Silent Scope

Silent Scope is the Dreamcast conversion of the arcade hit, supporting the lightgun, mouse or joypad for controlling the action. Personally I prefer to play the game with the mouse finding both the gun and joypad too fiddly for fast-moving shots that need to be accurate also. This, the NTSC-J version is extremely import-friendly with English menus and voices. To improve on the longevity of the game – a typical problem with this genre – Konami have included additional branches to the main story line, plus Training Mode with 3 levels and 4 game types for each to hone your skills. Beware though, this is no blast happy-fest a-la House of the Dead or Virtua Cop, accuracy, patience and speed are all key to beating this title. Shooting when you’re looking through a scope from a moving helicopter at another moving target with a timer running down can be frustrating at first, but once you've a feel for the game controls, it can be conquered.

The visuals are typical for a Dreamcast title, and look lovely on a HD set through VGA still in 2009. Aurally the music fits the changing pace of the action well and even helps add atmosphere and tension to appropriate moments of play. I also found the shooting sound quite satisfying whilst your bullet catches its prey in the crosshairs.

In all, I believe this is a worthy purchase, but is more suited to quick 30min blasts, though that won’t put off fans of this style of game one bit. Given the current price and the barren nature of new shooter releases the originality alone should make this one to add to your collection.