The Silent Age

The Silent Age is a post-apocalyptic point-and-click adventure that pairs an unlikely protagonist with a high-stakes premise. Joe is a simple janitor whose job is mostly fluorescent lighting and toilet repairs — until a mysterious time-travel device lands in his hands, given to him by a dying man from the future, and he learns that humanity will be extinct in 40 years unless he can figure out what went wrong.

The gameplay alternates between two specific time periods. The groovy present of 1972 — Earth's last good year, full of bell bottoms, lava lamps and easy listening — and the desolate post-apocalyptic future of 2012, where humanity has vanished and the empty world is full of mysteries about what happened. Use the time travel device to switch between them mid-puzzle, gather objects in one era and use them in the other, and solve the puzzles that gate access to the truth.

Ten chapters run through unique locations, characters and puzzles. The minimalist art style is bold and stylish, presented in stunning Ultra HD across the Steam version. Immersive character voiceovers and captivating storytelling carry the experience between puzzle moments. A cast of complex characters, each with their own personalities and agendas, appears across both time periods — sometimes the same person decades apart, with everything that implies.

For anyone who likes point-and-click adventures with real narrative weight and a tight runtime, The Silent Age delivers exactly the experience the genre promises. Originally a mobile success with over seven million downloads, the Steam version is the most complete version with all the visual and quality-of-life improvements the platform allows. Can a seemingly ordinary Joe rise to the challenge and become the hero humanity needs? You'll have to play to find out.