Silent Storm, turn-based tactics ala FOT, WW2 setting.

Lemmy · February 23, 2004, 11:51

Ok, i'[ve been meaning to post this thread ever since i got this game, but never got around to it because well, i was too busy playing

But just now i've seen something so remarkable in it i just have to post it right now before i lose the excitement over it

Now keep in mind, i'm not a history buff, WW2 never had my interest, it still doesn't. It's just the engine of this game that amazes me most.

So, imagine a game, kinda like Fallout Tactics, but it's in the WW2. You choose to either play as Allies or Germans (Axis?).
I chose the Germans.

The game is setup like this, the map is divided into regions, not all of them available at the start. Each region has their own map, and that's where you move around on like the Fallout world map.
In these regions there are special places of interest where missions take place, and random ecounters where you can gain some xp, if you move into one of these locations, you'll be taken to the tactical map, and that's where the beauty starts.

Its all fully 3d, you can rotate the camera around and zoom to have a top-down view or a view similar to the fallout games. It doesn't always go as low as i want though. The character movements are also are very smooth, but the best part about the game engine is the environment.
Almost everything that could be destroyed in real life, can be destroyed in the game.
You can shoot to through windows, doors, fences and even wooden floors (i say wooden because i haven't seen another type of floor yet

). I even blew up a staircase once, which i thought was kinda bad at first, because i had to carry down a person, and they wouldn't jump down while carrying the person, but dropping them down in the hole was possible, so it all worked. But with such a dynamic environment, all new tactics are possible, especially with grenades and other explosives -> want to slow an enemy down that's following you? Blow up the stairs.
But thats not all, i'm currently in a Russian region, in a snowy environment, there are some trees, all of them covered with snow.
And here's what happened that made me post this thread:
An enemy soldier tried to shoot another enemy soldier (yeah, 3 factions in that mission), but missed and hit a tree instead. The result? All the snow was shaken of the tree

The detail in this game is unlike any other game i've played before...and i haven't even commented on the combat part yet or the story...which is a good thing, because i've mostly been skimming through the story bits....it's got something to do with missing scientists...or spies ...and an officer...well, something like that.

Also it's very stable, not a single crash yet, and i'm alt-tabbed out the game to make this post. Also no bugs noticed yet, i'm sure there are some, but they aren't obvious to me yet.

Lemmy rating:

(9/10...need to know more about the story/replay value first)

vovan · February 23, 2004, 13:21

It's an awesome game! I posted two threads about it - one when the first demo just came out, and another when the game did. Never generated any interest, though, and I think both threads were left unanswered.

But the game's sweet. And it finally shows that Russian programmers, working in Russia, as opposed to for American companies, can actually produce something worthwhile - something that hasn't been so obvious from the recent games...

General Ludd · February 23, 2004, 13:51

I lost interest as soon as I read JoWood was the publisher.

Lemmy · February 23, 2004, 14:16

Ah, don't hold that against them, it's really a game worth trying.
It even runs smooth on a sub-recommended system. (64mb graphics instead of 128)

Another intersting bit i found in the manual

Quote:

For example, a building's model is made of a number of blocks linked to each other. After an explosion on one of the floors, a detailed calculation of the shock wave is made to determine which sections of walls, floor and ceiling will be smashed or damaged; the stability of the whole construction is also checked — destruction of the supporting frame can lead to partial or total collapse of the building

Jamski · February 23, 2004, 18:20

It IS turn based, isn't it? If its turnbased I may buy this.

-Jam

Lemmy · February 23, 2004, 18:44

Yes, all combat is turnbased.
If no enemies are around it's real time.

Grumbold · February 24, 2004, 06:56

Thanks for reminding me. Definitely one I planned to get.

Jamski · February 24, 2004, 11:25

I'm trying to DL the demo, but I keep getting server errors about half-way through.

Still... I can just try another mirror...

Anyone have a relyable source? Its a pain to waste 1 hour each time.

-Jam

Urban Ranger · February 24, 2004, 12:26

Silent Storm? Damn, at first I thought it's a submarine game - I love submarine games.

This doesn't look too bad, even the engine seems a lot like the Black and White one.

Jamski, don't you have a broadband connection?

Jamski · February 24, 2004, 12:33

Yes, but it still takes an hour

Crappy Romanian mirror

-Jam

Urban Ranger · February 24, 2004, 12:37

Oh. Snail speed.

Jamski · February 25, 2004, 08:43

Pah, I give up. I'll try the American mirrors. All the european ones are soooo sloooow. (I don't expect to be predicted 10 hours to DL 200 megs)

-Jam

Urban Ranger · February 25, 2004, 12:59

That's really slow.

Jamski · February 25, 2004, 17:06

I found a German mirror on Gamer's Hell with a moderatly fast pipe. DLing it now...
/me crosses his fingers that it doesn't stop halfway *

-Jam

Urban Ranger · February 25, 2004, 23:59

Any actual play experience will be appreciated.

