PS2 port review. Travis Grady is a trucker(well, supposedly... dude faints like you wouldn't believe; roughly a third of the cutscenes(almost all of which are in-engine, we only get two animated ones) involve him getting back to his feet and/or waking back up), and he takes a shortcut through the town of Silent Hill(because he is unfamiliar with this series), he almost hits someone with his car, and there's a young girl(stop me if you've heard this before... man, they really wanted to cash in)... he soon finds Dahlia wearing a snazzy fur coat, and a burning house(yes, *that* one). He rushes in to save the girl he can hear screaming inside, and... well... you know that really tense bit in Max Payne? You're in a building, suddenly there's all these flames around you getting closer to you all the time, you have to keep moving and make the right choices about where to go or you literally meet a firey death? Yeah, this is absolutely nothing like that. Maybe it's that there is no hurry, that anyone who's played the first game(who thought that one needed a prequel? Everything can be inferred from the clues, this merely shows us stuff we figured out on our own... and to an extent, it feels like a remake(look, while the original was excellent when it came out, this was released in 2007, we expected more with the passing of 8 years...!), with you going to the same places, meeting the same people... and this protagonist has no connection to the main mythology(which is not even explained fully in this, so it doesn't stand on its own), so the only thing you can get into is his personal story and the delving into his mind, which is decent) knows where this is going... I don't know, I honestly cannot put my finger on it. But it did not excite me. And that's one of the big issues with this... it's boring and uninvolving(and blatantly copying what worked before). Oh, it gets the atmosphere pretty well, with your surroundings looking recently abandoned, the sound making you feel like there is something just around the corner, the eerie music and grotesque, well-designed monsters(and in spite of the first couple being oldies, the majority are new, such as Remnant(nearly invisible but shining a light on them casts the shadow of a female person) and Carrion(cattle roadkill that leaps at you, from a seemingly weakened state)) keeping you on the edge of your seat - and The Otherworld where floors are metal gratings overlooking seemingly endless drops, walls are rotting, and metallic banging(I didn't know Lord Melchett had it in him...) terrifying you - and now, you go there manually, via touching mirrors to go back and forth between the two, opening up, and utilizing, many options for making the player put effort into figuring out where to go and what to do(twice as much room!)... at the same time, although the static is creepy(you don't like seeing that on your TV!), I did feel cheated out of proper transitions. The length is roughly 12(or 9, according to the in-game clock) and a half hours(and I rushed through it, the only time in one of these), and this has genuine puzzles, something otherwise missing from these since 4(except for maybe Downpour, have not played that yet). That is it for the positives, I'm afraid... this is the worst of these. It is way too hard(did I mention there's only one difficulty setting?), with massive amounts of enemies appearing from early on, and increasing in volume from then on out(especially the streets... those are a freaking war zone), and then several that come down to lousy programming or handling(never the way a VG should be challenging). The lack of camera control, and the angle choices is going to make many put down the joystick almost immediately never to pick it back up, and I can't argue with that decision. It will literally hide not only opponents, sometimes you, as well! Center View hurts as much as helps, and add to all this that every time you get a perspective switch, your controls change to accommodate! The direction you push the stick is the way you'll go, regardless of if it swaps 180 degrees from one moment to the next, and yes, this does occur. Wait, did you mean to retreat or charge? Eh, I'm sure you meant well. Load and try again. The numerous melee weapons are now breakable over time(read: two kills, tops, then they're gone) - oh, you won't run out, you find them all the time. However, they behave differently, and you'll either trial-by-fire through them all or spend a lot of time swatting at the air getting used to the next thing you'll be using. And when they bust in the middle of a fight(when else would they? You can't throw the ones that are almost gone away, by the way), you default back to your fists(passable, lacking in range), and if you want to equip another, you'll have to cycle through any throwables(dozens of types of things, stuff like portable TVs, toasters, etc., that you can toss(once for each you pick up) at creatures(hoping that they don't move and you thus miss), provided you can see enough to line up your shot(rare)... because this is now the WWE, apparently) that came before the next hand-to-hand one(they're arranged in order of pick-up), because they couldn't be bothered to make a third category for that(even though going back and forth between those takes no time at all), even in the useful quick inventory. You can grapple with some foes, not losing health as long as you speed-click what you're asked to. Buttons don't respond immediately, causing you to be hit because you thought it would pause(even in boss battles). There is a lot of bloody, gory, violent and disturbing content in this. I recommend this solely to those looking for their fix of this franchise. 6/10
Review of Silent Hill: Origins
Silent Hill: Origins
(2007 Video Game)
"Superfluous" would be a more fitting subtitle
12 September 2012