Consider for a moment that video games had seen the light of day at the beginning of the 20th century. In a time where -- even for cinema -- the novelty of sound challenged the very fundamental basis of movie making. For instance, the silent actors now had to speak, giving away much less exaggerated acting, and toning down facial expressions to provide more believable performances. This led too many experimentations, and involuntary mistakes that contributed into creating iconic acts in cinematographic history (such as the original Dracula). Even if we disregard the former made-up reality, the evolution of the use of sound in video games is different than in cinema. At the very genesis of its creation, technology had crippled video games – as for movies prior to 1920 – in terms of sound. Computer chips weren’t powerful enough to support complete music tracks, or even spoken dialog.

All of that changed with the advent of laser discs in the early 90s, but considering video games had been going on for several decades prior to that. It’s almost too surprising to see that even in the absence of spoken dialog; an entire genre of entertainment could’ve gone on without them. Of course, there always been sound-chips on the NES or on Sega consoles that had the capacity to deliver small chunks of spoken words, but it wasn’t monologue-worthy. Modern games on the other hand -- with the proper technology now available – are able to deliver a somewhat respectable performance when it comes to dialog. Voice-acting is more and more professionalized, yet video game narrative lack the finesse we could attribute to the movie industry. It must distant itself from the current robotic and scripted form of doing storytelling, and adopt a more subtle and genuine approach.

One of the few subtleties that video games could learn from movies is the use of silence. Silence can be used as a director for involuntary narration, but can also be used for transmitting many emotions to the players/viewers. The sounds of silence is a contradiction in itself; it plays on the fact that silence is the absence of sound; yet having it paired with sound, it creates an excellent conductor for spoken and silent narrative progression. We are constantly bombarded with musical scores, sound effects, and unending babbling in video games, and it has to stop. It has to, because video game narrative needs to sharpen itself, and acquire the desired finesse other medium are able to reach. Imitation might be the most drastic way to achieve such a task, but it’s the most effective way for a richer narrative content.

Hello Darkness my old friend

Let’s take horror for example. It’s a genre that transcends mediums from books to movies, from music to video games. Horror is one of the most popular sub-categories of many entertainment industries. It is able -- by fright and tension -- to communicate the immediacy of danger, and the fear of the unknown to its spectators. This powerful emotive tool is no stranger to video game or movies, but rather than experimenting with the notion, video games tend to be more conservative in the way they use it.


The famous shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. This scene is a great example of the use of silence in horror.

What is more terrifying than sound itself when it comes to horror scenes? Silence; it’s a powerful agent because it’s able to control the attention of the spectators on a very specific aspect of a scene, while still creating the outmost tension because of the absence of sound. The immediacy of sound is comforting to us in a way, even if it’s the most terrible sound in the world. We are able to interpret what is going on in our minds because of that. While on the other hand, when sound is absent, we begin to lose ground on reality; especially in horror – hence, creating the sentiment of terror.

But let’s diverge from horror a little bit. The same exact comparison can be made with Western movies, especially the ones conceived by the mind of Sergio Leone. He was able to create – in many of his movies – foreshadowing for his antagonists and protagonists by the use of silence and sound alone. He didn’t have to explain to the audience which character was which, because his genius read between the lines. It’s that subtlety and finesse I was talking before that makes these scenes so memorable and powerful. I think video games could learn a lot from that.


Taken from Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, we are introduced to Harmonica, the protagonist of the movie.


Again from the same movie, you can clearly see the use of silence, and musical pairing for Frank.


People talking without speaking

Nathan Drake and Solid Snake are some of the few video game characters who don’t know went to shut it. They keep on talking, and talking in an endless monologue of confusion. As we’ve seen before, silence can be used to set the perfect atmosphere to a scene, or even dictate the roles of each character in a story. What silence is also able to do is to communicate feelings and emotions by its execution alone.

Look at romance; it’s a genre full of talking, revolving around the desire of one’s better half. Why does it always have to focus back on dialog when the viewers/players are actually aware of two characters' relationship? It’s a redundant and monotone way of expressing that feeling. I’m not saying that every romance stories should be completely silent, but let’s look at it from another perspective. The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari, and Frankenstein for that matter are love stories, and silent movies. They both have a very uncommon way to transmit it, but they still have love -- or desire -- in their fundamental structures. People love each other, we get it. You don’t have to remind us over and over again; let the pictures speak for themselves.


The last scene from The Graduate, (sorry spoilers). Notice the muted dialog, and pauses in the movie soundtrack.

The same could be said for simple dialog as well. Why do we need to consider the importance of rich story-lines, exposition, and literate understanding only by spoken dialog? We speak in order to communicate, but we shouldn’t limit each other’s through expression only because silence can compromise the “narrative integrity” of the story. Silence is good, even in spoken dialog. It’s able to bring a sophistication that feels more natural, and genuine – it’s much more human in that way.


A simple, yet very effective way to make a boring scene, all too interesting. Taken From The Good , The Bad and The Ugly.

And the vision that was planted in my brain .Still remains, within the sound of silence.

It’s quite obvious that video games in general are still in constant evolution. However, it’s surprising to see that not a whole lot of games have the balls to make voluntary changes to the way video game narratives are done. There are always a lot of talking and musical scores blasting through our ears, and we don’t even ask why it is so. Mind you, Super Metroid is probably the greatest example of silent narration in the medium, but this type of game come few and far between.

What we need is a revolution on how we portrait video games narrative. One of the tools we can use to improve the former is to use silence more often in video games, as a way to progress the narrative, but also to communicate more deeply, and genuinely, the emotions that players should seek. Silence is a powerful asset that can be used in horror games , story-driven games (like Mass Effect and Metal Gear Solid), and in a plethora of other occasions. It can even be used in the simplest dialog chains, in order to provide a refinement that is in par with cinematographic standards.

Silence is golden, and video games should learn from that.

And remember:

When you have to shoot... Shoot! Don't talk.