S2: Silent Storm Gold Edition

I've put about a billion hours into this on Steam, and, before that, on CD, and despite having some serious flaws, I'd say the actual combat is some of the best you'll find in a turn based tactical anywhere - the sheer destructability of the environment is, as far as I'm aware, completely unmatched in any other TBT out there. "Unmatched" is probably a good word to describe these games. While other TBT games do a lot of things better, nothing comes close to doing some of the stuff SS does as well as it does. The store page sums up the game well enough, so here's a quick list of the exceptionally good and the annoyingly bad. Good: -The physics are great. No other TBT does them this well. Bullets are stopped by or pass through cover logically, hits are calculated by simulated trajectory (so you can totally kill people with ricochets, etc.) -The game has a hidden hotseat multiplayer function that is a ton of fun. -You actually can engage in a ton of different approaches. Lets say you need to kill some snipey dude. You can suppress him and flank, counter snipe, riddle the entire room with machinegun fire and hope to hit him, or collapse roof/floor/entire building. Cons: -The actual coding isn't always great. While the actual enemy AI is pretty on par for the era the games came out, you'll find you and your opponents occasionally glitch and empty a mag into the floor while trying to shoot someone. - Similarly, LOS can be wonky. You will empty a mag into a little bump in the dirt that only blocks your muzzle. -There is a level in one of the games (can't remember which) that is essentially broken and is nearly impossible to beat without cheats. -The level up system doesn't work correctly. It's not vital. -It's a little too easy to win many fights by riddling things with machinegun fire, which is hard to resist on your Nth playthrough when you have a good idea where enemies spawn and know you'll catch a bullet if you actually open the door instead of shooting it.

Thank you so much GOG. This is one of my favourite games of all time, a strategic and detailed beautiful 3D game with realistic damage and a destructible environment. There are weapons and items that can be scavenged from the environment to aid you as resources are limited. Each action must be thought through carefully, both in the real time and turn-based action mode. I can't recommend this highly enough and if my description even slightly interests you then please try it for yourself.

While X-COM and Jagged Alliance 2 might be THE golden boys of tactical squad simulators, Silent Storm's ability to mow down walls with machine guns, line up triple kills with a high caliber sniper rifle on a group of foolishly clustered soldiers and watch buildings collapse as their supporting structure is obliterated by a booby trap still doesn't cease to amaze me. More importantly the core gameplay is extremely solid, far from being just a glorified physics simulator. The dreaded Panzerkleins and other sci-fi elements weren't implemented that well but fortunately they only affect the last 5% or so of the original game. In the sequel they appear earlier but are far more balanced.

This game is pretty unique in how it treats building destruction. Just about everything can be shot at, shot through, or just plain blown up because it was in your way. It's pretty fun putting the third floor of a house in the basement with a big enough explosive.

I was considering giving this game 4 stars because of minor issues like slow enemy turns, a slight awkwardness to the controls and UI and other minor gripers. But, then I realised this is one of the few games I've played on every computer I've had for MANY years now. It's a cheesy, janky, adorable and awesome classic. I'll go back and try some mods to see if i can speed up enemy turns, but even with those issues it's still GOLD.