The rise, and fall, of Silent Storm...

[Barghest]

After being seriously disappointed by Oblivious, I thought I would take a risk and have a go at Hammer & Sickle. I know it had some negative reviews, but surely the developers couldn't have made it any worse then Silent Storm: Sentinels?

Hell, yes.

I thought SS:S was serious unbalanced, and way too difficult. This was even frigging worse! I can see why it got so may negative reviews. Why are the developers happy to piss on the corpse of SS? The series had potential!

Where have all the good PC games gone?

 

[kingcomrade]

o noes prepare for teh fanboi assault!!

Everyone knows if you don't like a game that the Codex has deemed super awesome mega cool, it's just because you aren't good enough for the game, not the other way around.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I don't know; it seems many people complained mostly because unlike Silent Storm, Hammer and Sickle was harder, as well as not being as clear regarding its objectives. By comparison, I didn't hear many people talk about it's multiple approach to problems and branching storyline.

Then again, I have yet to play both Hammer and Sickle and Sentinels, so I cannot comment much more than what I've gleamed from demos and what I've read in a couple of reviews.

 

[spacemoose]

Its very simple - not enough people buy pc single player games. So why would a publisher want to finance a game no one is going to buy.

As to why this happens, my personal belief is that a large portion of people who like pc single player games are worthless fucking pirates, who don't pay for a game they enjoy and then expect more of them to be made.

See, for multiplayer games, you need an account key, so piracy is impossible in that case, and console players can't be bothered to go through the trouble of buying hardware that will burn console cds. Single player pc though - why fucking pay if you can get it for free? Well you're reaping what you sow right about now.

 

[OverrideB1]

Its very simple - not enough people buy pc single player games. So why would a publisher want to finance a game no one is going to buy.

As to why this happens, my personal belief is that a large portion of people who like pc single player games are worthless fucking pirates, who don't pay for a game they enjoy and then expect more of them to be made.

See, for multiplayer games, you need an account key, so piracy is impossible in that case, and console players can't be bothered to go through the trouble of buying hardware that will burn console cds. Single player pc though - why fucking pay if you can get it for free? Well you're reaping what you sow right about now.

Yeah, well fuck you and the horse you rode in on.

Why you are impervious to the hype of gaming companies when it comes to puffing their latest game, yet fall for the hype of "oh no, we're loosing billions through piracy" that record companies, games manufacturers, and film companies routinely trot out I'll never understand.

You think that the estimated cost of pirated games (or DVDs, or CDs) isn't built into the price you pay when you buy over the counter?

 

[spacemoose]

Goddamn you are thick. Piracy exists and it affects which games get financed. When I was in high school (target fucking market), everyone I knew pirated games, and I did too. So don't tell me its a minor effect.

Publishers decide what to finance based on previous profits. If everyone who stole a copy of a game bought one instead, the likelyhood of a sequel or a similar game getting funding would obviously be much greater. As it is though, there are much safer and profitable places to put your money - consoles. You know people will actually have to pay money for your product there.

So if you enjoyed single player pc games while pirating them, you're getting exactly what you deserve - less and less games you like.

 

[OverrideB1]

Goddamn you are thick. Piracy exists and it affects which games get financed. When I was in high school (target fucking market), everyone I knew pirated games, and I did too. So don't tell me its a minor effect.

Publishers decide what to finance based on previous profits. If everyone who stole a copy of a game bought one instead, the likelyhood of a sequel or a similar game getting funding would obviously be much greater. As it is though, there are much safer and profitable places to put your money - consoles. You know people will actually have to pay money for your product there.

So if you enjoyed single player pc games while pirating them, you're getting exactly what you deserve - less and less games you like.

Whoever said I pirated games? Never have, never will. Same goes for DVDs and CDs. I also never said that it wasn't a contributing factor.

But you are being incredibly niave if you don't understand that the potential loss for pirated games (or any other media) is reflected in the RRP of the legally purchased product. That's part and parcel of the reason games, CDs, and DVDs cost so much -- because the estimated loss due to piracy is factored into the retail price. And you can bet they aren't estimating that loss at a small figure either.

