from the first moment looks good, and plays good. the only problem is difficulty and weapon inaccuracy.
plus there is also make-a-face editor [even though you usually make ugly chars no matter how hard you try.]
so only char creation is quite healthy. after you make your own character, your first mission starts. operation to which you were assigned didnt went quite well, so you must take care of things yourself. this mission works as an in depth training mission, in case you didnt played training from menu. then after you finish the mission, you are granted the right to go anywhere. the freedom is really good, and you can do whatever misson you accomplished again for experience, or if you forgot something [like weapon] in that stage.
that brings me to leveling system which while in depth and with great skill tree, most of the skills are pretty useless. there arent really nearly any benefits from gaining level, as it is enough to train skills like shooting or engineering. [which of course are quite rewarding.] as of items, there are extremely high amounts of provisions to use on battlefield. weapons are plentiful, though after time, you realise you just need medic, engineer and rest either snipers or machine gunners. its really sad that with that big array of weapons, you will use like 3-4 types. this is mainly due to accuracy issues, where game is very buggy. a soldier with shooting of 70 [which is actually quite high ammount] will easily miss at 1 meter. now this is ridiculous, more because while with handguns that are actually easy to use at 50 meters [quite long range for such maps] you will miss even at point blank range sometimes. and the extreme amount of accuracy of machine guns make it much worse.
another thing wrong in this game is absolutely over-the-edge amount of enemies. you will face at least 2 times more enemies that is your maximum roster for most of the time, and their accuracy is sometimes daunting.
even with all this, silent storm is actually a good game. with is vast array of missions, variety of items and many tactical options like to take cover, movement options, shooting style options add high tactical value to this game.
pros: good graphics and physics [for 2004 game]
high tactical value
lots of items
a looong game [rarely seen today where long game has 20 hours]
missions have lots of variety
cons weapons accuracy suck, especially handguns.
music is a bit repetitive
quite hard
enemies are sometime too much and a bit too accurate.
AI has sometimes suicidal acting like throwing heavy grenade 5 feet far where you stand [which is unfair, because you have hard time surviving whereas they don't have to.
final verdict 8/10, fans of fallout and turn based games in general will have plenty of fun for long time even though its sometimes frustrating.