General tips Silence Guide
Last update: 01 December 2016
Playable Characters
In this game you are controlling three characters: Noah and Renie (between them you can sometimes switch by using the bird called Horus), and also funny caterpillar Spot with ability to change shape (Flat, Balloon, Five Little Spotties, Blazing). Spot can also swallow and spit out various substances, e.g. flowers or mushrooms which sometimes is necessary to play or to get achievements.
Exploration
Cursor has the shape of the circle with dot, when you move it on the hotspot it will change into classical forms: eye, hand, and balloon. Also it can look like tongue, hitting fist or kicking boot or just the shape of item you should use - it depends of situation. Arrows can show you where to go, sometimes with ladder which means you need to go up or down.
It is worth to interact with objects many times, to see new options and information. Also it is good to use Spot on his different forms on objects.
Inventory
There is no real inventory in this game. In the right upper corner of the screen you can see (after pushing the Space key) an item (or two) that you currently have, but it's only a reminder of what you have. These items can't be used or combined whenever you can. When you can use item from your inventory on something the cursor will change shape.
Hints
Hotspots you can see by pushing the Space key (or mouse scroll wheel). When you do this you won't only see hotspots but also a hint about what you should do as next. Also when you can use an item a contour of it will appear on the place where you can use it. All these options (except showing hotspots) can be turned off in the menu and play without these hints or even without items names.
Mini-games and balance checks
Traditional puzzles are rather rare in this game, and aren't very difficult, also you can automatically solve them (an icon in the right bottom corner of the screen). More often will appear balance checks where you need to balance the cursor in the middle of the line, or takes where you need to move the cursor in the indicated direction (moving heavy objects) or just do some actions before time runs out.
Conversations
Some dialogues have two options to choose, but only in the final scene it really matters. It is worth to talk with other characters many times as long as you use very option to know more about game world and situation.
Achievements
In this game you can get 46 Steam achievements. Some of them need several steps and you can see your progress after clicking option 'show all achievements'. Many of them are about Spot, so it's worth to use him on everything and everybody in all his form. Some of the achievements are blocking others - you cannot die during the whole gameplay, or die every time you can, you can fall in all balance check, or do all of them without fall, you can choose one or other alternative dialogue option etc. etc. So, if you need to have all achievements you need to end this game at least twice.
Saves
Your progress is saved automatically, when it happens you will see symbol of white flame in the right bottom corner of the screen. When you don't want to see once again the same cut scenes and dialogues, before you exit the game go to the next location, there the game should be saved.
Endings
Silence has two endings (it depends of what you choose in the final part of game), both you can check because the last automatic save is just a moment before you need to make this important decision. In case of one of the endings it is worth to watch also a cinematic after credits.