A worthwhile, if flawed, experience that satisfies more often than it frustrates.
Silent Storm starts out by letting you customize the central character of your team, in other words your avatar. You can choose to be any of the classes available in the game: Scout, Soldier, Medic, Engineer or Grenadier and what side of the conflict to be in. All classes can partake in combat or perform any of the actions available but only those specialized in a certain area may increase their skills in said area substantially. Skills are raised through use during missions along with the opportunity to earn medals for your actions.
The graphics in Silent Storm are decent, while there isn’t much that will impress they are very adequate for an RPG/Strategy hybrid. The missions are varied enough in scenery to keep things from getting monotonous. The sound never stood out much to me, but the effects that are available also feel adequate. The voice acting can at times seem amateurish but the exaggerated accents fit in nicely with the theme. The musical score is the typical military selection that you can expect from any game with such a theme. From pounding drums to solemn melodies, they can all be found among the soundtrack.
The weapons available to you range from guns, knives and explosives to laser weapons available in later missions. This brings me to another aspect of combat, your main source of new armament for you squad will be found during the game’s missions. While you can stock up on some basic weapons shortly after your first mission in Silent Storm, you will find that the more advanced weapons are used by the enemy and can be picked up once they are dead or disarmed. During Sentinels things change a bit as you can purchase an ever increasing variety of weapons as you progress.
The expansion to Silent Storm, Sentinels, is included in this package and worth a look. The game takes place after World War 2 and you are now a mercenary that gets an opportunity to work for a peace-keeping organization called The Sentinels. The combat and much of the gameplay remain the same as in the original, but you will not be able to continue using the same character you developed in the previous storyline.
“Sentinels” does introduce some gameplay changes that make sense within the context of the story. No longer will your only opportunity to increase a skill be on the battlefield, now you can train them up for a price while at headquarters. This is not the only major gameplay change introduced in the expansion as now to add additional members to your squad you will have to hire them at an increased cost for the more experienced sentinels available.
One of the questionable gameplay decisions happens to be the addition of Panzerkleins later on in both storylines. The shift in the action is so abrupt that it changes the mechanics of the game in a big way. From having to think ahead and plan out your assault, as well as having plenty of opportunity to use all of your squad’s varied skills during a mission, it becomes an exercise in brute force. As soon as you obtain Panzerkleins for some of your squad you can blast your way through any level, the only thing keeping you from blasting through the enemy ranks unchallenged are the opposing Panzerkleins. Another questionable decision was that of making most of the terrain destructible. While in theory a very sound choice given the setting and subject matter, in practice it can become a bit of a hindrance if by chance you happen to blow away certain parts of the terrain and cut off access to the rest of the level for your Panzerkleins, which proceeding without in some cases can be near impossible due to enemy Panzerkleins.
As with most games translated to English there are some typos to be found. I would be willing to forgive these minor oversights if I did not feel that the game was already a quality product developed with some scrutiny, something which is not reflected in the sloppy translation. These minor complaints have become pet peeves for some fans of the game but in no way should keep you from giving it a try. As of this writing the “Gold Edition” is a bargain and its contents are well worth the money.