Songs of Silence is repainting the RTS genre in gorgeous technicolour

thesixthaxis.com:

Songs of Silence is a beautiful RTS. You can forget the staid, drab medieval fantasy of many other real-time strategies, and revel instead in the excesses and bold brushstrokes that the team at Chimera Entertainment have crafted. It’s painterly – the team label it more specifically as Art Nouvea – with character portraits that are reminiscent of a vibrant and vivacious Banner Saga, while its city building and RTS-like combat, are bold and colourful. This sumptuous display not only catches your eye, and your imagination, it draws you completely into the world of Songs of Silence.

You might still be expecting Songs of Silence to play like a traditional fantasy RTS. It throws that out of the window by tying in a dose of auto-battler where you don’t so much control your units as influence them by way of playing card-based skills. The team is clear to point out that this isn’t a deck builder, though, it’s just a more effective and enigmatic way of presenting your army’s skills and abilities while taking a step away from the traditional ability cooldown bar. It speaks to a team that are thinking as much about the why as the how.

Songs of Silence is set in an as-yet unnamed fantasy kingdom. It presents two parallel lands, the light, and the dark, who, though diametrically opposed, have to pull together to fight off the all-devouring Silence. Each of these lands has unique outlooks, as well as specific units and cities that emphasise their own unique attributes. The light side is more magical, spiritual even, with the promise of divine power present in their units and attacks. The dark side meanwhile lives closer to the land, and with nature, with units that include Constructs, living machines that roam the battlefield.

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