Sylvio

Terror Meter 1/10 Narrative Intrigue 4/10 Visuals 2/10 Difficulty 3/10 Length <4hrs Sylvio is a Puzzle Exploration Shooter game, with a creepy atmosphere which takes place over large maps. The player is exploring the remnants of an old theme park, and what brought the place to ruin. With the use of Audio Recording Equipment, listen to the ghosts and discover what actually happened. On each map the player explores, they will be looking for ghostly apparitions which can either take the form of a general location, white orbs or black clouds. Locations are simply points the player will be guided towards to record a ghostly apparition. The white orbs are passive and the player will simply need to find the correct spot around them in order to record the ghost. While the black clouds can injure the player should they get close. In order to get rid of the black clouds the player needs to use the potato gun with a sharp object to injure them, the amount of shots needed to kill a black cloud increases through the game. Once the player destroys the cloud they are able to then record the ghost. If the player destroys all of the black clouds in an area then a giant ghost will spawn, like with the black clouds the player will need to load their potato gun with sharp objects and shoot each enough times to deal with them, the amount of shots escalates per level the player is on. Should you get too close to the giant ghost the player will be injured and collapse, the ghosts will attack the player with a black fog from a distance which will also cause damage. The black cloud can be hard to see, and may kill the player before they realise what is happening. Once the giant ghost is dealt with the player will once more be able to record audio. Once the player has recorded a ghost they will need to listen to what the ghost says by rewinding and listening to the tape. The player may need to go back and forwards through each recording at different speeds before they can find the ghost's message. I found the puzzles of working out what the ghost was saying to be one of the more enjoyable parts of the game, as each time you listened to the ghost stories you found out more of what actually happened in the park. It is not easy to find the ghost apparitions, the player will need to explore old structures and attractions. In order to get through them the player will need to complete puzzles to open up the maps. This will be done with the use of the Potato gun and hard objects which can be used to knock over objects. The puzzles are not difficult, but can be hard to find some of the locations with there only being one approach. The player will be traversing large maps in the game in order to find the ghosts' apparitions, the player will need to drive to get from point to point as locations can be minutes away from each other. Driving in Sylvio is very basic, though does suffer with some ragdoll moments which can send the car spinning should the player crash. Sylvio’s story is interesting with lots of events leading up to the collapse of the park, and multiple stories coalescing from different perspectives. The story is told in such a disjointed way that it makes it really intriguing trying to learn more of what happened. Now saying that, by the time I was near the end of the game, I did get confused on what was happening anymore, to the point I would need to go through the game again to work out what goes on at the end. Sylvio is not difficult, the problem comes that it is really easy to get confused on puzzles, parts can easily be missed, while others parts you may not realise you can interact with. This seems to be at worst in the Carnival, in which multiple attractions need to be interacted with in different ways to progress the game. At the same time puzzles that involve dropping platforms can be invisible in the red fog unless you are at the correct angle. It can come to such a problem that if you just do not notice a bullseye you can be wandering in circles for ages trying to find a way in. When it comes to visuals, Sylvio is not a nice game to look at, maps can be bare, or so coated in mist that most locations are hard to make out. The theme park visuals of the early game are quickly lost to bare maps, in which the player will spend a lot of the game just driving from place to place. Buildings feel compact and tight, and having to explore them is both annoying and compact. Do not come into Sylvio expecting a horror game, at times it can be creepy with the story behind the events and seeking ghosts. There are no scares, or real threats apart from dealing with the giant ghostly forms, shooting dark clouds at the player. Still I really enjoyed Sylvio, and I am not really sure why. The puzzles were fun, and offered a fair challenge to work out where to go, some of the more enjoyable ones were tactically shooting potatoes to open doors. The story was interesting, though I did get a bit confused the further I went in. I guess I truly enjoyed the game because it is such a unique experience that I find it hard to compare it to other games. If you want to see what the gameplay is like then check the video below, I would advise you just about twenty minutes in, to see more of the exploration parts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3vSDmzsN0M You can find other games I recommend in my curator feed: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41770172/

I am not fussed on this there are a few bugs as well.

