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Silent Storm: From Russia with Love!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 57 / 58
Date: January 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Initial reaction: People who love turn-based tactical combat games, such as Jagged Alliance and Fallout, Silent Storm is sure to excite. Silent Storm's 1.2 beta version, supplied as a preview, seems promising. As a former Marine with combat training and experience, I must say that this in one of the most realistic I ever had the pleasure of reviewing.

Advice for Beginners:
While Silent Storm is a game that many will enjoy this may not be the one to start with. It's system requirements alone are well above the entry level gamer's home system. Although the features are inviting, there are plenty of games available that introduce this style of play with less impact to your wallet.

Advice for Intermediates and beyond:
This game is, without a doubt a welcome addition to your collection. If you enjoy turn-based games, Silent Storm is a title we would suggest reviewing. If you appreciate a challenge, fantastic graphics, and are looking to add another genre to your list of games to master, we've listed a link to download the free demo below.

Game Play:
Silent Storm is a true 3D game combining turn-based tactical combats and role-playing set against the background of WWII. Leading your squad behind enemy lines to perform secret missions, you choose from a pool of more than 40 elite soldiers from 30 different nations. With over 75 weapons ranging from commando daggers to hand-held rockets, you are able to experience virtual combat in many different scenarios. With 24 missions and individual character development you would be hard pressed to play the same game twice.

In typical Role Playing Game (RPG) format you start off by creating a character from six preset professions:
* Grenadiers (grenade experts)
* Snipers (marksmen)
* Soldiers (heavy-weapons experts)
* Scouts (stealth and espionage operatives)
* Engineers (who specialize in explosives)
* Medics (who are adept at treating wounds).

As in other RPG style games like Neverwinter Nights, and Baldur's Gate you can adjust your character's look and speech. The first mission you complete must be solo -a negative perhaps- we suggest trying the German Mission the first time around. Upon completion of your first mission, you can then begin to build your squad by picking one soldier from each class. Much like Baldur's Gate your squad advances in levels and along a skill tree that assists you in development for future play. Each class has their own special skills that compliment your squad, so you have the ability to build based your style of play. Unlike Neverwinter Nights and Baldur's Gate, Silent Storm is offered as a Single Player only game. This game has multiplayer written all over it, and it is sad to see that it lacks that option.

For the novice, the significance of turn-based games, such as Silent Storm, is that they are based on Action Points (AP), [segments of time equaling the length of a turn.] You initiate your turn, and then the enemy's turn begins. Each of the six characters has different numbers of action points available, a crucial factor when building your squad. We found that the enemy's turns take time to execute, and to some, this will be considered a fault with the game. Understanding this, the developers included an option to shut down the turn-based mode until you actually engage in combat. Gamers with little patience may find Silent Storm frustrating. If you are unaccustomed to this style of game play, it may take time to get used to. However, the manner in which Silent Storm has been produced is sure to capture an audience outside the normal turn-based gamer.

Graphics:
Silent Storm's animations are excellent for this genre. You will find bump mapping, full skeletal animation, anti-aliasing, real-time shadowing--- all the things we love seeing in a big budget shooter. You can also take advantage of the truly interactive environment with fully deformable geometry. Destroy anything in the game, including multi-storied buildings, landscapes, and dungeons. In other words you can destroy practically anything you see on your screen. This is a feature that truly enhances Silent Storm, and is exactly what Silent Storm's predecessors lack. Add to this, Silent Storm's Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers quite a challenge as it adapts to the game's ever changing environment. During game play, your enemy will adjusts it's tactics according to your squad's strengths and weaknesses. Silent Storm's AI engine is a long awaited feature to turn-based gaming. As such, the game will cause you think about your next moves, and it will react accordingly.

Requirements:
Silent Storm is not meant for entry level gaming systems as its game requirements are high to fully enjoy what the game has to offer. The minimum system requirements are as follows:
* Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP, DirectX® 9 .0 or higher
* CPU 600 MHz
* 128 MB RAM
* 3D graphics card, 32 MB RAM (nVidia GeForce2MX compatible or better)
* Sound card
* CD-ROM
* 2.5 GB of free hard drive space plus about 500 MB for Windows swap file and save games

Overall:
Silent Storm seems sure to please those thirsting for a top quality turn-based tactical squad game. Even at 90% completion, this game has set the bar for other developers of this genre to shoot for.

