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Most gamers would agree, there really hasn’t been a decent turn based tactical shooter since the likes of Fallout, or rather the last Jagged Alliance installment, and I’m sure, if you’re a fan of this genre, Nival’s Silent Storm will not disappoint.
However, many gamers today may find Silent Storm, and its genre, completely alien to them, especially given that such a title has not reached high acclaim for many years (Not like we've seen many of them around anyway. - Editor), and that a large percentage of gamers have yet to wean themselves of action titles such as Counter-Strike or Battlefield 1942.
Surely a game like Silent Storm will have great difficulties facing off against giants such as those aforementioned, but can it, at least, stand on it’s own two feet? If given a chance, I’d say it sure as hell can, and it may even end up being responsible for a resurgence of a once extremely popular genre..
Gameplay:
At its core, Silent Storm is an alloy of several winning formulas, combining quasi RPG elements with the careful planning necessary for tactical combat and the thrilling element brought forth by squad based gunplay. These, at least, are all integrated flawlessly, and you can look forward to more than your fair share of gunfights and character development. However, what’s going to strike most gamers hard, is Silent Storm’s unique take on the classic turn based system.
Rather than giving a single turn to move and execute actions, Nival takes it a step further, using an action point (AP) system which effectively limits the amount as well as the type of action you can make in a single turn. For example, my Machine Gunner “Boz,” wishes to dash across an open court yard, go prone, and unload a vicious burst from his MG42. Unfortunately, Boz only has 61 action points, and since his run expended thirty, and going prone expended 12, he is unable to fire a burst significant enough to damage much of anything.
Additionally, had an enemy soldier not expended his action points, and had seen Boz as he dashed across the courtyard, he’d have a certain chance to “Interrupt” me, that is, he’d be able to pause my action, in order to take a few pot shots himself.
Though it’ll take about a mission or two to adapt to this system, once you do, I think you’ll find a large amount of enjoyment in the careful calculation required to efficiently manage your APs, as it gives not only the standard shooter adrenalin rush, but also lends to great mental satisfaction at a successfully executed strategy.
Another thing Nival brings to the table lies within its superb execution of a true combat environment. In Silent Storm, you’ll often find your soldiers “hearing” the enemy before they actually see them, and a good percentage of the time you’ll be firing on the noise in order to save a risky confrontation later. Of course, you’ve now probably assumed, if you can fire on something the character doesn’t see, then you certainly must be able to fire through walls, ceilings, floors, hedges, or virtually any barrier that blocks sight, and you’d be correct in this assumption.
And not only can you fire through barriers; you can break them, shatter them, and generally maim them in any way you see fit. Can’t see any enemy on the second story? Blast a hole through the fricken ceiling, knock him off his feat, and send him tumbling to the floor below. So often have I longed this level of realism in a shooter, I was almost saddened to see it appear best in a game not of the genera.
Not all of Silent Storm is perfect however, and you’ll begin to see a large problem when you first press the “End Turn” button, in fact, you’ll have a good portion of time to notice this problem, as it engulfs little more than half the game...
You’ll spend a good couple of minutes every turn just waiting for the enemy to think and execute its actions, and this doubles when you throw computer controlled allies into the mix. What’s worse, in large battles, or in positions of little action, you’ll spend a good fifteen minutes utterly bored, twiddling your thumbs as you direct your men to their spots of attack.
Fortunately, Nival has included an option to switch off turn based mode until you actually engage enemy presence, and while this helps with the pre-battle boredom, you’re still faced waiting for a rather long enemy turn every time you’re set.
These problems, though not necessarily game stopping, make Silent Storm virtually impossible to play in short sessions, and you’ll often find yourself chucking three hours into the thing only to complete three missions. Not something that’s really considered bad these days, especially when a game like Max Payne takes a day to complete, and so far, I’ve played every day for the past four days, and am now just nearing the end of the allied campaign.
Thankfully, you’ve got a lot of other things play with as you advance through the campaign, and I think you’ll find the weapon selection as well as the RPG elements a fun and rewarding diversion. Often times I find myself just browsing through my base’s truly massive armory, comparing weapon stats, functions, and generally trying to better the equipment I’ve carefully chosen for each of my team members. Not only that, but I have a great deal of fun crafting my characters to suit not only my current needs, but also to suit the designs I have for them in the future. This is done specifically through a tree of “perks,” which essentially act as skill boosters. For example, perhaps I’d want my Sniper to posses the skill of “Night Hunt” so she’d be able to lay down the same type of demoralizing fire she lays down in the day, at night. Or perhaps I’d opt out for “Increased Chance of Critical,” which would allow her to have an increased chance at scoring a nasty critical hit. Of course, I’d have to make sure she was at a sufficient level and has chosen branches of the perk tree that lead up to those selections, or otherwise, I may be carrying her in a completely different direction.
