Operation Silent Storm

Roman Yepishin
	15.09.2003

Game Title: Operation Silent Storm Platform: PC Genre: TBS with RPG elements Developer: Nival Interactive Publisher: 1C Release Date: September 2003 Minimum system requirements: Pentium III / Athlon 600 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 3D-graphics card with 32 MB RAM, 2 GB HDD Official site: http://www.nival.com/rus/s2_info.html "Rage: Print Mystery" and "Rage II: Lord of the Shower" made ​​the name famous by Nival Interactive. The brilliant debut "Cursed Lands" only strengthened the love and respect for the players to talented developers. However, until all look forward to continuing adventures in the wonderful world of floating islands in the astral plane, "Nivalovtsy" not a joke carried away with the Second World War. That is the greatest of the armed conflict really seemed to them so interesting, whether developers have gone in the wake of fashion ... Anyway, instead of Allods III or Cursed Lands 2, we received a "Blitzkrieg". The game, neither more nor less, was an example of how to do strategic projects of the Second World War. "Blitzkrieg" is undoubtedly received its share of loyal fans, but the most desperate optimists, romance continued to stubbornly wait for the fantasy adventure in the world Allods. At the very same Nival, as it turned out, had quite different plans. In the end, "Legends Allods: Legacy of the Necromancers" designs do not already know N_Game Studios, and Nival celebrates the successful release of "Operation Silent Storm», the second draft of the military-historical themes. However, the definition of "historical" in the fullest sense is appropriate only in "Blitzkrieg." The game world of "Operation Silent Storm», of course, is also based on historical realities, but events occurring in it, and some items related to the stories are very mediocre. Say, the military "space suits" a la lightweight version of Heavy Gear in the 40-ies of XX century, neither the Allies nor the Nazis was not exact (in the game they are presented as an experimental weapon). While you should not be afraid of the harsh battles with real weapons in a fantastic action movie is not going to convert anyone. In an atmosphere of "Operation Silent Storm» and hereditary historians and ordinary inexperienced players will feel completely comfortable. In the first minutes of the game for good looks "Operation Silent Storm» every now and then emerges the face of formidable imperishable «Commandos» from Pyro Studios. So, at the disposal of a player enters a group of six disparate military experts: soldier, medic, engineer, sniper, grenadier, and a scout. The soldier, according to tradition, is an incarnation of brute force. Medic, paradoxically, treats. Engineer often serves engineers and cracker closed doors (if not at hand grenades). The role of a sniper in the unit, to explain, I think, not worth it. Grenadier specializes in explosives and intelligence - to the silent movement and quick elimination of invisible enemies. Despite the superficial similarity, association with «Commandos» disappears rather quickly. For example, the squad gets to us does not finish. Fighters themselves a player gains come from several dozen applicants. All characters have their looks, a biography, a set of parameters pumped (by the way of the RPG-elements), the unique nature and, accordingly, his own manner of speech with a particular accent.Directly as the fighting finally suppress further "parallelism" with the creation of Pyro Studios. On the part of the gameplay of "Operation Silent Storm» close soon "Gorki-17", for all the fights take place in steps. Each character has a certain amount of AP (Action Point), and are being spent to perform all actions. Upon completion of the AP are restored. The system is quite traditional, tested and debugged by many years of practice in a variety of game projects. Although "Nivalovtsy" could not resist the temptation to make something what kind of a classic incremental gameplay. The fact is that, apart from the actual fighting on the local charts, "Operation Silent Storm» includes the possibility of movement on the global map. In this mode, squad player may accidentally encounter with the enemy or to arrange a halt to the exchange of trophies and medical care (in both cases the action is transferred to a local map). Also on the global map will select the next mission. Emphasize that the key word here - CHOICE, because missions are usually a few (and campaigns - even two). Of course, the recommended option helpfully flashes and lights up, but nobody prevents you from scoring, sorry, forget about the recommendations and go to manage things on your own. If another skirmish with the enemy is completely deprived