8.8

Silent Storm

Silent Storm developed by Nival Interactive is a flawed but fun game. It is a 3D turn-based tactical combat RPG which is set during WWII. One of the interesting features is that you can play either side in this great war as the Allied forces such as the United States or the Axis powers which includes Germany. Each side has its own part to play in the 24 campaign scenarios that you will come across. Similar in style to the Jagged Alliance games from years ago, Silent Storm brings its own excellent qualities, with abetter graphics engine and many diverse options for playing.

Features

Flexible mission structure

• Two independent campaigns for Allied forces or the German Axis throughout Europe in 1943
• 24 non-linear day and night missions; prepare for the decisive combat in numberless randomly generated missions of any style and difficulty
• each mission has multiple paths to completion: attack an enemy base head-on or use stealth and guile to sneak undetected behind your foes' backs
• three difficulty levels to satisfy both veterans and rookies
• gripping plot unites both campaigns

• blow a depot wall to smash the enemies behind it; place a sniper on the roof to remove a sentry with a single shot; use your sneaking skills to silently backstab the enemy officer; distract the guards by exploding the gates...
• realistic location-based damage system; aim at body parts
• build up your squad carefully for each mission: each character gives you different tactical options
• equip your squad with over 75 authentic WWII weapons ranging from commando daggers to hand-held rocket launchers including experimental and rare models; discover hidden enemy cache in the mission to get even more powerful gear
• experience radically new gameplay with devious, unique weapons known only by archives

• over 40 male and female mercenaries of various nationalities available in two campaigns, each has its unique personality, background, and dialog lines
• 6 different professions: scout, sniper, soldier, grenadier, medic, and engineer
• main character generation: choose his personality and profession, adjust basic properties and skills, customize his face and get movie-quality lip-synch and facial animation thanks to LifeMode technology
• 9 skills available to any character regardless of profession
• skills develop while being used, with different speed for each profession
• over 50 additional abilities: choose new abilities with each new experience level

• true 3D, fully interactive in-game world; battles on the open ground and inside buildings, including multi-storey houses and dungeons
• fully deformable geometry, realistic object destruction: if you blow up part of a lower storey, the upper ones will collapse depending on the specific construction design
• real bullet tracing, collision detection according to properties of penetrated materials and all obstacles on the way: a bullet will ricochet from a concrete wall but go through a wooden door and damage the character standing close enough behind it
• realistic trajectories, speed and piercing performance of different types of bullets, grenades, missiles…
• real-time "chain reactions": a random shot fired at an ammunition depot can cause fatal consequences
• skeletal animation with skinning, inverse kinematics, advanced animation blending; animation system fully interacts with physics system: character movements perfectly fit terrain and environmental objects
• per pixel depth based shadows, real-time highlights with variable specular power and gloss maps for realistic gloss on uneven metal surfaces, environmental mapping for realistic reflections on glass
• 3D sound with Dolby Surround 5.1 support: tell shooting enemy location by ear

• create any kind of custom mods of the game from a single mission map to a full-scale campaign in multi-functional 3D map-editor
• construct your own buildings, change terrain, textures, and basic properties of any in-game objects, characters, and weapons, adjust interface and AI, add your own footage movies
• add your favourite locations to the random map generator
• add new custom 3D characters, objects, and textures (requires appropriate software and skills)

Those new to playing these types of games will enjoy the included helpful tutorial as it allows you to learn the basic functions of movement, using weapons, and engaging the enemy in combat. Once you begin playing the game you will be able to choose between six different professions: medic, grenadier, soldier, sniper, scout and engineer.

Many RPG elements come from the way your characters can gain experience in combat and be able to learn from as many as 50 different abilities. In many scenarios your tactical skills will come into play as you must select the best team for the job and be able to employ the unique skills of each of the different members on your team.

Some scenarios will have you retrieving valuable information from the enemy, invading an enemy base, to locating a vital character and other similar objectives that reflect possible missions that your team would have gone through during WWII.

The graphics engine does a fine job in creating many of the varied areas you will come across, such as outdoor areas you must traverse to enemy bases you must invade. I also enjoyed the character animations such as when an enemy dies in combat. I also liked how virtually everything is destructible within each of the environments you travel across.

One of the major complaints I have against this game is the camera used for viewing the game world. While not the worse camera used in a game, I felt I was often fighting more with it than the enemies in the game. You do get used to the way it functions in the game but more work could have been put into it.

Often you will be looking down upon an area when the game suddenly changes the view that you were using. I also thought the story could have been much better. I did not feel as if many elements came together to tell a compelling story set during WWII.

Encore Software did well in publishing Nival Interactive’s Silent Storm. It brings back many of the addictive qualities that made the Jagged Alliance games so much fun to play with its own special playing style.

While lacking a great storyline and a camera in the game that could have been so much better, these are things that can be easily overlooked when you consider all the fun gameplay options available to you. Silent Storm is indeed a good effort from Nival Interactive and a 3D tactical turn-based RPG with gameplay that many will find quite enjoyable!