➤ The time Machine 🎮

We are in the USA of the fabulous 70s, between flared trousers, improbable hairstyles, funk music and men's shirts unfailingly open to reveal a hairy chest. Joe, our protagonist, practically the archetype of the average man, a face framed by a mustache and consistent sideburns, works as a janitor at a large company, but one day his normal routine is upset by some events outside the ordinary.

After finding traces of blood around, in one of the halls of the laboratory he runs into a mortally wounded man, who gives him a mysterious device and asks him to help him save the world. When the security officers arrive at the scene, the scene is unmistakable and Joe is taken to the police station, where two officers try their hand at the traditional script of the good cop and the bad cop. The interrogation ends abruptly, however, when Joe tries to explain where he got the electronic device and inadvertently activates it: the room changes radically, as does the scenery around it, and the station turns into a building that has been abandoned for who knows how many years. , inhabited only by eerie skeletons. The dying man's words were true: the machine is a miniature time machine and Joe's will truly be a mission to save the world.

The Silent Age is an immersive storytelling adventure full of atmosphere and minimalist style

Matter of style

The Silent Age made its debut at the end of 2012 on iOS and Android devices, distinguished by the quality of an atmospheric narrative, supported by an extremely convincing and engaging storyline, from which it would not be difficult to make a movie.

And maybe someone will give us a thought now that the game has also arrived on Steam, with a complete edition that includes both episodes (originally the second was available as an in-app purchase) and a remastered technical compartment for the occasion, with high definition graphics that enhance in the best way that mix of minimalist style, inspiration and the art of getting by that led the developers of the small Danish team House on Fire to obtain visually interesting and coherent solutions, albeit limited in terms of animation. The game makes use of shades, stylized characters, flat colors and never risky combinations, and the final result is not only pleasant but also denotes a certain personality. Among the novelties of the PC version we also find the dialogues in English, made thanks to a cast of professional actors who have done a great job, giving further facets to figures that we used to see talking with purely textual messages, on the screen of our smartphone. or tablet. The package also includes an achievement system that adds a pinch of replayability to the experience, perhaps prompting us to complete certain chapters again in search of secrets, hidden objects and alternative situations.

Da mobile a PC

On the other hand, the game structure has remained unchanged, which is that of the classic "point and click" adventures, with ten fairly linear chapters in their puzzles and the important element represented by the time machine, which allows you to pass in a moment from that present of the 70s we talked about in a post-apocalyptic future, in which humanity seems to have died out due to a pandemic, and therefore to interact with locations in many different ways.

If in a scenario we find a locked door, for example, projecting ourselves into the future could put us in front of the same torn and accessible door, with all that goes with it. Or a solid steel grate, which doesn't bend using pliers, could turn into rusty, malleable scrap metal if we move forward in time. Or the remains of a corpse could provide us with clues on how to deal with certain situations in the present. The alternation soon becomes a fundamental tool for collecting objects that can prove useful in one of the two timelines in which we move, and in a few minutes everything takes on a sense of great naturalness, to lead us to the end of the story, with all its twists and moments of reflection, in about three hours. Duration is clearly one of the limits of The Silent Age, which was born as a mobile production and was therefore designed around the needs of different users, in an area where a certain type of direction would have proved too slow and tedious, where instead on PC it would have been advisable to take a few more breaks, to dilate the rhythm to focus even more decisively on an atmosphere that the excellent soundtrack, even in its essentiality, always manages to keep high. However, it is clear that the new edition is aimed at those who have not yet had to deal with Joe's time riddles, and find themselves approaching this experience for the first time, with a never excessive degree of challenge and a coherence of fund that prevents getting lost or getting stuck in long dead times, also thanks to a subdivision into "watertight compartments" which places a large limit on backtracking. The control system, which rests solely on the mouse, is simple and immediate, perfectly suited to the mechanics of the game.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

Processor: Intel Core i7 4500U
Video card: AMD Radeon R7 M260
Memory: 8 GB of RAM
Operating system: Windows 8.1

Minimum requirements

Processor: 2 GHz Intel Core 2,4 Duo
Scheda video: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 8600
Memory: 2 GB of RAM
Operating system: Windows XP SP3

Recommended Requirements

Processor: 3 GHz Intel Core i2,4
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M
Memory: 4 GB of RAM
Operating system: Windows XP SP3

Comment

Digital Delivery Steam Price 9,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

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Your vote

Bringing a game from one platform to another always involves some risk, and in the case of The Silent Age this is particularly true, given that we are talking about an adventure born on mobile devices and now landed on Steam, where the competition is strong and the perception of gender is different. We say it without too many words: if you take advantage of the current launch offer, which reduces the price to just € 6,49 until June 5, there is no reason why you should deprive yourself of such a short and all-round experience. 'anything but complex, but at the same time interesting, full of atmosphere, with a valuable technical sector (even with all the limits of an independent production) and a plot that has nothing to envy to much more noble titles.