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EGX Highlights: Silence Of The Siren asks what if Heroes Of Might And Magic had dieselpunk moles and was set in space?Or also had alien space worms, or mechanoid moths… you get the picture
Or also had alien space worms, or mechanoid moths… you get the picture
Image credit:Oxymoron Games
Image credit:Oxymoron Games
My demo put me in the spiky red army boots of its Fossorians, aspace mole factionwho are big into mechs, and riding around on giant motorbikes and other four-legged creatures they’ve enslaved. You begin with a base and a general to lead your army with, and ultimately this is a game about gathering resources, growing your ranks, upgrading your HQ with different building types, and gradually pushing out into the map to claim it for your own. In classic turn-based fashion, you’ve only got a set number of movement points per turn, so you’ll need to plan your route carefully through its twisting canyons and rocky outcrops, peeling back the fog of war as you go.
Image credit:Oxymoron Games
Battles play out on a hexagonal grid with each team at either end. If you have, in fact, played the aforementioned Songs Of Conquest, it’s quite a similar setup, but for those that haven’t, think The Banner Saga but with a side on view and you’re halfway there. The fights I played were all on flat terrain, so there weren’t any obstacles or height advantages to worry about like in Songs Of Conquest, but even without these tactical nuances, moving troops around the board, waiting for enemies to come closer and gauging how quickly to storm in myself provided plenty to wrap my head around as a first time experience. Plus, once you start adding general-specific abilities and skills into the mix - my mole general had a long-range area-of-effect missile attack, for example, and unlocked more as time went on - Silence Of The Siren’s early game, at least, feels suitably well-judged at the moment.
Image credit:Oxymoron Games
Image credit:Oxymoron Games
Rather, the main worries I have right now lie elsewhere. I’m sure this was probably purely for the sake of the demo, but the AI was very defensive during my playthrough, and they’d simply sit on their claimed buildings without pursuing me across the map or making any kind of play on my own mines and factories as I left them undefended. Hopefully the final game will have a more active rivalry going on between you and your opponents, because without this it might end up being a bit frictionless.
It was also difficult to get a sense of just how challenging it would be to maintain a good economy in Silence Of The Sirens, as my demo already had loads of money in the mole coffers to let me try out different buildings and unit types. Some resources were available as standalone treasures to gobble up on the map itself, but you’ll need to claim mines and other outposts if you want a steady supply of them, so if the balance is off here, then it could similarly wander into slightly easy territory - or indeed, be so gruellingly difficult that making any kind of progress could be a nightmarish slog.
Image credit:Oxymoron Games
