Silent Storm weighed in the balance at GameSpot and not found wanting
Silent Storm weighed in the balance at GameSpot and not found wanting
Review - posted by Spazmo on Sat 31 January 2004, 15:41:34
Tags: Nival Interactive; Silent StormGamespot PC have their review of Silent Storm up. The tactical WWII CRPG scores 8.2 out of 10 for it's manyfold TB goodness.
The game seamlessly switches between real-time and turn-based modes depending on whether or not your characters are engaged in battle. All combat is turn-based, and the real-time mode is conveniently there for when no opposition is present. The game's pacing would be excellent were it not for significantly long AI phases both for enemies and any computer-controlled allied characters in the area. Turn-based games, by their nature, are best suited for patient players, but Silent Storm definitely would have had a better feel to it if its turns didn't take so long to resolve. It can be pretty frustrating when your main character gets smoked right at the end of an enemy phase, thus forcing you to reload, retry that part again, and hope the enemy misses the next time around. Partly because of the length of the AI turns, and also because many of the maps are quite big and feature multistory buildings that must be carefully explored, individual missions in Silent Storm can easily last a couple of hours.
There are some grave misconceptions about TB gameplay that need to be dispelled. Someone ought to produce a sort of after school special kind of deal where the children are told that TB is only slow and tedious if the design is badly done, just like RT.
The game seamlessly switches between real-time and turn-based modes depending on whether or not your characters are engaged in battle. All combat is turn-based, and the real-time mode is conveniently there for when no opposition is present. The game's pacing would be excellent were it not for significantly long AI phases both for enemies and any computer-controlled allied characters in the area. Turn-based games, by their nature, are best suited for patient players, but Silent Storm definitely would have had a better feel to it if its turns didn't take so long to resolve. It can be pretty frustrating when your main character gets smoked right at the end of an enemy phase, thus forcing you to reload, retry that part again, and hope the enemy misses the next time around. Partly because of the length of the AI turns, and also because many of the maps are quite big and feature multistory buildings that must be carefully explored, individual missions in Silent Storm can easily last a couple of hours.
There are some grave misconceptions about TB gameplay that need to be dispelled. Someone ought to produce a sort of after school special kind of deal where the children are told that TB is only slow and tedious if the design is badly done, just like RT.
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