With the improvements made, it feels more like the next chapter of the Silent Storm chronicles than an expansion pack.
Graphics: 8
Sounds: 8
Value: 9
Tilt: 8
Actual score: 8.2
Back in 2003, Jowood Productions released Silent Storm which had some considerable success with players and critics alike as it reminded players about the cult classic Jagged Alliance infused with realistic physics and fully destructible environs. Considering though Silent Storm still had its shortfalls, the expansion pack Silent Storm: Sentinels filled this gap and looking in hindsight, it really feels like another chapter in the Silent Storm saga than just an expansion pack.
Silent Storm: Sentinels takes place in 1946 where World War 2 is now a thing of the past yet the military is still probing German ruins for any form of technology that was left behind as back in 1943 (where Silent Storm took place) a ‘third’ group called ‘Thor’s Hammer’ invented merc-like technology that could easily change the outcome of the war as we know it. Thor’s Hammer is now destroyed but the remanence still lurks within Germany’s ruins and particularly Poland where the vast majority of German testing took place and this is where the adventure begins.
Upon booting up Sentinels for the first time, the axis/allies campaigns are gone and in replacement four characters to choose from various countries. Obviously this displays a true reflection on actual world events as the Third Reich no longer exists. In addition to this, Sentinels still maintains the three difficulty levels being normal, hard and impossible with the same limitations on these levels (e.g. you cannot save during combat on hard and impossible and so forth). However the difficulty levels can be customised to your liking so you can bump up/down the AI levels, increase/decrease enemy’s action points and so forth. Take in mind though that Sentinels is more often than not harder than Silent Storm on the same difficulty level. I played Sentinels on the 2.5 difficulty rating and to get an idea what this means, in comparison 0.5 equates to the default normal level, 0.75 hard and 1.0 impossible. As you can imagine I had a rancid of a time during the early parts of the game.
Like any good expansion packs, Sentinels main improvements derives from the game play. Economics now play an important part as you’ll be playing a mercenary (gun for hire) instead of enrolling for the military and building a squad naturally involves parting out cash. This means it’s important to collect the spoils from the skirmishes hence you can sell them back at base. Also a good source of income is from accepting missions and as expected the harder the mission, the higher the prize money.
During the game play, weapons now have a durability factor meaning that if used often will have a chance to jam up or worse break on you yet a good engineering skill can resolve this issue or get the base to do this for you (for a price of course) but regardless what avenue you take the maximum durability will decrease over time. Enemy icons have improved therefore the player now can see whether the enemy is unaware, looking for enemies, fighting or demoralised. Sniping has increased viewing distance however angle-of-vision decreased; action points costs now includes moving items into/from the inventory and general movement (e.g. crouch, sprint etc) involves higher AP costs than it used to in the original game. When leaving the area, an additional screen will display indicating spoils left on the battlefield and end-of-mission statistics showing the performance of each character (e.g. amount of kills, hits received, healing performed etc). Some of the more obvious changes made are a different storyline (post war), more weapons and more ‘experimental’ adversaries – yes this means the panzerkleins are back but with a twist.
Graphically and sound wise, the game is essentially the same however this is certainly not an issue as the engine that fuelled Silent Storm is truly remarkable filled with realistic physics and totally destructible environs. So you can still shoot through walls (if the weapon penetration score is high enough), watch your adversary fling through the window if scored a massive hit or admiring your masterwork when collapsing an entire building. There are additional tunes to listen to and undoubtedly add immersion to the game play as it’s professionally constructed yet the voice acting again a little on the poorer side but not off-putting.
With all of these elements in mind, Sentinels is not your typical expansion pack when it comes to value. A player can tackle each mission anyway they prefer (e.g. stealth, assault etc) and considering its non-linear approach and customisable difficulty an average player can take approx ten to twenty hours to complete. It took me though twenty eight hours as I have a habit to complete every single mission including the ‘secret’ ones (there’s four in total) so you really cannot argue about playing time. Replayability also will be high as you can construct different tactics or select different missions as it’s impossible to complete all of them in the first round (unless you reload the point where you need to make that decision).
Silent Storm: Sentinels is more than just an expansion pack with a few goodies here and there. Jowood had placed considerable time making Sentinels an enhanced version of Silent Storm by adding on worth-while improvements instead of just adding a few more weapons and critters. Actually the entire expansion pack feels more like the next chronicle than just an expansion pack. That said if you enjoyed Silent Storm and wanting more with realistic challenges (e.g. cash, jammed weaponry etc) then Sentinels is your calling.