"A Minimalist Game The Everybody Should at Least Try"

My Thoughts on... Silver
Developer: Spiral House - Publisher: Infogrames (Atari)

This is one of those games that you either love or you hate. What little discourse there is on this obscure game is very polarized. It seems to be an adventure game with a dash of RPG thrown in for good measure. It makes for a curious combination.

Graphics
This game uses a strange combination of very attractive backgrounds with very roughly designed characters. One of the first things you will notice about this game is the fact that nothing moves outside of the characters on the screen. It looks like everything else is on a piece of cardboard and therefore doesn't budge. No swaying trees or billowing smokestacks. When there is water it does tend to ripple about, but not much more than that. The characters are extremely jagged and rough and as such are not very attractive. However, the static backgrounds are very nice to look at, and are drawn with a surprising amount of detail.

Because of the attractiveness of the backgrounds, I give the graphics - 4/5

Sound
The music in this game is pretty good. It suits the environments and is often quite "hummable". In addition to the fine music Silver has (what I think) is some of the best voice-overs I have ever experienced in a video game. The voices are clear, interesting, and read from a pretty good script. Sound effects are not so great. They are mostly unexciting and not much to talk about. All in all though, the sound experience in this game is excellent.

Good voice-overs. Good music. - 5/5

Gameplay
This is where I would imagine people become polarized in their opinions on this game. For one thing, combat consists of a clunky combination of control stick manipulation, "R" pressing, and using one or two of the colored buttons. There are different ways to attack an enemy; horizontal, vertical, quick slash, and pierce. Depending on what weapon you use, different techniques are more effective than others. You can also equip a shield, but usually it is more of a hindrance than a help. You can easily make your way through the game without a one.

Magic consists of using either a spell or a magical artifact to send a blob of magic energy towards your enemy. Magic energy is broken into different elements, and as such different elements are better against certain enemies. Magic is constantly being regenerated, but you may come across a magic orb which will completely, or nearly, fill your magic meter. Not bad things, except there are so few spells. Also, you can only have one spell equipped on one person at a time (so you can't have the same spell on multiple people).

Your team consists of up to three people with different special abilities. One guy is a real powerhouse with physical attacks, one is a pro with long range weapons. Despite this there are only about four or five people you can pick up to be on your team. You can toggle control from your lead character to any of the others with a push of the control pad. However, the other members generally get along fine without your assistance. The main thing about fighting is make sure you have the most recent weapon equipped. Nothing else effects your attack power...only the type of weapon you have.

One huge issue I have with this game is the meager number of...well...everything. The number of spells, weapons, and accessories can be counted on your fingers (each category can be). There is little point in money because you rarely get a chance to buy anything. Most everything you will ever need can be picked up from the slain enemies. Healing your team generally means eating some food that you may have acquired during combat. This is in fact the only way of getting health back unless you happen to have one of the magic spell orbs. Saving your game requires you to track down the Chronicler. He generally appears right before bosses and after large numbers of enemies were slain.

The levels generally are one-way-only streets where you progress in many consecutive steps (room by room) as supposed to having one large cohesive area. One thing that can get annoying if you let it is the Loading screen. Whenever you go onto a new room (even if you are going back into one you've already visited) you have to wait for it to load up. It doesn't take more than two or three seconds, but it can get old when you have to look at it every single time.

All in all...I've played better...but it's not THAT bad - 3/5

Story
The story for this game is rather blah. Silver (the ever popular evil emperor) has taken the lead character's wife (along with many other women) to enslave them in his tower. Your job is to collect all the magic orbs before Silver does. Else wise Silver will be able to call a really powerful demon spirit thing to destroy the world. You're also trying to get the women back, but that takes a backseat to the orbs. See what I mean...not much too it.

Really nothing that I already haven't heard - 3/5

Replay
Basically...once you've played through it once there isn't anything you missed that will make you want to play again real soon. There are no hidden rooms, optional characters or anything else that you might have missed along your way. It's even unlikely that you would have missed any weapons or artifacts. The folks at Spiral House apparently don't like having to run around finding things.

See above - 2/5

THE VERDICT
If I told you that it finished up as a 68/100 you might get scared off. Please don't let this less than stellar score make you re-think about picking this game up. It's an interesting game that certainly could have been better, but as it is, it's a pretty good game. Don't drop a fortune on it, but pick up a copy if you can get one fore less than ten dollars.

A minimalist game that everybody should at least try. - 68/100

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/27/04