Looks aren’t everything, but that doesn’t mean they don’t count. Art is just one part of the equation in video games. It’s not enough to make a bad game into a good one, but done well, it can elevate the best parts of a game to another level. I can’t say for sure that I would like Songs of Silence as much without its beautiful visuals, but as it stands, I’m having a blast leading my gorgeously rendered troops into battle in the lush strategy game.
Songs of Silence is a mashup of auto-battler and 4X strategy that somehow manages to work for me even though I’m not a huge fan of either genre. Auto-battlers like Teamfight Tactics focus on positioning and upgrading armies then leaving it up to the AI to duke it out. 4X games — an abbreviation of explore, expand, exploit, exterminate — are massive empire-building strategy games like Civilization and Stellaris. I’ve always found the hands-off style of auto-battlers to be a little dull and the expansiveness of 4X games too daunting to invest in. But Songs of Silence manages to nearly perfectly split the difference between the two, with AI-controlled real-time battles spread across a sprawling fantasy campaign.
From the very start, Songs of Silence is a strikingly gorgeous game. An introductory cutscene tells the story of the conflict between multiple factions of humans and gods that you’re about to walk into. It’s very high fantasy, with angelic beings walking the world and planets sundered and remade by their will. In these opening moments and throughout the story, the vibrant colors and sweeping, organic curves of its art reinforce the opulence of its world, touched by the hands of gods. Developer Chimera Entertainment names illustrator Alphonse Mucha and the Art Nouveau movement generally as inspirations, which is evident in the soaring lines of the game’s cities and the curving rivers of light that are a frequent motif of its art.
Songs of Silence is more than a pretty art style. Its unique take on strategy blends real-time and turn-based gameplay, allowing the epic grandeur of a long campaign of conquest while keeping battles themselves short and easy to manage.
On the game’s world map — itself a work of art — Songs of Silence plays in turns. You move your generals and their armies according to their own movement speed, upgrade or sack cities if you’re able, then let the enemies take their turn. In this phase, you need to expand outward, capturing enemy outposts while defending your own. Scattered around the map are also smaller encounters, ranging from monster-infested ruins to potential allies looking for aid, that you’re free to take part in as you see fit. The freedom to decide how far you want to roam and how much to expand your territory captures the best aspects of larger strategy games, with stories around the map unfolding like RPG side quests.
In combat, it’s a totally different game. From the world map, you assemble your armies, buying units from friendly towns and swapping them between different generals’ squads. After a battle begins, those units act entirely on their own, meaning which you choose to bring with you and even where you place them in relation to each other are of the utmost importance. Once swords are drawn, your only input is using a set of cards unique to each general to influence the outcome, by healing selected units, directing them to attack specific targets, or calling in reinforcements. Your pool of cards is small and each has a long cooldown, but playing one at the right time can turn the tide of battle. Songs of Silence’s design means that both organizing your army and playing cards are crucial to victory, but neither one demands that you pore over unit stats or invest hours in strategic battles.
In some ways, Songs of Silence could be a good introduction to either auto-battlers or 4X games, but it might be better understood as an alternative to them. Parts of both games have appealed to me at times. I love the idea of Stellaris’ deep management, and Unicorn Overlord showed me the joy of preparing an army and stepping away, despite not strictly being an auto-battler itself. But while I’ve never been able to sink fully into a game of either genre, Songs of Silence gives me the parts I’ve been missing without forcing me to wade through their shortcomings to get there. As a visual treat and a kingdom builder that hits the strategy sweet spot, Songs of Silence is the perfect game to fall headfirst into over a long weekend without needing to commit weeks or months to mastering it.
Songs of Silence is available now on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
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