Sylvio Review

*Contains Spoilers*

Eerie and Unique EVP Gameplay

You are Juliette Waters, a ghost recorder who is on the cusp of uncovering something dark lurking among the ruins of Saginaw Park. Armed with your EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) recorder, you set out to record voices of the dead and unravel a sinister tale that was best left buried.

The first thing that really drew me into Sylvio was the impeccable use of sound. The voice for Juliette is almost a whisper and really draws the player in to listen closely. It fits well with the star mechanic in the game - the EVP recorder. Juliette uses her microphone as she ventures around the park ruins, listening for and recording the voices of the dead. Each recording you acquire allows you to listen to it forwards, backwards, slow and fast to hear the many voices haunting the sound waves. This mechanic is fun, interesting, and incredibly creepy at times as you listen to the voices of those lingering somewhere between the living and the dead.

The music for Sylvio ranges from familiar and upbeat to slow and haunting, and I can’t get enough of it. I feel it fits the slow, spooky vibes of the game and is most definitely one of the reasons I love playing Sylvio so much. If you enjoy the music as much as I do, you can snag the OST on Steam along with the game so you can listen whenever and wherever you want.

The game’s story is compelling and while I enjoyed unraveling the dark details of Saginaw Park, I do feel the game could have tied the story together a little better. After finding most of the recordings, notes, and other information in the game, I still had questions at the end that went unanswered, or answered in a less than satisfactory way. However, this was not enough to prevent me from enjoying the game as a whole.

The dark, misty spirits that follow you around the game are spooky. The sounds they make as they approach, especially when you have not yet located them, are unnerving. The larger spirits that take a humanesque form are also creepy, particularly if you were not expecting them to appear. The bizarre part of the game is the manner in which you dispatch them. Juliette, early in the game, happens upon a pesticide sprayer-turned-weapon that fires a number of objects, including potatoes, rocks, nails, baseballs, and metal parts. This weapon feels very out of place in the game, even though the pesticide you use to power it has relevance to the story. Admittedly, the weapon was fun to use and added an extra challenge to the gameplay where Juliette was forced to locate the correct type of ammunition for the obstacle at hand, so the out of place feeling is something I can ignore.

Graphically, the game was pleasing the look at and reminded me of an old VHS recording without those pesky scan lines. I enjoyed the environment design and had fun exploring all the rooms in search of the next voice in the static.

Overall, I loved playing Sylvio. The use of sound to create tension and build anxiety is incredible and some of the best I have seen in an indie game so far. From the soundtrack to the vocals of Juliette and Bobby, to the ghostly voices in the static, this game has so much to offer in terms of a unique and interactive psychological horror experience and I cannot recommend it enough. If you enjoy indie horror and have an interest in the paranormal, this is the game for you.

[Lady played Sylvio on PC with a mouse and keyboard]