Role-Playing and Tactical Combat collide; Silent Storm creates innovation through collaboration of genres

by Louis Bedigian

Coming this fall, Silent Storm is set to bring gamers World War II action unlike any other. 

“You can’t get a good man down.”  That’s what he told me.  That’s what he told everyone just before we were forced into a world that had the power to tear us apart.  Not mentally – we had been trained to ignore that kind of torture.  We had also been trained to ignore physical pain.

But when you’re standing in the middle of a battlefield with nothing but the soldier in front of you to defend yourself from oncoming bullets, you begin to realize that no amount of training could have prepared us for this.  And no amount of training could save us from the destruction we were about to face.

Bullets zipped past my head so many times that I’m surprised I didn’t go deaf.  The sound wasn’t very loud.  Certainly it would have been if not for the commotion that interfered.  It was fast, far superior to the sound of a baseball whaling towards a catcher.  The sound was almost piercing; in fact, the interference I mentioned – gunfire, explosions – most likely enhanced the sound to its near-piercing level.

We were determined.  But we were falling.  Falling like a rock that got kicked off a building.  There was nowhere to go, nowhere to turn.  The difference is, when a rock hits the pavement, it doesn’t shatter.  And if it did, it wouldn’t matter, because a rock is just a rock.  We’re not so lucky.

At the end of the day I was thankful to be alive, but wondered what horror tomorrow would bring.

The next day came before I had the chance to blink.  I didn’t sleep much.  The brain can’t relax if the mind is a mess.

If it’s possible – and I’m not sure that it is – today was more horrific than yesterday.  I saw more bloodshed than any person should ever be forced to see.

Just after sundown, the enemy began attacking our base.  Suddenly our previous situation didn’t seem so bad.

Then out of nowhere a telegram arrived.  Was it a sign of hope?  Were our allies on the way?  Would the war finally be over?

After reading the telegram, one soldier smiled, saying, “I have good news!”

Anxiously I asked, “Are we saved?  Are more troops on the way?”

“No,” he responded.  “I just saved 15% on car insurance.”

I was furious.  “That’s it?  That’s all you’ve got to say!?”

“Well, it also says that when the war is over, you’ll get to interview the Project Leader of Silent Storm.”

“Oh, that IS good news!”

When the war finally ended, I returned to GameZone and spent many months recovering in the IG (Intensive Gaming) unit.  Once healed, I sprang from my chair, sat down in another chair and spoke with Dmitry "Zak" Zakharov.  Zak is the Project Leader of Silent Storm, an innovative PC game that combines role-playing with turn-based tactical combat.

Silent Storm has been described as a true 3D game combining turn-based tactical combat and role-playing. Gamers know what the two mean individually, but how will those elements work together? What will the game play like?

Dmitry Zakharov: The two work together seamlessly, in fact it would be hard to imagine what Silent Storm would look like without both of them.  The game focuses on turn-based tactics that Jagged Alliance and UFO fans will instantly recognize.  Silent Storm also focuses on the flexible development of your character and squad members in ways that will enhance your tactical options, and emphasize the way you want to play.  In simple terms, you have a wide choice of characters to place in your squad and many different ways to direct how they develop over the course of a campaign.  This gives them bonuses in areas where you use them the most - you can develop a medic's combat parameters, for example, before developing advanced medical techniques, making him a more efficient fighter before focusing on his medical skills.

Where did the name Silent Storm come from? 

DZ: The name comes from the fact that you are leading a group of special operatives deep in enemy territory to gather intelligence and sabotage your enemy's war efforts.  This is usually performed unseen and unheard; at times, however, your missions will call for unbelievable amounts of destruction.

This is a small explosion.  You won't see many of those in Silent Storm. 

We know that Silent Storm takes place during World War II, but who are the characters? Are they just standard soldiers, or do they have their own unique story?

DZ: Your squad will consist of special operatives - 20 per campaign, each with one of six professions and his/her own character and background.  Your squad can be made of up of both men and women with 30 different nationalities.  When you choose your squad, you can take up to five of them along with your main character and if one (or more) of them dies on a mission, you'll have to go back to the base to choose a replacement.  Since you will have the chance to develop each of your characters, losing one later in the game can become costly - so be careful!

As game that takes place during WWII, it could be assumed that Silent Storm will feature real-world weapons. Is that the case?

