The eerie energy of Children of Silentown’s press images and trailers caught my eye immediately. There’s a joy in the creepy, a comfort in the unfortunate, and yes, a deep love in my heart for Tim Burton. Seemingly pulled right out of the famed creator’s dark dreams, Elf Games and Luna2Studio collaborated to develop this point-and-click adventure full of tropes that are familiar and personal favorites. Unfortunately, you’re left with plenty of uncertainty at the end of Children of Silentown, just not the good kind you’d expect.

Children of Silentown features a plot that feels well explored at this point, but still had my attention. The game is a traditional point-and-click experience with numerous opportunities to engage with characters and your environment to make the most of the world around you. Like many titles in this genre, finding and combining items to answer questions or solve puzzles sits front and center here gameplay-wise. While this can often work well when you’re dealing with likable challenges, there aren’t many to find here.

The art style tries its best to keep you distracted from the lackluster gameplay, but it can only help so much. The insertion of music as a form of progression in the game is nice too, it’s just not the type of experience that makes you want to keep playing when your attention begins to wane. The puzzles serve as vignettes in between the static point-and-click-and-walk segments of the game and simply don’t do enough here to warrant a strong recommendation.

The story, however, is certainly a strong point. Your character, Lucy, is a young girl who grows up near a forest that all her neighbors and friends fear. Myserious, downright disturbing noises keep townsfolk away after dark, but (of course) Lucy is curious. She’s also a bit of an outcast because she likes to sing. It’s not really a law, but is against the town norms, to sing and enjoy music. That said, Lucy feels pushed away by the same people telling her to ignore the forest. Naturally, she rebels and looks into it.

Without spoilers, the things in the forest keeping the townspeople full of fear are pretty well done. There’s good here in the 9-ish hour experience. It’s just not the sort of game that will grab those who aren’t diehard fans of the point-and-click genre. While the game is unnerving, it isn’t quite scary, so horror-avoidant players need not worry too much. The real concern is whether or not you’ll see it necessary to follow through to the end.

I don’t dislike Children of Silentown, but there’s little to point to in terms of triumph here. If you’re itching for an eerie adventure, then look no further. The mechanics of the game’s puzzles and mystery just leave much to be desired. On the Switch, there are other point-and-click experiences that left me feeling satisfied in a way this title just doesn’t. For that reason, only those who are truly captivated by the trailer should pursue this one as an addition to your games library. Children of Silentown is available now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Children of Silentown was provided by Daedalic Entertainment for this review.

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Children of Silentown

0.00

5

Score

5.0/10

Pros

• Great visuals and art style
• A nice premise, in theory

Cons

• Does not make a huge impact on you
• Gameplay isn't demanding or compelling enough to excite
• Very little variety in game mechanics leaves you a bit bored