Silverfall

platforms = Windows, PlayStation Portable
media = 1 DVD,
requirements = 2.8 GHz CPU, (512 MB RAM ), 128 MB video card RAM, 8X DVD drive, DirectX 9.0, 10 GB available hard disk space, Windows XP
input = Keyboard, mouse

"Silverfall" is a "hack and slash" computer role-playing game, developed by software company Monte Cristo for Windows. It is available in English, French and German. A port has been made for PlayStation Portable.

An expansion for the Windows version of the game, entitled "Silverfall: Earth Awakening", was released in 2008. "Silverfall: Gold Edition" was also released in 2008, containing the main game as well as the expansion.

Overview

"Silverfall" shares many similarities with popular games, "Diablo" and "Diablo 2". It also has strong influences from "Sacred". Players choose a character from one of four races (Human, Elf, Troll, Goblin) and develop their "class" (fighter, archer, mage, etc.) by assigning various skills as they level up. Characters can be either male or female, and gameplay will differ slightly based on the selection.

"Silverfall" is a quest-based game which centers around a conflict between nature and technology, allowing players to develop an allegiance to one of these areas, which allows development of additional skills and the ability to use certain alignment-based items. However, there is no 'good' or 'evil' side to aligning with either technology or nature, as both will have quests that require the player to perform dubious and altruistic acts. A 'nature' player may be asked to kill the overseer of a group of workers who no longer want to pollute the world with their factory, and a 'technology' player may be asked to exploit natural resources that will result in a loss of the livelihood of a nearby people. At the same time, either player may be asked to promise a union leader a bribe in order to break up a strike, to the detriment of his fellow workers.

On 14 May 2007, a PSP version of Silverfall was announced [http://www.silverfall-game.com/en/game-psp.php] .

Companions

Players have the ability to take on companions and summon various creatures (such as zombies, lost souls, robots and elementals) to assist them in their quests.

Known companions include:
* Morka (Female Troll - ice magic/healer); aka "Morka the Good" - found in Refugee Camp
* Gort (Male Troll - "tank" fighter); aka "Lord Gort" - found in Graybay
* Danselame (Male Elf - fighter/berserker) - found in swamp, near elf village
* Alina (Female Elf - fire magic) - found on road in wilderness
* Portix (Male Goblin - archer) - found in Druid village
* Dril (Female Goblin - mechalchemist); aka "Dril the Mechalchemist" - found in Cloudworks
* Tanya (Female Human - guns) - found in Cloudworks Desert
* Hulart (Male Human - air magic) - found in Gaian wilderness

All companions require that some quest be performed before they will join the player's party, and depending on the player's attitude towards them throughout the game they may offer more quests. They will also initiate dialogues at various moments throughout the adventure, volunteering information on the area and/or their backstory.

kills

Skills are broken up in to 3 main categories:
* melee and ranged combat (further divided into melee, ranged, technique)
* use of magic (further divided into elemental, light, shadow)
* racial and alignment (further divided into nature, technology, race)

Each of these 9 sub-categories comes with its own "skill tree" for the player to choose from. Players receive 4 skill points each time they gain a level, and can add them to the skills of their choice. Each individual skill can have a maximum of 10 points.

Attributes

Players receive 4 attribute points each time they gain a level, and can add them to the attributes of their choice. the four attributes are strength, constitution, agility and intelligence. Items can also be used to modify attributes.As with most role-playing games, these four attributes have a direct impact on the way the player's character evolves. Spending points in agility will increase their effectiveness with a bow, spending points in strength will increase their damage with melee weapons.Intelligence directly affect the amount of 'Power' the character has to spend on magic and special attacks and Constitution directly affects the amount of health the character has.

Equipment

Items can be found as loot from killing monsters, bought from merchants or won as quest rewards. All items range in quality from ordinary to unique, as well as ranging in level (i.e. an item may be short sword level 38 ultimate). A particular item's level and quality is highly dependent on the area obtained and the character's level, rarely ranging far from the characters level at the time they obtain the item.

