FADE TO SILENCE Review for PlayStation 4

I made the mistake of cracking open this horror/survival adventure at night—not recommended…unless you are looking for a thrill. THQNordic has joined the apocalyptic wave, FADE TO SILENCE be thy name. This game is a lot of things—underdeveloped does not quite reign king on the list, but it is most certainly prince.

FADE TO SILENCE tries hard, and does succeed, at being creepy. We start our journey in a torture dungeon crypt to witness a grim reaper with a Resident Evil makeover floating above a lifeless corpse. “You have failed,” he says, and I’m already stoked that I’m going to hate my life in this deathtrap. Dark Souls’  fans, welcome to your indie wet dream.

As far as atmosphere, this eternal winter nightmare gets an A. Enjoy never wanting to walk into a dark corridor ever again, as this game is not shy with its frozen corpses and sinister monsters with spikes protruding from places they should not be. The menacing voice of the grim reaper constantly taunting you is a nice touch, as if I didn’t already have enough exhibits of impending death.

Mechanically…to give it a grade would be just plain mean. The controls are enough to make even the most patient player put this down and never touch it again—and it is not something you will forget about. The fact that you abandoned the game because the mechanics are so bad will be what is memorable. Had it not be my proud and obligatory duty to provide you with the truth of all things gaming, this would have been deleted from my library 10 minutes in. At first I was holding onto the benefit of the doubt that our hero’s stiff ‘lego legs’ were designed to be a throwback to the OG Grand Theft Auto titles of the nineties before Rockstar really got a handle on realistic movement with pelvic meshes, but I was promptly proved wrong, and that was sad. Does this button make me jump or duck for cover? How is this logical for it to be both? Pick one! Combat is just so counter-intuitive to almost any other title that it is not even worth going into detail about it.

Story is not the best—that’s ok, doesn’t have to be. The horror genre isn’t expected to churn out literary masterpieces. It is masterful when horror titles incite a chronic state of uneasiness. Sadly, the reality of clunky and nonsensical gameplay controls take you out of that heart-in-your-throat experience and promptly diverts you to cog-smoking aggravation. A few patches and updates could polish FADE TO SILENCE into a fairly entertaining adventure of gore and peril—something I truly would love to experience. But until then, don’t stray too far from Bloodborne and Dark Souls—at least their frustrations are in the right place.

Rating 5/10

Check Out the FADE TO SILENCE Where Is My Mind Trailer: