Chronique des Silencieux

This game is not a very good detective game. First, I should point the superficial flaws: The game is extremely buggy. Every other time I opened the journal (something that is necessary very often), I ran into either a game-crash or a softlock, which required me to restart the program. To the game's credit, I should point out that it autosaves constantly and I did not have to replay any segments due to this. But even so, having to go back through all the start menus about once every hour is not an ideal gameplay experience. Another superficial flaw is that the game is difficult to read. The text stored in the journal is of a font that is thin enough such that some pieces of the letters do not show up at all at the game's default resolution. In addition, the size of the text characters and spacing of the letters makes it difficult to read the text at a glance. The testimonies cannot be zoomed in on at all, and some of the documents' text was still illegible even when viewed at full zoom. There is a slider in the option menu labeled "text size," but after messing with it a bit, I cannot claim to know whether or not it actually affects anything. Finally, there's the important stuff: the detective gameplay. Simply put, the game gives you insufficient evidence or guidance. Many times throughout the game, I found myself unsure what question I was even supposed to be answering. Due to the mechanics also not being clearly explained, I found myself unsure what I was suppsed to be doing at any given time. Here is one example in particular that stands out to me: the "Connections" feature is explained as a way to find connections between evidence and testimonies, with no more info given. So, when I attempt to connect a testimony saying that someone is named "Veronique" with the name "Veronique" that appears on a document, I expect to get some sort of feedback, but no. The game does not let you prove that that document relates to that person, because who the document belongs to isn't one one of the question the game wants you to answer, and you're expected to just know that. Once I did get past all the glitches and manage to use the ingame hint system, it did give me a vague idea of what question I needed to answer, but not much more than that. More egregious than this, however, is that the deductions themselves rely on extremely shaky evidence. At first I assumed that the evidence was just well hidden or illegible, and the logic convoluted, but those assumptions were shaken when I played the section of the game where we went over a few conclusions with detailed logic (which the player was still providing). Playing through this section, it became easily apparent just how ♥♥♥♥ this game's logic really is. The clearest example: [spoiler]"the drugs must belong to you because every other suspect told me they don't like drugs."[/spoiler] For reference, one of the statements that that deduction relies on consists of a single throwaway line. Another question in the same sequence is literally unnkowable, and the game's indended? solution requires reinterpreting one of the words into something clearly not intended by the person asking the question so as to change the question into an answerable one. If the game gave any indication that this is what you are supposed to do, or at the very least given me more than one chance to input the correct answer, this might have been a cool puzzle. But it does nothing of the sort. I did not continue playing the game after this first confrontation. I suppose it is possible that the game suddenly becomes better about some of these things in the following chapters, but I find that highly doubtful.

I think this game would have done a lot better in reviews with more playtesting before release. I waited until I saw the developers made multiple updates and patches before playing and I’m glad I did. I didn’t run into any tech issues. I really enjoyed the game, but ohhhh is it hard! You play as a young detective trying to discover the secrets of those around him. Lots of interesting characters and stories of life in France during and after WWII and the French Resistance. You collect conversations and documents and then you need to make correlations and deductions to be able to open the chapter’s final confrontation and reveal. Most of the time I could tell what was going on, but what was difficult for me was picking the exact lines to correlate or my deductions would get a ‘that’s true, but …’ response, telling me I needed to make a bigger jump in my conclusions. There is an automatic save upon exit and the game is completely mouse driven. This is a game for those who like serious deduction games with very little hand holding. There is a senior detective that can help you, but it will cost you points. It had a complicated story of war, choices, family, and repercussions. I liked this game it very much. I would recommend it to those who like reading and making deductions and getting caught up in a historic period in time.

I really, really gave this one a chance. There's just so much to like about this game. The setting is unique - post-war France that's not Paris. The characters are interesting, the aesthetic is pleasant, and I'm always a sucker for a mystery that requires you to connect little pieces together to form a coherent solution. But this is a mess! In more ways than one. It's buggy, and the UI is very clunky and hard to use. The story makes some sense, but during your investigation you'll have names dropped out of nowhere, names you never learned, which can spoil quite a lot - since you see them in your notebook. The question "why X wants to hide that they're related to Y?" appeared way before my character figured their relation out. You find a mystery portrait in a room - "Why does X have a portrait of Y?" I have no idea who this person is, and you're already giving me a name? You're supposed to learn about this later. I don't know. The solution system also is very clunky. In theory, it makes sense: you have two nouns and a verb. But the game is very, very picky about what order exactly you're supposed to learn things - so, for example, I knew that X is somehow helping Y, but I didn't know how. I wanted to connect these two facts but the game didn't let me, even if it was true - probably because this didn't yield much useful info, but it'd be nice to have an option of having an intermediate step. Controlling things with the mouse makes the cursor just dance around. Scrolling sometimes work, sometimes doesn't. Playing with WASD requires pinpoint precision about where you're standing. And so on. Eventually, I got past the second case, and the characters suddenly decided they're going to a town Z. Why are they going there? Did I miss something? What's the point? And that's why I decided I just can't. I can't follow the story, the script is meandering, the names are dropped too early or too late, I can't. Apparently this is a problem only if you're playing in English, though. Maybe playing it in original French would make it a better experience? If you can stomach the bugs at least. And the wonky design. [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42922988/]Curator page[/url]

