die without being able to at least upgrade your alter ego.
Graphically speaking, Fade to silence it's a more than good test case for THQ Nordic. While not making a miracle cry as regards the general quality of detail and effects, which will show a bit the side in the cutscenes and when the camera is quite close to models and environments, the work done will be of a good quality level. , also considering the introductory price far from the triple A standards. Even the global artistic direction, from the cold monochromatic oppression of the environments to the continuous nefarious hisses of the incorporeal event that will accompany us, will be of excellent immersion in the game world.
Technically, Fade to Silence stands at a fairly good general level, offering a blocked but substantially solid game fluidity, together with an almost total absence of bugs of some importance, except for some polygonal interpenetration and some sporadic pop up of textures.
A mention should also be made of the animations, some convincing (such as the dodge with somersault or the basic attack combo) some a little forced and woody (like the jump). As for the sound sector, it will consist of a discreet voice dubbing and a tracklist made up of tracks that are not particularly original but which blend well with the bleak and icy atmosphere of the game.
Fade to Silence is an excellent product, challenging and that mixes elements typical of action games, role-playing and the survival trend. To a general good work of artistic direction and script, however, an intermediate technical sector is connected in which positive and negative elements coexist. Recommended for anyone looking for a title that offers a good level of challenge and planning.
► Fade to Silence is an Adventure-RPG game developed and published by THQ Nordic for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 30/04/2018
