Dark Silhouette: Silent Scope 2

"Konami should've spent some more time tweaking and tweaking"

We all do have bad-hair days in real life and I'm pretty sure that game makers have their bad-hair days as well. After playing the game several times, I've felt that Konami IMO rushed the release of Dark Silhouette as it's pretty much of a rehash of the original Silent Scope rather than a sequel to the game.

Graphics

It's basically the same (and unchanged) from the original Silent Scope. There are some slowdown at noticeable points at the game. The game moves at an FPS relatively slower than most of Namco's Polygon Gun games so the animation isn't smooth and lusturous (as it seems that the graphics engine makes this game more of a rehash of the original Silent Scope rather than a true sequel). The textures are kind of unchanged from the original Silent Scope as you might recognize some of the confusing textures from the original. Textures, Backgrounds, Foregrounds, and even the polygoned characters are not even more lusturous as opposed to the original.

Play Control

Dark Silhouette continues the tradition of the original Silent Scope--You use a rotating gun to calibrate the marker all over the screen. You then have to look into the scope in order to magnify the image that you are pointing at (Maximum 10x the normal size). Now you have to take a deep breath and make sure that the bullet is going to ''count'' before registering your input towards the screen. The play control basically remains unchanged from the original version of Silent Scope.

Challenge

The reason why I have to give Dark Silhouette a score reduction from my first review is that the game is definitely missing the ''What's your Next Move'' part of the game--That part of the game allows you to select a route based on your skill and preference. Enemies will use the background more often in order to make sure that they are harder to hit and they will be more aggressive in their attacks so you need to act very fast. Since you can't select a ''next move'' based on your skill and preferences (as opposed to the original), you are now stuck with an 8-stage linear track (but in sacrifice for this, 2 players can play at once). The enemies now move faster, and they will take more punishment before they go down for the count. As with the original Silent Scope, the longer you wait, the more likely you will lose lives. Also, innocents will be there so be very careful when taking aim.

Story

The only part that is much better than the original Silent Scope is the story. It has been a year since the legendary sniper ''Falcon'' rescued the first family in the original Silent Scope. He originally quit Her Majesty's Special Forces without advance warning, but was forced out of retirement when the English Government forewarned him that a mysterious new evil are going to use Chemical Weapons to attack his mother nation. With his nation on the line, Falcon agrees to go back to the way he was before the first Silent Scope, but this time he needs help from a dangerous freelance sniper called ''The Jackal''. Falcon refuses to work with anyone but he has no choice but to take Jackal along because Jackal is as good as Falcon is, plus there are some personal instances associated with this mission. Like the first Silent Scope, the second Silent Scope focuses on Agent Falcon's life but this time Falcon is the supporting character and Jackal (who looks like one of the guys from the Hotel Imperial Stage from the original) is the main character of the game. There are 8 stages in all (done linearly) and you can play as either Falcon or Jackal in order to save England from a possible Security Threat.

Options

You can play the rather linear Story Mode, with 8 Stages in all. You can play as either Falcon or Jackal but it's many times better if 2 Dark Silhouette cabinets are linked together. There's a Shooting Range but it's unchanged from the original, and I wished that Shooting Range would've been drastically different. We have the duel mode that sees who's the better sniper of the two.

Overall

Well, after playing this game several times, I would have to say that Konami should've spent some more time tweaking this game intensively so that the game would've been a real sequel rather than a rehash to the original. It's worth a try, but you definitely should be paying attention to Konami's better shooters (The Original Silent Scope, Police 911, and the upcoming Silent Scope EX) instead IMO. This is pretty much of a rehash to the original rather than a sequel to the game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/11/00, Updated 04/07/02