The Thin Silence comes onto the scene as a new game built like an old one. This side-scrolling narrative driven game has a very blocky-bit appearance. However, the moment you take control of Ezra, the games main character, you soon realize that the graphics are just the vessel, charting this game’s story into the depths of your mind.
You’ll first encounter Ezra in the depths of a cave, leaning against a wall with nothing but a cigarette in his mouth and an old family photo on his person. Soon, a piece of the cave’s ceiling collapses, letting in a beacon of light. He stands and presses on into the cave, immediately finding a boot and introducing the player to The Thin Silence‘s main gameplay feature.
While it’s a narrative game, the main way you push the narrative onwards is by interacting with the world around you. To do so, you’ll have to make use of the games item crafting system. Everything you find in the game can and must be used for something, solving the various challenges you’ll encounter. What makes it a bit unique is that you can use the items more than once in most cases.
To make a new tool with these items, the game lets you combine up to three things at once. Once you use an item, it’s not lost forever until you find another one. They can be reused immediately. For example, early in the game you’ll find a rope and a metal hook. You can combine the hook and rope to make a grapple, but you can also combine the rope with two hooks to make a tether. At one point, the game offers you some pretty spot on advice, telling you that sometimes the only solution is the one you haven’t tried yet.
As far as the story goes, I don’t want to talk too much about it because the way it’s presented is just beautiful. Honestly, beautiful is an understatement for it. When you first meet Ezra, it’s not very clear who he is, where he’s been, why he is where he is. You just sort of stand up and go, with blanks being filled in along the way. Oh, and the soundtrack? You will spend most of your time accompanied by silence.
What makes this so great, specifically for this game, is that it really pulls you into the mindset of the character. The Thin Silence is meant to explore the depths of depression and self-doubt. Ezra is left to deal with these thoughts and feelings by himself, and it’s the pacing of the story that really helps you understand that. Through the cave, you’ll find numerous pages from books and such, some of which come from a psychiatrist who knows Ezra on a personal level. It’s with these pages that Ezra’s background really comes to light.
I really enjoyed this game. The simplistic graphics really let you focus on and enjoy the story through all of its depths. Don’t be surprised if the narrative tugs at your heart strings, it’s meant to as it makes you wonder what you’re playing towards and why you’re doing it.
