Here’s a spooky, rather darn good surrealist puzzle-adventure game. Silt launched in June 2022 (all consoles and PC), the brainwork of UK indie team Spiral Circus.

With its striking black and white colour scheme, eerie atmosphere, and intriguing gameplay, it’s a horror game done good and we enjoyed it a great deal.

Enter the Murky Waters of Silt

This type of genre we class as a cinematic platformer. We’ve long since raved about Playdead’s outstanding INSIDE (2016), one of the best games of this century.

Silt follows that formula very well, submerges antics underwater, and throws in unique puzzles to boot. It doesn’t consistently reach the peaks of INSIDE, but to be close to that is no mean feat. This is a brilliant game. The puzzles are often unique, the surreal world of horrible monsters and the like suitably icky, and it looks amazing.

The Lovecraftian influences are also clear. Look at this!

In keeping with the genre’s tradition, there’s minimal narrative. Players begin the game submerged underwater as a deep-sea diver. You can use a possession ability to take control of local marine life, which you then use to solve puzzles and the like.

As you progress, these things become increasingly monstrous and eerie. There are maggot things that attach themselves facehugger style to your noggin, massive eel type things, and poisonous bugs.

Whilst these can kill you, players can also possess most of them to advance in the game. Here it is in action for 11 minutes, courtesy of Kotaku.

It is one of those games you can just watch in action. This genre has titles around the two hour mark and Silt offers about 90 minutes (unless you get stuck on a puzzle).

If you want to explore the full experience more, here’s a walkthrough. There are some spectacular set pieces and artistic flourishes throughout the experience.

We loved this and think it’s a great addition to the genre. Whilst INSIDE remains the pinnacle, it’s inspired many indie devs to try their hand at something similar.

With its consistently striking visual style, often quite jaw-dropping with its reveals, and ambient score, this is a quite blast of Lovecraftian horror for chills and spills.

Silt’s Title Screen: Ambiance and Fishes

Finally, if you want to enjoy some fishes swimming to the sounds of the ocean… here’s an ode to Silt’s atmospheric title screen (looping for four hours).

Effective title screens can be very handy, such as the one from the Loot River (2022) game we flagged up a few years ago.

Nothing else to add! Just enjoying the artistic oomph of it all.