The diversity of the weapon selection as well as the perk system allows for your team to become extremely varied over time, so you won’t just be stuck with a single man doing everything, though it’s not restricted enough to force characters into performing certain roles. I could always drop my medic, for example, if the next mission is a gigantic firefight, and hire on another machine gunner, as most of my men posses enough medical knowledge to heal themselves though my medic may do it quicker and more efficiently. The same is true with all professions, and by the end of your campaign, you’ll probably find your team adapted to suit you, rather than locked into a game set position. These options really help you develop a bond with your team, and I often find myself going out of my way to save one of them, though it may cost me a large amount.
Of course, you wouldn’t be able to properly bond with your team if they didn’t have personalities and voices of their own would you?
Sound:
That’s another area where Silent Storm performs admirably, the sound design. Though it may not be the best I’ve ever heard, it’s still fairly good, and I rarely found myself criticizing any of the sound effects. Weapons sound like they should, and though I’m no firearms expert, I can say with some certainty that most of them are very close to their real life counterparts. Also, unlike some other games, none sound tinny or underpowered, and all report as you’d expect them to, especially if you were watching the battle from an overhead view.
What does get on my nerves however, are the character responses and the general lack of a powerful musical score. Granted, both the voice acting and existing music is done very professionally, however, I feel there is simply not enough variation in either of the two to lend to truly great enjoyment. You can, though, expect all members of your team to speak with their native accent, use their native tongue occasionally; however, in a few missions you’ll become very annoyed with their repetitive chatter. To give Nival credit here, they did have a completely different set of voice actions for somewhere near 30-40 characters, and there is an option to turn off either their response sounds or response subtitles should they become to annoying. However, one thing not forgiven, at least by me, is the lack of a truly great musical score, something I feel would have been the proverbial icing on the cake for Silent Storm, driving it to some good place in the hall of great games. Granted once again, the musical score isn’t bad, it’s just, under whelming, delivering quiet subdued tones when a powerful horn driven track would have been not only more appropriate, but also more fitting with the mood of the game.
Graphics:
Graphically however, the mood is set very well, not stylistically, but done in a way you’d never expect from a game of this genera. Bump mapping, full skeletal animation, anti-aliasing, real-time shadowing, all things you’d anticipate seeing in a big budget shooter, you see in Silent Storm, and the use of this new technology is wonderful. Rain pours down onto the city streets making them dark and wet, lamp lights flood the area surrounding them with dim yellow light, and occasionally, fallen Nazi’s topple, arms flailing, from the room they had chosen to snipe from. It’s simply marvelous, and it’s truly something to see. Not only that, but combine those effects with the terrain deformation system, and you’ve got something awe inspiring, I mean, it’s just so damned fun to bust down walls, windows, doors, pillars, or anything else that stands in the way between you and your enemy. Had a shooter executed terrain deformation this well, I’m sure it’d land itself somewhere in the most revolutionary games of all time.
Expect needing a fairly hefty system to run the highest effects, but don’t fret if you’ve something a bit older, because the graphical options are very scalable, and don’t look like utter crap when you turn them down a few notches. Also, a third party graphical configuration tool has been developed, allowing you to shut off anything you can’t specifically shut off in game, in case you find the adjustments not to your liking.
Conclusion:
As I’d said, at its core, Silent Storm is an alloy of several winning gaming formulas, combing great graphics, wonderful sound, and deep, engrossing game play. And though it may not appeal right away to those of short attention spans, given a chance, you’ll find yourself being sucked into it, enjoying it to its fullest extent. However, it is not easy, and you will find yourself saving or repeating actions quite often, but Silent Storm never becomes more tedious than a difficult shooter, reveling itself a forgiving, rewarding, and most importantly fun, experience.
Pros: Deep storyline, massive weapon selection, amazing perk system, great graphical quality, wonderful sound and music.
Cons: Long turn times, long load times, difficult at times, essentially a game requiring some patience (and patience is a virtue, ain't it? - Editor).
