Silenced: The House is a choose-your-path visual novel regarding vulgar teenagers navigating a creepy house and its surrounding area. Swordbreaker and Dull Grey, other Sometimes You released titles, have identical gameplay (or technically, lack thereof) for comparison.
That’s the thing. There really isn’t much game here. You just hit the “advance the text” button until an Achievement pops you get a game over screen. The entertainment value comes from the story, which has a lot of unnecessary swearing and doesn’t exactly have the best translation. Also, the branching paths requires a lot of trial and error which can be tedious if you are trying to unlock a specific ending. The game even mocks the player when they lose and hopes they created a save file to make continuing easier.
If you have a guide, you should be able to knock out all the Achievements easily as you just need to click the right dialog choice. Just remember there is a lot of button mashing through dialog to get there. Personally, easily increasing my Gamerscore without much work was more entertaining than the teenage drama. While I personally enjoy a little more game in my game, I can see how a choice-based visual novel with decent drawings can appeal to its dedicated fanbase. The scare and horror factor is also very low so don’t let the name mislead you.
Not As Good As: playing a game with actual gameplay
Better Than: reading a plain old regular book
Wait For It: the next visual novel with an easy Gamerscore boost
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz
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