Silence: The Whispered World 2

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Silence: The Whispered World 2

Preview

Gamescom 2015: Checkpoints of the good kind

Catching up


Gamescom is not just a great opportunity to see brand new games, it’s also a fantastic moment to catch up with how development is progressing on sequels to existing games. We saw one such game at Daedali, who are hard at work on their successor to The Whispered World. We already had a good look at Silence: The Whispered World 2 when we visited back in 2014 and were curious to see what the team had in store for us this year.

In the visuals department, the game’s art projection technique continues to impress. Projecting 2D art on 3D models results in some the most delicious pictures you’ve ever seen. Further fueled by some gorgeous artwork, Silence is one of the most stunningly beautiful point & click adventures to have ever tickled our eyes.

Checkpoint system


During the demonstration Noah and Spot, both characters from the original game, were joined by Noah’s little sister Renie. To demonstrate the game’s checkpoint system - which allows players to experience the same situation in two different ways - the group was joined by two friendly men, Janus and Samuel. Besieged by an evil horde, the group’s goal is to escape using a big sailing ship that Spot and the kids have to commandeer. All the while, Samuel and Janus will attempt to close the gates to the port in order to keep the horde at bay. Complicated? Bear with me as I explain how the sequence works.

Everything starts with a cutscene that seamlessly transitions into a short skill-based task. Renie stands on Noah’s shoulders, holds up Spot, who is then able to reach for a swinging rope aboard the ship. Next, the game flows back into cutscene-mode in which Kyra - a rebel commander - makes her entrance. Her task is to prevent the kids from taking off with the ship. The aim is to distract Kyra long enough for the kids to leave the port with the ship they are about to... borrow. Based on your choice of dialogue options, the situation plays out quite differently.

You can boast about our resolve and the importance of the mission and even threaten to use the ship’s cannon if Kyra will not let you leave. In this thread, Kyra refuses and Noah fires the cannon at the gate which is barely being held shut by Janus and Samuel. The gate explodes and Kyra has to run for her life, allowing the ship to sail off.

Since that is a horrible way to treat friends, you can could reload the sequence, start over and progress to the dialogue with Kyra. Distracting her just enough, you can get Spot to sneak up behind her in order to distract her even more so that you can leave with the ship. After a few very cute attempts, of which one consists of Spot humping Kyra’s leg, she gets distracted enough to let go of the rope that keeps the ship ashore. In retaliation, she kicks spot into the sea as the ship takes off.

Up to you


It was a hard situation. Losing spot, or screwing over new-found friends, either choice is tough to make. The only positive here is that Silence: The Whispered World 2 lets you have the choice to go back to a checkpoint and try all options until you’re satisfied you have chosen the least possible option. It’s an interesting take on the normally fairly linear point & click gameplay and it’s incredibly ambitious too boot. Any gameplay that follows such choices is potentially radically different.

Curious to learn what happened next? So are we. We’ll have to wait for the game’s release to find out.