Sylvio: Black Waters may be essentially the most under-the-radar third entry in a sequence I or maybe even GameSpot has ever reviewed. The ghost-hunting sequence has been a deeply hidden gem in my thoughts for a few years now, and Black Waters continues its successful streak. It retains intact the perfect components of the earlier video games whereas including some new wrinkles and reviving some mechanics it had beforehand left behind. Not all of that works in its favor, however its strengths are so notable that it stays one of many yr’s greatest horror video games.
In Sylvio: Black Waters, you play Juliette, a ghost hunter. Within the earlier two video games, she spent her time in creepy fairgrounds and haunted homes, recording staticky digital voice phenomena (EVP), and within the sequel, even capturing ghostly pictures, too. Black Waters makes that the main focus as soon as once more, though this time, it does so in a setting so peculiar and unpredictable that it offers the sport a component of science fiction.
At first, I assumed the unusual, Mars-like dreamworld, the place every part is rust-colored and adorned as if some unseen landscaper is practising a stream-of-consciousness train, can be troublesome to get into. It was nearly too alien, in contrast to the extra earthly and relatable locales I explored within the earlier video games. In these circumstances, it felt like a spot I might wherein I might discover myself. Black Waters’ setting does not have that trait, but it surely does not take lengthy for it to disclose its personal alluring creepiness.
Its shifting and labyrinthine house means you may typically begin in one of many sport’s 5 open-ish hubs with components of the world the other way up or perpendicular to the place you end up, however as you crawl via crevices, climb dilapidated brick partitions, and scale ladders, the world will shift, as if you are crawling on a sphere shifting in the other way of you. Regardless of how unfamiliar and dizzying the world is, I additionally by no means actually obtained misplaced. It has a great way of subtly directing you thru a stage; you do not really feel accountable for its world, however neither are you caught in place. It perpetually pulls you thru.
The aim is to discover the world, discovering fragments of voices and movies belonging to the individuals who have seemingly come and gone earlier than you arrived. Like in previous Sylvio video games, this audio design is Black Waters’ best asset. Stroboskop is a tiny workforce, with previous video games being developed by one individual, and this one has only some extra credited. However the workforce has all the time been true masters of unsettling audio design. Few video games have ever creeped me out as this sequence does, and even on this third go-round with the central mechanic of capturing ghostly voices on tape, I nonetheless genuinely obtained shivers and goosebumps a number of instances in my five-hour playthrough.
Rising up, I all the time liked looking ghost-hunting web sites. I liked to droop my disbelief and get spooked by the EVPs I would discover on-line. Sylvio rekindles this appreciation inside me, as its manufactured EVPs sound a lot just like the “actual” factor that they’re indistinguishable from each other. As you discover recordings, you have to play them backward or ahead, in addition to on one in all three speeds. Backmasked messaging is unnerving even when it is simply on a Beatles album, so when the context is lacking or useless persons are speaking about witches, devils, and a foreboding lake positioned someplace within the unusual world you discover, the impact is way larger.
So most of the voices you uncover are poetic in nature, like a dream half-remembered and restitched collectively by feelings greater than phrases. It furthers the sport’s enormously disconcerting ambiance by providing you with imprecise allusions to hazard or violence, however not sufficient of an evidence to make sense of all of it.
With out that cognitive closure, a thoughts tends to fill within the blanks, like a monster you’ll be able to hear off-screen however by no means see. Taking part in it alone at night time and with headphones on, Black Waters had me peering over my shoulder greater than as soon as. I stress this as a result of I’ve performed horror video games all my life, so only a few video games have this impact on me anymore, however three of them now come from this one sequence.
Juliette does not know why she’s there or what the place even is, which creates a compelling central thriller the earlier video games did not have, and it is made higher by her having a companion on the radio, Lee, who introduces himself because the lone survivor of the hazy world. Their back-and-forth makes for extra front-and-center story than ever earlier than in a Sylvio sport, and their equally however dissimilarly moody performances make all of it work. Juliette’s hushed tones have all the time been a pitch-perfect companion to Sylvio’s vibe, and Lee’s efficiency all the time skews just a bit bit off, like he is an unreliable narrator in Juliette’s story, however you’ll be able to’t fairly place why you are feeling that manner.
All of that is aided by one other exceptional soundtrack, identical to the opposite video games. Stroboskop’s Niklas Swanberg has a background in composing music and it reveals because the sequence’ audio is constantly wonderful. In Black Waters, the music may be arduous to explain because it’s fairly varied–sometimes oddly folksy, just like the music discovered coming from a radio at an deserted campsite. Different instances, it is breathy and churchy.
The sport additionally debuts a brand new characteristic wherein you’ll find items of authentic songs and put them again collectively, which provides extra fascinating background to the story. The eclectic music solely actually shares one attribute no matter which monitor is taking part in: It is disquieting–an earworm you would like you could possibly neglect as a result of it is gutturally upsetting. In a horror sport, that is like magic.
The unique Sylvio concerned some fight components, which I did not get pleasure from. I most popular the sequel’s manner of focusing nearly solely on the EVP mechanics; it made me really feel like Ethan Hawke’s character in Sinister, dissecting these cursed tapes and discovering issues I want I did not. Sylvio: Black Waters revives and reimagines the sequence’ fight mechanics, although I feel they as soon as once more aren’t a energy of the sequence.
As you progress via ranges, you may discover a number of air-powered weapons that you simply load with some type of liquid and marbles. These weapons are seemingly meant to supply totally different methods for various conditions, like a rifle that might maybe shoot farther than the pistol- or shotgun-like choices, however in follow, I used to be ready to make use of any of them for any event, which made the range pointless. The vary was irrelevant. The aim of the gunplay being there in any respect is to dispel the ghosts that typically attempt to do you hurt as you progress. The issue, nonetheless, is that they are not very troublesome to defeat. Amber-like humanoid statues are scattered all through every stage, and typically they arrive to life and chase you as wispy spirits. As soon as ambulant, the longer they exist close to you, the extra injury you are taking, however you’ll be able to counter this by destroying the statues with marbles earlier than they awaken.
In principle, there is a strong mechanic right here wherein it’s essential to resolve to expend a marble to preemptively destroy the ghost, or take your possibilities and see if it does not awaken, however as a result of ammo is plentiful as long as you are diligently looking out every stage, this calculus isn’t related. Solely within the final stage did I’ve to make such wagers. For practically the entire sport, I merely destroyed the statues from a secure distance earlier than they stirred, which I discovered is the perfect strategy to play for a secondary motive: Some statues hid extra audio to dissect, which allowed me to piece collectively a couple of dozen further tales past the 5 obligatory tales one unravels by beating the sport.
The third Sylvio sport is a worthy successor to the 2 supremely haunting video games that got here earlier than it. Although it reverts to that includes a few of the first sport’s lesser components, it additionally carries over and improves on the perfect points of each its predecessors. Sylvio: Black Waters reaffirms what was already apparent to me: Stroboskop’s audio design is on a stage few different horror video games can compete with, and with some future honing in on and enhancing the mechanics surrounding that centerpiece, the sequence nonetheless has room to develop. Even on this state, nonetheless, Sylvio: Black Waters will persist with you longer after the static dissipates.