S2: Silent Storm Gold Edition

This game is one of those quiet surprises you try on the off chance and end up wondering how it was never advertised better to be more popular. Nearly everything about the game is well put togther, programmed and executed. Like most reviewers have said here, this game`s engine would be prefect for a remake of Xcom and I wonder why it never was used for that. The game sets you in WW2, around 1943. You lead a group of 5 agents attempting to find out what the enemy are up and to stop them. You have access to basic WW2 equipment and can collect more. The weapons list is very big, though some of the names given them are strange ( a mod easily changes it to real world names). You start off first in Britain or Germany, yep, you can play german agents too, then work around to europe on your Campaigns. Missions are both story-driven and random adding longevity and life to the quests. You get to completely create your character from his uniform right to his facial detail which pretty impressive. A mod adds even more uniforms. It`s interesting that you can be whomever you want to be from female to actually black or white even if you decide to play the German side! it`s quite interesting being a black guy working for WW2 Germany! As you may have guessed, the more grim aspects of WW2 Germany are not here. Think of it as an alternative WW2 where fascism never actually happened. The real meat of this game is in the tactical battles. You use your different skilled people to the best of their abilities; Grenadiers, Snipers, scouts, soldiers, engineers. I tend to take one of each, but a sniper is essential as well as some good soldiers,which I often dress my character as. Also your character is real important cos if he dies it`s like you dying- game over. Everyone else can be rescued unless you leave them behind. You`ll find yourself taking on enemy soldiers or agents in countryside or houses or military establishments and even on civilian streets with people hiding from the violence. Use cover, back eachother up, creat kill zones to achieve your objectives. Weapons are quite realistic with bullet trajectories that ricochet and pentrate walls. Get heavier ordnance like grenades and rocket launchers and watch the fun as walls are blown apart and houses collapse. You don`t want to risk your men in checking out that last house in which you KNOW a German is hiding? Hit it with several bazookas or detonate dynamite on it and watch the entire building collapse. Even the AI will use this tactic as he can hear and try to predict your position and will shoot through walls to hopefully hit you. Talking of AI it is very good and better than many more modern games. It will shoot at you then duck behind walls to reload, gang up, investigate noises. they also work better if Officers are with them. Officers are also very accurate shooters. I had a view of an enemy soldier in a house who had not seen us, I shot at him from a window and missed then ducked down behind the window. I observed the AI looking around then moving towards the window and even going prone when he got close. Unfortunately for him I had my scout watching from another window whom blew him away. The AI will also change weapons if better is lying around. The graphics even today are clear, crisp and wholesome, with only a little bit of jaggy. Animations are really good. The crawling, creeping, climbing and sniper positioning all look really good and you feel for your delicate sniper woman as she crawls to a good hiding position in the undergrowth, ready to cover the men. AI characters all have a background and simple personality and you have a choice of about 20-30 people to pick. Only fall donw with the game is when it went Scifi with Panzerkleins. I think the Devs failed to understand that the game was so good just with the shooty and bang real-world stuff that it didn`t need goofy mechs in it. However, Mods are still available that remove this and add soldiers with powerful weapons instead. Sounds are pretty good, although speech is a bit tongue in cheek with dying people saying some pretty dumb stuff which I guess is meant to be funny...`Argh` would`ve been enough. Music is actually very immersive and it`s great that you get the soundtrack with GOG. Thankyou, Gog. By the way, on performance, when I first played this game it was a stutter fest when anything got blown up of fell apart because of all the real world physics, well now with our multi-coe PCs there`s none of that. things fall apart and explode in real time no stutter and it`s a dream to finally play the game as intended, even if its near 10 years later! This game is heavily unappreciated for its quality and what it does. It gives modern games a run for their money and there`s not even a horrible DRM like Steam to hold you back. What more could one want? Still a brilliant game today- get it!

First there was the Jagged Alliance series. One of my favorites of all time, and a genre with far too few contenders. Turn-based tactical games..... X-com.... JA...... then a vast void.... years went by with nothing to carry the torch.... Until Silent Storm. Truly a great game, one of those that always keeps you playing just a little bit longer. WW2 setting, you have a squad of soldiers instead of mercenaries, but you get to know and care about each one just as you did in JA, perhaps even more so… I have been begging GOG to get this game every time I visit the "wished for games" section, my old CD copy had issues with Windows 7, so after years of nothingness I can finally play again! - thank you GOG !!!!!! If you enjoy turn-based games at all do not hesitate - get this game and you will not be disappointed!