Couple bugs stop this from being a masterpiece

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 27 / 27
Date: March 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

First and foremost...wow! Rag-doll effects and skeletal animation in a TBS? Get outta here! And when the adverts say you can destroy anything, they ain't kidding. Each surface and material in this game has their individual penetration probability and structural points. Damage a brick wall with enough machine gun fire, you create a hole you can see through. Your teammate on the other side of wall spotted an enemy but ran out of Action Points? Your teammates can shoot thru the wall and nail him! Sniper atop a wooden lookout posts? Destroy the wooden lookout post, and down he comes! Locked door? Shoot it open!

There's so many different way you can accomplish your mission due to this outrageously destructable enviroment. Once you calm down somewhat from the glee of having total destructive power, you also see the developers didn't gimp out on the actual game either. Underneath all the glitz and glamour of the graphical engine lies a very solid TBS game.

There are literally hundreds of weapons you can lay your hands on, from 6 shooters, to the tommy gun, even having advanced futuristic plasma weapon at the second half of the game.

Now that you all are shocked, and some totally outraged by the inclusion of laser weapon, let me post the negatives as I see them.

1) I bought the game thinking this was going to be historically accurate (to a point) game, with weapons, enemies, allies, and situation grounded in World War II era. What I got was laser weapons and mechanized suit of armor in the game. I must say, though, the inclusion of such didn't ruin the game as I have feared wnen I heard of them online.

2) unit skill bugs - this is a game killer for many people, and it's only fair you know it before you purchase it. The game has skills that increase after every use, and also has units (you can have upto 5 hirable units in your squad from 16 available to choose at HQ) you can hire. So you choose your 5, go out on couple mission, increase in skill and level. But the units you didn't hire...their skills are MUCH better then the ones you did. Until about level 6 or so, you won't notice much. But when you come back with your level 10 squad, you'll see that the level 6 (unhirable gain level depending on how far you have gone in the game) units you didn't hire has MUCH, MUCH higher skills then your own. Heck, an unhired sniper had better medical and engineering skill then my medic and engineer! And the gap only widens as the game progresses. Worst of all, since engineering and medical skill is used only rarely, they will NEVER increase to a point of usability. My level 12 medic STILL can't use a damn morphine injection kit (not exact name or description)! And my engineer? Hell, he doesn't even know how to use a wire cutter! And never once did I sucessfully unlock anything with his picklocking.

That bug puts a damper on the game, and you are forced either to ignore the super units at HQ or train (tho you can't really train medical and engineering skill due to limited supply of their items) them to usefulness. I chose the latter as I had a bit more free time then your average person.

There are other minor bugs (as with any other PC game), but if you can somehow get over that skill bug, what you have is the best TBS game out for a long time.

Stop looking! This is the ultimate turn based strategy game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: January 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

First thing first. This review is based on the UK release of Silent Storm by publisher JoWood. The US folks have to wait till January 2004 to get this superb game.

I have always like turn based strategy games. Games like that are true strategy games because they let the player strategize how to win a combat with limited resources. Games like Warcraft and Command and Conquer are called real time strategy but in my opinion, I don't see much strategy in those games... one can win by building good defense, accumulating lots of units and swarming the AI with those units. Strategy? Not at all!

In my 15 years of gaming experience, I love two turn based strategy games: X-Com: Enemy Unknown (aka UFO Defense) and Jagged Alliance. These jewels were released around 1993/1994. They spawned a cult of faithfuls but sadly, they never reached the mass players. But these games never left my hard disk. I still play them whenever I am bored or when there are no new games in the store.

All these years, I have been wondering why no one will take the advances in 3D graphics and make a turn based game set in a 3D world... a world where everything is destructable - walls, doors, windows, trees, trucks, etc; a world where the action takes place in a building with multiple storey - for example, a sniper can hide in the attic of a 3 floor mansion and snipe any intruders.

Heck, with a capable engineer, you can demolish the whole 3-level building to dust, killing all the enemies (and destroying the furnitures at the same time) with the weight of the building on top of them. That is how destructable the terrain is!

I have always wonder when I can get to play a game where the gameplay is not predictable and you can replay the level again and again and again without getting bored; a game where there are many classes you can play: either as a scout like Tom Clancy's John Clark or as a sniper or as a Rambo-esque machine gunner - with each class having a Diablo 2-like skill tree in which the player choose which area the soldier should improve in; and finally a game where you and your friend's experience of the game are totally different and you get to regale your combat story over a glass of beer and hear in amazement how your friend achieve a mission objective in a totally new way that you have never even considered and can't wait to rush back home to try this new tactic.

