Songs of Silence

Songs of Silence streamlines Heroes of Might and Magic-style kingdom-building into card-driven, auto-resolved battles wrapped in hand-painted presentation reminiscent of The Banner Saga. This review's sample confirms real converts among strategy fans tired of heavier genre entries, alongside a remarkably consistent complaint that the strategy underneath doesn't match the ambition of its presentation.

A striking presentation, and a genuinely different battle system

Reviewers reach for the same comparison points with real consistency. "Visually, SoS is a triumph. It looks like The Banner Saga but 4x, with auto-battler elements," one reviewer writes. The auto-resolved combat draws specific, thoughtful praise from players who found older genre entries exhausting: "the auto-battler takes all but the big picture decisions out of your hand and THIS IS HOW A REAL GENERAL WOULD FEEL IN BATTLE. You train your units and position them and hope." Another reviewer frames the whole package as a genre entry-point: "This is pretty much Total War, but without all the bloat... Songs of Silence takes the best parts of Total War and streamlines them."

A remarkably consistent complaint about depth

Set against that praise, the single most repeated criticism in this review's sample, echoed even by reviewers who love the art, describes the underlying strategy as thin. "The 'strategy' in this 'turn-based strategy' game is so paper thin that you never really need to make any interesting or difficult decisions. Units have no upkeep or experience, so you just spam them over and over again," one reviewer writes. Another reviewer who otherwise wanted to recommend the game reaches the identical conclusion: "You just build as many of the most expensive/most powerful unit, preferably one that gets boosted by your general and you just steamroll the enemy. There is no other tactic." Even a reviewer defending the game acknowledges the criticism is fair as far as it goes: "the combat is very simple and lacks the depth of genre predecessors like Heroes of Might & Magic, the Total War series, or even simpler titles like Civ 5 or Endless Legend."

Achievement data confirms steep campaign attrition

This review's own check of Steam's achievement data supports the reviewer-described pattern of fading engagement directly. Completion for the campaign's opening mission sits at 59.2%, but that figure falls sharply to just 7.1% by the eighth and final mission — consistent with multiple reviewers describing themselves as stuck on the final stretch of the campaign despite investing significant time, with one writing they were "literally on the final mission and just cringe thinking of even touching it." Achievement data also corroborates a specific complaint about the hero-vocation unlock system: the achievement for winning with every hero vocation sits at just 0.1%, among the rarest in the entire game.

A price complaint the developers appear to have acted on

Several reviewers independently raise the same specific complaint about launch pricing, with one comparing it directly to a genre rival: "Better off spending another 20 dollars on something like a Total War or Civ title... I think its an improved art of 'The Banner Saga.'" Notably, a later reviewer confirms the developers responded: "It got review-bombed when released because the price was a bit high for what it was - which was fair criticism. The devs listened however, reduced the price." This review's own check of Steam's partner-events feed corroborates that account directly, finding a specific post titled "Price Update for Release" in the record.

Sustained, substantial post-launch investment

Steam's own partner-events feed documents an extraordinarily active support cycle: numbered updates running continuously from version 1.0 through 1.9.3, three paid expansions, a dedicated multiplayer overhaul, and a specific developer post addressing stability and crashes directly. That level of sustained investment is real, though this review's sample confirms crash reports and multiplayer turn-wait complaints persisted for at least some players well after those fixes shipped.

Faction and hero variety draws a mixed verdict

A more specific debate in this review's sample concerns whether the game's factions and heroes feel meaningfully distinct. One reviewer who put in a substantial amount of time credits real variety: "Diverse heroes & units... I initially thought different heroes under same class are just cosmetics, but they actually offer different ability & play style, I appreciate the attentiveness to build variety." A critical reviewer reaches the opposite conclusion about army composition specifically: "due to limited army sizes, no real army compositions can be had. Cavalry leader needs cavalry units, priest leader needs melee and magic units. No variety." This review reads these as compatible rather than contradictory: heroes and their individual card kits appear genuinely distinct, even as the broader army-building layer that surrounds them stays comparatively narrow — consistent with the "shallow strategy, strong presentation" pattern running through the rest of this review's sample. Players who enjoy discovering a favorite hero's specific card kit are likely to get more lasting mileage out of the game than players hoping the wider strategic layer opens up to match.

Final verdict

Songs of Silence succeeds at making a heavyweight genre more approachable through genuinely striking presentation and a streamlined battle system that wins real converts, and this review's sample confirms that appeal is sincere rather than superficial. But a remarkably consistent complaint about shallow strategic depth, corroborated directly by a steep campaign-completion drop-off in this review's own achievement-data check, describes a real gap between the game's ambition and its execution. Strategy fans specifically drawn to its art and its lighter-weight approach should find real value, especially since the developers have clearly kept working on it; players wanting the tactical depth of genre heavyweights should look elsewhere.