Sylvio 2 Reviews

good game with interesting story and gameplay the system with listening and recording ghosts aswell as rewinding recordings and speeding them up to find words which will help u go to the next location and learn the story of the island u are on ,however there is a few gamebreaking bugs.A bug happend to me in location 7 where the glowing orb disappeared and i couldnt continue to play no matter how much i restared the game.Overall game is good but a few big updates are needed. 7/10

ending? what even. boring, a grind, story is questionable, disappointing compared to the 1st game. You are better off just skipping this. gloomy depressing game

The first Sylvio game, while rough in execution, had a lot of potential and originality. Sylvio 2, on the other hand, feels fractured, lacks confidence in its design, and is oppressively controlling. Pros: + Unparrareled twisted feel of the game + Improved voice and visual recording manipulation gameplay + Great sound, music, and voice acting Neutral: * Story quality and its delivery Cons: - Visually boring and monotone game - Reduced gameplay elements - Goofy ending It wasn’t always supposed to be this way. If you play or look at the demo for the kickstarted version of Sylvio 2, it was supposed to be a natural evolution of the first game and a title that would offer something truly special to the horror games genre. But, the Kickstart failed and these hopes were dashed away, and you’ll feel that with every minute you spend playing this game. It is not all doom and gloom, however. Sylvio 2 excels in providing a unique and tension-filled atmosphere, a superbly gloomy soundtrack, and stellar voice casting, just like the first title had. Both games have an eerie and somber look filled with warped locations forgotten by Time itself and sound and music production successfully enhance this feeling. The actors again have a minimalist yet effective voice delivery that further eases you into the game’s foreboding atmosphere. In Sylvio 1, you had the Electronic Voice Phenomenon recorder, used to capture what the ghostly apparitions had to say. This time, you also have a camera recorder that can capture these phenomena on the video. You can change the playback speed and direction on these tools to find out what the voices from beyond have to say. These mechanics play to the game’s strong points and provide short and memorable moments of dread and unease. There is at least one part in the game where looking at the recorded tape will make your skin crawl. Sadly, all other gameplay elements were stripped down or removed, compared to the previous title. The shooting sections, while deeply imprecise, served the overall story in the original Sylvio. Here, these sections are completely gutted. Another thing that is gone is the solid level design that intuitively leads you where to go next. Sylvio 2 instead offers direction markers and invisible walls everywhere that hamper your freedom of movement and prevent you from thinking on your own about your next step. This effectively destroys any motivation to explore and the whole game feels like a walking simulator. This is not a bad thing per se, but such games better have excellent stories and visuals to make up for this. Speaking of story, while the “adventures” of the ghost whisperer, Juliette Waters, continue where the first game ended, the whole story feels emaciated and less engaging. It successfully conveys the mystery of what is happening to Juliette, her dear ones, and the place she is in. This time, the story is more personal and lonesome, as the frail yet brave Juliette is now alone and trapped in an inhospitable and desolate world outside of regular space and time. You will also look into what happened with other inhabitants here. Sadly, these two story arcs feel incomplete and lack emotional depth or lore that will keep you hooked. And the ending is pure cringe, comes out of nowhere and makes little sense with the overall story Sylvio 1 and 2 were weaving. These two games with spooky folklore horror make a U-turn as the ending, and the next installment, Sylvio Black Waters, completely embraces the Sci-Fi hodge-podge of ideas. Lastly, while the game still looks original, all the visual splendor and colors are gone. Some interiors look creepy and weird enough, but the outside locations look utterly boring and unimpressionable. I would even go so far as to say that the “islands” you are visiting look like an excrement. I simply have no idea why the developer went this route. I showered the first game with high praise despite its significant flaws. However, I simply cannot recommend Sylvio 2 to anyone except those who are really into all kinds of horror games and those who want to see where this story goes. I hope that the Black Waters will bring much-needed improvements; because, right now, Sylvio 2 commits the biggest sin of being completely forgettable.