Daedalic’s lineup at E3 continued on after that look at The Devil’s Men with a return to the beautifully crafted environments of The Whispered World in Silence, a direct sequel to the 2010 hit that starred sad clown Sadwick.
Silence picks up years after the events of the original, as Noah is now an older boy and is looking for a way back into the fantastical world of Silence in search of his lost sister Renie. The Whispered World 2 is as gorgeous to look at as its predecessor. According to Daedalic’s PR director Claas Wolter, who demoed the game during my time with Deadalic at E3, The Whispered World 2 is much bigger and more dangerous than the original game.
We got to see this real and present danger right away during the presentation, right when Noah finally finds his way back to the world of Silentia. Not all is perfectly well in that realm. An evil regime has taken over the land, with strange bugs patrolling roads. The local wildlife is also fairly aggressive to Noah, but not nearly as much as we got to see when the game switched over to Renie, as she herself was in a pinch, face to face with a scare looking creature.
That creature turned out to be part of a resistance group, but that didn’t make things any easier for Renie. Regardless of her being a child, she shows her spunk and manages to trick everyone as she makes a quick getaway, ending her section of the presentation.
The demo didn’t last particularly long, but it was enough to awe me with its visuals. Characters are polygonal and interact with the 2D hand painted world so well that the whole composition really pops, even this early on in the game’s development. Wolter mentioned how Daedalic was able to reach such a visual feat, through a layer upon layer presentation – much akin to how celluloid animation works. This gives the game a painterly look that’s absolutely stunning.
As it stands, Silence: The Whispered World 2 shaping up to be a beautiful game that will do the original justice. Its release is set for sometime in early 2015 on PC and Mac.
