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Silent Hill Origins Review
Silent Hill: Origins is the first Silent Hill game for the PSP, the
first game ever to prequel a Silent Hill game and is the first game
which hasn’t been developed by Konami Japan’s Team Silent. Origins has a
lot to live up to, and from early previews and interviews the team
certainly know what they could be getting themselves into and how the
fans would react if key elements were taken away or the things which
made Silent Hill what it is today such a standout among other Horror
franchises. The hardcore fans are extremely protective, and when Silent
Hill: Origins was announced for the PSP at E3 in 2006 and not being
developed by the beloved Team Silent the fans went crazy, but mostly not
in anticipation. Things have changed dramatically since E3 2006, and the
unveiling of what the game would look like in motion at GC 2006 from the
obviously Resident Evil inspired over-the-shoulder camera angle and
“Tyrant” looking monsters with tight blue jeans to what we really know
to be Silent Hill. This of course happened after production was moved
from Climax US to Climax UK. Climax UK have said over and over that they
are Silent Hill fans and they know what the fan base can and will do if
they don’t get this right, so in April 2007, we were shown exactly what
we wanted to see. Classic Silent Hill, fantastic music by famed series
composer Akira Yamaoka complete with familiar characters, locations and
monsters. Can Origins work on a PSP with such a small screen? Does
hiding under the bed with headphones make a difference? Did Climax pull
it off, or has the Silent Hill franchise ended with Team Silent’s
disbanding?
Graphics / Presentation
First off all I’ll get the basics out of the way. The graphics in Silent
Hill: Origins are phenomenal for the PSP. Filters and such used
throughout the game truly add to the horror effect. Couple that with
some loud metal banging noises and it is seriously unnerving. Overall
character model and texture quality is at a high, and the lighting
quality rivals even the Playstation 2 instalments with the amazing
attention to detail and of course, the fantastic unlockable smiley face
torch projection. Running around the town, which is as always a huge map
has been downscaled somewhat by barricades but is still a reasonable
size considering there is virtually no loading times. You might think
frame rates and such would suffer, but they have utilized the age-old
technique of letting the fog mask the town loading. Building, character
and monster detail remains consistent throughout the game wherever you
are. However during cut scenes you can often notice jagged edges on the
characters which games like Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops was riddled
with as well. My only specific problem with the graphics was how much
their hands looked like they should be on a Barbie doll, and Travis’
unusually green chest hair. Apart from the real-time graphics, Silent
Hill: Origins includes some pre-rendered CG cut scenes like Silent Hill,
and Silent Hill 2. These are of course some of the best CG graphics I’ve
seen in any game and the scene with Alessa floating up as the staircase
and walls around here erode into the metal grate and cracked concrete of
Silent Hill sent a shiver down my spine, not just from the creepiness,
the music or the fact that evil-hell-girl looked like she was about to
kill me, it was the fantastic detail of the world crumbling and the hate
in her eyes which made the experience so much more realistic.
The whole game, even the menus have an eerie feeling to them, the music
is placed perfectly within them, and the game itself. The menus are
different from past Silent Hill’s which have retained the same kind of
style since Silent Hill 1 (except SH4) but haven’t changed totally.
Health is still measured from a picture in picture shot of Travis corner
of the screen, but this time Green is full and the image distorts and
Travis’ heart rate increases as you lose more and more life. When your
life is critical you get a pulsing noise and a red pattern round the
edges of the screen as Travis stumbles along in pain. You still scroll
left and right through items, but this time using the shoulder buttons
to get your items, weapons, supplies etc. Once in these categories a
Polaroid picture the stuff you’re carrying are moved around as you
scroll through. The noise filters when an enemy draws closer really add
the Silent Hill effect. Small parts of the presentation really impressed
me like the spinning Flauros in the corner while the game loaded the
next area, but others didn’t, like the white font which is used. My
problem with that was if you were standing in front or a bright light,
even though that was a rare occasion, it made the text difficult and
irritating to read. As well as that, the font they chose seems bits
generic, even if it is relatively easy to read given you’re looking at
the right surface.
