"An action/RPG game with great graphics, sounds and gameplay, but horribly stupid story"

Silver was released Spring 98 by Infogrammes.
This is an action game featuring several elements of RPGs
like the equipment, the magic, the personal growth of the character, and so on.
Still , the main purpose of the game is to bash up waves of enemies coming from either sides of the screen, like a good old Diablo.

This game features many very good points making it really enjoyable to play:

First of all, the GRAPHICS: 9/10
these are 2-D backgrounds with 3-D characters, monsters and items incrusted in it, like a Resident Evil.
The backgrounds are very detailed, some are pleasantly animated (fire or water effects, leaves moving in forest) and the 3-D animations are good enough too, although some enemies are very polygonal but the spells animations are well done.

This is another good point of the game: with 2-D backgrounds and simples 3-D animations, the game can function on almost any computer, even on a Pentium 166, unlike some other action RPGs (cough..cough.. DiabloII..cough..) making it a good choice for owners of old PCs.

Secondly, the SOUNDS are good too: 8/10
Most of the action is set in nature, like the island of Verdante, and a really good sound ambiance is created: you can hear birds chirping, or snow under your feet, or lava gushing out the ground.

Battle sounds are well done, there are different sounds of blades, if it hits wood, iron bone or flesh, and so on.
The characters seem to fight realistically, they do not just go ''uh'' and ''ah''.

Finally the music is nice too, not exceptional but nice, kinda like an ambiance one.
You won't often notice it but it won't bore you either.

But Silver's main good point is its GAMEPLAY: 9/10
If you tough that Diablo's battling system was okay but to keep hammering the left-click was really annoying after your millionth click then you are gonna like Silver's.
You have five different attacks with your melee weapons, from the forward stab to the wide swipe, plus there are 8 ''bottes'' special techniques.

All this is system is really handy and you will get used to it pretty fast (actually you get used to it in thirty seconds after the tutorial ends and you kill your first soldiers, it soon seems like you did it all your life)
one-on-one boss battles are especially good.

The magic and combined attack system is handy too, it could have been a real pain to efficiently control three characters in real-time battles but Infogrammes did pretty well.

However, Silver has one major drawback:

Its pitiful , awe and scorn inspiring crappy STORYLINE. 2/10!

You incarnate a young knight, David who sets on a journey to retrieve his wife from the evil, powerhungry sorcerer who abducted her in order to sacrifice her.
The story is totally manicheist , good versus evil, black and white,... More, there is almost no character development in this game: you meet other heroes, talk with them, they say ''okay I don't know you but I'm gonna join you to kill someone I don't know because he is evil'' and voila, you have total control over them.

The storyline is really something that kills Silver's rating, you sometime wish David get his ass kicked real bad by a baddy to teach him a lesson, but no it never happens, the game is always about how good triumphs from evil.

So Silver is a great game on the shape, with very good graphics sounds and gameplay , you will really enjoy playing it , but it is totally blew off by a really crappy storyline even a 4-year-old will find annoying.

Overall note: 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/19/01, Updated 07/19/01