S2: Silent Storm Review
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Most missions center around finding the most strategic way to kill every enemy on a given map. Others have you looking for clues, however, or a specific target that you need to capture for information. One fun mission involved my squad being surrounded by Allies who had been told we were spies. Shooting our way out of the house and then finding the real spy was very tense and exciting despite the downtime and took me a few tries to accomplish without losing a squad member. That's the other thing about this kind of game that helps to create rabid followers: the ways in which you can accomplish a mission are limited only by your imagination. It's sometimes fun to replay a scenario just to see if you can do it more efficiently, or by causing more destruction. And with the games physics engine, the latter option may become the most popular. Pretty much everything in the game can be destroyed, and although the game claims to be incredibly realistic in that regard, you can often create more havoc than you intended. One time my squad was fighting enemies near a guard tower. Since my sniper would never have been able to climb it without getting killed, I positioned him behind it for a little cover. I figured he would be able to shoot between the support beams of the tower, because he's supposedly a good shot, right? Unfortunately, when I instructed him to fire on a soldier on the other side of it, he blew out two support beams, causing the whole tower to collapse on him, killing him instantly.
Again, either you'll find that anecdote to be indicative of a huge balance issue in the game that should have been worked out, or a humorous lesson in the parameters of your particular field of engagement that can be used to your advantage in later missions. I personally thought it was hilarious and thereafter enjoyed turning my heavy machinegunner into a human wrecking ball, crushing Nazis under the weight of their ill-conceived architecture.
If you are looking for a realistic World War II experience, though, this should be the first indication that Silent Storm won't be the game for you. Later missions involve the use of prototype Nazi weapons called Panzerkleins, which are basically mechanized suits of armor. You won't have much luck against enemy soldiers wearing them unless you are wearing one yourself, so you'll have to accept the anachronism or stick to the early missions.
To me, the fun of the basic gameplay overshadowed any of the niggling problems with balance, realism, or production values and, as mentioned, was engrossing enough to pull me away from the highly addictive world of the MMORPG. I was tempted to say that even if you found something in this review that made you think twice about buying Silent Storm, you should definitely pick it up when it hits the bargain bin. You know what, though, buy it at full price anyway. We need more games like this and that's the only way to see more of them.