Vicious circle time: As the cost of stuff goes up, the greater the temptation for piracy. The more piracy, the higher the the price spirals.

 

[spacemoose]

I never said that you in particular pirate, but a ton of people on this forum claim to, and in my experience lots of people do.

It does not matter if the costs of piracy are compensated for with increased prices - if you haven't noticed console games cost more than pc titles across the board.

Think from the point of the publisher - why increase the price of a pc game to barely cover your costs of production (because it won't sell enough units due to piracy and other reasons). When you can instead sell a more expensive(!) console game that no one will steal, for much greater profits.

Piracy is a major reason why publishers are going into the console and mmog market and leaving the single player pc.

 

[kingcomrade]

Well, consoles have to deal with sanctioned and temporary "piracy." I don't own many games for my PSX or PS2, I mostly rent.

 

[Zomg]

Not to mention the console secondary market. People buy used copies of Madden for a five dollar discount at Gamestop, then sell it back for five bucks, and then Gamestop repeats the process until the game is four years old. One sale for EA, six sales for Gamestop with no developer or retailer skim.

Edit - This is actually a big thing that might be coming up for the industry; Gamestop's stock doubled in value over the past year, mostly on the strength of the used game racket. I'm sure EA and the lesser big publishers are deadly afraid that Best Buy or (nightmare of nightmares) Walmart might absorb the used game trade, which would certainly take a big wet bite out of their new game sales (since those companies would almost certainly ratchet up the speed of price drops and take lower margins on their rebuy-resales in favor of volume).

 

[bryce777]

"Goddamn you are thick. Piracy exists and it affects which games get financed. When I was in high school (target fucking market), everyone I knew pirated games, and I did too. So don't tell me its a minor effect."

Yeah, those are the people who pirate shit.

The problem is that nowadays instead of marketing to the people who PAY for games, they market to the crowd that PIRATES them - the lowest common denominator.

 

[Drakron]

Rentals are what made console games attractive since no matter how shitty a game was there would always be a assured number of sales for the rental market.

It seens the rentals have taken quite a hit and no longer buy many copies, the whole market is lowering sales because of that, the fact the market was flooded by substandart titles did not helped either.

The piracy is nothing but a excuse to justify a game poor sales, the head developer rather say "its those damn pirates" that "it did not sell because it shipped with too many bugs and only offers 8 hours gameplay".

 

[Naked_Lunch]

I thought SS:S was serious unbalanced, and way too difficult. This was even frigging worse! I can see why it got so may negative reviews. Why are the developers happy to piss on the corpse of SS? The series had potential!

You can customize the difficulty, y'know. You can make the game as easy as shit if you'd like. I personally never found the game that difficult and I enjoyed it very, very much but eh, to each his own.

I don't know; it seems many people complained mostly because unlike Silent Storm, Hammer and Sickle was harder, as well as not being as clear regarding its objectives. By comparison, I didn't hear many people talk about it's multiple approach to problems and branching storyline.

Are you talking about reviewers or just "people" in general? I found that almost every reviewer didn't understand the game and what it was, and just treated it as though it was a Silent Storm rip-off rather than the full-fledged RPG it is.

 

[LlamaGod]

everyone complains about a game being too hard but nobody really complains about a game being too easy, or atleast react in the same ways.

Game too hard - OH MAN it sucks, its trash, im NEVER PLAYING AGAIN

Game too easy - It was easy, but in spite of that I still liked it

it needs to be the other way around

 

[bryce777]

Well, as far as the difficulty goes, it was a mixed bag.

The first missionw as really ridiculous. I started with no gun and a grenade. I threw my gun into a group of 5 guys and had to rush in and steal a gun to kill the rest.

I mean, it's the opening vignette practically, and I am having to do something ludicrously difficult. I had to reload several times to do it without getting injured because it turns out right afterwards a group of 15 commandos comes down on you - just you! It's completely a crazy start.

Once I knew what would happen I could win it all, but you should not have to have foreknowledge or save and reload to win.

