I have to admit I’m becoming a little tired of minimalism. I want maximalism. I want elaborate art styles dripping with life and color. I want to feel like I’m leafing through an old illustrated fantasy book or watching something like the animated Lord of the Rings. I want more, not less. Songs of Silence is a fantasy 4X that definitely satisfies that impulse, with a style inspired by Art Nouveau, where everything is richly decorated and brimming with details. Out now in early access, it just introduced its first big update and it’s full of excellent quality of life changes.
The biggest and most obvious addition in this patch is the way movement works in the strategy game. Now when you’re hopping around the game map you’ll be able to sneak past enemies and cut routes closer to mountains and other features. Previously, Songs of Silence calculated how everything moved a little differently, so hopefully some more advanced tactics and surprise ambushes will be par for the course now when you’re out in the world, fighting for survival.
Enemy AI has also been overhauled somewhat, thanks to a particularly nasty bug that’s been fixed. Other armies controlled by the computer will now behave more like a human – they’ll stash stuff away in locations, recruit troops, and hire heroes, making them much more of a varied threat when you do encounter them. Before this bug was resolved they were locked out of their own homes – something that meant they were underpowered and less dynamic to face. They would even skirt around places they owned instead of going straight through them, which has also been fixed.
Controller support is also now in and the game should work on SteamDeck, so you can relax a little and not have to hunch over a keyboard and mouse (though admittedly, I still will). The early game has been made a little easier for new players, especially if you find yourself under siege. Now when you try to break out, the local garrison will valiantly join in your efforts which should make your egress simpler to achieve.
My favorite update in this patch, however, is related to details you’ll find on the game map. Various small assets will populate the world via procedural generation, varying with each game. Songs of Silence is already gorgeous with crepuscular rays highlighting stunning castles and deep valleys – now these will be joined by little windmills and small arboreal copses, helping bring the game even more to life.
There’s plenty more that’s hit the game with this latest update, so if you’d like to get the full lowdown, you can check out the full list of changes along with the early access roadmap over on Steam.
Should you want to try out something else, take a look at our guide to the best RTS games you can play, as well as our picks for the best story games on PC.
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