| Silent Scope I bet a lot of people thinks being a sniper would be cool, well now you can as Konami bring in the bullet�� Sniping must be a difficult job in the battlefield, you have got to stay calm and be brave, one miss could spell disaster for you. Silent Scope is a conversion from the arcades, where your job is to kill to save the president and his family. The above is the basic story but it does contain a few characters which are nasty, such as Cobra: a rival to you who never gives up in the race of death, Hornet is also a nasty piece of work, who is in fact an enemy sniper that wants to beat you to the trigger first, reminds me of a certain book called �Holding The Zero� which is about a sniper duel to the death, and is written by Gerald Seymour. There is more characters to help build the plot, but I will keep quiet about those ones. The story is told with still pictures and words, which isn�t a too strong idea for PS2 but who cares it�s mostly about killing rather then storyline. The actual game is original, it has never really been attempted before a sniper game. Each level requires pace and accuracy as you are always up against the clock, which adds a load of tension in to the game. The first level is in a city and requires quick shots=quick kills to reach the next level. Other levels include forests, hotels and two of my personal faves are the American football stadium which requires you to save the Presidents daughter by killing Cobra from a helicopter, and a nice touch of this level is the game going on below forcing you to be careful with your shots, If Cobra gets away you have to take chase in a jeeps passenger seat, which brings us on to my next fave level. This level is probably the best in the game, enemies shoot from other vehicles, forcing you to shoot back and forcing them to fall from the vehicles, shoot one on to the road, and watch as your jeep makes a satisfying bump over the corpse, which may make you feel a little sick but still satisfying, it�s a fast level and needs a lot of concentration as your targets are moving, SPOILER= when you finally finish Cobra to your surprise he will return in a massive truck towards you, so it requires careful planning and targeting to first take the window out and then an accurate head shot, which will topple the truck over SPOILER FINISHED. Helicopters are some of the harder enemies to take out as they hover around, but when you do bring them down, it�s a very satisfying explosion. How about the graphics? They are really good, the places are all visible through your scope, unlike a certain game by the name of Medal of honour which I can forgive because it isn�t a sniper game. The city below looks very impressive and again is very clear, and contains parked cars and police shoot outs below, and other things such as buildings or telephone boxes. The enemies are also impressive, and if you have the gore turned on, it will splatter to the ground as you shoot them. The corpses stay visible and so do the blood stains which is great, as Timesplitters had neither. The gameplay is fast and furious, shoot an enemy and you will get some more time added to the clock and some points too. You can even kill two at the same time if you get it right. Find a women in a window and your character will say �wow� and you�ll get an extra life for being a pervert. Being against the clock makes it difficult but exciting, but maybe it demands a little too much from you, with so little power and credits to play with. Silent Scope is refreshing originality to the genre, but trust me it requires patience and I don�t think the fun of being a one gun guy will last forever, rent it and colour the locations red. Chris Wigham 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 |