A decently fun action game with annoying characters and a weak story.

User Rating: 6.5 | Silent Bomber PS
Silent Bomber is an under the radar action title that has garnered up some cult status among semi-retro gamers and Playstation 1 enthusiasts however I would find this game hard to recommend to any modern casual gamer. The premise is somewhat unique in the sense that you run around planting bombs on enemies and other designated targets before detonating them. Though there are many ways to implement this mechanic in both offensive and defensive ways the action of planting and detonating throughout the entire game becomes tedious and repetitive. The game tries to compensate for a lack of variety by offering different mission types such as: search and destroy, rescue and plain old endurance levels that pit you against waves and waves of enemies. There are some fun boss battles and the many enemy types are sure to keep you on your toes.

The games main story is where it takes a turn for the worse. There are literally no likable characters in the game. Jutah, the main protagonist is a bland and uninteresting individual who blasts his way through missions like a mindless drone all while spouting out one liners about how all he cares about is following orders. While the manual offers some interesting insight on the rest of the characters, the game itself places them as little more than extras to whine and annoy you. The fourteen mission single player campaign is rather short but it will take you some time to complete due to the difficulty and lack of checkpoints (one of my video game pet-peeves).

A major plus of this game is the impressive graphics and full motion videos. The explosions are quite well done which is good because you see them frequently. The voice acting is only well done for the central characters while the others are extremely annoying. The music in the levels are awesome and are reminiscent of the oldschool action genre.