Gameplay
Silent Hill is famous for having the exact same gameplay for 3 games in
a row, and when they tried to change it just a little bit, it was seen
as inferior to the older style so the old style has made a return. The
Silent Hill 4 ideas have not been scrapped totally for Origins though.
Optional on screen weapon change (You can also open the menu manually
this time, thank god) and breakable weapons are present. A lot of people
have object to the idea of breakable weapons, and I agree to some extent
that some weapons shouldn’t break so easily, like the Sledgehammer. You
can kill maybe 1.5 - 2 enemies until it smashes, but to be fair the
wooden handle snaps which might well happen after beating 4 people to
death hitting them about 5 – 6 times each but at the same time I do
understand that if you could throw a TV at someone and keep picking it
up, that would be too easy and there wouldn’t be enough variety. I liked
how they added in seemingly random weapons like Toasters and Typewriters
because if some hellish creature was in the room with you, you would
throw the nearest thing and now we get to act out that exact scenario!
Don’t think you’ll be without a weapon though, because they seem to be
everywhere which isn’t a bad thing. Some have different strengths and
durability and work better on certain enemies. As well as grabbing the
nearest thing to defend yourself, Travis being a trucker, knows how to
fight. You don’t turn into Neo and run up a wall, you can punch monsters
in the face if you’re unarmed so you’re never without a weapon to defend
yourself. While people might think this makes the game easier, and it
does give you an advantage, it doesn’t inflict nearly as much damage as
the sledgehammer or the Katana, as you might well have guessed. As for
the shooting side of things Travis hits his target a whole lot better
than Harry, James, Heather or Henry. William Oretel has already touched
on this saying that Travis has used a gun before and owns one himself,
while the other Silent Hill mains had not used a gun at all prior to the
game. This gives him a bit of experience with a gun and therefore means
he has far better accuracy. The general controls are pretty solid and
much better made than the likes of the original Silent Hill. Movement is
easy and you don’t find yourself straining to turn a corner, the mêlée
weapons are actually able to hit your target and the overall animations
and the way they respond to the controls is very solid. So far I’ve seen
it as a criticism, but when you start running from a standstill, Travis
does a step forward before he goes into his run/jog, which I liked. The
way it looked and felt was realistic. No one goes straight into a run
instantly. However, one other more realistic aspect of the movement
irritates me a whole lot. Travis can run for about 10 seconds (if that)
before being tired out and turning into a sloppy slow jog/walk.
Strangely enough if you keep running in this state you just randomly get
the ability to sprint again which is good because you don’t have to keep
stopping but while Travis is doing the “about to die from exhaustion”
run, most of the monsters can catch up to you which is also a new
addition to the series, so it’s best to beat their head in.
Another new addition to Silent Hill: Origins is the “cineractive”
sequences which some of the monsters can start. This is basically when a
monster, like the nurse, does to stab you with her syringe or whatever
she is attacking you with and the game prompts you to mash X until
Travis pushes them away, or if you’re too slow, Travis gets stabbed and
takes the damage. This feature has been added to increase tension, but
in all honesty it doesn’t really. Sometimes it makes you go “whoa!” when
something jumps on you and you don’t realise but other than that it
doesn’t make it scarier really. All it does is makes you interact with
the monster more, which is good, but it doesn’t up the fear factor. If
you follow the on-screen commands correctly and press the buttons at the
right time you don’t take any damage… and that’s it. There’s no counter
move or anything, you just push the monster back and get a couple of
seconds to attack it in a normal fashion. Some kind of reward for
getting the sequence right would have been nice. I wouldn’t say that
they are bad, nor should they been taken out, they just could have been
improved a little bit. In past Silent Hill games, I have found the
camera angles extremely irritating especially when you’re running down
the staircase. Silent Hill: Origins doesn’t have a 3D camera like Silent
Hill V will, but it does have a center button like traditional Silent
Hill. In some specific places, like staircases, they fix the camera so
you can’t get it trapped in the wall or anything annoying like that. You
can clearly see where you need to go, when you need to turn and where
you have been. The camera angles are by no means perfect and sometimes
get stuck on things or doesn’t position properly but overall it’s an
improvement at the least. The worst part about the camera is after
exiting a room and you know there’s a monster out there. If you choose
to fight then fine, that’s all good but if you choose to run the camera
doesn’t follow you properly and often turns In the wrong direction so
you can’t see Travis or it points from in front of you so you can’t see
where you’re running to. This is pretty rare for this to happen, but it
has happened more than once and I have to say it was probably the most
annoying part of the game. That being said the camera angles are better
than the previous games so take that as you will.
