Silt

Silt - the game world is drawn in black and white, and just the sight of the depth makes you feel uneasy. The diver descends lower and lower, where there is neither day nor heat, and around him slowly moves something that is in no hurry to show itself entirely. The hero sails alone, without a map or clues, and remembers the entire route himself. Puzzles are based on inhabiting local creatures. The hero leaves his own body and subjugates a fish, shellfish or jellyfish in order to swim through a narrow passage, pull away a stone or pull a mechanism. Through someone else's eyes, the world looks different, and this adds to the feeling of foreignness. Fish and shellfish come in different sizes, and not every shell can withstand the pressure at the next depth. The danger here is almost not shown directly: monsters appear in the dark, huge eyes accompany the diver from the depths, and the exit opens after all the necessary elements have been collected. You have to swim carefully, monitoring the oxygen and not getting into something you can’t get out of. Oxygen does not last long, and the nearest exit to the top is sometimes left far behind. There is no plot as such - there is suspense and questions that everyone answers for themselves. Silence, sand and rare sounds work more powerfully than explanations. The black and white palette does not interfere with distinguishing details: light from cracks, silhouettes against the background of sand and thickets at the bottom are easy to read. Some scenes have to take place in complete darkness, relying only on flashes, so rushing doesn’t work here. By the end, the diver reaches something that would have been better not to have found. For those who love short atmospheric mood games and are not afraid of depth.