Silk Dust Year: 2021 Author: Davide Bucci Systems: Various
Frenchman and Interactive Fiction author Davide Bucci is back with his third and possibly final instalment of his Emilia Vittorini trilogy, with the text adventure Silk Dust. Set three years after the events of the last instalment, The Queen's Footsteps, Emilia finds herself awaking in the majestic Villa Briccorosso on the shores of Lake Como, in the town of Varenna, where she happens to be the guest of Princess Lucilla Briccorosso. The latter is currently preparing for the great ‘Silk Road Rally' a race which spans 10,000km from Egypt to China.
Representing her father's renowned ‘Steam Car' company, Emilia is on hand to oversee the delivery of the Princess's new ITA car, which she bought especially
for use in the upcoming Rally and this is where our four-part adventure game begins, with Emilia exploring the Villa and taking delivery of the princesses car. It's then up to you to figure out how to get the vehicle going, which involves interacting with several characters and exploring the local town and shops. Once the car is ready, it's time for a test drive, where it's not long before the car breaks down and sabotage is uncovered!
This sabotage forces Emilia to return to her home town of Turin and to the main factory of ITA, where some familiar and new family members await and where clues are discovered as to who may be responsible or linked to the sabotage. With the car troubles resolved, Emilia then finds herself on a ferry bound for Alexandra in Egypt. Just as romance begins to blossom, danger strikes and the ferry is taken over by mysterious marauders, who imprison the crew and confine everyone else to their quarters. Will Emilia be able to save the crew, the Princess, and her new love? Well, that's all up to you!
As with Davide's previous titles, the game is chock full of exploration and colourful characters who are once again delightfully brought to life by the game's author. The in-game puzzles are all well thought out and very logical, in fact, you'll struggle to become stuck – but if you do, you'll find an in-built hint system that can be accessed by simply typing ‘hint'.
As with his other games, you can tell Davide has invested a lot of time and thought into his room descriptions, which are detailed and help to easily conjure images in your head of your surroundings. Personally,I found that this was the easiest of the Emilia games, and I felt it had the simplest puzzles. I didn't mind, however, as it meant no endless hours of frustration. My only very minor gripe was that the fourth chapter felt a little short but in no way detracted from my overall experience.
I guess I just wanted more, which hopefully one day we'll get, as I can't help but feel Emilia and indeed Davide have many more adventures in them yet to be told.
To download the game for your system of choice, of which there are eighteen to choose from, head on over to: https://darwinne.itch. io/silk-dust