Title: Silent Hill Downpour
Format: PS3 and 360
Release Date: March 13, 2012
Publisher: Konami Digital Entertainment
Developer: Vatra Games
Price: $59.99
ESRB Rating: M
I have been a huge fan of Silent Hill since the original. After Homecoming deviated from what made the series great, I was hoping for a comeback with Downpour. What I got was far from what I expected.
Presentation/Story
The game begins in a prison with the main character, Murphy Pendleton (the most obvious made-up name I've ever encountered). After some spoiler free incidents, you are throw into the town of Silent Hill. The story itself takes place within the southeastern region of Silent Hill, which has never been explored. Downpour is also a separate, individual story from the series, so don't worry if you've never played the previous installments. But returning players will appreciate little tidbits of familiar information. Beyond that, the story is muddled and is told through the perspective of unknown and confusing flashbacks. You can also collect various "Mysteries" that enlighten you on the Silent Hill story. I'm a big fan of collecting, so this saved a bit of the lacking story.
Gameplay
The introduction of side missions in Downpour is interesting, but somewhat unnecessary. The whole lure of Silent Hill is the eerie, lonesome feeling behind the fog of the town. Adding characters and their fetch quests only seems to serve as filler to the game and to lure those who have become accustomed to non-linear gameplay (See Skyrim). Puzzles return in full force in Downpour. Puzzles allow you to progress through the main story, or give you extra items or story pieces. You can also choose the difficulty of the puzzles and the game itself separately. But once again, some puzzles feel like filler and tend to be more frustrating than impactful or important. Exploration is very important since first-aid kits are scarce, and puzzles often require secondary items to make them work, solve their combination numbers, etc. Scare factors are present, and random sounds and noises did make me jump more than a few times. Opening doors is also something unique, since each time I opened a door I was half expecting to be attacked. But how long can you deal with that before it becomes annoying and stressful?
Combat
The combat system in Downpour is rife with technical errors, and it is cumbersome and frustrating. A majority of your time will be spent choosing to run away, or fight a losing battle. Fighting enemies is a chore, and their attacks leave you stumbling and turned around every time, making your attacks less accurate and Murphy vulnerable to a second attack. Blocking is available, but at the price of slowing down. Running away even has it's problems: the first enemy you encounter will scream at you as you run away, incapacitating you so they can catch up. Weapons are, for the first time, breakable through continued use. You can only hold one weapon at a time and one gun holstered in your inventory. The thought behind this was to make a more realistic game, even though you can hold an unlimited amount of non-weapon items in your inventory. I like the idea, but a broken combat system makes it lack-luster and incomplete.
Graphics
The frame rate, in my experience, was very poor. Many save points slowed my game, and entering houses, rooms etc. caused the game to lag significantly. Combat situations also slowed the game, often leaving me vulnerable to an attack once the game finished catching up. Facial feature were good, with the typical shiny, crisp lines found in Silent Hill: Homecoming. Textures are a bit bland, but overall not bad.
Final Thoughts
I really, really wanted to like this game, and to a certain degree, I do. But I wonder how much of that is liking Silent Hill as a series, and brushing this aside as a distant cousin that you call on holidays. A broken combat system really degraded my rating, but I think the game is worth a go....once the $59.99 price drops (Which I imagine won't be too long).
Final Score: 6.5/10 Email: [email protected]
Twitter:@WhitneyBulna