The way the bursts work is poor, too - bursting basically burns a whole clip with no chance for the enemy to interrupt like in JA. Pretty stupid.

Overall it is a much cooler looking JA clone with some rougher edges when it comes to the engine, and I was really disappointed in the latest release.

I didn't finish any of them because of the idiot panzerkleins in the first two and just getting stuck having no idea what to do in the last one.

 

[voodoo1man]

I thought SS:S was serious unbalanced, and way too difficult. This was even frigging worse! I can see why it got so may negative reviews. Why are the developers happy to piss on the corpse of SS? The series had potential!

Where have all the good PC games gone?

Hmm, I gather you tried to play it at medium or hard difficulty as a medic the first time through? Due to the nature of the game and its striving for some sort of "commando realism," some classes are easier to play than others (sniper is a good place to start, and if you're really having trouble a scout is the way to go, makes the game ridiculously easy). Also the difficulty settings are not very good as they come. Fiddle around with the custom difficulty. A good place to start is at around 2. IMO, making the level of the enemies higher than yours but lowering their AP and VP makes for the best gameplay.

I mean, it's the opening vignette practically, and I am having to do something ludicrously difficult. I had to reload several times to do it without getting injured because it turns out right afterwards a group of 15 commandos comes down on you - just you! It's completely a crazy start.

I dunno, I didn't find it particularly hard (keep in mind I played the game twice, first time as a sniper and the second time as a scout), and depending on the way you go after that, the game mostly gets easier. Here is a hint though: walk around and talk to the locals, you don't have to face the Sentinels' buddies alone.

 

[bryce777]

Th opening was very hard, and then the difficulty went downhill dramatically.

 

[Section8]

Well, I have to say that I wasn't impressed enough by the demo to warrant chasing down the full game. I played through it a few times, firstly as a diplomat, which involved talking to about 3 people and thus completing the demo objectives in about 15 minutes, and then as various combat archetypes.

It was nice to see that I could approach problems in vastly different ways, but the only way I found enjoyable was the brute force approach, which uses the Silent Storm engine for what it's good at - tactical combat. In light of that, the game seemed a bit redundant.

 

[vrok]

The first mission is a fucking piece of shit. My week old turd could've made a better first mission with half its head missing. Turnbased combat solo vs 10 enemies all standing in the same spot piled up isn't what I'd call strategic. It may be hard but only because of random fucking chance. Turns still take too fucking long with maxed animation speeds and only being in control of one character, whose AP's is spent in under 10 secs, while waiting for 10-15 slow ass fags to each stand up, crouch, stand up again, shoot, crouch (in that order) for a full minute can only be described as boring. It's like they took the worst part of Silent Storm and said "Hey! Let's make it ten times as fucking tedious and mind numbingly boring!"

Can't bring myself to play any further than the first mission simply because it's so fucking awful it doesn't deserve a second chance. Buggy games I can live with, terribly designed ones I can't.

 

[Barghest]

I have to say that I played, and completed, SS & SS:S. Hammer & Sickle was a complete joke even set at a custom difficulty.

As vrok says, it was terribly designed.

 

[NeVeRLiFt]

I won't buy or play any game that has StarForce.
Just can't support that shit.

 

[Daigoji_Gai]

The guys behind Silent Storm re-appropriated the engine for Nightwatch, based on the first movie in that whacked out Russian supernatural series (DayWatch and DuskWatch are the next two films).

They kept the destructable environments, streamlined stats, but unfortunately there are only 3 character classes.

 

[bryce777]

sniper, soldier, grenadier, medic, engineer?

Are you the guy from monty python and the holy grail?

Five, sir!

 

[Section8]

sniper, soldier, grenadier, medic, engineer?

Are you the guy from monty python and the holy grail?

Five, sir!

The guys behind Silent Storm re-appropriated the engine for Nightwatch... They kept the destructable environments, streamlined stats, but unfortunately there are only 3 character classes.

 

[bryce777]

Actually there are scouts too, but that didn't fit the joke.