Silver (1999)

Silver, released in 1999, is a role-playing game on the PC, Dreamcast and Macintosh. The game was produced by Infogrames initially on the PC, and later on the Dreamcast. The story focuses around a young warrior called David and his quest to retrieve his wife from the clutches of the villain Silver. On his journey he gains a number of followers and visits many different landscapes. The game sold over 400,000 copies.

The game features polygonal 3D characters drawn against a pre-rendered 2D background. The character design is inspired from Manga/Anime culture. The battle system of Silver is notable for being completely real-time opposed to many similar light role-playing games, which usually have turn-based combat. The player may choose any character in his adventuring party to control, and the rest of the characters are handled automatically by AI. The story focuses largely on collecting eight magic orbs representing different elements, which are Fire, Ice, Health, Earth, Acid, Lightning, Time and Light. Each orb is located at an area themed around the orb, and the player may use the collected orbs to cast different kind of spells against his enemies.

The game was distributed with PCs sold by Tiny Computers, a computer company based in England, founded in 1990 which went into administration in 2002, and was very well received by players.

The Scene
'Silver' takes place in the island region of Jarrah, commonly known as the 'Wheel Of Life' for the fact that it is shaped like a wheel. It consists of seven islands, but nine locations in all.

Verdante Verdante is in the top-right corner of Jarrah. It's even more fertile than Haven, but its forests have been burned away or turned into swampland by battles against Silver. David's house, a monastery, and many forests await here. It is home to the Lightning orb.

Haven Haven lies on the center of Jarrah. It is a very fertile island, and has a lot of flora and fauna. In the center lie the Oracle's Tower and the Rebel Camp (you can change your party here). Later on in the game, the Time orb is found.

Gno Gno is an island which houses nothing more but a big library with a large telescope at the top of it. This library (the Library Of Gno) also has caverns underneath it, and, in the beginning of the game, has a lot of trouble with imps.

Rain A large, dark city sits on Rain. It always rains here. Important places here are Chains, Silver's dungeon, and the pub. The fire orb is found in a wizard's tower and the Acid/Poison orb is found in the sewers.

Winter Winter is covered in snow and ice and is a key area in the game, although not a large one. It houses two orbs (Ice and Earth) and has caverns underneath, and a big castle (property of Glass, Silver's daughter).

Spires Spires is an underwater cathedral near Rain, which is Atlantis-themed. The enemies in Spires look like amphibians. The Healing Orb can be found here while battling a poison dragon.

Deadgate Deadgate is the realm of the dead. When a person dies, their ghost will be sent to Deadgate until their deaths are avenged.

Atro Atro is the northern exterior of Deadgate and it is a industrious realm where the final orb is found (light) after defeating the lady of light and her invisible minions, it is by far the most minor and unknown location in all of Jarrah.

Metalon The last island visited in the game, and the location of Silver's palace. As its name suggests, the city that covers the entire island is made completely out of metal, with the exception of Silver's palace. The island is pitted with rivers of blood, the source of Silver's power. The player can only reach this island by being teleported there by Silver's daughter, Glass. Once the player is teleported there, they cannot leave.

User Interface (PC version)
The game uses pie menus that open around the mouse cursor and let the player select different items or submenus by choice of a wedge in the pie menu.

The player character can be controlled by use of the mouse. Apart from point-clicking to make the character walk, this includes masking attack moves as mouse gestures in (real-time) battles.