Fear of sharks is completely natural. Name one person, besides eccentric billionaires, who claim to have a place in their hearts for these apex predators. Conversely, the fear of the vastness of the ocean, orThalassophobia, is understandable. As of 2022, only 5% of the ocean has been explored. I’ll let that sink in (Editor’s Note: heh). 5 percent! It’s no wonder then that a majority of fears stem from the unknown depths of the undiscovered deep. Atmospheric games like Silt do little to quell that sentiment.
Released in the sweltering summer of 2022, Silt gained traction as developer Spiral Circus' aquatic answer to Playdead’s hit game Limbo, with a monochromatic color scheme, unanswered questions, and a nameless protagonist facing odds much bigger than stands to reason. But while Limbo conjured up discomfort on manageable dry land level, Silt tapped into a much bigger—even more relatable—fear: the sheer terror of what lies unseen beneath the waves.
Anyone who’s played Limbo will agree that a major component to its mood of unease stemmed from the lack of color. It was an alien, unrelatable world without the familiar hues that bring us comfort. Silt maintains a similar aesthetic, but conceived not as a gimmick, but from the purposeful and inherent art direction by Spiral Circus’ co-founder and art director, Tom Mead. With one glance athis current projects, it’s clear that Mead lives in black and white, with an apparent obsession with surreal hollow-eyed creatures who wouldn’t feel out of place in Tim Burton’s art class sketchbook.
His inspirations stem from an intense fear of the ocean (not so strange) and a self-confessed fear of Beatrix Potter characters (eh,kindastrange). Mead’s portfolio proves that the original concept of Silt must’ve been banging around in his mind for some time as the game’s playable scuba character seems to be a recurring figure in the sketches, as well as several unsettling antlered creatures.
Limbo and Silt meet each other in the middle regarding the use of color, but it’s the way that their moods are ultimately conveyed that betray the differences. Limbo’s superb use of an unseen light source piercing the darkness through a hazy gradient creates a dream-like feeling that persists throughout the course of the game. Shadows abound, even keeping the main character, a brother seeking his sister, shrouded in mystery. In fact, it’s almost like the entire game is coated in a thick film of fog.
Not so with Silt. The haze exists, but it lurks in the background of the unfathomable depths that you exist in. The foreground is incredibly detailed, not just from the aquatic life that scuba guy interacts with, but the intricate finger-like tendrils and eerily organic environment, so much so that it sparks immediate questions as to the origins of everything you encounter.
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The “inexplicable” is another area of overlap. Limbo starts you off without any answers, save for the realization that you’re a boy—more like a silhouette—on a mission to keep plugging away in an easterly direction. Silt manages to slip in a brief poem at the beginning of the game barely hinting at your mission, but also establishing a type of lore that A.) is never corroborated, and B.) is never reiterated. It goes something like this:
“In endless depths, Goliaths roam,
Beneath the waves and crashing foam,
Hunt them down, remove their eyes,
For this is where their power lies,
A great machine lies deep in wait,
Awaken it to seal your fate.”
Ominous. But who the hell said it, and why? Zero answers. But would they really help in the end? The same emotion was felt during my first crack at Limbo:Just keep moving forward. No one’s going to explain any of this to you anyway. Similarly, Silt’s main character mechanic of clairvoyantly taking over marine lifeforms is just something we’re supposed to digest. Is he a wizard in scuba gear? Some kind of disembodied ectoplasmic spirit with psychic abilities? It’s up toyouto fill in those blanks.
Often we demand a neat package of exposition, but if you want to really bring out the dread in viewers/users/players, don’t tell themanything. Throw them in the deep end and let them sink or swim. Esteemed director David Lynch has made it his entire career to confound audiences with “what ifs” and hidden messages buried the surface of his films. Perhaps this is why Lynch is one of themajor influences of Spiral Circus’ co-founders. Could anyone truly explain Eraserhead on their first go round? Nope. In that same vein, Tom Mead’s artwork was meant to provoke queries, but in the end supersede explanation. Without a word, Silt’s cinematic feel conjures up a boatload (Editor’s Note: heh) of questions, in particular: what are these Lovecraftian-like terrors?
The stark underwater nightmare repels players just as much as it compels.
Having cited H.R. Giger during their production, is it any wonder that biotechnical behemoths play a large role in the game (much like they do inanother recent Giger-inspired horror)? In this area, Limbo and Silt run parallel, at least during the first 10-15 minutes of Limbo. Perhaps the most memorable part of that game was the enormous killer spider that relentlessly hunted you during the first section. But after that, the mechanics switch from being hunted, to merely surviving industrial buzz saws and jumps from high places. With Silt, the main goal of the game is to remove the eyeballs from massive “goliaths” that roam the bottom of the ocean.
The creatures range from a terrifying Gulper Eel, to a Kraken Tree, a Mechanical Crab and finally a Gloom Flower. Like Limbo, the monsters are bathed in shadow from an unseen source, but it’s the scale of the beasts in Silt that is the most troubling. When compared side-by-side, our scuba man is like a minnow to a shark. Each boss silently towers over you with its daunting size. These are the images of the game that are most magnetic, but also the most unsettling. Like a kid drawn by the ominous power of the haunted house he knows he shouldn’t enter, the stark underwater nightmare repels players just as much as it compels.
Thalassophobiamay be a real problem for many, but it’s the lengthy derivative brother phobia,Megalohydrothalassophobia, that Silt successfully leans into: the fear of large undersea creatures. No longer do we worry about the vast expanse of water. The fear of the unknown has been replaced by the horrible truth that what we were afraid of most is very real, tangible and can actually kill us. By successfully intertwining these intense psychological fears into Silt’s surrealistic marine world, Spiral Circus gave us a beautiful, yet angst-ridden experience that will swim around your brain long after you’ve emerged from its deep.
