Does it excel Jagged Alliance?
I was fascinated by graphics and the gameplay for highly destructible environment and its high RPG value. Lets breakdown Pros & Cons for a better comparison;
PROS:
+ Characters earn experience points and they highly improve their skills as well as they earn Perks just like in Fallout. JA never allowed perks.
+ You can choose both sides as Axis or Allies, which is a nice feature that most games force you to play with only one side. (usually allies)
+ Character creation screen is a charmer.
+ Using explosives are great fun as everything around is highly destructible, that feature expands your tactical options which jagged alliance never offered. especially when you fire upstairs from downstairs with a heavy MG and watch your foe is shot and fall down in front of you because of destroyed floor. Don't worry if you couldn't shoot the lizard, as there is a new hole on top of you, you can still throw a grenade upstairs. You can even shoot the enemy behind walls, hedges or windows, nothing is an obstacle for you. + The noise enemy creates is displayed as a silhouette, visual representation of his whereabouts helps greatly to the player. JA only informed you of a noise and its direction.
+ Wide variety of weaponry and later Sci-Fi options. That reminds me of Fallout, in which you start with a junk pistol and could grab lasers as the game advances. Not everyone is happy with this feature however, IMO this truly saves the game from monotony. (Especially the first encounter) and anyone remembers mysterious mines in JA?
+ A base with lots of rooms, medical, armory, hangar etc. JA offered no base environment, just an interface screen where you could arrange your squad.
+ Sounds are much better than JA, explosions and weapons sounds are more of a quality and realistic. Music is ok, and characters talk ingame just like JA.
+ It is as addictive as JA.
CONS:
- Perks are nice, but half of them is weak and player choose to go for the same slots most of the time. Not all the perks has the same attraction but costs same points, so they are ignored forever.
- The base could have offered much more options, almost no RPG elements in base. Even there is no one else other than you there. - Weapons & equipments are free, I wish there were some prestige points required to get your hands on them. (Or at least XP points required)
- There is no stamina, thus no need to rest for characters, JA required you the get rested before battles. (until you got a vehicle)
- Unrealistic travel times. in JA you had to walk a long way before desired locations. (until you get a vehicle)
- Poor voice over work, they could have been much better, much charismatic.
- No side quests, forced linear story line, no objective. (Free Arulco..Yeah!)
- Encounters are voluntary, you see them coming so if you don't want them, just get away from them.
- No vehicles are available except panzerkliens (Sorry for Spoiler)
- Long loading times, especially for those civilian turns! Why in earth i can not disable them from the options menu?
- Characters doesn't have personality in SS. In JA, in some cases characters complained from each other and moreover they refused to work and quit. remember Fidel? "Leave me alone.. i busy! ..BANG! "
I have also played sentinels expansion pack, and i say, it is disappointing, and as a conclusion; Silent Storm is definitely better.
For comparison between JA and SS, Both games have similar playing characteristics, same addiction and more or less similar tastes. SS beats JA by means of graphics, sound effects and fully destructible environment as well as the Level Perks. On the other hand, JA has much better story, Non-linear story allows Freedom of play, Characters have personalities which leads to humorous dialogs and tons of equipments like night vision googles and merging items together makes JA much versatile. Money earning necessity makes JA a deeper game with more NPC's to interact increases its RPG value and I also have to mention JA has a higher overall replayability value.
I think the winner here is JA, but that does not mean SS is a bad game. On the contrary, for a different experience but with the same feeling, i do recommend for those who like this genre wheteher you like JA or not.