Silvarn

About Silvarn

Silvarn is a first-person psychological horror game developed by Etnabyte Games and released on PC in late 2026. Set in a fog-shrouded rural village, it focuses on exploration, fragmented memories, and an unseen pursuer. Players navigate abandoned locations, solve environmental puzzles, and piece together a fractured narrative about a vanished family and a mentally unstable antagonist. The game avoids combat, emphasizing atmosphere and tension over action. A standout mechanic is a mysterious elevator that randomly transports players to unpredictable locations, linking the stranger’s warped beliefs to the villagers’ fate. It’s a slow-burn mystery that leans into eerie silence and disorienting design to build dread.

Gameplay

In Silvarn, you explore decaying buildings and shadowy outdoor spaces as Jacob, moving with a deliberate, methodical pace that matches the game’s tone. Environmental puzzles require rearranging objects, decoding scattered notes, or aligning mismatched timelines in memories. The elevator mechanic adds unpredictability, each use teleports you to a new location, sometimes backtracking, sometimes advancing the story. The unseen threat manifests through distant footsteps, distorted voices, and sudden visual distortions, forcing you to balance curiosity with caution. Sessions often involve balancing puzzle-solving with evasion, as the antagonist’s presence grows more aggressive. Controls are intuitive but lack combat, leaving you entirely reliant on stealth and problem-solving.

What Players Think

PlayPile community ratings average 8.5/10, with 72% of players completing the game in 7.5 hours. Achievement completion is 64%, and 89% of reviews mention the tension as a key strength. Moods reported include "eerie" (43%), "tense" (38%), and "uncanny" (19%). One review says, "The pacing and environmental storytelling are masterclasses in tension." Critics praise the elevator mechanic but note pacing issues in the second act. The game’s 92% positive user reviews highlight its atmospheric design, though 18% of players found the lack of combat disorienting.

PlayPile's Take

Silvarn is a rewarding pick for fans of slow-burn horror and narrative-driven puzzles. It lacks combat and direct interaction with threats, which might frustrate some. At $39.99, it’s reasonably priced for its compact but impactful story. The randomized elevator mechanic keeps things fresh, though completionists might want more structured achievements. If you enjoy games like The Vanishing of Ethan Carter or Layers of Fear but want something with a stronger focus on mystery than jump scares, this is for you. It’s not perfect, but its eerie atmosphere and clever puzzles make it worth the time.

Storyline

When a series of deaths begins to plague the village where Jacob’s family lives, his family asks him to come and take them away. However, when Jacob arrives, the house is silent. Belongings are scattered, traces are incomplete, and his family has vanished without a sign. The source of the danger soon reveals itself: a mentally unstable individual, unable to grasp reality, who believes the villagers are cursed and has taken it upon himself to punish them. As Jacob follows the broken trails left behind, the darkness surrounding the village deepens. While searching for his family, something beyond rational explanation emerges a mysterious elevator whose doors open to different, unpredictable locations each time. This mechanism serves as a hidden link between the fate of the missing villagers and the stranger’s distorted beliefs. To uncover the truth behind his family’s disappearance, Jacob is forced to step beyond this unknown threshold.