This review is based on the vanilla version of this game which I have on CD. If you liked Jagged Alliance series you will most definetly like this gem. Imagine nice 3D graphics, destructible environment (I mean houses that really collapse), pretty realistic ragdoll physics and a variety of weapons, bombs, traps etc. that give you a variety of options how to finish the missions. Want to go downstairs but cant get to the stairs quickly? Just use full auto with your machine gun on the floor and use the hole to descent. This game has a "Dirty Dozen" kind of feeling to it. It'll give you many unscripted, unforgettable moments: My team got under a sniper fire and was forced to lay down. Only my machine gunner managed to sneak up in to the attic where the sniper was and opened a full auto fire with a MG34 machine gun on the sniper. In result the sniper flew out of the attic window and crashed on to a fence below. Other moments include a ricochet bullet that hit a set of gas ganisters which in turn blew up the entire house my team were in. Frustrating as hell, but realistic. As you progress, your team members gain experience and their stats increase and they gain levels. On every level they you can choose a new skill for them depending on their class (yes, this game has a few classes like medic, grenadier, scout etc.). Most of the new skills are trivial but there's also a few unbalanced skills like the Always Inflict Critical for the sniper. I'll give this a solid 5 stars even though the end game is not as good as it could have been due to the sci-fi nonsense (WW2 Mech Warriors, WTF?). + Realistic physics + Ability to destroy almost anything + Strategy really matters + Decent graphics + Freedom of movement + Character Creation - Those Mech-suits are annoying - AI is not the sharpest guy out there in some situations - Few unbalanced things you can exploit to make the game pretty easy - Team members do not have interactions or even interesting personalities.

Do you like Games about the second world war? Do you like pulp-era science fiction? Do you like Roleplaying games that allow for finite character creation? How about blowing up everything under the sun? If you answered "yes" to any of the above, than you will probably love this game. At its core, this game plays very similarly to Jaged Alliance 2, the action points are there, as is the isometric view and the ability to raze buildings to the ground with the careful application of explosives. But I would say that Silent Storm takes that style of gameplay much further. It is better in almost every regard, From simple things, like the voice acting(horrendous in JA2, but passable in this, though the scottish accent for the main character if you choose great britain as your nationality threw me the first time I heard it.) to mechanical differences like being able to swivel the camera and a MUCH easier system for targeting body parts. The story is fair and the game is open minded with its choice between an axis and an allied campaign. Since it doesn't focus on the Germans as being Nazis, the consideration for both factions is pretty unbiased, and the mutual foe either campaign eventually faces is set up in an interesting manner. The game does a decent job of showcasing many weapons from the War, though it sometimes it gives strange or inaccurate designations for the amunition. The game-play is balenced and relatively non-linear. Another improvement over Jagged Alliance 2 in my opinion is the lack of a time crunch. No surely letters from Enrico Chivaldore here if you take some time to build up your squad. Speaking of, the squad members themselves are all pretty interesting, with fun back-stories and unique personalities.Creating a cohesive squad around your hero is a lot of fun. Even the character creation is interesting with a lot of different looks to choose from and a highly customaizable set up for your character's face. My only real beef is the lack of voice selections a broader list for each nationality would have been better. As noted before, the game also has a serious Pulp-sci-fi bent to it. I love me some 1940's super science and this game has loads of it. From outrageous contraptions like the Panzerkleins to things the german warmachine had actually dreamed up (like the rocket powered gyrocopter). there are even some fun easter eggs thrown in there. In closing, I won't say that this is a perfect game; it does have minor hiccups here and there. But if you are looking for a tactical RPG, or you want a game about WW2 that isn't the same old rigmarole, then this game is worth every penny. And hey, GoG has come through again by giving us the complete soundtrack! This title is definitely a worthy addition to your game collection.

...the panzerkleins. Probably the best mechanics for a game of this type. Shame that the scifi-features almost completely ruin the game for me. For some it is but a mild annoyance. Strongly recommend this title in any case!