Dis · February 26, 2004, 04:14

ahh the same game reviewed in this months' CGW

They gave it a good rating. Though they were unhappy about the end. Ray guns? That seems kind of silly. I can't believe they put that in there.

But the review didn't mention if the game is turned based or real time. Or the pausing features.

And they compared it to X-com, not Fallout: Tactics. But I liked both games.

Lemmy · February 26, 2004, 10:23

Heh, i never played X-com so i wouldn't know about that.

One thing i noticed is that the combat maps i've seen so far are smaller then the FOT maps, about 1/4th of them.

/me goes off to play some more

Jon Miller · February 26, 2004, 11:33

this game looks good

Jon Miller

Grumbold · February 26, 2004, 13:05

Ray guns? You're worrying me now....

Dis · February 27, 2004, 03:47

Quote:

Originally posted by Lemmy
Heh, i never played X-com so i wouldn't know about that.

One thing i noticed is that the combat maps i've seen so far are smaller then the FOT maps, about 1/4th of them.

* Lemmy goes off to play some more

never played x-com. That should be a crime. Heresy! Unbeliavable.

Dis · February 27, 2004, 03:48

Quote:

Originally posted by Grumbold
Ray guns? You're worrying me now....

that's what the review in CGW said

But the game looks great up until that point.

General Ludd · February 29, 2004, 14:07

I've been playing this all morning, and I have to say, the combat and graphics are absolutely amazing.

I want to see an X-Com game made with this engine!

Even a Jagged Alliance game would be nice.

General Ludd · February 29, 2004, 21:42

I, too, was impressed with the detail and physics in the game. A couple more examples to expand on Lemmy's:

The first thing that sold me on the game was the ware-house fight in the tutorial. After sneaking around some crates and catwalks, sniping a few enemies, ect... I come to the last one who was sneaking his way up to me. When i spotted him, he had just climbed out of a pit in the ground (the place had alot of neat tactical things like that, since it was the tutorial) and I shoot him - his corpse falls back and flops over the edge of the pit.

Corpses get tossed around like rag dolls - they'll lean against walls, flop over ledges, and everything.

It happens with equipment too - on the first allied mission, I shot someone who was crouching on the top of a small hill, and when he died his rifle fell from his hand and rolled down the hill. Coincedentally, it stoped just three feet away from my character - I almost wish I was having ammo problems so that that bit of divine luck wasn't wasted.

I also had an entire building collapse on one of my guys, after he tripped a booby trap in a derelict building.

Just don't expect alot of historical accuracy - it's really just about the combat sequences. A few of the random encounters that I got in southern england had me in german occupied villages.

General Ludd · March 3, 2004, 20:32

Here's a screenshot demonstrating what I was saying about the rag-doll corpses. This guy was kneeling at the top of the cliff, and when he died his corpse toppled down and got wedged between the rocks.

Oh, and did I mention that there's also ricochets?

Urban Ranger · March 3, 2004, 23:43

What's that weapon you are using?

Why didn't the guy got blown into tiny bits?

General Ludd · March 4, 2004, 09:07

Quote:

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
What's that weapon you are using?

Why didn't the guy got blown into tiny bits?

That's a panzershreck, and it's actually his buddy. My squad's down at the bottom of the cliff hiding in the trees and rocks. If you're wondering about the scorch mark, well, his buddy is a bad shot

But no, corpses can't be blown apart. They can get tossed halfway across the map from a good explosion, though.

(which is what happened when I got hit by that same panzershreck a few turns later)

Another thing about the game - the campaigns seem to be randomly generated, to some extent. I assume it follows the same basic story line, but in both of the allied games I started I had completely different objectives, missions, and maps. (for the first three or four battles, anyways - I restarted after learning the ropes)

Dis · March 7, 2004, 15:05

keep us updated, but don't spoil it

.

I definately think I'll be getting this game though. I figure I'll buy this and Arx Fatalis.

Right now I'm playing Fallout: Tactics again

Standup · March 22, 2004, 19:04

Just got it for £8.99 on Amazon.co.uk which seems low enough to take a risk on (even if it is Jowood).

First impressions are very high recommended specs; 2.2GHz, 512MB ram and 128MB video ram - hopefully its practical to have less than this. Manual looks comprehensive which makes a change these days.

Now to find the 3GB its says it needs on my HDD and hope my old gfx card likes DirectX 9.0

Dis · March 23, 2004, 06:02

whew, high system specs.

I think we did say this is turn based, right? I don't mind real time as long as you can pause and issue orders. But turn based is less headaches usually.

I'll be picking this one up soon.

General Ludd · March 23, 2004, 07:53

Yeah, the system specs are high. It's mostly because of the physics engine, I think - even with a really good computer you'll notice that it sometimes skips or lags while calculating environmental damage... especially for large-scale things like buildings collapsing (which is a slide show with my athlon XP 2400 and Radeon 9700).

And yeah, it's turn based. By default it switches to realtime while outside of combat (In the style of JA2) but you can set it to be turn based 100% of the time. I personally prefer that, as you very rarely have any sort of "peace-time" scenario where you're just exploring the environment or talking to people.