In the players inventory, and the inventories of their companions, there are slots for body armour, gloves, boots, a backpack, an earring, a necklace, a ring, a helmet, ranged weapons and two hand weapon slots, the off-hand slot of which can be used for either a secondary weapon or a shield. The player has the ability to decide what is in these slots not only on their own character, but on both of their companions, though all items not in use are kept in a 'communal' inventory, rather than three individual inventories. The equipment a character can equip is dependent not only on their strength, but also on their allegiance, ie. A nature player cannot equip technological implants.

Quests

"Silverfall", like most other RPGs, has both campaign quests essential to the storyline and optional, secondary quests. NPC's offering quests will show up on the mini-map as green dots, and a green arrow on the mini-map will show the direction the player needs to go in to complete the selected secondary quest. Secondary quests are beneficial for the experience the character receives for completing them, the rewards offered, the loyalty shifts between nature and technology and the possibility of companions joining. Campaign quests are given to the character by plot central NPCs, such as the child of the Archmage of "Silverfall" whom the PC meets at the beginning of the game. The arrows for these quests show up as yellow on the mini-map and generally have smaller rewards than those offered by secondary quests.

Plot

The plot of "Silverfall" begins with the city of Silverfall being destroyed by an unnamed evil force, later identified as the Shadow Mage. This section of the game is considered the tutorial, as the Player assumes the identity of the Archmage of Silverfall in defense of the city, rather than their own character, and pop-ups explain the basic workings of the game.At the end of the tutorial, the Archmage is killed by the as-yet-unnamed evil, which then possesses the Archmage's body.

The Player then finds themselves in control of their own character in the middle of a camp of refugees from the fallen Silverfall. At the request of the Archmage's child (their sex depending on that of the player character, always the opposite thereof) the player must undertake basic quests in the surrounding swamp to protect the camp, find supplies, etc. The Archmage's child has known the player for years, and some sort of romantic involvement is hinted at in some of the dialogues.With the safety of the refugee camp established, the PC is asked to go to the city of Cloudworks, a technologically-aligned city in the middle of a desert, in search of the Archmage. After settling the strike occurring, the player is granted access to Upper Cloudworks, where the king requests they investigate a noble who has been acting oddly. After storming her house, the player finds she was also corrupted by the Shadow Mage, and is sent to the robot factory to face-off the possessed Archmage of Silverfall. The killing blow is struck by the Archmage's son/daughter who managed to find their way through the robot factory before the player, but took no steps to confront the Shadow Mage until the player arrived (for the added drama, it would seem). The Shadow Mage then leaves the Archmage's body and possess the Archmage's child.

The player character then returns to the ruined Silverfall to find the water supply has been contaminated by the living dead summoned by the Shadow Mage, and must be purified by Gaian druids who can be found to the North. Unfortunately, the druid have their own problems, with the holy water needed to purify Silverfall's supplies only available in a cave inhabited by beastmen. The player must fight their way through the cavern to the Chieftain of the Beastmen, who refuses to supply the needed water until the undead are cleaned out of their caves. After the player has completed this task, they must return to the Gaian druids for the water to be blessed. As the player arrives, the druid's village is being raided by elves corrupted by the influence of the Shadow Mage, and the player must kill the sorcerer in charge of the raid. After this victory, the druids agree to bless the water, but ask that the player character kill the Prince of the corrupt Elves to prevent further attacks.

The player is then forced to fight their way into the heart of the Corrupt Elves' camp and slay the Prince, who with his dying breath explains the Shadow had promised him victory over the druids who had banished him so he would again have a land for his people. The Archmage's child then appears (now corrupted by the Shadow Mage) and ask the player to join them, but the player must refuse in light of the suffering of the people of Silverfall. Returning to the druids results in the player receiving the water to cleanse Silverfall's supplies. Unfortunately, the cleansing of the city's water supply isn't the last hurtle on the way to rebuilding Silverfall. Upon returning to the city, the player finds the king has been killed, the crown stolen, and the princess kidnapped. So the player's next action is to hunt down the attackers, apparently based in Greybay.