I wanted to like it so bad. I found this game under recommendations for games like ObraDinn and Golden Idol. Unfortunately, it is not like them at all. It takes about 30 min for the actual game to start, in the beginning you're just walking around, getting to know the situation and clicking through not so well written dialogue. By the time the first puzzles started I was already not invested, so the fact that it's not a deduction puzzle, but more like reading comprehension task disappointed me even more. This first slow bloated part seems to be there just to stretch the time, so that you don't return the game. I really dislike this approach, so I ended up returning the game.

A detective game with a great atmosphere, a deep and moving story. and lines full of character. What I liked is that you really need to actively investigate and find discrepancies in the different testimonies and documents, so that piece by piece you can complete the puzzle and understand what happened. You then make hypothesis that, if true, will unlock the secretive character’s padlocks. In each chapter you then have a confrontation à la Ace Attorney. A very fresh game, also with very nice animated scenes and a great soundtrack, all in all a delightful indie gem.

What a wonderful gem. Everything about this is great, from the art style to the narrative. Im glad the game was kept in VOFR it adds so much charm. If you love detective games you will find plenty to love here.

Enfin un jeu de détective français ! Et qui se déroule à Bordeaux en plus. Les voix sont super bien faites et j'ai adoré visiter les différents lieux. Un peu du mal avec la première enquête, pas de soucis avec la deuxième :)

This game reminds me a lot of the boardgame/gamebook Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective. Most of your time will be spent poring over collected testimonies and documents to find connections and contradictions, and there are a lot of said testimonies and documents. I spend a lot of time reading and rereading them to find what the game wants me to. Progress can therefore be pretty slow. You can spend a lot of time without feeling like you are making much progress, and you may want to step away from the game at times and come back later to look at things with fresh eyes. There is a hint system, though it is often of limited help. If this sort of meticulous searching doesn't sound interesting to you, I don't think you are likely to enjoy this game, and it will probably have less mass appeal that a lot of other detective style games. If it does sound interesting to you I would suggest giving it a shot. There is not much else out there like it. The game could also use some extra polish in various areas, but the developer seems pretty responsive and has been pushing out many small bug fixes and improvements since launch about a week and a half ago. Also, for what it's worth, I was a Kickstarter backer of this game. I don't know how or if that has affected my review.

If you're looking for an investigative game with rich historical roots and a slow-burn detective narrative, Chronique des Silencieux is worth your time. Set in post-war France, the game places you in the shoes of Eugène, an amateur sleuth, tasked with unraveling complex webs of deception. The game stands out for its attention to detail and immersive environments, blending 1960s French culture with a jazz-infused soundtrack that adds to the noir vibe​. However, the game can be quite challenging. It's filled with long conversations, detailed document analysis, and a myriad of clues to piece together. Keep in mind that while it offers plenty of depth, it can also test your patience with its slow progression. If you're up for a challenge and enjoy detective games with historical context, the game can be very rewarding.

I played this game primarily in French, so I cannot comment extensively on localization issues. Occasionally, I referred to the English translation to make sure I had understood the text correctly, and I found it reasonable. Overall, I enjoyed Chronique des Silencieux, and I liked the detective work and the puzzles. It is not a particularly easy game, but I was able to complete most of my leads without any hints. The exploration is also fairly open-ended. The game reminds me of Lamplight City, except it is not possible to actually come to a completely incorrect conclusion. The game is stymied by many bugs, the most egregious of which is faulty game logic and assumptions about player progression. (In the Prologue, my leads page contained information that I had not actually found yet. Later, in Chapter 2, Eugène reveals some details in his meet-up with Yves that I suspect I was not supposed to know yet, although I did already have some inklings of what he discussed.) However, the developer has been extremely responsive to bug reports, which I appreciate.