It is a very normal and welcome thing to see in someone’s home.
Silver Chains begins in typical horror game fashion. They had an accident just outside the haunted house. You try to get help, but you lose consciousness and wake up in the building not knowing what’s going on. Initially, you want to escape, but as the story deepens, your priorities change, because this unfriendly building is more than that. Silver necklaces are subtle. The plot isn’t revolutionary, and you can see the twists coming from afar, but it does the job. It’s well written, so you can at least keep playing the damn thing.
I was afraid that Silver Chains was a typical BlueBerry-like horror game. This kind of game is nothing but a running simulation with strange visuals and the occasional scary jump that scares the crap out of you. Fortunately, I was (partially) wrong: This is a game that focuses on exploring an abandoned mansion and solving simple but effective puzzles. There are a few enemies that pop up from time to time to try and kill you, and all you can do is take cover. But these are scripted sets, so all you have to do is hide and wait for the soundtrack to stop messing around. That means you’re free to go.
Super Mario 64 taught me never to trust a piano in a haunted house.
The sound design is the biggest flaw in this game. While the voice acting is actually good, albeit scattered, Silver Chains is one of those horror games. You know, the kind that doesn’t know how to be subtle and instead relies on tons of fear jumps and loud, annoying noises. The game has grainy visuals, but every time I started to delve into the staging and plot, a fear of jumping and then a loud explosion destroyed any semblance of immersion. I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable anymore, I’d just get angry.
The other problem in the game is, unfortunately, pretty short. The title may seem much longer than it is, but that’s because there are a lot of digressions, as well as poorly explained puzzles that can have you running around the mansion trying to find the item you need to open the door, or the interacting item that activates a heel piece or a new set. If you know what you’re doing, you can beat him in two hours, and even less if you’re lucky with an inconsistent enemy AI.
Spencer Manor in the charity shop.
That’s not to say that silver necklaces don’t have good sides. Although this is a low-budget standalone game, it’s actually quite beautiful, with great lighting and shadow effects and a fantastic setting. The game ran at 60 frames per second from start to finish without slowing down or crashing. The textures were also very impressive. The only downside is that the few NPCs seen here are poorly animated and look and act more like puppets than the real ones scattered throughout the game.
Slappy wanted to appear in a (slightly) better horror game, after participating in the scary game Dead of Night last year.
Silver Chains is actually decent, but it would be a much more enjoyable horror title if it wasn’t so short and if there wasn’t an abundance of boring jump scares. All the ingredients are there: the graphics are surprisingly good, the basic framework is rock solid, the story is engaging (but predictable), and some of the puzzles are quite interesting. But there are worse horror stories. It’s still worth a look if you need a brand new horror game and don’t have a PS5 to enjoy Resident Evil : Village demonstration.
Silver Chains is a pretty awesome horror game that works surprisingly well on PS4. The light effects are the highlight of the game. The character models, well, not so much …. | Your standard first-person shooter run, solve puzzles and hide from enemies. The puzzles are simple but effective, and a good framer helps the immersion. |
It’s not all bad in theory: The voice acting is reasonable, some sound effects are decent and the song in the pause menu is as dark as it is beautiful. But it’s all spoiled by the fact that the game is based on panic and screaming. | Silver Chains would have been a much more enjoyable horror title if it hadn’t had a short lifespan and an abundance of annoying scares to boot. The ingredients of a good horror game are there, but the game misses the mark in execution. |
Last block: 6.5 |
Silver Chains is available now on PS4, PC and Switch.
Reviewed on PS4.
A copy of Silver Chains was provided by the publisher.
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