Silent Reign

This review is for the updated build as the IGMC 2014 version had a bug.

Silent Reign has to be one of the smallest RPG games I've ever seen, not in the temporal sense, but purely spatial. I think there were perhaps 12 maps in total and excluding the world map none of them would have been more than 16x16. No soaring vistas and wide open spaces in this one, which as it's the story of a shepherd turned reluctant hero is a little disconcerting, surely the sheep have to graze somewhere.


Ok, points for funny...though 'warning muffles'?

Still what is lacks in size it makes up for in humour, Herz isn't your average homespun villager tending his flocks by night, actually he's a bit of a sarcastic iconoclast.

The game seems to follow the pared down theme in everything, the story is minimalist to say the least with almost no exposition or motivation by anyone, except perhaps for Herz who is just trying to discover why his village, if two shacks and a tent count as a village, was wiped off the face of the map and his dog turned into the hound from hell for no reason.

After pleading his case to the local nobility through thought balloons as a narrative short-cut, which oddly worked well, and being called a liar and a jester for no discernible reason Herz enters into a series of short side quests initiated by the captain of the guard who apparently doesn't think he's a liar but has a strange and also unexplained reason for putting Herz under his wing. Herz cleverly uses these opportunities to try and discover just what happened and who is to blame, and to pick up a companion along the way.

There is an odd choice in the game in that you start at level one with maxed HP of 999 but no progression, battles which use the classic turn based system do not give you experience only gold so there is no way to grow within the scenario, which for an RPG is an odd and somewhat disheartening situation, as part of the RPG feel is the level up, stat and skill increase process.

Skills in fact are handled in an interesting way, which I do appreciate and does allow for some customisation. Each piece of equipment you own gives you a skill, as long as it is it equipped. You start the game with villager items, a walking stick/club and since Herz is a shepherd woollen cap, poncho, scarf and belt. After your encounter with Garvand the captain of the guard you can add basic soldier gear to the inventory with another set of skills attached. The items all give you the same stats, which prevents the player having to choose between a skill they want and the sacrifice of stats, but it still feels a little flat, since there is no way that a woollen scarf is going to offer the same defence as a shield, no matter if it is listed as cheap. So the skill system becomes something of a mixed bag, it's great for customisation, but its implementation is flawed when taken in conjunction with the other game making choices by the developer.

One offshoot of this however is that as you gain new equipment you also gain the ability to change your class, and whilst the graphics are all stock rtp and face-maker as you change classes the characters change outfits and the face-sets match the changes on the sprites, it's a subtle change and easy to miss but the developer has taken the time to reflect the different stages of his characters which is a nice aesthetic.


Damn it, Jim.

However whilst the humour is a plus the game play makes you feel like you are on rails. There are no areas to explore at your own leisure, in fact even on the world map you start to move and the game directs you on a path to your next destination, you simply cannot walk around freely to see what else is available, which makes me think there isn't anything. Even in the main city of the Duke you get to walk into either the palace or the barracks and after the story has progressed in those areas you can't return to see if there is anything else.

Given the exceptionally linear progression and lack of freedom the feel of the game is less RPG and more choose-your-own-adventure, just without the narrative driven storyline, or indeed much of a storyline at all. I did like Herz's character and mostly that was because of his fairly realistic and humorous approach to the really bad day he is having, but the rest of the company in this little play feel paper thin.

There is also unfortunately a glitch which prevents you from re-entering the Duke's town even when there is a 'side quest' indicator above it, so perhaps there was a greater story exposition chapter in there, but I never got to experience it.

I know that this game is listed as an 'abridged RPG' in the description, but there is a difference between abridged and on rails. I think it needs a little less of latter, even though I'm fine with the former. As it stands it's like being walked through an unfinished short story.


Case in point.

In the end this game does not offer any resolution to the basic mystery and indeed is left on a cliff-hanger which as the game is listed as completed on the game page is a little disingenuous.