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Silverfall

Score: 64%
ESRB: Teen
Publisher: Atari
Developer: Monte Cristo
Media: Download/1
Players: 1 - 80
Genre: RPG/ Adventure/ Online

Graphics & Sound:

If you've ever built a character up in an RPG or MMORPG, you've probably gotten to the point where you become envious of the skills or talents of other classes. Silverfall promises you the freedom to build your character with whatever skills and abilities you like. Would you like a little undead pal to go with your deadly skill in archery? Would you like raining fireballs to go with your deadly broadsword? Elf, goblin, human or troll, you can have it. I've seen this before from Atari - great concepts and potential. I’ve also been let down before.

In addition to character building, it seems Silverfall tries to distinguish itself in the graphics department as well. It's puzzling as to why they chose to apply a cel-shading type of style to this game. It just doesn't seem necessary. Usually you’ll never have the camera close enough to tell the difference, as the game is a bit unplayable in the closer views. When you do take a break to examine your character, you may notice jagged shadows and odd diagonal lines running across things. It's a graphics engine that makes you say, "Why?"

You might not observe these quirks if you keep Silverfall's graphical settings low. Your first priority will probably be getting the game to run smoothly, anyway. The game displays a bit of jittery-slowdown on any setting. It can happen simply while you're walking through a town. As much tweaking and settings downgrades as I tried, I couldn't fully eliminate the jerky running my characters displayed. Perhaps a better rig would help, but mine supposedly meets the recommended specs.

I'd love to be able to tell you the sound makes up for it, but in that department, Silverfall doesn't stand out either. When you begin the solo campaign, there's a very dramatic and very repetitive track that plays while you fight your way through the overrun city of Silverfall. If first impressions are everything to you, it might make you run. Gratefully, the music for the rest of the game isn't as bad, and a few tracks have an eerie appeal to them. Some NPC's do speak to you, and there are a few decent performances. Outside of the speeches from the NPC's, the grunts and yells of combat are a bit mediocre.


Gameplay:

Silverfall starts off in the city of Silverfall. When you start the campaign, you are dropped in the middle of the city just as an invasion of demon-like creatures has begun. You're given control of the Grand Archmage as he attempts to take down the leader of this chaos. This introduction gives you a taste of the skills you can obtain later with your own character. Afterwards, your character is revealed to be the Archmage's apprentice. The Archmage's son (or daughter, it changes depending on your character’s gender) then gives you various tasks to help protect and rebuild the city.

This is where Silverfall really shines. For all the technical problems it presents, the actual gameplay can become really addictive. I found myself setting up attack plans with ease and experimenting with new ones. If you get bored with your skills, you can always pay the Skillmaster to give you a few points back so you can try something new. As for rewards, there's often a satisfying explosion of loot spilling out of your slain enemies. You can also watch what happens when you choose between the path of Nature or Technology.


Difficulty:

You'll have to take things cautiously at first. Silverfall discourages death by making you lose your equipped items when you die. If you do die, then you'll have to make the trek back to your grave to retrieve your (usually) best items. You're given some help later on, when you recruit companions into your party. You also have the option to buy life insurance, which eliminates the loss of equipment for a price. Since enemies don't respawn while you're on the same map, you can stick to the path you cleared if you need to backtrack. When you reach a new area with higher level monsters, levels come relatively easily. Overall, a bit of caution and tactical retreat will make things easy, if you have the patience.

Game Mechanics:

This is where Silverfall brings you back down to earth. For as much as you may enjoy the gameplay (or try to enjoy it), Silverfall has at least one technical issue or two that will wear you down. First, the interface just feels unfinished. At the character screen, it’s way too easy to delete your character. Just a simple click and you’re done. No warning chime, no confirmation phrase to type in - you just get asked if you really want to delete, then poof, your character is gone. On the other hand, it’s way too hard to remember to save. In order to save, you need to go through a menu under options, and click save. That doesn’t sound too bad, except the game never prompted you to save, and never told you there was a save option. If the game is going to offer tutorials on leveling and other basics, it really ought to touch base on something like saving your game. There are more issues like this sprinkled throughout, but suffice to say, the game seems way too rough around the edges to be called finished.

Silverfall's controls aren't too bad. I usually liked the way the skills fell into the left or right mouse button, though I would like more options for being able to scroll through skills. For a PC game, the lack of keyboard customization is unforgivable. For example, I got used to scrolling the camera by moving the cursor to the side of the screen, because I had to. I found it utterly impossible to manage moving the camera with the arrow keys as the game had it set to do. It would have required me to move my right hand from the mouse to the keyboard or remove my left hand from the main controls, both of which options are really annoying. I suppose I’m being unfair, as I could have learned to start using my foot to play.

You do have the option to play Silverfall online or over LAN. The online game seemed to be the same game as the offline one for the most part. What was readily apparent was that online play brings all the technical issues right along with it and adds a few of its own. In one game, as I was getting ready to step out of the town and search for some live bodies, I suddenly found myself being teleported around randomly. One moment, I was in the city, next I was in the swamp, and next I was buried waist deep in a hillside. After all this, one player apologizes that he had warped to the next area. Needless to say, game-breaking lag as a result of something so simple did not bode well.

Even with all its problems, Silverfall is still one of those games you just wish would work. It has potential to be a fun and addictive diversion; it's just a shame that you may be fighting with the game more often than the monsters.


-Fights with Fire, GameVortex Communications
AKA Christin Deville

Minimum System Requirements:



Windows XP, Intel Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz or AMD Athlon XP +2800 higher (Intel Pentium 4 3 Ghz or AMD Athlon XP +3000 recommended), 512 MB RAM (1GB recommended), 10 GB free, DVD ROM Drive: 8X speed or faster (n/a if download version), ATI Radeon 9500 128 MB VRAM or NVIDIA 6600 GT with 128 MB of VRAM or better (256MB ATI Radeon X850 or NVIDIA GeForce 6800GT recommended), DirectX version 9.0c-compatible sound card, Multiplayer: Internet (TCP/IP) play supported 128 Kbps DSL/Cable Broadband Internet connection required for online play
 

Test System:



Windows XP, 3.20 GigaHertz Intel Pentium 4, 1 GB Ram, RADEON X850, Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS

Microsoft Xbox 360 The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles Microsoft Xbox 360 Armored Core 4

 
Game Vortex :: PSIllustrated