1 Moment of Time: Silentville Review

Get lost in 1 Moment of Time: Silentville, a hidden object adventure game where everything is blinking out of existence. With somewhat murky gameplay, aimless wandering, and some funny icons, this game might be better reserved for those who enjoy a challenge. When I heard about 1 Moment of Time: Silentville, I thought it sounded like a pretty cool premise. A mix between The 4400 and The Twilight Zone. People are going missing. Some people age rapidly and others get stuck in a loop that they can’t escape from. Ok, I’m intrigued. Let’s give it a try and see what’s really going on here. [[1-moment-of-time-silentville-review-04.jpg]] While watching the introduction, I was weirdly reminded of Winnie the Pooh. The sketches of the city were good, but call me crazy, I couldn’t help it… the combination of the sketches and the narrator’s voice just sent me immediately off to the 100 Acre Wood. My buddy told me the narrator said “Rumbling Storm,” but all I heard was “Rumbly in my Tumbly.” You will not convince me otherwise. So far, their attempt to scare me has failed miserably since I’m right now eating a jar of honey with Pooh Bear… what’s next? [[1-moment-of-time-silentville-review-03.jpg]] I skipped the tutorial. If you played one game you played them all, right? Well, not exactly. My mistake. Most of the objects you have to find actually require some work, and I wasn’t sure what was going on since I decided I was so good at these games that I didn’t need any hand holding. But, after pressing the hint button a few times, it finally clicked in the old noggin, and the game made much more sense. It was time to get my MacGyver on. The clues in the hidden object games, for the most part, were pretty simple. “½ an Apple.” That’s an easy one. There’s a knife. There’s an apple. Slice! “Chicken Toenail.” Ok weird… but, find some clippers. Find a chicken foot. Clip! Some of the clues were just plain annoying. “Completed Origami.” Why?! I found the paper in the drawer. Let me click it and be done with it. Don’t make me pull the paper together in 50 steps. I obviously found the item I needed. There was quite a few times where I felt like the game developers were making me work just to torture me with similar onerous tasks. Transitioning between scenes was a bit different than what I was used to and kind of cool… at first. You take a few steps and the environment moves with you. After the first 40 minutes though, it got pretty old. I ended up pressing the hint button a lot just to be taken to the next scene and avoiding having to do the two-step transition. There was a lot of aimless wandering too. A few times, I had to press the hint button just because I honestly didn’t know where to go next. There was no direction. I just found myself backtracking until something popped up and told me what to do. [[1-moment-of-time-silentville-review-05.jpg]] The puzzles were challenging. They started off easy and got much harder as the game progressed. There were train puzzles, tube puzzles, dynamite puzzles. But basically, it’s just the same puzzle with different graphics over and over again. Can we get some originality here? Just a little? Is that too much to ask? Anyhow, to give you an indication of my weird sense of humor and the inability of this game to hold my attention… my favorite part of the game, hands down, was putting funny lips on the characters. When you could talk to someone, a lip icon would come up… and it would be moving… I couldn’t help it… I would raise the lips to the people’s faces… The man in front of city hall was the best. You can’t tell me that’s not funny! [[1-moment-of-time-silentville-review-01.jpg]] In the middle of cracking up hysterically while my kids watched in strange fascination, I realized it might be time for lights out for both us and 1 Moment of Time: Silentville. Overall… 1 Moment of Time: Silentville, was an OK game… not great. Just OK. I think if there wasn’t as much needless wandering around without any explanation, it might have held my attention a little better. Still, if you’re looking for a challenging game with little hand-holding, than it might be worth looking at. Hopefully you’re much more mature than I am and can avoid making funny lips on the characters… although I just don’t see how that is possible.