These are what you get from Silent Storm, a game which sets you and 5 operatives in a World War 2 era. A game where you get to play either as the Allied or the Axis troops and yet not a historically correct World War 2 depiction which creates a new level of intrigue and creativity.

Silent Storm is a true turn based strategy game set in a 3D world in which firing a salvo of ammunition on a wooden door does not "remove" the door from the world but splinter it pieces by pieces, with the sunlight filtering through the holes into the darkened room, killing the poor medic who was hiding behind the door. Your sniper can then come out of cover and fire through these holes in vengeance.

Truly an amazing game which I believe will last in my harddisk for many years to come. The game comes with a map editor and 4 modifications, most notably are Inventories affect action points and Headshot always kill. I can imagine more player made modifications in the years to come - how about a Mafia era modifications? Or a Star Wars mod? Or a AD&D's Dragonlance mod? Or a Samurai mod?

Best TBS Game in Years

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: January 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Any self-respecting fan of X-COM or Jagged Alliance should stop reading reviews on the web right now and just go ahead and buy the game. Trust me, if you like this sort of game, you will love this game in particular.

Why?

Well, the engine, of course. It's fully 3D, with gorgeous amazing multi-level detail. Pretty much everything is destructible.

As I play this game, I am continually impressed by the detail in the environments, and their lack of repetition. Sleepy British villages feel differently than Soviet Weapons Factories or random encounters in the rainy countryside.

There are an overwhelming number of weapons to choose from, with distinguishable sound and shooting characteristics.

The game isn't perfect. The plot is a bit contrived, and there's a sci-fi twist to things. Voice acting is okay, but gets a little old. But none of these distract from the three core elements of this sort of game, however, and those are Gameplay, Gameplay and Gameplay; and Silent Storm has Gameplay to spare.

It's a no-brainer for TBS fans. Still sitting on the fence? Try the demo!

I wanted to like this game, but...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: July 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I didn't as much as I wanted.

Let me start out by saying that I loved XCOM I and III and Jagged Alliance I and II. Initial impressions of Silent Storm were very similar and there were so many things to like. It ran smoothly, the commands were intuitive, the graphics were great, the game engine was great, each squad member had a personality.

I won't repeat all the good things about the game, because you can read those in the other reviews. However I started to notice AI behavior for certain (not all) enemy troops. They would find a hiding place and wait. You could sit for hours and they would not move.

If you knew where they were, you could toss in a grenade, but often they were on the map and you didn't know where. I would send my best scout crawling through the underbrush ahead of my units. The problem was that they were so well hidden, that he could not see them. He only be a few yards away when they spotted him and opened up - instant dead scout.

It is very much the same as those ships in XCom II where the aliens would wait around a corner and you knew that first man to step around it would die. As near as I can tell - there is nothing you can do about it. I don't mind losing men to bad luck or mistakes, but I hate where a game design "forces" you to lose a man to proceed.

Still a good game - just not "great."

Excellent gaming

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: June 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Remember the days when Turn-Based gaming dominated the scene? Civilization, X-COM, etc. Such great games. Soon, though, Warcraft 2 and Command & Conquer came, displacing turn-based strategy and ushering an era of twitch strategy, gaming that rewarded high-paced multitasking instead of deep thought.

Silent Storm is a throwback to the Turn-Based days, and a very welcome one. Many developers came close to returning, but bowed to the market and instead released unsatisfying games that had "real time with pausing." That's no way to release a squad tactics game.

The first thing you notice about S2 is the engine. It's a beautiful engine, though it requires a bit of horsepower. Rag-doll physics are in full effect, and highlighted as the fatal shots are often zoomed in upon.

The gameplay itself is perfect until the balance is ruined near the end, but you'll have had so much fun getting there that it won't bother you too much. There's also a great deal of time to invest in this game, and a great deal of personality to shine within it.

Not that it's all perfect aside from the ending. The 3D camera can be a problem at times as manipulating it becomes a task. Also, the ground is no longer tile based as the case in Jagged Alliance 2 and X-COM, so taking baby steps can sometimes be a hassle. You'll see perfect cover a short ways away but be unable to position yourself behind it.

If you want a chess-like duel of squads, though, this is the only satisfying fix still on the market, and it's highly recommended. This game will use your brain and your cunning, which is an excellent compliment.

