Lifeline was a fantastic text adventure game that delivered memorable atmosphere, character, and a memorable story. It was the first of its kind — being an actual texting text adventure. Taylor, the main character, would describe his settings and actions and you had two choices you could respond with. Some actually changed the course of the story for better or worse. Silent Night is the sequel to Lifeline 1 with Taylor being rescued by a mining ship, but more disasters with the Occupiers continues.

Silent Night is disappointing in a sense that it doesn’t bring about the loneliness and desolate atmosphere that made the first game so great and memorable. Silent Night has a cheesy sci-fi Alien type feeling to it with generic crew members and a claustrophobic ship. I also hate Taylor’s cheesy sense of humor as it’s in the wrong place at the wrong time and is over done. A tense scene is broken down by a stupid one liner or pop culture reference and I absolutely hate that. Humor has its place, but every other line? I don’t think so.

If the humor wasn’t badly written, the game is so short you can finish it within a couple of hours. What made the first game so awesome was actually waiting in real time for Taylor to respond. I feel this is sped up too much and the choices aren’t as varied or branching as the first game. I got the perfect ending without even really trying and that’s not a good thing. In the first game, I rewound the story some just to see the different outcomes.

With that said this is the end of the line for Taylor, but there are spin-offs and prequels bound to come which I will welcome. Silent Night is probably the worst game in the series so far, but it’s still worth a play for hardcore fans.