Sylvio 2 grabs a camera for more spooking in autumn
Sound and vision
In an age when most horror games and movies are seen through the grainy lens of the protagonist's camcorder, we were delighted by 2015's Sylvio instead picking up a reel-to-reel sound recorder. Wandering around an abandoned park to record strange noises and reveal ghostly messages by manipulating the tapes was a novel treat. Now developers Stroboskop have announced Sylvio 2 [official site] and... yes, it will pick up a movie camera. That sounds potentially a shame but I do trust Stroboskop will do something interesting with this equipment too. Here, watch the announcement trailer:
How very mysterious! I don't know what's going on there but it does look like more manipulation antics to reveal secrets in the world around us. I'm reminded a bit of Memory of a Broken Dimension, and I'm always happy to be reminded of that.
Sylvio 2 is due in autumn 2017. What's the plot? Dunno. The first game's protagonist, ghost detective Juliette Waters, is returning for the sequel but that's about all Stroboskop say. The first screenshots show a little, like more microphone fun, but not much.
So let's look back at some of Wot Adam Thought about the first game:
"The audio recordings are excellent, the exploration and puzzling is satisfactory if basic, and the central mysteries of the game are horribly unpleasant. As is often the case in horror, the uncanniness and terror threatens to dissipate as the story comes closer to revelations, and the murk and shadows are pushed back, but Sylvio retains a certain weird off-kilter sensibility even as it shows its hand."
And that was before Stroboskop overhauled Sylvio's graphics and other odds and ends in a big free update.