Purchase this game.

Flawed gem.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: December 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Ever played any of the Jagged Alliance games? This is quite similar, but set in WWII.

You can play as either Axis or Allies. You're a leader of special operations unit; you can customize the details of your own PC (attributes, face, clothes, etc.), and can pick five other team-members from 25 available - each with their own personality.
The main storyline remains same, but otherwise the campaigns are largely random. You start with only one available mission, but there's usually more than one 'clue' (documents, enemies that can be interrogated, etc.) in most missions, leading to other missions. Go to northern England to investigate a lead about a possible spy, or inventigate an abandoned German outpost, or perhaps commit an assault into a German weapons testing site? Your choice. (The clues vary in each new campaign, so no two campaigns are the same.)

The game is real-timed outside of combat, but in combat it switches to turn-based. You take turns with the enemy, trying to kill them before they kill you; with enough force, anything can be destroyed. I was inside a house, shot a full clip of ammo (71) into a soldier with a machine gun, and it not only killed him, but also blew a huge hole in wall and threw the soldier's body through that hole. Ouch. Full ragdoll physics - objects behave just like you'd expect them to. Bodies topple over railings or down slopes when shot. Grenades bounce off walls, etc.

This game is almost perfect in all aspects (assuming that you like this genre), but there's one major (at least to me) flaw:
At roughly halfway thru the campaigns you encounter Panzerkleins. They're sort of single-person 'battle suits' - slow, and invulnerable to normal weapons. You also get plasma guns and that sort of equipment at that point. The game, which has felt like an authentic WWII simulation until then, suddenly becomes science fiction. Silent Storm would've already been good enough without addition of such cheap gimmicks. ...and once you get Panzerkleins for your own team, all enemies that don't have them become pushovers. Machine guns, grenades, missiles - everything bounces right off from the armor. In short, poorly balanced. I wish that there were an option to turn them off - but they're an internal part of the campaigns.

The turn-based squad tactics game we've all been waiting for

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

A wonderful gem, particularly for fans of classics like the X-COM and Jagged Alliance games. Turn-based gaming in a 3D environment that is fully destructible. Add to that a broad range of interesting weapons and equipment and customizable characters. Load on top of that a really impressive physics engine for the environment, objects and character ragdolling. Heap on that full moddability and several total conversions already in the works, not to mention an official expansion pack already underway.

I understand the complaints about balance later in the game, I can only say that I expect someone out there to do something about it in a mod. The game plays great, even with the imbalance, but I'm sure someone will want to play a game without any Panzerkleins or maybe the reverse, with all PKs. Either way, it's great fun and I don't expect it to lose steam any time soon.

Best new turn-based tactical game out there

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Silent Storm is not an innovative game. It borrows all its elements from its predecessors - X-Com, Fall-Out BOS and the late UFO. What makes S2 such a great game is its level of execution. Putting it simply - it's very well done. It is very easy to learn but still has nice depth of play. The AI is nice if not very creative. The verity of environments and equipment is good. But most important, the graphics and sound are superb. This game offers loads of fun to all you frustrated turn-based fans (I know you're out there) and gives new hope to this flickering genre.
You can choose to play either the allies campaign or the axis campaign. The story line is okay but doesn't really matter. This game is about squad based tactics. So if you loved BOS, this game is definitely for you. You manage a squad of up to 6 soldiers with some level of specialization. The game starts real-time and moves to turn based once combat is initiated. Except for your hero, the rest of the squad is replaceable, although this is somewhat problematic as the pool of recruits does not grow (or improve) as you gain experience.
The environment is beautifully detailed and completely destructible (yeah baby!). This feature alone opens a whole new set of possible tactical solutions to some otherwise tight spots. The excellent sound also helps understand what's going on and anticipate enemy activity. These add up to an extremely immersive gaming experience.
The two elements missing from this game are the economic factor (you get all your equipment for free on top of being able to loot the levels) and base building (notice I'm actually wishing for a WWII style x-com...). Nevertheless, this is still a great game and I can't wait for the release of the sequel - Silent Storm Sentinels (S3)

this game has the works

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: July 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

i thought silant storm was a great game, not only were the graphics amazing but the way it is played is great as well.
You can destroy anything i mean anything if a doors locked shoot it if somethings in you'r way shoot it.

you can also make you'r own characters... their faces,voice,body all and all i gave this game a five out of five for great everything.

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