A long time ago, I bought an unofficial PlayStation magazine because it came with a VHS hype-reel for the soon to be released PlayStation 2. From memory (because I sadly no longer have it, nor any way of playing it, and YouTube only has similar videos, not the one I'm thinking of), it had footage of TimeSplitters, Unreal Tournament, Metal Gear Solid 2 and Silent Scope, among other games - I would hope.
The fact that I still have mental images of an arcade shooter set behind the scope of a sniper rifle floating in my head must mean that seeing this game had an impact on me. Perhaps I wanted to play it, like, a lot. I don't remember wanting to play it a lot. I remember damn near everything else on that video being more interesting, in fact.
Fast forward to right now, and Silent Scope 2: Dark Silhouette comes up on the 1001 list. Huh. It can't be that good a game, can it?
Frustrations
I am emulating the PlayStation 2 port of this arcade title, and I'm doing that despite the fact that the 1001 write up for this title clearly mentions to avoid the home console ports at all cost. I can't avoid them. They're all I have.
Why are we to avoid anything but the original arcade cabinet? Because the original arcade cabinet comes with a big sniper rifle on a swivel, whose scope contains a teeny LCD screen which matches up with the graphics on the screen. Use the main screen to line your rifle up, and the scope to perfect the shot.
Genius.
So imagine that whatever you see inside a scope in the following images is actually taking place on a second screen inside a toy gun. Imagine how much better that would be than this rubbish on its own.
Like all arcade shooters, the plot of Dark Silhouette is complete bonkers, but you can move through it from two different perspectives, that of a guy called Jackal, or a guy called Falcon. They don't have much more character than whatever bio you see on the screen, so take whichever one you like.
Some documents are going to be stolen on Tower Bridge in the middle of London, in the middle of the day, by clearly armed and dangerous terrorists. As I say: Bonkers.
You control a giant scope across the screen, with handy markers pointing you towards the nearest target you need to deal with. Pop them in whatever body part you like, with more points being rewarded for more useful targets (i.e., the head), and on you move. The clock is ticking and will only briefly refill when you kill an enemy, so the quicker you can line up that headshot, the better.
You can press L1 to zoom out and move across the screen quicker, and with targets clearly marked by colourful threat indicators, you'll not have too much trouble finding something to do.
When the clock runs out, your scope makes it known that you better get your act together. It may look like all these giant red numbers and messages get in the way of things, but they generally don't. The action happens quickly enough that you're already done by the time the warnings become an issue for you.
But the clock still ticks though, and fast.
That's one credit down. I'll have to improve if I'm to actually make any progress through this thing.
The sensitivity of my analogue sticks decided to really make themselves known at this point when I just couldn't put the dot above this guy for love nor money. Eventually, I fluked an input onto his head and finished this mission.
Time passes, and the plot develops, apparently.
In case you aren't sure what an enemy looks like, each mission reminds you of your targets before you begin. The actual objective might as well be ignored. You're not going to recover the terrorist's missile, you're going to keep shooting people until a cutscene triggers. Shoot the right people, remember.
If the situation calls for it, or you're bored, you can no-scope your shots and still get the job done. Remember that enemies with yellow and red flashing warning prompts are more of a threat than anything else, and will shoot you if you don't deal with them.
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| If only... |
Fun Times
Dark Silhouette started to look up in this section. I'd gotten to grips with the controls and the sensitivity a little more, and now it was telling me to shoot something to knock out the lights, and suddenly my scope is now an infrared one, with glowing enemies making my life easier in the dark.
The environment was geared towards no-scopes though, so the thermals weren't used much, but still, I was getting into this game. There's nothing to it - it's mindless action - but it's not too bad.
These days, some folks might have something to say about this particular feature, but this was the one and only time I saw a health recovery pickup if I can call it that, in my time playing. I'll have to make use of it. Wish it refilled the clock, though.
An unexpected boss fight interrupted the clock, involving a fiery blonde. They missed a trick with that choice of hair colour, didn't they?
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| Oh, that's useful information. |
Another credit down. I must aim for the head, and quicker.
There we go. That was practically the first second after inserting my last digital credit. Must have hit the head.
The mission progresses through the snow, on snowmobiles, chasing snowboarding guards. What else can this game throw at us in the name of entertainment?
Another boss fight. Ok. Let's hope I've got enough time on the clock for this guy...
Huzzah.
Final Word
The next level involves a plane that is getting highjacked in broad daylight, but I started with 10 seconds on the clock and there's no way I'd make it, so that was my first run through Silent Scope 2: Dark Silhouette.
Absolutely not a game to hunt down for your PlayStation 2, but a game to look out for in the arcades? I suppose for the gimmick alone that yes, yes it is. Having players pick up a light gun is one method for getting things to feel more important and urgent, and sticking a little screen inside a sniper rifle should then allow players to be engrossed by the game even more.
It probably does feel quite fun to do, but it looks so... cheesy? So basic, so bland, so safe. It's too arcadey for my tastes, but then the whole game revolves around an arcade gimmick, and so it has to be an arcadey looking, feeling, sounding, playing title.
If I happen to come across an arcade cabinet for the Silent Scope series, then I'll make sure to stop and play. But that's the only circumstance in which you'll get anything out of this game. It's not worth your time otherwise. Not even worth looking at from a distance.
Fun Facts
The plot is so engaging that whoever wrote it up for the Wikipedia entry may have immediately fallen asleep upon finishing it.
Silent Scope 2: Dark Silhouette, developed by Konami, first released in 2000.
Version played: PlayStation 2, 2001, via emulation.
Version watched: Arcade, 2000 (Joe's Classic Video Games)