This isn't no original X-COM beater, but man, it comes so close.
It's WW II. Your character (if you choose to make your own character) along with maximum of five others are to go through series of different missions. Sadly, mostly the missions are quite simple search&destroy's, so there isn't a whole lot variation on that part. Kinda the same goes for the plot; there is one, but it isn't much to talk about really. The plot pretty much takes you to places around Europe, to either kill or capture a person, retrieve information or something similar. It all still involves killing lot of opponents along the way.
The graphics are pretty much the best I've come accross in turn based squad-based strategy game. It's fully 3D with pretty good quality, too. You can see most of the gear and stuff on your characters, and it's possibly for example to identify the weapon your opponents and your own guys are holding. This is a good thing, considering that you may want to kill the guy with the MG-42 first, instead of wasting your ammo and turn for the guy who's holding MP40 (there's quite bit of difference between those two, afterall). Not only that, but I find it quite pleasing to see what my guys are wearing and using.
There's couple reasonably unique things in SS. They're not new in general, but rarely seen in this kind of games. First of all, there's a simple ragdoll animation when the person dies, meaning that if you shoot in the head, they will fall backwards etc. Physics aren't great, but they work good enough for the add of realism. It's actually quite fun to see a guy fall down from a roof or balcony when he gets "sniped out". Far more interesting than just...dying where he stands, at least.
Another thing that kind of stands out in it's benefit, is the almost fully destructible enviroment. Pretty much everything, besides the ground itself, can be destroyed with enough power. Some SMG's are powerfull enough to shoot through walls and doors, while most machine guns go through like butter. You know that there's a guy upstairs, but you can't get there without getting shot and possibly killed? Not a real problem - just shoot a series of shots to the spot he's known to be in, and you might actually kill him (or the floor just breaks a whole for you). Same thing, but the guy is one level lower than you? Toss a grenade and most likely you got yourself a hole. It's actually nice that with enough power in your explosive, you can bring down most of the two-storied house, if it doesn't go down all at once. This, however, may lead to situation where your comp signs off the deal. More about this bit later.
As I like to meddle with weaponry and other gear, SS is like...well I wouldn't say "heaven", but something close to that idea. More weaponry comes available as you play, along with new grenades, medical equipment, etc. And gladly there isn't usually The Best Weapon that suits for everyone, but you have to choose between silentness and power. A scout is more usefull if he has silenced SMG. A sniper, after couple of levels gained and certain skills acquired, is one-shot deadly even with the silenced rifle. But on the other hand, a soldier with his machine gun is always handy in most of the situations.
One new (at least to me) thing that SS also presents, is the actual sniping. You get to spend turns on aiming if you wish, just waiting for the perfect moment or whatever you like, and not just shoot once every turn (you can still do that, but most likely with less accuracy). This actually puts 'sniping' into 'sniping' in this kind of games. Small yet excellent feature, which I'd like to see in many games of this type in the future.
Sounds and music do their jobs, but aren't excellent. Music gets repetetive quite quickly, but hasn't been annoying to myself yet. The firing noises of weapons are distinctive, so you won't hear just one sound of shooting for SMG's, one for pistols and so forth, but most guns have their more or less unique sound. Nothing great, but could be far worse.
I personally found game mechanics work for me just fine when I played. That is, when they worked. There has been issues with certain types of hardware (cannot remember with what, but most likely a peak to the forums of the game will reveal more information) that wouldn't let the game run for more than couple of minutes tops. Also some massive explosions have also crashed the game for some people, but I personally haven't experienced this. I still get some hitches when a big apartment explodes, though, but that only slows it down for a bit so the game can calculate the physique's. A sacrifice I can make for the benefit of the game, since the physique's are excellent for the genre.
Only thing that kind of ruined the game for me, were the Panzerklein's. Bit after halfway through, these mech-like prototypes come to the game, and they are quite hard to kill, to be honest. But, with patience and some skill those get doable, but I never grew to like'em, not even when I got some of those for myself to use. It could have been fun to have like, one PK for yourself and occasionally meet one or two of'em against you, but getting like five at once in one mission...it can get bit tricky, even if you'd killed everyone else already. Nevertheless, I played through the game, but I still don't like'em. Thankfully, Silent Storm : Sentinels has tweaked'em a bit to be less-powerfully armored but with equally destructive weaponry as before.
Especially these days, when less-mainstream and innovative games come to be published, Silent Storm is great addition to the genre. It isn't without it's flaws, but it's so far the best turn-based squad-based tactical strategy game in 21st Century. I just wish similar games, like SS : Hammer & Sickle, will prevail and make the genre even better. But before that happens, I shall spend one more turn aiming to the head of the officer across the street.