Creating a successful strategy game is no easy feat, as it must meet specific metrics to keep the players engaged for hours on end. It must include thoughtful mechanics with clear and rewarding decision-making, offering players a balance of challenge and creativity.
Many recent releases have excelled in the strategy game genre. TakeUnicorn Overlord, for example, which offered the player freedom to carve their own path on the battlefield, orFire Emblem: Engagefor its charming form of storytelling.
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These games checked off all the right boxes for what makes a strategy game work. There’s a standard now to uphold, or else the player will move on from the game and find something better to spend their time on. Why play an okay game when you may play a great one?
Developer Chimera Entertainment, mainly known for itsAngry Birdsspinoffs, aims to makeSongs of Silenceanother standout in the crowded genre.
For what it’s worth, the game mostly succeeds, but glaring issues prevent it from being a product that strategy-game enthusiasts will remember for years to come.
In our review of Songs of Silence, you’ll learn what makes the game good in its own right and what holds it back from being a game that can stand among the greats.
A Tale of Light and Dark
Songs of Silence features two main modes: Campaign and Skirmish. The former is a story-driven adventure, while the latter focuses on single matches that can last for hours, depending on the player’s settings.
Before getting into Skirmish mode, we must discuss the Campaign’s story in Songs of Silence. The story is actually a highlight of the game, something that is commonly overlooked by most in the genre.
The main premise is a classic tale of good vs. evil, where you play as the brave Queen, Lorelai, as you trek across a land consumed by darkness, searching for a new land to call home.
The narrative is told through brief dialogue interactions between turns or upon encountering key landmarks on the battlefield. You’ll meet new characters along your journey, either helpful or with malicious intentions, each superbly voice-acted that could put some triple-A games to shame.
Lorelai, voiced by actress Ashleigh Haddad ofWuthering Waves, brings an electrifying energy to her role as the main protagonist. you may hear her passion in every word she says, using subtle shifts in tone to display a wide range of emotions.
This type of voice acting is seen throughout Songs of Silence and really brings the story to life. It’s hard not to be invested in these heroes' journeys, as they go through a rollercoaster of highs and lows.
It’s All About Strategy
Songs of Silence features a typical strategy gameplay loop, focusing on real-time combat, army management, and character progression. What makes the game unique is its card system, where the player can use skills, apply buffs, and execute attacks on the battlefield.
These cards range from making units invincible for a certain time to dropping swords down on the opponent from the sky. Each card has a cooldown, making it necessary to know the best time to use it to succeed in a fight.
As heroes level up through experience points, the player has the opportunity to select between three upgrades. Selections include an upgrade to bases, stronger versions of currently owned cards, or a brand-new card altogether.
Choosing the right card when upgrading is crucial and requires strategic thinking, since leveling up can take quite a while and upgrades rarely come.
This form of progression system can feel incredibly satisfying at times, especially when the card you selected has helped you progress closer to your objective and overcome a recent brutal challenge.
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The true strategy ofSongs of Silencelies in managing your army, resources, and kingdoms. Knowing when and where to place units in formation is a difficult task, as one wrong move can cause an enemy army to blast right through them.
Unit formations and armies' management are done in a grid-like fashion, which is undoubtedly one of the game’s strengths. It’s here where most of the strategic nature comes into play, as you’ll spend a good chunk of time figuring out which units do better up front, in the middle, or from the back.
The formation system goes hand in hand with the game’s combat, which is all about learning the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses through trial and error. For example, you may notice that archers are stronger against one unit, meaning you should place the archers on the same side of the weakness.
Additionally, the resource management system demands the player’s focus at all times and pushes you to make smart choices at every turn. Ignoring resource management will result in a lack of units, the opponent seizing your kingdom, and, ultimately, a failed objective.
While always a good mechanic to include in a strategy game, the resource system is, however, the weakest point ofSongs of Silence. More on that later.
Held Back By Balancing Issues
As previously mentioned, the card system makes Song of Silence unique in its own right. The problem with the card system, however, lies within Campaign mode. The progression of unlocking cards is severely flawed, taking forever to unlock anything actually worthwhile.
Unfortunately, this prolonged progression results in the first 10 hours of the campaign feeling underwhelming and imbalanced.
The unbalanced issues don’t stop there, as they are also seen in the game’s turn-based system. The number of steps the enemy can take during each turn is too high, resulting in the swarming of the home base and an unfair advantage for the opponent.
This wouldn’t be such an issue if the game provided more resources upon each turn, allowing players to add units more frequently to their army formation.
Since the amount of critical resources provided is so minuscule, it’s almost impossible to get the advantage and push back on the enemy army once they start closing in on your kingdom.
Yes, you can unlock the ability to earn more resources by growing landmarks and kingdoms, but doing that even costs you resources. It costs way too much to build, and when you do, you receive way too little additional “resources per turn.”
While not always a problem, the lack of resources in Songs of Silence can result in an excruciating gameplay loop that follows a tedious pattern.
The pattern is as follows: Spend the little resources you have on units, go out to fight enemies, your units die or weaken, and then spend the resources you just earned on more units.
But it’s not as easy as simply “adding more units” since you can’t do it on the battlefield. Nope, you have to return to your base. This means you can be halfway to an objective but low on units, forcing you to trek all the way back to the nearest base. This happens while enemies are closing in on your direction, leaving almost zero room to build up your army.
The lack of resources in Songs of Silence can result in an excruciating gameplay loop that follows a tedious pattern.
Out of curiosity and to see if this problem was consistent, I changed the difficulty setting to the easiest one available — Story Focus.
To my surprise, this problem still occurred, and I constantly felt like I had no choice but to meet the “Defeat” game-over screen. Isn’t a “Story Focus” gameplay difficulty supposed to focus on the story?
Unfortunately, these issues result in a campaign with a solid foundation but littered with artificial difficulty. Due to the game being in early access for five months, you’d think Chimera Entertainment would double down on fixing the balance issues.
Skirmish for Victory
The Skirmish Mode in Songs of Silence is where the game truly shines. Skirmish has the same gameplay fundamentals as story mode, but unlike Campaign, there are no balancing issues here.
The reason for that is because there is way more at your disposal and a ton of freedom to cater to various playstyles, such as four factions to choose from, a handful of classes, even vocations with their own unique advantages.
Playing a skirmish match is like playing a board game come to life. Players have a plethora of customization options to fine-tune the match to their liking, such as board size, world type, teams, etc.
Playing a match of Skirmish is like a board game come to life.
Additionally, many unlockables are available that give players something to work toward. Some examples include new hero classes and Fates, which add conditions to a match, such as two-minute turns or limited heroes.
Players must complete Skirmish matches and objectives within the match itself to unlock the rewards mentioned, creating a rewarding system and satisfying game loop that continuously makes you want to return for more.
Most importantly, Skirmish is just simply a good time. There’s no better way to put it. It has that nostalgic feel of playing a classic board game for the evening, stress-free and relaxing. It’s Skirmish mode alone that makes Songs of Silence worthwhile.
Closing Comments:
Songs of Silence is a solid strategy game that does enough to make a name for itself in a crowded genre. Through its addicting army management, unique card system mixed with real-time combat, and fantastic Skirmish Mode, it’s hard not to come away satisfied. However, the game’s Campaign mode doesn’t consistently deliver and has frustrating balancing issues that work against it, resulting in lost momentum and an exhausting state of tedium.
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