Publisher: KAPA
Developer: KAPA
Year: 2022
Platform: Windows

Rating: 2

Half of an ambitious solo project from first-time Estonian game designer KAPA, The Silent Sky is a wonderfully hand-drawn and animated game about a boy who finds a portal in the woods behind his country home. Unfortunately, great animation is about all that it has going for it. Poor localization, poor dialogue, poor character development, and mediocre puzzles make it difficult to recommend.

About to fall asleep, twelve-year old Siim hears his dog in distress. He decides to grab his pup’s Frisbee and sneak out of the house to comfort him. By the time he finally puzzles his way out, his dog has fled to the woods where a massive white light is shining. Siim follows and discovers what looks like a portal, as well as the mysterious humanoid alien that’s trying to protect it.

The first problem with this point-and-click adventure is that the dialogue (with full voice-acting) fails to match how humans actually talk. One of Siim’s first thoughts is, “I’ll bring her frisbee. She likes her frisbee. She gets instantly happy when she sees that.” Later when you direct him to check a remote control for some batteries, he says “It’s useful if there are batteries inside. I’ll just borrow it. See, I put it back.” This excessive inner dialogue plagues the game and makes it difficult to take Siim seriously. The lack of a localized script is surely to blame as well. Runaway: A Road Adventure suffered similarly as the hero overly described and summarized every though and feeling, perhaps to hide the fact he wasn’t confident in his English. That said, there’s only a few overt grammatical mistakes. But it’s quite clear that a native English speaker never saw the script.

The second problem is that the game can’t decide if it wants to be a “pick up everything not nailed down” game or a “only take things when it makes sense” game. Siim will grab staples from his desk even though there’s no apparent use for them. Yet a bit later he refuses to pick up a screwdriver (that he does eventually need) because he can’t see a need for it at the moment. This happens on enough occasions that I lacked confidence in how to approach the puzzles.

The third problem, and perhaps the most significant, is that the characters in the game don’t behave like humans. When Siim discovers his dog is missing, he doesn’t panic or announce he’s got to look for him immediately. He just sort of nonchalantly mentions it, as if it’s an inconvenience he’ll figure out. At one point in the game, the military is hunting Siim in the woods and our hero walks casually everywhere and there’s hardly a hint of concern in his tone or dialogue. It’s hard to get invested in a character’s fate if they don’t seem interested in it either.

The puzzles are mostly fine. One bizarre one in the beginning requires Siim to pick a lock on his front door to get outside. Perhaps this is my American bias, but having a keyed lock on the inside of the house is quite the fire hazard. There’s also a couple of puzzles that require to be quick with the mouse, which could frustrate some players. There’s a sort-of nested hint system; if you right-click on Siim he will gradually offer more advice on what to do, though rarely gives away an answer.

I wish I could say the plot advances as you go, but it never does. You never learn why the alien is here and you never learn where the portal goes. Presumably that will come if a sequel is ever released, but it would have been nice to get some bread crumbs.

There’s also a few minor rookie mistakes when it comes to quality of life stuff, like a pretty but wonky save/load screen and the lack of a tutorial on how to active hotspots.

The reason why I score the game a 2 instead of a 1 is the incredible animation. You can tell animation is the designer’s first love, as great detail is given to every single action. From the way the family horse moves around, to how a character moves when it’s stuck in mud, to the way bullet marks streak against a metal case, I was regularly just sitting and staring at the artistry. The hand-drawn graphics are not overly detailed, but everything is very clear. The music and sound effects are generally nicely understated.

Full disclosure, I played The Silent Sky for free as the developer himself asked me to give him feedback due to the mixed reviews it’s previously received. You’ll be happy to know he agrees with all of my comments above and has dedicated himself to not repeating the mistakes for the sequel. That self-awareness and humility on its own gives me hope and I’m rooting for the game’s final installment.