Gave up on
Silent Storm just before the final mission. Jesus H. Christ, where to start...
Good:
- Destructible environment adds some tactical options. It can both save you (civilian blocking a path) or fuck you over (objective item destroyed / cut off).
- ???.
Bad:
- Way too many bad design choices. Devs wanted to implement some elements from older and much better games (UFO, JA, Fallout Tactics even) but failed horribly.
- Engine isn't actually that great: requires constant camera twitching / layer changes (UFO inspiration didn't pay off). Enemy / ally turns take fucking forever (over a minute on current rig). "Fast animations" mod does shit, since it's the "thinking" that takes AI most time.
- Changing keyboard binds can be done only via .ini edition.
- Many elements taken from JA failed:
a) Weapon variation. Pointless, since 99% of weapons are p. much the same. There's no weapons progression in the game, you can stick to initial weapons through the entire game.
b) Destructible environment - see above.
c) Non-linear approach. Pointless, since it boils down to "wait for enemies to come at you / snipe them from distance". There are no real mission goals, just "kill everyone and find a clue".
d) Spotting enemies is borked. In JA it wasn't perfect, but here you can run over an enemy and don't spot him (skill to low). Then he will just magically pop up 2 meters behind you and shoot you in the back. WTF?
e) Mechanic and Medic skills are broken - you can't increase them to useful levels. "Easier Medical and Engineering Items" mod helps a bit, but blowing shit up is much better idea than pick locking for the entire game.
f) Healing is much worse than in JA, as injuries don't require treatment between missions. Just apply a medkit and your fag is just like new. Full decline.
g) Grenades are quite powerful, but initially useless due to extremely low range. "Grenade Range Increase" mod helps a lot, making the game much more interesting (enemies become more dangerous too).
- Some shit isn't explained anywhere. Like weapon familiarity or handling. There are some speculations on forums, but that's it.
- UI is shit: non-stackable items / ammo, undistinguishable weapon pictures (all rifles look almost identical), bizarre sorting, you name it.
- No "end TB mode now" button. You just want to blow up a crate, but there are 20 allies present on map? Enjoy 2 minutes of ally AI "thinking" between turns. Fallout Tactics did it 10 times better.
- Fucking boredom. All missions are "kill enemies, find clues" with some "kill a dude before he leaves the map" flavor. No real tactics required: snipe from distance, finish off with grenades in close range. That's it. Boring random encounters with no good loot.
- EXP system is broken: 3-4 level-up in one mission, no level-ups for next 3 missions.
- Shitty skills organized into gay trees: unlock 4 useless skills to get to the one useful one. Which is probably broken too.
- Panzerkleins are one of the most retarded ideas in a game ever. Let me quote some dudes:
Heh, I wasted a TON of ammo on these things before I figured it out.
You can do it one of three ways:
1> Have your best sniper get 100% to hit the head and hope the bullet makes it into the narrow slit (Difficulty: Almost impossible)
2> Get heavy caliber ammo (Mauser 20. from the Panzerklein gattling gun) (Difficutly: hard... or impossible if you don't have a Panzerklein
)
3> Kill the soldiers carrying BHLZ's (the green bazooka type weapon) and use them on the Panzers. Use careful shot... should take two hits (and leave the Panzer well intact). Take out the other TG Ray Panzers first, that way you can occupy them with your troops (Difficult: easy).
Hmm.. am I the only one crazy enough to do this?
I destoy panzerkleins with my 2 katana equipped scouts
They both got their melee skill at 100 or 110... the thing is to be sure that you don't attack the panzerkleins with grenade launchers... Those are bit tricky to destroy but here's what to do for normal PK's.
Take your scout, give him a katana(any other melee weapons just might do the trick but I suggest katana because it is the best melee weapon in the game!), train his melee skill to 110 and familiarity to 10(just go to a sector and start chopping down trees
) then you just need to sneak close to the PK you want to destroy and the RUN like the wind to the PK and let him have it!!! The hack'n slash might take a couple of turns just start smashing the pk and soon the guy inside is "unconscious" and the PK unharmed. The funniest thing is that the other PK's won't attack you if you are so near to their own PK
(tested on hard difficulty)
"No-Panzerklein Modification (S2) " mod probably helps, but whatever.
I could probably go on, but what's the point?
Stay the fuck away / play Tactics Ogre instead.
