Silt – test, action-adventure

Against fear

Fear is a personal, intimate matter. Although supposedly opposite, it is related to humor. Because what makes one person laugh or shudder leaves the other completely cold. There is no doubt that both phenomena have a certain entertainment value, at least as long as we are not dealing with pathological levels of fear. Then one speaks of phobias, and their spectrum could hardly be greater.

The term “aichmophobia”, for example, describes the fear of sharp things, while “arachibutyrophobia” describes the fear that peanut butter will stick to the palate when eaten. Anyone who suffers from “hexacosioihexekontahexaphobia” fears the number 666. This may sound strange or even funny at first, but it is by no means so for those affected. Luckily, such exotic fear triggers are easy to avoid, simply remove peanut butter from your diet or avoid Wacken Open Air. Even “thalassophobia”, the fear of large or deep waters, should hardly play a role in everyday life, unless you are alive on Sylt or plays Silt. Anyone who does the latter professionally shouldn’t have “arithmophobia”, otherwise the numerical evaluation at the end of the test will be problematic…

The many horrors of the deep sea

From the very first scene, Silt masterfully plays the keyboard of possible fears. A nameless diver floats motionless somewhere in the depths of the sea, fixed by a shackle and chain, encircled by darkness. A faint halo of light in the center of the image reveals a sharp-toothed fish nearby. We quickly get to know the playful basic concept of the 2D puzzle adventure: At the push of a button, our diver emits a beam of energy, which we direct to other creatures in the vicinity using the analog stick – from now on we can then control them and make use of their specific abilities . This is also the case with this little fish: it tears through the chain effortlessly, we switch back to the diver and instinctively swim upwards before it also tears through us.

As quickly as the game principle is internalized, the organic-looking environment graphics, which, like the entire game, are hand-drawn and completely without colors, can be explained as quickly. We were trapped in the belly of a gigantic fish and now we shudder and swim out of its sharp-toothed maw. Next we encounter a creature resembling a hammerhead shark. We take control again and see what ability that gives us. Aha, he can destroy certain walls, which immediately opens a new path. A luminous something attracts us. We swim towards it, although we should know better, surely the next maw awaits us at the other end. But Silt doesn’t allow any other way, and a disgusting worm with an aggressive mouth is already snaking up from behind. So what the hell. Come on!