Absolutely one of the best horror adventure games out there

First thing you need to know about Sylvio: it is a bit rough around the edges. But, if you can look beyond this, there's a decent and interesting atmospheric horror game behind it. Having just finished my play-through of this on Youtube, I've enclosed a link below for anyone who wants to see a sample of gameplay before deciding to buy. I'll try to summarise the plot here without being too spoiler-y. Sylvio puts you in the shoes of Juliette Waters, a ghost recorder who one night enters the abandoned Saginaw Park and begins uncovering the grisly secrets buried there (both literally and figuratively) using her audio recording equipment. As the game unfolds, you learn of the disaster that struck the park in bygone years and the sinister things that happened to it afterward. The story is a little cryptic, told through snippets of information gleaned from listening to ghosts or from tape reels left in the environment - so the plot is, to an extent, left to the player to figure out. I thought it worked, personally - it's that old horror adage of giving your audience a few hints, then leaving other aspects to their imagination. The graphics may be somewhat dated, but personally I felt that they still work well for the atmosphere that the game is seeking to create. And speaking of atmosphere, there's plenty of it - no cheap jump-scares or fast-paced monster chases (though there are definitely threats you need to watch out), just a dark and unsettling vibe as you traverse the foggy landscape and rusty, decaying landmarks of Saginaw Park. Where this game excels is in its sound design - which is arguably the key ingredient, since Sylvio is all about using your audio equipment to detect, listen to and record ghosts. The audio game mechanics are what makes Sylvio stand out from other horror games. As you come across ghosts and hold occasional seances, your equipment will record what these ghosts say - but their voices are scrambled and distorted, and so it's up to you to un-scramble them using your equipment. Reverse the audio, speed it up, slow it down, or a combination of these, and you'll uncover what it is the spirits are trying to communicate. This does lead to some good, spine-tingling moments where you un-scramble what sounds like demonic gibberish only to discover that you're hearing a ghost dropping some macabre hints about how it died. As mentioned above, whilst the game is mostly a slow-building form of horror spent exploring Saginaw Park's remains, there are threats you need to watch out for. Not all the ghosts are docile; some, which take the form of shapeless black clouds or gigantic humanoid forms, are dangerous if you get too close. Not that there's much of a penalty if they get you - fortunately, Sylvio autosaves everytime you do something of any significance (such as recording a ghost or finding a collectible), so you don't need to worry about losing huge amounts of progress if you get unlucky and a hostile ghost sneaks up on you. Plus, you do have a means to defend yourself. Early in the game, Juliette finds an improvised gun that uses old pesticide spray cans as propellant and which can be used to fire a variety of projectile types found in the environment - baseballs, rusty nails, stones, potatoes and more. Some of these (such as the nails) can be used to drive back hostile ghosts. Others (such as potatoes or baseballs) don't do much damage to ghosts but can be used to trigger things in your environment - such as hitting certain switches or knocking items off ledges that are out of reach. The gun mechanic is interesting, though it is one of the elements of Sylvio that would have benefited from a bit more polish - I did find it a bit janky at times, though fortunately this jankiness wasn't unbearable. So, in short, Sylvio is a bit rough around the edges but it is an interesting take on horror. Would definitely recommend giving it a try. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1YLvYyvu1o&list=PL05Yc3_TEBpPoGbbsyCdjBaElW3W8xUSE

我承认，我不是玩恐怖游戏的料子 尤其解密类恐怖游戏 但是这款游戏 在我丝毫没有感到恐怖的情况下，，， 让我十分困惑，，，

Atmospheric and strange. Great sound design. Probably not for everyone, but if you're a fan of weird fiction and games that are artistic and exploration based it's worth a play. I'd consider it roughly the same genre as Empathy Path of Whispers, but with visuals that are more bleak and haunting rather than epic and fantastical. The story builds gradually and with a sense of dread. "Bleak", "haunting", and "dread" probably make it sound like a downer to play, but the atmosphere is strangely calming, which makes the simple gameplay almost meditative. The ending is baffling, so if you need a conclusive ending it may not be the game for you.

This is easily one of the most overlooked and underrated horror games out there. From the very "Twin Peaks"-esque soundtrack to the unique mechanics, it's a shame this didn't get more love. *The level design can be pretty awful though. That Zoo level is such a convoluted mess... no idea who thought any of that was a good idea. This feels like an old HL2 mod type of horror game, in the vein of Cry of Fear but not really "scary", just kind of eerie. You also run faster than the car, and the car gets stuck tons, so I would just use the car as a waypoint now. Running wasn't added until only 2 years ago I guess, which is kind of nuts with how large the levels are. Without sprinting, I don't know if I would've 100% this. The ending also leaves a lot to be desired. I love ambiguity and having to fill in the blanks for a story, but with how tedious this game can feel sometimes, and how much effort it takes to 100% everything, your only reward for doing so is a really bad piano melody that doesn't match in tone or style to the rest of the game. The ending is also only like 20 seconds long with most of that just passing through the woods again. It's very cool and unique but I feel like it's probably more enjoyable to watch someone else play it, or play it with a guide. Unfortunately you need to use two separate guides to complete this as the only Steam guide doesn't explain much, and the Xbox guide doesn't include the Steam specific achievements (of course). If you really love indie horror games though and you can stomach some old school (late 90s/early 2000s) tedium, some wonky physics/collisions, and some puzzles that are a bit obtuse; you'll really enjoy the unique gameplay mechanics and the Silent Hill-esque rust and fog vibes.

