Silt Review | PS5

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There's an inherent creepiness in being underwater. The depths grow gradually darker and more mysterious as you delve deeper and there's a sense of discovery as discarded everyday things take on a whole other life.

by James Michael Parry

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@james_parry

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Developer: Spiral Circus Games
Publisher: Fireshine Games
Platforms: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Players: 1

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It's here that Silt sets its scene – a lone diver exploring a hidden world of puzzles and sea creatures to possess. That's right, here the ocean's fauna aren't just biological marvels to be pointed at, open-mouthed, but tools for exploring this underwater world.

At first glance, Silt might not jump out at you, since its monochrome colour palette is muted by design, but as you explore the murky waters you're treated to a variety of interesting and, in some cases, bordering on psychedelic locations.

The backgrounds to your adventure are meticulously hand-drawn and the care and detail in crafting them shines as they are brought to life with just the odd light, or the passing lamp of the diver.

The gameplay is simple, and the user interface is all but absent, with the game giving you the odd button prompt now and again, but generally leaving you to your own devices. It's this aimless exploration which takes up much of the game, but the level design is realised in such a way that you're rarely unsure of where you need to go.

Possessing creatures is as simple as a button press, and they don't seem particularly bothered by it – though you do have to be careful that the lifeless body of the diver doesn't get gobbled up in the meantime. You can even hop from one creature to the next, a crucial step for some of the later puzzles.

That said, it never feels complex, so the game never stretches you, making this a fairly relaxed experience, albeit with moments of tension and certainly ones which make your hairs stand on end.

You see, the creatures at this depth have a certain pilot fish-like menace to them, with big snapping jaws a common find. Unsettlingly, you'll discover that not all creatures can be possessed, and with no weapons to speak of, sometimes there's no alternative but to dash away and hope for the best, since getting off the screen to the next area will leave unsavoury characters behind.

It's here that we encountered the biggest issue with the game, though not by any means a deal-breaker: loading. Games do still need to load. As complex as console systems have become there's still a need to have these images conjured up from the depths of the SSD, or hard drive, but with such seemingly straightforward visual design, it stands out when you encounter loading so frequently.

Loading times interrupt the carefully constructed atmosphere, as the ambient music and sound effects fade out and then back in as the visuals do...

It's not extreme or offensive, but each time you move off-screen you'll trigger a fade to black, followed by a load of about 5 seconds. It feels like a conscious choice, since each load is consistent, but sometimes the area you've travelled on screen to get there is barely bigger than the screen itself, leaving you wondering why.

The reason it is disappointing is that it interrupts the carefully constructed atmosphere, as the ambient music and sound effects fade out and then back in as the visuals do. In some cases, such as right after a near-death experience, the breath is welcome, but more often that not it makes the game feel slow, in an experience that is already sedate to begin with.

While it wasn't enough to stop us wanting to explore, a longer load, which can't be ruled out on a less powerful platform like the Switch, would have a more significant impact.

Topping off each area you'll encounter a giant boss, known as a Goliath, that requires a little more thought or snappier timing to defeat, though there's no direct combat to speak of here, the environment is your weapon, if you can call it that.

Overall, it was a pleasant if unsettling dive with Silt, and something which feels like a well-realised vision of a select few – an authentic indie game experience – and something well worth checking out.

Pros

• Iconic visuals draw from greats like Limbo or Inside
• Minimal direction maintains a sense of intrigue and wonder
• Simple but effective gameplay is consistent throughout

Cons

• Loading and a few visual bugs occasionally break immersion
• The game is short and linear, with a few areas don't seem to go anywhere or feel like untapped potential
• Puzzles can be a little simplistic, or even samey, and might leave you yearning for more of a challenge

​8/10