Sound
As a Silent Hill fan I probably biased but Silent Hill has some of the
best game music in the industry, and it’s famous for it. Akira Yamaoka,
the only returning member of the original Team Silent, has once again
graced us with a fantastic OST. Every song that is played is excellent
and it’s perfectly with the scene from Mary Elizabeth McGlynn’s stunning
voice to the metal banging noises when you encounter an enemy. All the
sounds used are very Akira, very Silent Hill and very well made. One
problem I did encounter with the sound however, and this isn’t really a
gripe about the sound itself, but there was a bug at one point when I
was walking around the town when all the sound effects except the
background music weren’t playing. No footsteps, no gunshots, nothing. I
saved and restarted my PSP and the bug was gone and the sound was back
and I haven’t had it since, so perhaps it was a one off thing. Let us
know in the forums if you get this bug. Other than that there isn’t much
else to say about the sound really other than I can’t wait for the OST
to be released.
Replay Value
The full game sadly is rather short ranging from 4 to 5 hours long.
That’s short as in average game time, not much shorter than the others.
However, once you’ve finished the game and attempted to pit the pieces
of the storyline together yourself as you often do with Silent Hill
games, what’s left? Well, Silent Hill: Origins follows the tradition of
multiple endings such as Good, Bad and the infamous UFO ending. As well
as this you can unlock “Accolades” which are certain rewards you get for
finishing the game and doing certain things during the course of it,
like completing certain areas within a time limit and such. These range
from costumes to extra blood and more weapons. Seeing the 3 endings is
well worth your time, considering each Silent Hill has multiple and they
always give you another angle of what’s going on or what happens to your
character in the end and of course the UFO ending is great.
Closing Comments
I had a great time playing Silent Hill: Origins and in short; I loved
it. It improves on many of the issues encountered in previous Silent
Hill’s but also creates some of its own. Travis’ story was really good
and interesting, and the “bad” ending leaves loads of room for
speculation and possible origins of some favourite characters, hence the
name. However good the story was, it becomes fairly predictable as the
game progresses and every time I see a cut scene I want to know more and
more, but the characters don’t really give anything away, and at times
the reasons for the characters being in a certain place doesn’t really
make much sense, but then all the other Silent Hill’s are mysterious
that way. By no means am I saying the storyline is bad though, it’s very
compelling and as you play you want to know more and more. Sometimes I
was just playing to get to the next cut scene and learn a bit more.
Even though it lacked a little in the twist of the game, the actually
getting to it was truly an experience. Pretty much everything about the
game got Silent Hill right, in terms of characters, battling the
monsters, the monsters themselves, the noises they made, the music, the
atmosphere, everything was spot on in my opinion and the majority of
Silent Hill fans should love this new instalment. If you have a PSP, buy
it. It has worked perfectly on the PSP and the next horror game for PSP
is going to have to try very hard to beat this. Just make sure you
accept the games tip of wearing your headphones and turning out the
lights - it makes a huge difference.
I think that's all I've got to say about Silent Hill: Origins. I’m not
sure if there’s anything else I can add to this to give you the
impression that I loved the game so I’ll leave you with this; If I
didn’t already have a PSP I would have certainly bought one for Origins,
and I would have considered it a good purchase. If Climax has any plans
to release another Silent Hill game for PSP I am completely for it and I
personally can’t wait. |
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