Silent Scope

"Too silent for me..."

The difference between playing at home and playing at an arcade is, when you play at the arcade, you actually... 'fight' you're hardest to win the game. Why would you fight harder at an arcade than at home? Because at the arcade, your money is on the line. The game 'Silent Scope' draws its ''suspense'' side of the action from the arcade... You just wanna get that last guard to finish the stage before you run out of time... and, ultimately, waste your money. When, you rent/buy this game for home use, you have nothing on the line. You know that if you die, you can simply press the ''X'' button, and start over where you began, at no price to you, whatsoever. This game draws it's ''action'' from the ''suspense'' of losing your money... 'wasting your money'. It makes you feel more like your actually 'inside' the game. It makes you feel like you're actually the nameless sniper that fights through the Silent Scope setting. You're losing your money, if you die. The nameless sniper, is losing his life.

Which makes the point of: 'This game just ain't for free'. Silent Scope is a game, that you basically MUST play in the arcade for some sort of material thing called ''money'' to actually gain any enjoyment from it whatsoever.

Now that I've gotten that little psychological point across, I can start on the technical stuff...

Graphics 5/10

The graphics are mediocre. They aren't as good as the arcade version, but slightly better than the Dreamcast one. The character models are really very bland and seem to need a little, detail added to them. You'll occasionally find yourself in a mix up of slowdown, or maybe a little pop-up. And, of course, theres the infamous... um, thing were the models sort of mix together. It's like a guy will walk right through another guy. You see that in a lot of games, but it seems with 'his greatness' the all-powerful PLAYSTATION..2, they could actually be rid themselves and us, of that little annoyance. But, other than that, the graphics are... mediocre.

Sound 3/10

Re-Re-Re-Re-Re-petetive. I thought I heard someone saying that 2MB of sound memory was like a million cubic miles of space. Well, if its really so much hows come every single soldier/boss that the nameless sniper kills, moans the exact same... ''moan''. The music isn't, well, I really didn't even notice any music actually, but, If it is there, I'm sure its... mediocre.

Gameplay 8/10

The gameplay is very straightforward. You just sit in a sniper ''space'' and pick off targets like grapes off of a tree. The game uses the familiar zoom-in target thingy that snipes in on your victim and helps you take em out. The game really isn't as bad as you would imagine because of the absence of the.. ''big gun''. The controller makes up for it very well, and in some instances, I actually liked it better! The storyline is one of those generic 'off the top of your head-we gotta make this game and release it in the arcades so we can make money, money, money' kinda things. And, of course the characters all have stupid names, but I actually thought that as a good thing. I mean, If the enemy has a stupid name you don't like it will just propel you more to do your best and kill him easier. But, the gameplay is very enjoyable, although it can be tiring after 2+ hours of play. Believe Me.

Replay Value 1/10

After you beat the game, I recommend finding your nearest EB World/Babbage's/anyplace that pays for used games and go trade it in for cash before you get mad one day and find some worthless thing to break, consequentially, finding Silent Scope, breaking it in half, and... BOOM ...there goes a 'could've been cash credit to a really cool game store' right down the drain. What I'm really saying here is, this game has no replay value whatsoever. I'm surprising myself now that I have a 3/10 for the replay value score. Well, now that I think about it, I think I'll change it to a 1.

OK, that'd be the end of my review. So, I hope that this helped you in making your decision of ''UNLESS YOUR LIKE A HARDCORE ARMY SNIPER GUY FAN (like me!)THEN DON'T BUY THIS GAME'' Period. And NO, I'm not a woman. Heh, get it? Period, heh, woman... Get it? ::laughs::

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 06/25/01, Updated 06/25/01