Silverfall

Rating ESRB: Teen Genre role-playing Publisher Atari External Links Official Atari Website

I think it’s important to note, before I get into this review, that I am specifically reviewing the version available for download from the Atari Online Store. In regards to this service, I am highly impressed. Quick, easy, and a constant download speed of 140kbs. After a little over seven hours of downloading (which is not bad considering the game is obscenely huge at 7 gigs) I was ready to install Silverfall. I was practically drooling over a new fantasy adventure to play. Game installed correctly? Check. Meet all requirements to play? Check. Let’s Play! Fail.

As the main loading screen activates and I get ready to enter the character creation window, I can’t help but notice the lovely background of an endless sky that greets me. As I continue on to the character creation screen, I am presented with the black line drawing of a sword and shield floating before me. Quickly moving through the character options, I am confused as to why no model of the character is appearing on screen to join the texture-less weapons. Dread increasing, I make some rapid random choices and log into the game.

After watching a mediocre opening video of the city of Silverfall under siege from an invading evil force (Fantasy adventure plot 01A) my dread is quickly confirmed, as there is no sight of any textured characters in the game. This is immediately followed by the game lagging to the point of rendering the computer unusable and requiring an immediate restart. Despite having a computer that NASA scientists would kill for, it is not impossible that I have the graphics set to high (though highly unlikely). So after resetting the graphics to their lowest resolutions, and with no extra benefits, I tried again. Still no luck on the characters, but that once endless background I so admired has been proven to be a graphical error, as I suddenly find my floating weapons now perched above a textured landscape.

What followed next was a 2-week exploration in discovering why Silverfall refuses to work properly despite meeting the required hardware specifications. Several hours of reading the Atari Forums lead to the discovery that my problem is not a limited occurrence, but appears to be wide spread amongst the gaming populace. Number of solutions provided by Atari: Zero. An update is available for the game, but only if you have a copy bought on disk. As per Atari, installation of the update on a downloaded copy of Silverfall will result in *breaking* your game. At this time an update for the downloaded version of the game is unavailable.

Left to my own devices, I quickly assembled several test computers, each with different processors and graphics cards, in order to combat this situation. Finally, on the last of the test machines, I was able to get the game running properly and with little problem. Through the experimentation, I discovered the true source of the graphical errors. An error in the game results in the characters models actually being rendered sizes that would make Galactus feel insignificant by comparison. This discovery also accounted for the lag generated during the game. With the solutions in hand and a working copy to play, I finally sat down for an enjoyable fantasy adventure experience. Or so I thought.

Since all of the problems I originally suffered with this game are graphical in nature, it is only fair that we start the actual review here. Silverfall attempts to use a cel-shader for all of its character models, while keeping a fairly 3 dimensional model texture on all of the environmental objects. End result? As you can guess, the cel-shading is horrible, and the weird blend of cartoon and semi-realism would make even a blind man weep. My advice to any video game company interested in Cell-shading, go study Bandai’s .hack//G.U. series carefully before you make the same mistakes Silverfall did.

Taking a step back from graphics, let’s talk about the game design. As the player, you are able to customize your character as you progress in the game through the use of Skill Points. There are 3 Core Skills in the game; Combat, Magic, and Other. Each Core Skill has 3 Sub Skills, which each possesses a small tree of linked skills for different abilities. Confused? It’s actually easier then it sounds, and is set up rather intuitively for the player.

One of the unique aspects is under the Other tree, which provides you access to Racial Abilities, Natural Abilities, and Technological Modifications. As you accept quests in the game, you will be provided certain opportunities to help the Natural World, or embrace the advances of Technology. You can only access abilities from either tree when your Balance Meet is far enough to either the Nature or Technology side to access the powers. There are many benefits to both, such as Lycanthrope and Cybernetics, but in the end, none of the skills really mean anything towards game play.

While a lot of detail was put into the Skill System, the entire game can be broken by the maximization of 2 basic skills: Arcane Missile and Frost Sphere. Arcane Missile is a default attack that all characters have, and can be boosted rather quickly allowing you to fire 5 missiles per shot, causing havoc to waves of enemies or greater damage to a single foe. Frost Sphere, as the name implies, freezes any enemy it hits for a limited amount of time, making it impossible for your character to be attacked. Combined, these two powers can devastate large groups or even Bosses with little damage to the player.

Controls are centered on the mouse, which is used for every aspect of the game. To move, you click on the location in the world you wish to travel to and your character walks to that point. Attacks are controlled with the mouse, requiring left clicks for basic attacks and right clicks for your more advanced powers. Even looting comes down to clicking on the items that go flying when another undead body hits the ground. Thankfully, the game designers realized one of their faults on their own, and hard to find treasure is marked by a steady stream of smoke to indicate its location on the ground. After 5 hours of non stop playing you’ll be happy to note a steady increase in your levels, a bag full of loot, and a sever cramp in your hand.

The story of Silverfall is as basic as you can get. Beautiful city is destroyed by hordes of undead creatures and must be reclaimed by the cities rightful populace. As the hero, you accept quests in order to make the new settlement a safer place for all while building towards the fateful day when you can reclaim your city. What this translates to in game mechanics is nothing short of an endless array of hack and slash. Most of the quests are uninspired, requiring you to walk, or more likely, kill your way to the final location before returning to the quest giver with little to no actual story development involved. The music is as unimpressive as the story, leaving nothing spectacular within my memory to even warrant further discussion.

Overall, Silverfalll for the PC (Download Edition) is an unimpressive hack and slash expedition that wasn’t worth the hassle required to get it to play. For those of you still interested in the game, I highly recommend making sure you own EXACTLY the hardware listed on the requirements page, as any other versions of the requested hardware will more than likely result in failure. As for me, I’m going to go play .hack//G.U. Vol 2. It may be hack and slash, but at least it has a solid story and a breathtaking cel-shader.