I was more than a little nervous when I first started to play Moment of Silence. Despite not having a health meter, a life count, or anything that physically threatens you, it just plain out felt like something was wrong or that someone was watching you…

When you first boot up Moment of Silence, you’ll be delightfully surprised with the dramatic, straight out of Hollywood opening that sets up the confusion and mystery that slowly unravel in the game’s twisting story. You [Peter Wright] are witness to a SWAT raid that ends with the disappearance of your apartment neighbor. While investigating the city for answers to his disappearance, you’ll find yourself slipping deeper and deeper into the underground and secrets of the city you so hardly knew about before…

Gameplay

While Moment of Silence is considered an action/adventure genre, you should know that ‘playable action’ isn’t really included. The game boasts pre-rendered backgrounds that will become both a treat and a chore (I’ll get to that later). Your character, Peter, is moveable only by the point-and-click of your mouse. Besides the controls heading in the direction of developing an acute case of carpal tunnel syndrome, the controls will become very frustrating as perception plays a key role in navigating an environment with non-3D ‘object’sticles. (Objects + obstacles) You’ll find yourself getting red in the face as characters become stuck in certain areas in which point and clicking suddenly becomes a frantic search for anything that will get you out of the environmental trap you put yourself in. Unless you have a keen eye, you’ll find yourself getting stuck a LOT in Moment of Silence. Prepare to give your mouse and hand a workout like none before.

The second part of the gameplay revolves around how your character interacts with objects to advance the story. Early in the game you’re given a PDA Messenger that serves as a form of communication, an organizer, and a sort of identification. From it, you can make calls and store numbers just as a regular modern cell phone would. You can access the messenger from your inventory, located on the bottom of the screen and appearing when your mouse ventures into the area. The inventory menu not only displays everything you’ve picked up or have been given, it’s also an easy way to use or examine certain objects.

The major interaction of the game comes in making decisions- both physical and verbal. Do you want to play it nice to the person you’re interrogating? Or do you want to rough him up a bit to get even more information? The game really focuses on the decision making process, which can definitely extended the overall playtime because each person is FULL of information…some useless, and some helpful. Just always remember to talk to a person at least twice, as usually they have something more to say. Your decisions ultimately lead to a shifting story that guarantees you’ll never see the same ending twice.

Graphics

As I referred to before about the pre-rendered background, I’ll now talk about how it really makes the game a treat. First of all, the game’s setting is in the distant future in what seems to be a Neo-New York City. The backgrounds are quite impressive displayed in full resolution, looking incredibly smooth and detailed. Though the last fully recognized games that utilized pre-rendered backgrounds are the Resident Evil Remakes for the Gamecube console, Moment of Silence certainly made sure the style was not forgotten and gave it a fresh new look. With its superb attention to detail, you have to wonder if the Moment of Silence team peered into a peephole to what society would look like in the future.

The in-game character models are nice, but certainly not as detailed as the pre-rendered backgrounds. Character models can look awkward at times during their scripted movements, and facial expressions seem off-keyed and unbalanced. None of this takes away too much from the game, but you’ll sometimes find yourself laughing at the character’s awkward expressions.

Sound

Sound is perhaps the game’s key point. As highly advertised and emphasized for this game, it features professional voice actors that act with actual emotion to the lines they act out, instead of a poorly translated and off tone voice that many such games employ. Though some voices may seem too animated or fake, most capture a character’s personality with a mysterious tone, as if they’re not telling you every detail. Not only does this seem similar to life (as everybody has something to hide), the developers hit this mark dead on, as the outstanding voice acting definitely intensifies the story and plot. While conversation is a good 80 Percent of this game (With over 35 professionally acted characters), you may find yourself growing sick of dialog towards during mid-play; But nonetheless it's certainly nice and better to hear actually focused and acted dialog rather than the static and non-dynamic conversations in other games.

Music is no exception. The game is set to a very dark musical atmosphere, usually low toned to give you the feeling something is wrong at all times. Just by viewing the initial Moment of Silence startup menu you’ll get a good hint of what is going to come and follow you throughout the game.

Multiplayer

This game contains no multiplayer content.

Replay Value:

While the game is quite immersive in its first time through with the whole mysterious atmosphere, the game’s controls and story aren’t quite enough to make you want to play the game countless times. While this in no way means the game is not good, it is rather slow paced, and most will find one time through will be enough.

Conclusion

With spectacular graphics and noteworthy voice acting and story, Moment of Silence should be picked up by any fan of the adventure genre or those who enjoy being immersed in story and atmosphere. While at times you may find the game a little slow paced and the controls and gameplay frustrating, those who stick with the game to the end will come out pleased. Already released and acclaimed in Europe, one can only expect that it will capture gamers along the western hemisphere as well.

The Good:
• Breathtaking background visuals
• Great voice acting
• Music is superb with dark and dramatic themes

The Bad:
• Controls can become very frustrating
• Pre-Rendered backgrounds can create confusion with perception of objects
• Dialog and conversations become very patience demanding

The Great:
• The Hollywood-esq dramatic opening cinematics