5 reviews
Sylvio
Sylvio is a psychological horror game set in a tranquil, disturbing atmosphere. Help ghost recorder Juliette Waters face an evil curse and a wicked family cult with her microphone and the voices of the dead.
Details
- Released
- June 4, 2015
- Developer
- Stroboskop
- Publisher
- Stroboskop
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Sylvio Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
It’s been a while since I’ve played through a proper horror game and became so invested in the “villains” of the tale. The team at Stroboskop was determined to take an inventive, artistic look at the culture of ghost hunting and go to great lengths to highlight the experience of using EPV technology. Of course, the game’s individual parts are rusty and don’t play as smoothly as I would have liked, but Sylvio manages to conjure some incredible moments with its humble mechanics – fans of Project Zero or Deadly Premonition will know what I mean. The narrative can be minimalistic and…
Sylvio is a game with good intentions but it ends up getting bogged down by its own technical issues and lack of build up for many of the game's major set pieces. It's tonally inconsistent and while some aspects just make your heart pound others become silly rather quickly. When it's good it's amazing , but when it's bad it really does sink to the bottom of the haunted barrel.
One thing is for sure though; Sylvio is quite unlike any other horror game. It goes by the beat of its own drum, isn’t afraid to try and be different, and doesn’t copy the typical horror tropes that you’d expect to see in a low budget indie horror. It doesn’t go in for jump scares; instead, an eerie atmosphere is created largely by excellent sound design. It’s far from perfect, but if you’re willing to overlook its lack of polish and graphical fidelity, Sylvio has a decent experience to offer – especially if you’re a dab-hand at puzzle solving.
Sylvio seems like quite an interesting proposition: a horror game that has you recording spooky messages from beyond the grave in order to unravel their mysteries. Unfortunately, the finished product is neither scary nor compelling.
I almost walked away during the opening moments, when Sylvio seems like yet another cobbled together mess of repetitive graphical assets. I figured I'd play until the first jump scare and then quit. Instead, I found a game that uses its limited resources to find clever ways to scare the life out of me. It's a quiet horror game – an anti-screamer, right down to the calm almost-whispers of the protagonist – and it's a triumph.