REVIEW – Small and big at the same time – that’s one way to describe the game, which is a turn-based strategy with automated battles, a card game and a hero management game at the same time. This is an indie game with big ambitions. The result is not perfect, but it can’t be called bad either, but there are some problems that have a negative impact on the evaluation.

The surprising thing is that although it’s a strategy game, it’s still manageable on PlayStation 5.

Chimera Entertainment’s impossible ascent

So there’s the turn-based, world strategy element. It’s easy to manage because it’s got a very streamlined system, so it’s very easy to check settlements, it’s easy to move troops around very quickly, and you can bring in reinforcements. It could all fail in battle, but because it’s automated, all we have to do is pay attention to the format of our formations, what elements they’re made of, and most importantly, what cards we use. They determine our hero’s abilities, and they are all timed! We have to be careful which abilities we choose and where we place them. You can jump between cards using the L2/R2 buttons, but fortunately the game slows down to make it easy to choose the ability and its position. It can be adjusted, but it has to be said that there are no complaints about the handling of the DualSense, even if the two buttons just mentioned might be an unusual choice at first. The game has three game modes (story mode, multiplayer, skirmish). In each of them, you’ll switch between developing your kingdom and fighting battles.

You have to conquer castles and settlements while defending your own capital against invasions. Resources can be gathered from the places you conquer. Every move and every battle exhausts our hero. We can only make a few moves per turn. Stealth has become a bit sluggish, though, and unfortunately you have to use it for longer in some missions. As for the combat, it should be mentioned that the AI is not very stable and it’s hard to tell who’s winning, and because of this you can’t really immerse yourself in SoS, so the atmosphere is not perfect. It’s impossible to see what’s going on in the mindlessness, so it’s even more important to know when to send your hero into battle. The only problem is that by now it’s even confusing how you can have complete dominance at one time and not at another. The AI enemy is ready to take out our units that attack from longer distances, and it’s certainly better at it than we are. The combat is not that bad, but you can say that the skill-based approach works, but the overall picture there is not as good as in the world portion; in the latter you have much more direct control over what happens.

It’s good on the surface, but it has problems underneath

The eight missions in the story mode are mostly about corruption. There is a Crusader army that has brought silence and cursed the land. The Firstborn and the Starborn have been fighting for a long time, but now they must fight together and put aside their differences, or they will lose everything and the silence will descend upon them. The Crusaders are playable (look for the Crusaders in multiplayer and skirmish modes). The tension is good. This is very good. The dialog between the heroes is also very good. By the way, there are side quests in the maps that you can use to get the non-playable factions on your side. Of course, there are a lot of random battles, but when all the magic kicks in, that’s when the game slows down. But it really slows down (the frame rate is chugging, big time). And then the input lag kicks in.

Not as bad as Lichdom: Battlemage was originally on PS4 (which was legendarily lousy when it launched on console). Oh, and saves can take a long time to happen. If that were the only problem, it might even be enjoyable, but the other problem with SoS is that it becomes unbearably difficult at times in completely unexpected ways. There is no difficulty curve, there are suddenly sprouting hills (not spikes). Especially in missions six and seven, out of the blue, the game comes and kicks you in the face. And this seriously ruins the gameplay and the atmosphere, which doesn’t reflect well on Chimera Entertainment’s game…

Save our souls

Unfortunately, the game’s SoS acronym could also stand for another SOS. A distress signal. Because in some places we could really use it because of the aforementioned difficulty problem. Apart from that, Songs of Silence is not that bad. It has replayability, the art style is cool and the audio is nothing to complain about, but you can’t help but notice the things that drag down the rating. It has a unique world and backstory, but despite that it just doesn’t deserve more than a 6.5/10. If it were in a slightly better technical condition, it could get a 7/10…

-V-

Publisher: Chimera Entertainment
Developer: Chimera Entertainment
Style: 4X strategy
Published: date: November 13, 2024