The player can then choose one of two ways to reach Greybay: (1) to be transported directly to the Greybay docks, which results in a fierce battle, or (2) to walk, which takes much longer but avoids the heaviest fighting. Once in the Greybay docks, the player must fight their way through the ship belonging to the Princess' kidnappers and kill the captain. On his body, directions are found to the Necroraider graveyard where the Princess is being held. Once more, the player manages to fight their way through hordes of monsters to their goal: the crypt of the creator of the Necroraiders, Iznahel.

Upon entering the crypt, the player is met by a ghost, revealed to be Iznahel, who taunts the player with words apparently from the Archmage of Silverfall's corrupted child. The spectre is met twice more before revealing the Princess has been turned into a ghoul, which the player must defeat, at which point Iznahel himself attacks. Upon his death (or 'dissipation' as he is already dead and attacks the player as a ghost), the player finds records regarding the Shadow Mage that has been plaguing Silverfall. These records reveal, amongst other things, that a way to destroy the Shadow was created, and is now kept in the nearby, snow-bound duchy of Steelight.

The player must then fight their way through a snowy wilderness to find the small town of Steelight. However, once there, it is no simple matter getting ahold of the stone necessary to defeat the Shadow Mage. The current Duke of Steelight's health is rapidly ailing, and his mother fears for the continuity of their bloodline. She asks the player to find her son's illegitimate heir, whom she exiled several years before, in exchange for the stone to save the Archmage of Silverfall's child. With little choice but to accept, the player must find their way through an icy labrynith inhabited by 'ice fairies', to find the child's mother. Once the child's mother is located, she tells the player that her son has been kidnapped by the frozen fey, and the player must then track him down.

Returning to the labyrinth, the player slaughters scores of fiends, and tracks down the heir to Steelight's duchy, finding he was, in fact, being used by the king of the ice fairies as a vessel of some sort. Once the child is rescued, the player returns to Steelight and is granted access to the ancestral tomb of Steelight's ruling family. Which has, unfortunately, been taken over by the restless dead.

The player then fights their way to the grave of the founder of Steelight, to find he has returned as a ghost, drawn back by the terrible happenings that began in Silverfall. The player receives the stone to cleanse the Archmage of Silverfall's child from the corruption of the shadow. Conveniently, the player doesn't have to track their childhood companion down, as they appear on the scene and beg the player not to 'kill' them with the stone. The player, however, ignores the shadow and proceeds to save their friend, who just has time to say a heartfelt thank you before the King of Darkness arrives and kills them. The player attacks in a rage, but the mastermind behind Silverfall's destruction and the many other schemes the player has tried to thwart manages to escape, talking about bring the God of Destruction into the world.

With little left for the player to do but stop the impending destruction of the world, the player returns to Silverfall, and is told the only way to stop the summoning of the God of Destruction is to travel underneath the mountains and find the evil, subterranean dwarves in league with the King of Darkness and kill him before he can complete the ritual.

The passage under the mountains, however, has been overrun by gigantic hostile insects, which the player must fight through to find the dwarven city. The dark king is creating a portal in the dwarven palace, and even though the player mortally wounds him, he manages to escape through it to Blaize, the capital city, where he plans to use the temple to summon the God of Destruction. The player follows him through, to find Silverfall and her allies have gathered and are about to launch a frontal assault, during which the player might just be able to fight their way to the temple to defeat the King once and for all.

After cutting their way through wave upon wave of shadow knights and magma beasts, the player reaches the temple just as the Shadow King is nearing the end of the ritual, and witnesses the Avatar of the God of Destruction kill him, and turn on the player. The player defeats the avatar in an epic battle, and is declared the King or Queen of the land (because "who else would rule?"). The final movie shows all the major settlements happily recovered and the land prospering.

Other comparable games for the PC

* Diablo and Diablo II
* Dungeon Siege
* Fable
* Neverwinter Nights
* Nox
* Revenant
* Sacred
* Throne of Darkness
* Titan Quest

References

External links

* [http://www.silverfall-game.com/ Official website]
* [http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/933179.asp GameRankings.com Reviews]
* [http://diginews.name/gaming/?p=126 DigiGaming Review]
* [http://scarylogic.com/silverfall.php Listing of skills and levels]