Where was Silent Storm?!?

[Vorpalbob]

I recently discovered a great game, one of my favourites to date, and despite frequenting game stores for the past 10 years, I never saw this game.

Silent Storm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Storm) is a squad-tactical turn-based game, like Fallout Tactics (which I am currently LP (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144684)-ing). It's set in WWII, produced by JoWood, and was released between Nov. 2003 and Jan. 2004. I LOVE this game!

Every weapon is historically acurate, and there are like 200 of them. Everything is destructible, except the ground. A single RPG-40 (a huge-ass grenade) destroys everything in a 20-foot radius. However, the Panzerkleins (armoured combat suits) aren't quite real, but...

Sorry, got carried away. Anyway, I ask; Why have I never heard of this game? I read PC gamer and other magazines, and did back in 03/04, but I never knew about it. What gives?

[DwarvenExodus]

Silent Storm hit the press like a silent storm. Sorry, couldn't resist :smalltongue:

[Trixie]

Accurate.

What.

:smallsigh:

[Morty]

Ah, Silent Storm. It indeed didn't make much of an impression, and I don't know why. I remember it as a good tactical strategy up to some point, when the slowly walking products of drug-addled alternative history entered the stage. At which point the game went down the drain. Panzerkleins were bad enough, but who the hell thought it'd be a good idea to add lasers?

[Comet]

Silent Storm was always kind of a big deal around here. Huh.

[Cristo Meyers]

Russian developers don't tend to get a lot of play in US media, in my experience at least. That probably had something to do with it.

I remember watching my roommate in college play this, it looked great: a cool WW2 squad sim...

...then the exosuits appeared and if you didn't have lasers or really heavy weaponry you were basically screwed.

[Eldariel]

It was the best spiritual heir of Jagged Alliance 2. Too bad both of them are rather obscure in spite of being among the best games ever made.

[Spiryt]

It could be such a great game :smallsigh:

I remember that I finished demo 5 times.

On the other hand I've nerved managed to force myself to finish actual game or add on.

However I played plenty times and always had a good time.

Unfortunately, damn pathetic story, and really cheap "sience fiction" ruined it quite a bit.

The fights itself were really super fun at times. Too bad that they hadn't managed to put it together into something really great.

And of course, I wouldn't bet an old boot on any weapon being really accurate. :smalltongue:

[Seonor]

Here (http://www.strategycore.co.uk/files/index.php?dlid=324) is a mod that replaces the pk and most of the other scifi stuff.

[Blayze]

It was the best spiritual heir of Jagged Alliance 2. Too bad both of them are rather obscure in spite of being among the best games ever made.

I'm here. I ate every bug on the way. There were many.

[Morty]

Another problem I had during my rather short-lived career in this game was that the Engineer class wasn't particularily useful. But this is pretty minor.

[Fri]

It's amazing. But yes, when the mechs comes into play, every shreds of tactic and gameplay goes away.

[Vorpalbob]

I haven't encountered Panzerkleins yet in my latest playthrough, and I doubt I'll use them. I'm doing what my friend and I have dubbed a "Snake" run. This entails completing missions like Solid Snake; ie;

Leaving the base with minimal equipment (silenced pistol, medical supplies, knife or other melee weapon)
Obtaining other weapons only from the mission or from random encounters
Avoiding detection as much as possible
When Panzerkleins are encountered, a targeted melee attack to the head will have your character slide their knife through the eyeslot on the combat suit
Playing as a Scout (in my opinion the best all-round class in the game. They start good sneaking and with melee, with decent marksmanship, but can be trained to become lethal snipers)


This form of play is actually quite effective. Using melee weapons to dig through walls (yes, it can be done) and using other tactics to avoid detection is extremely fun.


Another problem I had during my rather short-lived career in this game was that the Engineer class wasn't particularily useful. But this is pretty minor.
Yes, I second this. Any locked or mined door/box is much more easily opened just by shooting it. In my last playthrough with a full squad, chose not to take an Engineer and opted for a second Scout instead.

As to why I never heard of it, I found that it was released in Europe and North America, but received almost no marketing attention in the latter area.