Smooth jazz tones, curious cases and cosy interiors; this quiet French town has it all in Chronique Des Silencieux — a detective game announced by Pierre Feuille Studio back in 2018.
It has clearly been a labour of love and that shows in this demo. You’re introduced to Chronique Des Silencieux‘s strange cast of zany characters, shown around an idyllic French town in Bordeaux and along the way you get to try your hand at playing a junior detective as you attempt to solve cases and point out contradictions between testimonies and documentation.
Players take control of Eugene Faury, a young man who travels to the French town of Meriadeck in search of his uncle. Upon arrival, you’ll soon discover that there’s more to this small town than you may have first suspected. It’ll be up to you to find out what happened to your uncle and where he might have disappeared to.
Chronique Des Silencieux does so many things right in its opening 20 minutes of gameplay for me. It doesn’t waste your time and puts you right at the forefront of a mystery, introducing you to an interesting cast of characters that you’ll be able to learn more about through the developing plot and character interactions in the demo.
Obtaining a testimony and reviewing a case document to pick out contradictions was a particular stand-out to me and I had a blast at playing wannabe detective as I attempted to pick out discrepancies in a case file.
For me, the setting of a 70s French town is a perfect choice for a game of this genre. The wonderful artwork really captures the feeling of a postcard-esque town that, while beautiful on the outside, there’s almost an added layer of mystery and intrigue below the surface that’s waiting to be uncovered. The soundtrack compliments the stylish visuals too, not being too overbearing but also adding to the overall atmosphere very nicely.
The cast of characters that are introduced in Chronique Des Silencieux are wonderfully unique, with the majority of them being able to both interact with the player and talk to them about the ongoing mystery. I’m a fan of having speech bubbles for gameplay and voiced dialogue reserved for cutscenes only, but I also understand that might not be for those who prefer a more immersive experience.
While I very much enjoyed my time with the demo, there were a few technical problems. This meant I was forced to repeatedly restart my progress due to hard-crashing to the desktop, which was admittedly a little frustrating at times. While I can admit this was a source of frustration for me, it’s really not the end of the world as progress can be quickly caught up and the bugs are something that will almost certainly be absent from the final release.
There are also a couple of incredibly minor grammatical issues with some of the English translations in the dialogue, but this again is something that I’ll say wouldn’t affect one’s enjoyment of the game at all and is something incredibly easy to fix.
So, in conclusion, what can you expect from Chronique Des Silencieux’s demo? Well, if you like interesting, character-driven plots with interactive detective segments then I’ve got very good news for you — your needs will certainly be satisfied by this demo. It’s a wonderful introduction to the setting, characters and core gameplay and one that I truly believe will have anyone who gives it a try looking forward to the full release come 2024.
Chronique Des Silencieux is currently expected to launch on PC in 2024, you can wishlist it on Steam.