Breakdown: Play mission-based mini-open world-type levels as a cop fighting crime. Some bonus missions involve driving cars, playing as a vigilante, and playing as the criminals instead. It's rough around the edges but still has a fair bit to offer, even in the modern day. Plus, it feels like a piece of gaming history that should not be overlooked. It innovated quite a bit and yet it receives extremely little recognition for this. PS: For those struggling with the controls = 1) Use a gamepad. 2) Only move your character forward with the Run button the vast majority of the time. 3) While on small ledges use the analog stick to rotate your character ONLY when standing still, then hold forward to walk in a straight line when it's time to move. For those struggling to get it to work with Windows 10 = 1) Install pretty much any other operating system, 10 has issues playing old games across the board. Sorry, but it's unfortunately true - you'll be hard-pressed to find a game that it does not have issues with.
Just tried this out for the first time. My conclusion = This is the worst game I have played on GoG. It's actually worse than Crusaders of Might + Magic. Yes - it's that bad. The worst control scheme I have encountered in decades. Your character's actions are insanely innacurate in a game where accuracy is required to survive. It has the worst physics. It has platforming mechanics in a janky game engine clearly completely unsuitable for such a gameplay feature. It also looks as ridiculous as it sounds: a guy in plate and mail complete with a longsword and shield, who performs vertical/running leaps + pull-ups on to ledges. I also killed my first enemy by blocking while he kinda brushed up against my sword. It has the worst camera. It forcibly transitions to a side view when entering combat, making the controls incredibly disorienting. It has the worst menu/options screen. Inbetween transitioning from one menu screen to another it does not immediately display the new screen - in the interim it plays a series of extremely irritating sounds of weapons clashing together until you move your mouse cursor around. I do not know why they did this other than to annoy/troll the player. You cannot use a mouse in the menu screens while in game - only on the title screen's menu. You cannot alter the controls while in game - only on the title screen's menu. The menu screens also lag when they transition. It has the lowest and most inconsistent in-game framerate for an old game I have played on GoG yet. Visually, I can only compare looking at the game in action to unblinkingly staring at a chimpanzee's buttocks for days on end. It leaves a formidable impression in your mind, and most certainly not in a good way. It is unplayable. I paid pennies for this, yet I still feel ripped off. It is horrendous. There is no redemption. How anyone rates this higher than 1/5 will remain one of the universe's greatest mysteries until the inevitable heat-death of the cosmos. AVOID.
This game only exists cos they knew the IP could sell it. I got this on sale dirt cheap for a laugh. I honestly thought it would be in the 'so bad, it's good' category, but unfortunately, it can't even achieve that 'accolade'. I would compare it to garbage, but that would be an insult to trash. PS. There's a random NPC when you first arrive at the "castle" who has a recorded line that sounds like an actual forced labour slave spoke it. He sounds completely depressed and beyond cynical, droning on about RPG cliches, saying something along the lines of: "Go to the place, then speak to the person, then go to the other place, then get the thing, that allows you to do the thing with the thing, that the allows you to go to the other place ... blah blah blah..." It's about the only interesting thing you can 'experience' in-game, believe me.
Played Codename 47. Silent Assassin wouldn't run. So here I am. This series has potential, but so far I have found it only realises the extent of its concept in brief flashes. Compared to Codename 47, some mistakes have been corrected, but some have not, & some new ones have arisen. Overall it is a general step in a better direction though. The new save feature is long overdue & is integrated quite well: you have a limited number of saves you can make for each mission (how many you can use is altered by the game difficulty). This prevents the player from carelessly bypassing the challenge of the game with unlimited savefiles, but finally allows some progress retention in missions. A new A.I system is in place that dictates how suspicious an NPC is of the player (it is communicated via a simple & understandable part of the HUD). This gives some leeway + nuance to your interactions with enemies. They are far less likely to just start shooting you in the face now as their first course of action. Gunplay is better also. Unlike Codename 47, you are far less likely to die in 2 hits if you have good protection and aren't hit in the head. Aiming also feels more natural + headshots on enemies are much more respected here. However, this game was apparently rushed to market & there are some telltale signs of this. Namely, the fact that roughly half the missions here are remakes of levels from Codename 47. Personally, I was curious though as some of them had serious issues in Codename 47. All but 2 of them are generally improved upon. One of them is actually inferior (Hong assassination), the setting is lacking in 'life' + reuses a map from a prior mission. There is also no real overarching narrative, and the music selection is limited. Overall, this game works as a nice introduction to the series. It may actually be a tad too forgiving for some (e.g. the map showing all NPC movements), but if the concept interests you, you are likely to find some fun here, regardless.
^ Few other games will make you grumble under your breath in frustration like this game will. The premise is sound, the execution is spotty at best. Some missions are ridiculously easy and over incredibly quickly, with only a single objective, whereas others will drag on for a couple dozen minutes as you painstakingly attempt to carry out a perfectly executed sequence of events in the right order, without alerting a single soul. One mistake and you'll very likely have to restart the entire mission all over again. The latter example is where the fundamental problem with the game's design comes to the foreground - the programming and coding for this game is sloppy. REAL sloppy. Inconsistency in multiple areas of the two most important parts of a stealth game: the A.I, & the physics. E.g: Enemies will see bodies through walls or platforms above their line of sight, or at other times will ignore corpses right in front of their very eyes. Enemies unaware of your presence will suddenly turn around and sound an alarm as soon as you pull out a weapon (even the 'stealthy' piano-wire!). Other times they simply won't. Pathfinding is chaotic at best - I've experienced situations where enemies that patrol have desynced their regular patterns with one another, to the point where it was literally impossible for me to remove one from the equation without another witnessing it. For some reason, Agent 47 always massively prioritises stripping his victims over dragging them away. Direct headshots don't always kill, even on enemies with no head protection. Have fun climbing up to the top of a ladder and then falling through the earth into oblivion (and meeting instant death). It is these problems that dampen the ahead-of-its-time concept from realising it's potential, and thus the game has not aged well, at all. Even when eveything comes together for a mission, you know the next experience will be a crapshoot once again. I cannot recommend this game. It is not fun, it is frustrating.
