Silt from Spiral Circus Games and Fireshine Games is a surreal underwater puzzle adventure on PlayStation. Learn more about it in our Silt review!
Silt from Spiral Circus Games and Fireshine Games is a surreal underwater puzzle adventure on PlayStation. You play as a diver who has a very peculiar ability: being able to possess underwater creatures! Since each creature has a different ability to use, there are some clever puzzles to solve. As for the setting, in the depths of Silt, Goliaths roam free. Beneath the waves and crashing foam, you must search for them to hunt them down to collect their power. Why? To use the power to awaken the great machine that lies deep in wait for the one who can harvest the energy of the Goliaths.
Right from the start, the first thing that will grab your attention is the game’s outstanding art style and sound. This is a game with a visual presentation that does an excellent job of conveying the loneliness and horror of having to spend too much time underwater with creatures of all shapes and sizes that want to kill you. As the first game from indie Spiral Circus Games, a project that took four years to go from the initial design to the experience we can enjoy on PlayStation hardware, this is certainly a more than solid effort that stands out on Sony’s consoles.
You’ll control your diver with the left analog stick as you swim around each. To swim at a faster pace, press and hold down the X button. You’ll need to explore each area in search of new creatures to possess. Press and hold down the Circle button, and you’ll be able to gain control over a new entity, which will give you access to its special creature ability by pressing the Square button. To turn on your light, press the Triangle button so that you can get a better look at your surroundings. Speaking of which, you should use the right analog stick to look around you so that you can prepare for any enemies or hazards to avoid.
Silt has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy. The list includes 8 Bronze trophies, 5 Silver trophies, and 8 Gold trophies, and since this one is Cross-Buy, if you have a PlayStation 5 console, you can work on adding a pair of Platinum trophies to your collection. You’ll have to possess all creatures in the game, possess all the other divers you find along the way – hint: there are four divers – possess a creature and eat another creature, possess a creature and be eaten by another creature, lead a shoal of at least 30 fish, and more.
Do know that there’s one particularly tricky trophy in Silt that will test your skills since it requires that you complete the game without dying. Are you up for a challenge? Oh, and there’s no chapter select, so if you miss a creature or don’t possess a diver, you’ll have to replay the game from start to finish! If you want some extra help, you can check out this Silt Trophy Guide (and while the video states there’s a bugged trophy, the team has now patched this, so the Platinum is obtainable.
Silt is a game I had been looking forward to checking out since its trailer grabbed my attention right away. The game features outstanding art style and sound design, a relatively chill gameplay loop – as long as you don’t stress over not dying during your first run – and more than enough content to keep you busy for a bit. You’ll be able to complete this one in around 3-4 hours, depending on how many times you die and how you take on each of the boss fights… and then you’ll have to do it all over again for that no death run that will probably give you the last trophy needed for the Platinum. Silt is available for $14.99 as a Cross-Buy title, so your purchase will give you access to both the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 versions at no extra cost.
Disclaimer
This Silt review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Spiral Circus Games.
