Retro Japanese-style RPG (Silver (PC))

Member Name: mchitty

Product:	Silver (PC)
Date:	26/10/08 (542 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Real time combat, no annoying random encounters

Disadvantages: Controlling a group is hard, dated graphics

Silver is an action RPG that came out nearly 10 years ago on the PC. By today's standards, you would think that Silver would be incredibly dated - I mean that's a long time ago, right? And most people will probably have never heard of it.

Well, I mean, I'm not going to lie, the game is a bit dated, especially graphically. But there's something about it that has stood the test of time for me, in a way other games haven't. There were quite a few Action RPGs out around this time. Remember Revenant? Yes, that was rubbish (stop me if you disagree!) How about Nox? Actually, that was great multiplayer fun... anyway I digress.

Silver is a japanese-style action-RPG-adventure. The appeal to me is the combination of real time combat, without the random / just plain dull environments you'd see in games like Diablo. The environments are nicely made and varied. And real time combat means that unlike most japanese RPGs, you won't be whisked away every ten seconds into a turn-based fight with two bouncing pumpkins and a pink scorpion with mouse ears. Ahh, sweet relief.

The storyline is fairly basic. Hero is normal guy, girl gets kidnapped by evil wizard, normal guy learns to be a hero and rescues the girl. One of the great things about Silver is the combination of plot-based elements with the experience/stats from RPGs. Levelling up happens at key points in the plot are reached. This means that you can't win the game by spending 2 weeks killing boars in the starting area,South Park style.

This is pretty cool though, because you get the geekish joy of stats and levels (I love 'em!) but you're not a slave to them, and you can really just choose to ignore them. There are countless RPG's where I've had to take a storyline break and go out huntin' wabbits for 3 hours, to level my characters up so they stand even the slightest chance against the next boss.

The combat is pretty fun, and not overly complex. You basically get a choice of around 5 different attacks, each with a different purpose, controlled with the mouse and keyboard. You also accrue a party of adventurers, although controlling them all at once can be a bit crazy. Baldur's Gate introduced the concept of pausing combat to give orders - if Silver had this feature, it would be a quick and significant improvement.

The graphics are dated, yes, but the polygonal characters are animated nicely, and although the backgrounds are basically drawn and static (Think FinalFantasy VII), they are pretty and the atmosphere is compelling throughout the game.

Overall, Silver is definitely worth a go if you're an RPG fan. It's a unique game that seems to now be lost, but if you can pick it up somewhere, I defintely recommend giving it a shot.

Summary: Long forgotten, Silver is still worth a go.