ilent Hill has always been scary because of what it doesn't show you. It's the little things that get to you the most; weeping ghosts, implacable thuds, grinding machinery, that sort of thing. And while Origins is an admirable attempt by a Western developer to capture the magic of the Japanese-developed originals, it doesn't quite manage it. But that doesn't mean it's not worth your time.
It's the story of Travis O'Grady, a burly trucker (with a shady past) who finds himself lost in the foggy streets of Silent Hill after rescuing a girl from a burning house. That girl, as it transpires, is Alessa Gillespie, the demon-harbouring tyke responsible for the town becoming a rusting, blood-spattered Hellhole.
Dirty old town As the title suggests, Origins is a prequel, set years before the events of SH1. Travis explores the Old Town area, visiting locations that will be familiar to anyone who's played the first game. But at first, his reason for being there's disappointingly vague compared to Harry's pursuit of his missing daughter or James' dead wife's letter. He gets lost, he rescues the girl, she vanishes, he goes looking for her.
Yet what he lacks in drive, he makes up for in brute strength. Origins' new combat system lets you use everyday items as weapons, including scalpels, wooden planks, TV sets and toasters. Smash them about too much and they'll break. Surprisingly, this is the first SH game to feature a fighting system that doesn't suck. The rhythm action bits (wiggling free of a nurse's grip) are annoying, mind.
But other than that it's business as usual. The puzzles are as challenging and demented as ever, the levels are dense with detail and the lighting effects are stunning. Cast your torch over a room and you'll see shadows dancing across the walls, accurately silhouetting anything the light passes through. Sensational.
There are some cheap scares (like monsters leaping suddenly out of the shadows, Resi-style) and the story's a bit all over the place, but Origins is accomplished, well designed and a worthy successor to the console quadrilogy. Just be warned that it's as slow and relentlessly dreary as you'd expect a SH game to be, and doesn't have enough new ideas of its own to make it essential.
Andrew Kelly
// Overview
Verdict
Overall Spices up the familiar format with a sprinkling of new ideas. The best Silent Hill game since SH3.
this is from the new dev team handling silent hill yeah? as the original teams disbanded or working on something else? just wondering coz if this is from the new team, and its getting gd review scores, then things look up for SH5. Was a bit bout this and sh5 coz i heard it was a new western developement team handling it.
this is from the new dev team handling silent hill yeah? as the original teams disbanded or working on something else? just wondering coz if this is from the new team, and its getting gd review scores, then things look up for SH5. Was a bit bout this and sh5 coz i heard it was a new western developement team handling it.
I think this is a different team to Silent Hill 5. This is from a UK dev and SH5 is from a US one. I'm only about an hour into this but I'm enjoying it so far. Konami are still struggling to top SH2 as far as I'm concerned.
this is from the new dev team handling silent hill yeah? as the original teams disbanded or working on something else? just wondering coz if this is from the new team, and its getting gd review scores, then things look up for SH5. Was a bit bout this and sh5 coz i heard it was a new western developement team handling it.
I think this is a different team to Silent Hill 5. This is from a UK dev and SH5 is from a US one. I'm only about an hour into this but I'm enjoying it so far. Konami are still struggling to top SH2 as far as I'm concerned.
For some reason they followed up the second game by trying to make the Silent Hill series more action focussed. Silent Hill 3 was just wandering aimlessly round endless mazes then dealing with clunky combat. The strange thing is that when I think back number two should have been a terrible game...but its story, pacing and atmosphere made for an excellent experience. I certainly think they could improve on it though. My bet is five will have the best combat, graphics, character movement, boss battles and controls of the series. Yet somehow will lack everything that made the SH games so compelling.
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bout this and sh5 coz i heard it was a new western developement team handling it.
