Silent Storm: Sentinels demo for Windows

The original Silent Storm broke new ground with its Action Point system. It's not for gamers with short attention spans--the ability to control every action of each member of your squad created endless possibilities. The demo for the standalone expansion Silent Storm: Sentinels employs the same gameplay but takes the action into the years directly after World War II. Lags and choppy action prevented Sentinels from earning our top rating, but the demo still offers an excellent alternative to real-time strategy games.

You play the three-mission demo as an American sniper. She's a new member of a group of mercenaries known as Sentinels, who work outside the government to counter a malicious organization called Thor's Hammer. After stocking your squad's arsenal, you enter the mission proper, where you use Action Points to run, shoot, crawl, and sneak through windows. Each action uses some of your total; when you're out of Action Points, your enemies respond. Although the game is turn-based, if enemy actions will interrupt yours, you can stop your planned move and react. Everything is destructible and the graphics are awesome. Though choppy action was a continuing problem, once we were immersed in the missions, we barely noticed it.