Silent Scope was one of the coolest Arcade machines I ever spent money on in the Arcade with the sniper rifle attachment. The fact that you could peer through the sniper scope to blow away a target high on a rooftop or even on the street was a cool idea. Once I found this game in the store, I couldn't pass it up, even though there was no rifle attachment that you could use with this version of the game. The storyline has stayed the same, in which the presidential family is in danger from terrorists, and you must save them through different scenarios that progress from the city rooftops, to a stadium, to a high-rise complex!
Everything that was in the Arcade original, is back in the Dreamcast version of Silent Scope, including the sometimes cheap moving enemies can cause massive damage before you've gotten a clean shot off. Some of the worst action comes with the fast-moving stages, where you have to have precision and lighting fast reflexes to pop off shots at the right time to not hit a bystander, and then trying to knock off the bosses in certain stages can cause headaches, because the scope moves too slow for accurate shooting! However, you’ll find that picking off your targets can be easy enough if you simply aim for a head shot. A headshot gives you not only a sure-fire kill, but it also improves your point total as you move through the game. If you’re slowly running out of life, you can always try and find a skimpy clothed woman that you can focus your sight on and collect a small life bonus. This adds a little bit of an advantage to your game, but can detract from your attention if you’ve got roving terrorists to fire on
One bonus is the addition of stages on the shooting range, that allows you to go through more than just the indoor course. This makes for a better accuracy training course, allowing you to learn how to use the riflescope to make faster snipes without taking damage. You're working against the clock, and you'll find that this does help for the Story Mode. Through this, you'll be able to unlock certain things for in game use if your accuracy is up to par. Also, as you play through, you’ll find that the shooting range quickens your reflexes for the regular game, and in certain points, you’ll need this bit of training just to get through the bosses and otherwise!
Possibly the best feature of the game, Silent Scope for Dreamcast offers up the same view as the arcade version did with very few changes to the way it is enacted on-screen. Every motion, every stage, and every detail have been re-created for the home use, but with the change being that you now have to bring up the riflescope to do fine sniping from great distances. This will throw some people off, but die-hard gamers will find that nothing much has changed from it's Arcade counter-part! Some of the key points of the visuals comes with the aerial views and locations that you have to take in order to fight some of the boss battles. The game has even taken it to the level of including the motioning of the helicopter that you’re sitting in while sniping and it does take a little getting used to in order to work with the different views! If you need to slow down some of the visuals, there is an option that allows you to slow down and increase your point of view through the sniper scope.
There are some key elements missing here, including some of the sound bytes that you would have found like the radio transmissions from time to time when you miss, or the fact that the bullets when they miss don't whine like they did in the Arcade! This can make for some serious complaint, even though the music is re-created for listening pleasure. Most of the sounds are still here, but those that made the game seem so real, are missing, or are clear enough to discern from regular background noise. With a good audio setup, you can hear the thumping of the helicopter blades as they move when in some of the different battles, and even the screeching of the tires on some of the levels comes out with real to life clarity! Now, Silent Scope was never real big on the music, so whatever you do hear will pretty much make you feel as though you’re in an action movie instead of a game.
One of the worst features of the game has got to be the controls. You don't have the sniper rifle attachment, which isn't bad, but the loose and squirrelly control of using the in-game scope can be very tricky. Veteran gamers will find that using the shoulder button to bring up the scope, and then the analog stick to move it can cause some pretty finger twisting situations, and to top it all off, the scope moves at a very slow rate! Be prepared for a steep learning curve of getting off head-shots and other various target shooting because with a slow moving scope, you'll find that you take more damage than you give out, especially in fast moving stages such as the Stadium or the Freeway.
It's got visuals and some of the sound, but it lacks the most in terms of gameplay and control. Without the rifle attachment, this game is just another first person shooter that tries to cash in on it's Arcade counter-part with some disastrous effect. You'll find that the game itself isn't that bad, and wouldn't be that bad if the fact that you had to use the button controlled rifle sight wasn't such a factor in the game! Rent this one first to see if you like it or you'll be wasting money on a game that can be, in some ways, too hard to play on the home system and play effectively enough like you would in the arcade.
7/10
//KasketDarkfyre