DZ: Yes - weaponry is one of the most important aspects of the game and we wanted to make sure that virtually all of it is authentic down to the clip size.  There are over 75 different weapons from the WWII era and they range from Chinese throwing stars to mounted heavy machine-guns and artillery.  We hired on a military historian to ensure that we offered a wide range of authentic weapons to choose from (and a few surprises too!) and even sent a part of the team to the range to fieldstrip and shoot, so that they better understood how the weapons were supposed to perform and look in-game.

I believe they call this the "red room." 

How varied are the weapon types, and could describe some of the coolest ones featured in the game?

DZ: The game offers a huge variety of weapons, ranging from different types of knives, swords and pistols to rifles, sub-machineguns, heavy machineguns, grenades and even a crossbow!  In addition to the authentic weapons, you will be introduced to the monstrous Panzerklein - an armored suit with heavy weaponry that is capable of unbelievable destruction.  In one random encounter, you'll be able to grab a katana sword if you kill its original owner first.  This sword is an especially valuable weapon in the hands of an experienced scout.  

Are the game's levels dispersed through missions or some other means?

DZ: The levels are more dependent on objectives than missions.  In each "level" there will be clues or objectives that you should find or complete to open up new areas.  On the regional map, you'll have several of them, as well as random encounters that you can fight in or skirt, and each clue will open up one or more areas to travel to next.  You get to choose where to go and when; your path is up to you and the campaign progression is completely non-linear.  Some campaigns will last for 6 missions and others may last for 24 or more since the clues are distributed randomly.  Our calculations gave us about 65,000 different ways of getting through the campaign missions - so replayability isn't an issue.

How does the player go about completing a level/mission? Are there specific objectives and side objectives – or do you have the freedom to complete each task in any order you please?

DZ: One mission may be stealing a set of documents, while another may be kidnapping a scientist.  To get the clues, you'll need to complete whatever objective is included with your briefing.  Many times, however, a clue will open up more than one new area, in which case you'll have a choice of where to go and what missions to take on.  If you face particularly fierce resistance in one mission you can leave the area, return to base, camp out or engage in random encounters until you feel your team is ready to take on a new mission, but you won't be able to return to one you leave unless you've saved it.  In any given campaign you won't be able to find all of the clues in the game - meaning that if you replay the game, not only will they be reshuffled, but you'll most likely be faced with different objectives and clues than the first time. 

If a weapon store had a cardboard rifle near the register,
would it be considered gunpoint-of-purchase material? 

How much freedom does the player have when it comes to other aspects of the game? Are the environments affected by your actions? Can your teammates be killed (accidentally) by other teammates?

DZ: The environments are heavily affected by your actions since you can destroy nearly everything on any map.  This opens up the most revolutionary aspect of Silent Storm - you will be able to use real-life tactics like in no other game before it.  We've implemented a very advanced physics system that controls weapons, projectiles, characters and structures - meaning a soldier shot at the top of a hill or stairway will roll all the way down to the bottom.  You can shoot through doors, windows, walls trees - just about anything, anywhere.  There isn't any "scripted destruction - it is all based on the physics - so you can collapse a 3 story house (preferably with enemies inside!) by blowing the first floor walls or supports out.  You also want to be careful of placement - as you can accidentally shoot squad mates, or a stray bullet may hit a flammable container causing a massive explosion.  Needless to say, the environments are interactive to a degree never before seen in any genre.

The soundtrack. What can you tell us about it? Is the music intense, emotional, etc...?

DZ: All of that and more.  The music was scored specifically for the game and carries the full range of ambient, atmospheric, suspenseful and intense.  In all, Silent Storm has over 40 different themes of interactive music that cover any situation that you'll face in the game.  It's catchy too - as soon as you brought it up I started humming the main theme - and I probably won't be able to get it out of my head now for the rest of this interview!

Team battles are they key to success. 

Silent Storm uses an SDK called LifeStudio:HEAD. With it, the developers are able to give players the ability to edit their characters and give them entirely unique features. Could you tell us more about that?

DZ: LifeStudio:HEAD is a program made by LifeMode Technology.  It allowed us to easily create custom character faces and transfer them to the in-game models -- complete with facial emotions and lip-synching to dialogues.  The character creation process gives players tons of options, and, in fact, some have even called it a separate game within the game.  It is really fun to use experiment with these custom character faces.

How far into the game's development did you realize it was necessary to use LifeStudio:HEAD? What made you come to that conclusion?

DZ: We planned on implementing custom characters from the beginning.  After researching different methods, we decided that LifeMode's technology fit us best and it saved us a lot of work.

Thank you for your time.

For more info, visit the Silent Storm website at www.silentstorm-online.com