Why You Should Care About a Little Game Called Sylvio
Ted Hentschke
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Shh, can you hear that? Right over there, like a creaking hinge mixed with a hushed sigh. Is it really there? Your eyes plunge the dark, and you can swear some shape is taking form on the borders of your darting vision. Or is it just your imagination? Is the sound causing you to make shapes in the formless black? Or is that vast darkness making every little rustle an ethereal groan? It can’t just all be in your mind. Surely, something is there. These are the kinds of borderline encounters we all have with the unknown. Shivers down your spine, cold spots, a vague sense that you’re no longer alone. It’s these intangible moments that make believers out of us. Sure, there’s a rational explanation. That doesn’t stop you from turning on your bedside lamp and wrapping your covers around you tight.
Now I’m not about to get into an argument about the validity of ghosts or ghost hunting on Dread Central. Judging by just how often the site crashes when we title a story with “Zak Bagans,” I assume most of you are believers. I am not. I know, shocking. I’ve had my fair share of bumps in the night, I just don’t find the whole production of it believable. But there is one thing that frightens me to no end: EVP. Known as electronic voice phenomena (EVP), these eerie voices from beyond will never cease to tickle my spookybone. There’s something more real to it, a message that can be interpreted more than just floating orbs or cold spots. If ghosts do exist, surely this is how they would tell their story.
Sylvio first caught my eye back in 2015 for doing just that: telling ghost stories through EVP. It was making a buzz around the indie scene as genuinely terrifying, even earning a spot on Rock, Paper, Shotgun’s Top 25 Scariest PC Games list. When developer Stroboskop unveiled their Kickstarter for Sylvio 2 in December 2015, I figured it was a good excuse to shoot lead dev Niklas Swanberg a message to see if I could check it out. He sent me a copy of Sylvio, and I took some time out of my Christmas vacation to give it a shot.
As you can tell from my review, Sylvio more than impressed me. I thought I knew what to expect from low budget, Unity engine first person horror games. What Stroboskop did with this made me redefine my expectations. With a budget under $3,000, Sylvio scared me more than any AAA title that year. There were some issues that I go over in my review, but the game ultimately succeeded due to the strength of its core premise. The whispered hushes of the main character, the buzzing of your oscilloscope, the garbled voices of the undead, all add up to a deeply tense and unsettling experience. I rarely jumped, but the hairs on the back of my neck never went down.
So, why am I talking about Sylvio almost two years after its release? Well, remember that Kickstarter I mentioned two paragraphs ago? That fell short of its goal. And by Kickstarter law, that means that Stroboskop didn’t get the money. As a rule I try not to get personally invested in projects, but this really sucked. A game this creative deserves love. With a budget, I’d love to see what they could do. So, instead of just burying their head in the sand and giving up, they did the next best thing and remastered the original. As of today, you can get the remastered version of Sylvio on the PC, Xbox One, and PS4.
Now, let me tell you what you are getting into with Sylvio. This is not the prettiest game out there. The mechanics are clunky, with an odd overlap for carried items. The game is often confusing, surreal, and hard to get used to. This is also one of the most unique and interesting games you can buy. I guarantee you will not know what is around the next corner, and you will be shocked with how much they managed to do with such a little package. Even with me preparing you like this, you will not know what to expect.
At just $13, Sylvio is a game you have to check out. Even if you don’t like it, it’s worth it just to support a smaller developer doing something truly unique. And hey, this isn’t me being charitable. I want you to buy this game so that they make another one. I desperately want another Sylvio, and the only way that happens is if they get more money. So please, console gamers, do yourself a favor and check this one out. If it does well, it might inspire other developers to do the same.
Categorized:Editorials Horror Gaming News
