Silent Storm is very close the chess of turned-based strategy games.
The premise of Silent Storm is based on an alternate history of WW2. Set in 1943 it's a dismal time for Europe (and the rest of the world). The war has been dragged on in it's forth year; the Nazi's not showing any signs of giving up nor the allies gaining much advantage. On the 'game front' scientists from both camps have either been kidnapped or simply 'disposed' off. Scientists are after all the backbone to any war as the old saying goes 'The pen is mightier than the Sword'; so a small band of soldiers have been assembled to look into this and you are their leader.
Considering this is a hybrid RPG/Turn-based strategy, you can select a pre-rolled character or customise your own. There are six types of soldiers to choose from being the soldier, grenadier, scout, medic, sniper and engineer yet better still you can play either the allies or the axis as there are no disadvantages in playing any side under three levels of difficulty. Just a note as well; the allies does not consist of the All-American team as there is even an Australian solider for hire and naturally I took him!
Considering it's a strategy game determines the many choices you make and it's these choices that this game really glow. The story is non-linear hence during the course of your missions new locations will crop up throughout Europe. Of course the more clues you have discovered the more 'quests' you will have in your disposal as there is no real need to follow a certain path. That said if you locate another two locations (on the map marked as a question mark) choose what's suitable for you; and we all love choices.
The entire layout of the game is very simple to navigate. You don't have to spend countless hours trying to work out what all the silly icons represent. All icons are at a decent size with recognisable symbols and all have logical shortcuts for those keyboard fanatics (e.g. 'i' for inventory, 'r' for reload). It also sports great mouse/zooming control so you can plan your attack with extreme precision.
I have never seen so much graphical attention to detail in any game like this. All the buildings, pastures, fences, cars, furniture and everything else are placed in a logical order. You can even see nice wall-hangings; old-fashioned typewriters and even a coat hanger with...yes a hat on it. Very nice. This and the wonderful destroy-everything-you-can-see engine makes this game so realistic that you can almost feel it's the 1940s. On top that that, all the character's animations are designed well. That said if you were shot in the leg and if you can zoom in close enough, there will be blood stain on the legs; get shot in the head then there's blood splattered around the neck.
Speaking of this engine, this game also promotes destructible environs and rag-doll effects. Again, as realistic as the graphical engine mentioned above, all the environs can be 'altered' in some way. Hear an enemy underneath you? Blow a hole through the floorboards; need to penetrate the brick fortification? Send in the grenadier and blow it through. Collapse a section of a building? Send in the engineer and plant dynamites. And the list goes on and on. Flexibility is the key to success!
What compliments the above are the sounds. From squeaky floorboards to birds chirping to the different sounds of gunfire (and lasers - yes you have read correctly) again immerses you into the game. The background soundtrack presents well to match the mood of the environs you are in so the music doesn't seem to out-of-place for a moment. However I wish there were more tracks to play from.
Considering all of the above, you may think it's the perfect game. Its strengths can also be its weakness. The locations if not 'followed' correctly can confuse the story. At times I felt a little lost in what's happening however considering the realism of this game I felt that this is life. You are not going to get everything in a logical order. Also considering the environs are destructible be very careful what has been blown otherwise that important clue that the next mission depends on maybe just in that very same room. The RPG element, even though presents well with level enhancements the skill-trees is nothing more than a joke. At first glance you may think the skills follow a logical pattern by simply following the arrows down however this is not the case. There are pre-requisites that not mentioned at all so many-a-times you just want to click on any skill just for the sake of it. Lastly considering it's turned-based and this goes especially at the hard and impossible difficulty level, the combat can take literally forever and will not switch to real-time unless that all 'seen' enemies are disposed off.
Silent Storm is after all a turned-based strategy game. Some considered to be too slow however for me it's ideal. I like to sit down and pretty much plan all my movements and options before executing them unlike some RTS games where it's mostly about clicking the right icons at the right time for maximum effect. If you can relate to what I have said boot it up and enjoy; great physics, great graphics and a great story. To those impatient ones, stay way clear of it. Try playing chess first.