Sylvio

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