of ammunition detachment, and even, God forbid, took the life of someone from the soldiers - welcome to the base. Here you will find a qualified physician, an experienced gunsmith and commander, always ready to refill unit new volunteers. From black whirlpool memory slowly begins to float the name of UFO. However, the fact and there are legends of the game to their fundamental ideas have grown and matured novices. Politely borrowed from a number of successful veterans zadumok and valuable discoveries, "Nivalovtsy" thoroughly mix them until smooth and carefully wrapped in an excellent GUI own making. Game pleasing to the eye-quality textures, thick, animated grass, a large number of plausible form of trees, interesting weather effects (the weather is changing in real time) and missions at different times of day. Although the objection that such a set of now nobody will be surprised to be quite appropriate. I agree, yet "Cursed Earth" could boast of the above features. But here's what you say to a 99-percent interactivity of the world and the physical model, which will honor any modern action'u? In "Operation Silent Storm» destroyed everything ... trees and shrubs - of course. Fences, glass houses, any furniture - is rarer, but for the 2003rd year is quite traditional. Walls, floors, ceilings, roofs, transformer station - already nonsense. And it is not necessary to drag with them RPG to make a hole in a thin brick wall. To deal with that and just a heavy machine gun. In this case, suffer not only unfortunate side, but lurking behind her enemies, which literally bullets nailed to the opposite wall. Please note that in the literal sense. All with a tremor in my knees waiting «Doom III», with its incredibly realistic physics and pixel light hits, and "Operation Silent Storm», meanwhile, is already implementing something similar. Dead soldiers in the game freeze is not scripted positions, of which there are usually no more than five pieces, and in accordance with their wounds. Say, standing against a wall soldier, receiving breast turn from a vending machine, will drift gently to the floor, smearing the blood of the wallpaper. If, however, give villain "pineapple" without checks, he goes into a protracted flight corridor, making a somersault in the air unthinkable. By the way, part of the proverbial wall at this time will fly in another direction. There were, of course, and without incident.In my, I confess, unprofessional opinion, the bullet even the heaviest guns do not throw the body into five meters. Although it looks, which must be confessed, is very impressive. Happen at all "Hollywood" tricks, previously executed by only using scripts. Say, the soldiers shot thrown back, knocks back the glass and falls on the second floor. Impressive? Meanwhile, it is an everyday moment. However, for the pleasure you have to pay (the wisdom of this very developers of computer games do not get tired of us to cram so many years in a row). At maximum graphics settings toy significantly slows the system with Athlon 1300, 512 MB RAM and a Radeon 9000 c 64 MB. Moreover, from the first minutes of existence on my computer "Operation Silent Storm» beginning to show its awful capricious nature. First, the nerves began to spoil the infamous copy protection system Star Force. "Holiday" continued refusal to play to function properly with 32-bit color (texture disappeared), this despite the fact that there are the latest drivers, and indeed the card is not "noname'ovskaya, and belongs to a series Gigabyte Maya II. Mention the same habit of toys to arrange spontaneous "miscarriage" in Windows, I think, is not worth it - in fact quite frustrated. Fortunately, the computer then the computer to download patches from the Internet. Incidentally, the same patch would be nice to correct the work of AI. In general, the behavior of allied and enemy fighters are very logical and sensible mind (sometimes allies manage to provide tangible assistance), but here are comical gaffes. For example, I had occasion to observe how unfortunate soldier, whose AP ran during forced marches through the fence, and "hung" on the fence until the end of the battle, not daring to climb any further forward or back. On the gameplay is, of course, has no effect, but it seems a bit "wet slightly. Generally, if eliminated in the toy bugs with artificial intelligence and work on its stability, "Operation Silent Storm» safely can be called a masterpiece. Beautiful graphics, unprecedented interactivity, an incredibly believable physics and subtle sense of style could not be better to contribute. Keep it up, and certainly Russia will become the provider of the most interesting, original and beautiful game projects! Or am I an incorrigible optimist?