A "Snipe” is a long-billed shore bird native to the United Kingdom characterised by its tendency to fly in an undulating, weaving pattern at remarkable speed. Being quite a challenge to hit, the colloquialism of "Sniper” was used to describe one who hunts Snipe. So-called "Snipers" originally used the bird for practice at hunting bigger game. Eventually, many a hunter targeted the bird to achieve honour and bragging rights. The term "Sniper" is now used to describe a marksman of great skill who hits his target, usually from a concealed location and at long range however. The only birds you will see in Konami's latest Xbox release: Silent Scope Complete, are the two legged, big breasted, nurse-outfit wearing variety. More on that later...

Silent Scope Complete (SSC) is called such, because it is a collection of the complete Silent Scope series from Konami on one Xbox game disk. This consists of, in order of original release: Silent Scope (Arcade), Silent Scope 2: Dark Silhouette (Arcade), Silent Scope: Ex (Arcade) and Silent Scope 3 which is a port of a previously PS2 exclusive title. Exclusive as it may have been, all versions of the Silent Scope series to grace the PS2 did not support the use of a light gun peripheral. Crazy as it may sound this is not only the first time Silent Scope has been seen on the Xbox, but it is also the first time it has ever supported the use of a light gun outside of the arcades.

Light gun games are one of the oldest electronic gaming genres and have been around since the dawn of home entertainment consoles. But unfortunately, mainly due to a lack of innovation it is also a rapidly dying gaming genre. Traditionally gamers have been divided into two camps: The first like me, love light gun games. The other, hate light gun games. I'm assuming since you have already read 319 words into this review that you fall into the former category

Since you are a fan of the genre, you are probably wondering how the Xbox versions stack up against their original Arcade counterparts. To answer your question: the three arcade games presented in Silent Scope Complete are exact clones of the original arcade cabinet versions, complete with campy "Engrish” voice acting. Everything from the 3D "How to play” demos, showing you around the controls of the arcade cabinet to the pretty ladies in nurses outfits that grant you extra lives for staring at them through the scope are present. Granted, by making exact ports of the arcade games the graphics are very dated. The games were released in 1999, 2000 and 2001 so we're talking 3 – 5 year old arcade graphics...Think higher resolution Playstation One quality.

Light gun games are generally by design, short. The Silent Scope series is no exception, but by bundling the games together the overall length and value for money is greatly increased. Konami previously released all of these games individually on PS2 at full price! Therefore receiving all 4 games for the price of one new release Xbox game is a real bargain. Each game has a slightly different format, but most have at least two play modes (e.g. Story and Training) with multiple branching paths and all of them have numerous unlockable features and options. This is definitely a title to buy not rent if you want to play all game modes and unlock everything available. It's a great justification for that light gun you bought with House of the Dead 3 (HOTD3) only to put away after finishing the game in a day.

Silent Scope 2: Dark Silhouette when released on PS2, included a 2-player mode with the use of the "iLink” cable. Dark Silhouette and Silent Scope: Ex original arcade machines could be linked together to provide 2-player support for both games. It would have been great if Xbox system-link play was supported but alas, it's not. As I mentioned before, the PS2 versions of these games only supported use of a controller not a light gun. This gaming mechanic has transferred to Xbox and the dual-trigger and analogue stick combination works surprisingly well. If you bought this game prior to purchasing a light-gun you may decide it's not entirely necessary to do so. It is definitely much easier to play with a controller as it eliminates shaky hand movements and random light gun "jitters”. Personally I don't see the point of playing a light gun game without the use of a light gun.

There is one major flaw with SSC that can't go without mentioning. This flaw is the calibration system, (the fulcrum that the success of the game balances on) and results in the bulk of the reduction in the games final score. Silent Scope Complete uses a common calibration system for all four games. The calibration process is broken down into three screens. The screens are as follows:

1) Target centre screen - Fire or A button (no visible reticle on screen);

2) Target top-left screen - Fire or A button (no visible reticle on screen); and

3) Brightness adjust (this is the weird one).

Number 1 and 2 are self-explanatory but number 3 will most likely be new to you as it was to me and works as follows:

A red target reticle is now displayed on screen and indicates where you are aiming your light gun. In the centre of the screen is a black rectangle. If you move the gun around, the reticle will jump all over the screen. There is a brightness indicator showing a brightness level of 0 - 50. As you move the gun from left to right, you are required to increase the brightness towards 50. As you do this, the reticle movement becomes smoother. Continue this process until you have reached a desired smoothness or the brightness is set to 50. No worries?...Wrong!

The problem is this: Brightness "0” is a clear and clean screen image. The closer you get to 50, the more it looks like you have developed serious Cataracts! The screen takes on a foggy grey washed-out appearance. Adjusting your TV's brightness control can fix this somewhat (a calibration screen is provided) but it can make the reticle movement jerky again! Therefore the only way to play this game effectively with a light gun is with a "foggy grey washed-out" picture.