Review for The Silent Sky Part 1
The Silent Sky Part 1 by KAPA is an adventure game that shows great promise. It tells an intriguing story that, aside from a slightly irritating piece of animation, has lovingly crafted graphics, music, sound, and voice acting. Its puzzles fit the context of the narrative. Working together, these elements combine to draw the player into the story. Still, I found the attempt slightly hampered by two timed puzzles that might be difficult for those with less-than-average finger dexterity. Adding to its detriment, it tries to push the envelope regarding its interface and menus, which even veteran adventure game players might find confusing. Additionally, during the first few minutes of playing it, I experienced a game-ending bug. Timely assistance from the developer let me continue without a problem, and I was able to experience a decent game.
The player inhabits Sim Miller, a twelve-year-old boy who must find his lost dog, Terri. Success requires him to sneak away from the house without disturbing his parents. This is accomplished using standard point-and-click mechanics. Sim is a tight-lipped character, and it takes three or four clicks on each hotspot to reveal everything in a scene or to discover he can take an item. Unfortunately, this game lacks a hotspot indicator. Its presence would have saved me lots of frustration because I kept forgetting to pick up items I needed to progress.
Once Sim leaves the house, the story intensifies. While searching for Terri, Sim makes an acquaintance from out of town. Sim must repair a mode of transportation so his ally can accomplish his mission. While doing so, most of the puzzles Sim encounters are solvable if one remembers to click until Sim repeats himself. Two puzzles frustrated me so much that they distracted me from the story. The first involved climbing into a tree house. I had to click at the right moment in the right place to succeed, and I had to do this three times during the game. I felt handicapped by my not-so-nimble fingers. I succeeded through sheer luck. The second puzzle involved throwing an item at a squirrel on a tree branch so that it releases an object that is caught in the tree. The squirrel occupied the branch for a short time, and it didn’t take long for it to return to the branch so that I could try again, but once more I succeeded through luck alone.
Additionally, sometimes while walking through the forest Sim would randomly relieve himself against a tree. Seeing this once made me chuckle, but he did it many times while I was trying to accomplish something. It made me wish he had taken care of business before he left home.
These two timed puzzles weren’t as potentially difficult as the finale, but fortunately there were three ways to solve the last challenge. I chose the easiest way, using an item Sim brought with him. The other methods involve quickly entering a code or using a different object taken from Sim’s house to close a circuit. The game ends on a cliffhanger, with Sim stuck in a place he never expected to be.
The two puzzles involving the squirrel and tree house diminished my experience of the game, although they weren’t the only frustrating things about it. It also takes a unique approach to its menu, which took me a bit of time to understand.
Instead of buttons with labels, like many adventure games, The Silent Sky Part 1 presents the player with a beautiful picture of a farm at night for its menu. Clicking on specific parts of the picture allows the player to interact with the program. For instance, it’s necessary to click on the upstairs window of the farmhouse. At first, this was difficult to understand because the text box informing me of my actions' results was on top of the screen instead of the bottom as I expected. You click on the moon to continue where you left off and near the doghouse to exit the program. The unique menu requires a small learning curve, but I still found it understandable, except when saving and loading the game.
It was frustrating to save the game and return later. Once the player clicks on the cellar door, they are presented with shelves full of empty jars. When an empty jar is selected, the player must click on a tray labeled “Store”: this will fill the selected jar with a colored liquid, representing a saved game. Since the jars aren’t labeled, I found it hard to remember where I left off. I had to backtrack many times. It would have been less frustrating if I could have labeled my saved games. Since the number of slots was limited, I had to empty jars often and refill them. If the jars had labels, this would have made it easier to remember the story, and reusing the save slots would have been less problematic for me.
Despite the timed puzzles and unexpected menu design that frustrated me, I found The Silent Sky Part 1 to be a satisfying adventure game. It told an engaging story with well-crafted graphics, music, and sound enhanced by outstanding voice acting. I’m glad I spent ten hours playing it.
