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By flotsam
Silver
Chains
Cracked
Heads Games
I do like a bit of horror, and while Silver Chains never reached any
great heights, it offered an unsettling moment or two and a number of
jump scares, and kept me involved in its four hours or so of playtime.
You play as Peter, who having had a car accident looks for help at an
old mansion down the road a bit. It looks promising, but once inside,
the signs of life visible in the window from outside appear to be an
aberration. Old, dusty and dilapidated, the mansion creaks and groans
and invites you to feel uncomfortable as you explore its many floors,
halls and rooms. Something not good happened here, uncovered through
notes strewn and tacked about, and apparitions which suddenly appear.
You are a part of it somehow.
While there is a lot to look at there is not a lot of interactivity.
This isn’t a game
where you open countless drawers and cupboards just to see if there is
anything in there. If you can interact with something it will be
relevant. Much of the house is static, but there are some nice touches
that provide colour and movement (bump into a rocking chair for
instance).
Most of what moves, apart from the doors you rattle or successfully
open, are the apparitions (if that is what they are). They can fall from
ceilings, scuttle past in the distance, even explode from walls. One
will kill you if it catches you, an outcome that can generally be
avoided by hiding in a cupboard. A suitable one will always be fairly
close by, so these half dozen or so sequences aren ’t
hard, but be prepared to turn tail. Towards the end, on one occasion you
will literally have to run for your life, as hiding no longer works.
The endgame involves a large horned beast that is pursuing you around
a convoluted attic. It isn ’t
hard to avoid as you look for the items you need, but it did seem a
little tacked on for some extra length. I had already found the items,
and done what was supposed to be done, but the result was the scattering
of the items and this chase scenario in order to do it all again.
Perhaps I missed the point.
Speaking of which, even allowing for its supernatural tones the story
was somewhat nonsensical. The aforementioned beast punctuated the point.
It didn ’t
matter a whole lot, but it meant I was largely playing for reasons other
than a satisfying narrative.
Which was the exploration. Regardless of how little there was to poke
in, or the limited number of puzzles to solve or items to find, I did
enjoy my meanderings. The mansion is a big place, more of it opening up
as you go, some parts in interesting ways. You were also never sure what
might be around the corner, which gave it a mild edginess. Both the
muted colour pallet and the soundscape did their parts to add to the
mood. A light will assist you in the darker places once you obtain it,
and a monocle will help you find both your way and various items in the
latter part of the game. You do need to backtrack, and where to next was
occasionally unclear.
Doll parts abound. You encounter them early on, and will come across
them throughout. You need to look for specific parts at one point.
Children also feature, and one scene in particular might be a little
distressing.
It is played with the mouse and the keyboard, WASD being the default
movement keys although you can map them to any key you want. Your
inventory contains the minimal number of items you find, and while you
can examine it, there isn ’t
much else to do in there. You don’t
select items, just having the item will result in it being used, and you
don’t
combine or manipulate them. I did though get an insight or two into what
to do next by looking at the items, so its worth having a look when you
find something new. A diary will also keep track of the salient plot
points. The game autosaves as you go, and if you die it just lets you
try again.
I played on:
OS: Windows 10, 64 Bit
Processor: Intel i7-9700k 3.7 GHz
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4 32GB
Video card: AMD
Radeon RX 580 8192MB
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