Más cercano al misterio que al horror puro, Sylvio es una propuesta indie que destaca por una atmósfera increíblemente inmersiva. Aunque su apartado visual denota el paso del tiempo, no llega a sentirse obsoleto. Su jugabilidad es sencilla y el ritmo de la campaña es idóneo, logrando que la experiencia nunca se haga cuesta arriba. Pese a tener una narrativa críptica que exige atención, resulta sumamente intrigante. Es un título muy recomendable para quienes busquen algo genuinamente original, siendo su mayor fortaleza el uso de la manipulación de audio para la resolución de acertijos

I would say that Sylvio 1 is a puzzle game with a spooky theme: it starts out with a few simple environment puzzles, like clearing a blocked path, but quite soon, more complex puzzles of increasing difficulty are introduced. Sound is a major part and analysing what you hear around you is introduced from the start, using your microphone to communicate with what might still be lingering, or gain access to hidden items. Using an old reel to reel player/recorder instead of a modern, digital variant, adds to the spooky vibe as the reels spin up and down. There are no jump scares and the game is more creepy than scary. Communicating with the ghosts can be pretty intense, since you have to listen closely to what they say or else you might miss important clues, and sometimes disturbing or instilling a feeling of unease. The ghosts are more often suggested than shown, but there are times when you have to fight some of them—using one of the best (and possibly also the quirkiest) weapons I’ve seen so far in a game. The story has to be pieced together as you delve deeper, and was pretty interesting with a few twists, albeit a bit “all over the place”. I thought everything connected without any obvious plot-holes, although I haven’t fully pieced everything together yet. Don’t play the game for the story alone, but for everything combined: the developer has squeezed in a lot of great stuff to enjoy and explore. I quite liked how the main protagonist was delivering her lines and thought it made a lot of sense for her not to be loud or pushy. For the other voice actors, I could hear a bit of an accent, which might be immersion breaking if one is extra sensitive to that sort of thing. Sound is mainly provided by the environment, but the game also has a great soundtrack mostly heard when you’re driving between levels, so if you want to take a break and just relax for a while, without leaving the game, you can drive around while listening to the music and, like I did, crashing into trees a lot. Can I recommend Sylvio 1? Yes, definitely, I loved every second of it and I think you would too if you’re into puzzle solving, first person exploration, or sound analysis. On the other hand, if you are obsessed with superrealistic graphics, then you might want to play something else: the game has its own unique style, which I appreciated, but others might not. The crudeness in style is, in my opinion, well compensated by gameplay, atmosphere, soundtrack etc... Full review: https://maskinkultur.com/2017/11/03/review-sylvio-1-2/

The idea of the game is cool. You hunt ghosts, listen to spirits, decode hidden messages and resolve mini puzzles to go to the next stage. Sylvio is just really badly designed and boring, I can't recommend it. First, you can't run, in a world that big it's a massive mistake. You are just wasting my time by making me walk that much and it's incredibly tedious. Second, the gun is tr*sh. You have 2 bullets, one to knock objects over and another that kill spirits. Your gun is powered by gas cans. You don't have magazines on that gun so the last bullet you put in the gun is the one you will shoot first. Do I have to explain what's the problem ? I can't just have 1 magazine for each kinds of ammo, no, I have to shoot the useless bullets and waste gas if the next bullet I shoot is the wrong one. There is bullets and gas cans in the environment but in a game where you can't run it's really lame to go back non stop for resources. Thirdly, it's repetitive, it never try to surprise or diversify the experience to the point I wasn't even feeling like I was playing a horror game. The creep factor isn't there, I just felt like I was listening to records and not interacting directly with spirits, in my opinion this game is a big missed oppurtinity. Stage after stage you are alway doing the same sh*t non stop, it's just the puzzles that change a little bit but that's it. The spirits you are destroying are just clouds and there never is more than 1 coming to attack you, that's laughable. At last the story is fragmented so much I didn't understand anything, at the end I was just like ''Ok, that's it ?''. I understood what everyone said very well but I really didn't get the full picture at all honestly, maybe it was just because I was bored to death or I'm stupid, I don't know. In short, the execution ruin the game completely and the horror in that game just isn't there so it's just really boring and tedious.