While Konami has done an admirable job attempting to bring its arcade mega–hit, Silent Scope, to the PS2, the lack of the game’s principal appeal — the gun itself — keeps the port from ever being fully realized. A well thought–out control scheme makes the Dual Shock 2 a fine instrument for targeting and killing scores of identical terrorists (Note: Terrorists are evil kids, so shooting them in the head is a–okay!), but the appeal of playing a two–button, repetitive shooting game quickly wears thin. Light–gun games need light guns — end of story.
When the announcement first came that Konami was bringing Silent Scope to the PS2, I was understandably stoked. After all, Silent Scope is one of the coolest arcade games around, even if it’s not particularly deep. What makes the game so much fun in the arcades is the amazing sniper rifle that’s attached to the machine. An intuitive scope and great weight make people gravitate toward it, in fact, as the best light–gun seen for a game.
Well, there’s no gun for the PS2 version. It’s not that there’s no gun packaged with it, it’s that there’s no gun even supported for it. Whether this was in response to the constant media uproar over videogame violence a la Sega’s House of the Dead 2 or a more basic concern with the price of the peripheral, the final product is a game that’s missing the vast majority of its appeal.
The’s game’s storyline is weak, at best, and can best be summed up thus: The president, the first lady and their daughter have all been kidnapped by terrorists. The only way to rescue them is for some brave hero — that’d be you — to pull out a trusty sniper rifle and shoot everyone in the area. The plot is nothing more than background noise to the action, however, and shooting the first lady in the head only results in the loss of one life and a harsh warning not to shoot innocent people. It’s funny how much tougher the first lady is than the legions of baddies, most of whom can be taken out with one shot.
For those people who don’t want to bother with the complicated plot and intricate rules of story mode (shoot everyone except that one person), there are also time attack modes, indoor and outdoor target ranges and a nice tutorial. Each is well done and offers a few more minutes of game play, but in total there’s not more than 30 or 40–minutes of game time on the entire CD. Playing through that half hour or so of ultra violence is actually pretty enjoyable, even without the gun. Silent Scope is rated RP for Rating Pending: Animated violence, animated blood.
The development team has come up with what is perhaps the best control scheme for a gunless light–gun game, using the analog sticks for movement and the shoulder button to activate the scope. This still comes down to a two–button game though, and isn’t something gamers are going to want to go through multiple times.
Graphically, Silent Scope is nice but nothing revolutionary. The style is clearly inspired by the Virtua Cop, series and there’s little if anything to differentiate the PS2 version from the Dreamcast iteration. The characters are large and well animated, though, with great death animations and some nice character design. But, it still boils down to one major fact: Silent Scope is a gun game without a gun, and there’s really no way to get past that one glaring omission.
"Looks like Konami shot themselves in the foot with Silent Scope. "
