Author Topic: Silent Storm  (Read 2456 times)

ahluka

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Silent Storm
« on: December 28, 2005, 04:12:22 PM »
Turn based games don't appeal to me that much - and this one didn't do much for me until I'd played it for an hour or so. Had to persist, I was bored shitless.

For the uneducated: SS is a turn-based strategy set in WW2. It looks a bit like Commando's.

Basically you move a squad of 4 men (on the demo at least) around an area with specific objectives to fulfill. It's played in real time until you make contact with an enemy - whoever spotted who get's the first shot(s) in, and it usually ends up being the enemy who see's / hears you. Then you have to wait (usually a painfully long period of time) while the AI takes it's turn; moving to ambush you in some way, but more generally they just take potshots at you. Then it's your turn.

Each member of your team has a number of "action points" (AP) to spend on performing actions during his/her turn. Most of the time each member gets 50-54 AP, which is generally enough to move about 3 paces and take a shot.

Movement is seriously nerfed during combat; moving 2 paces (about a screen-inch) costs around 30 AP which can be annoying sometimes - when you think you've picked an advantageous position but the computer surfaces 4 of his men you didn't know about - when you try to run, it just doesn't happen and your soldier ends up taking it up the rear. Several times.

The game does have its moments though. Everything (and I mean everything) in the given environment is destructable. This is includes walls. There's nothing quite like unloading 100 .30cal rounds through the cinder-block wall of an outhouse. Sure it costs almost all your AP's, but there'll be nothing left of the walls (or indeed their contents) afterwoods.

There aren't many problems with the game as far as the demo shows. It plays well and the graphics are pretty good (think Commonds but with ragdoll models and better texture quality) but there are times when my FX5200 (rotinhellkkkthxbai) screams, usually when part of the environment gets destroyed (particles, oh no) or someone lets rip with an automatic.

8/10

When I get the full version (only £3 on Amazon) and have seen more of the things I have read in various reviews I'll probably go back over some stuff. I bet you can't wait.