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Sanitised and unoriginal, Silent Hill for beginners

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I was so delighted when this PS2 port was announced, it saved me from having to invest in a PSP solely for this one game: I would have, I have every other Silent Hill game and play them repeatedly, I wasn't about to let Origins pass me by on a relatively small technicality like a different platform.

And I was encouraged by the screenshots on various gaming websites; the graphics, while nowhere near the standards of SH3 or SH4, certainly looked to have been heavily enhanced... ...and the reports of faithful SH-style gameplay and plot development left me with great hopes for this title. But now that I've finished it I find I am nonplussed... ...read on.

GRAPHICS: 3/5

The renders are beautiful, the lighting is very Silent Hill, and the upgrades over the PSP version are great - but SH: Origins still takes a backseat to the seven year-old Silent Hill 2 in terms of detail and character animation. Travis moves like he's wearing a spinal brace of some sort, but the creatures in SH move as fluidly as they ever did - if somewhat less scary, which is a shame considering their design is excellent. Human character design is blocky and basic, with Lisa Garland and Michael Kauffmann sharing more with their PS1 counterparts than anything else. Travis, Dahlia and Alessa are clearly designed and well-textured, but also somewhat flat and boring-looking. Level design is clever, and there are some lovely effects here and there (particularly the Artaud Theatre and Hotel levels), but SH: Origins has none of those ultra-creepy background vignettes (think Valtiel in SH3 or the giant Eileen head from SH4) to unsettle the player, and ultimately winds up looking a little generic.

Visually, SH: Origins is a very mixed bag, but by no means unplayable or flat: the overall visual impact lacks the same melancholic punch as former PS2 releases though, and this is a real shame. But for a PSP port it's a great effort - just more of a sanitised Silent Hill than we're used to.

SOUND: 3/5

Again, not very creepy and not very engaging: the kindest thing one could say about the game's music is that it closely resembles other, better tracks from other, better Silent Hill games. The opening sequence is very engaging, with the title song playing as the player controls Travis' initial run into Silent Hill, but other than that there's no memorable tracks or noises to raise the player's hackles. Voice acting is so-so; it was more effective in SH 1.

PLAYABILITY: 3/5

Gameplay does indeed follow that tried-and-loved Silent Hill method of enter area/find clues/solve puzzle/leave area, and the controls themselves are responsive and clear. The Resident Evil-style grappling system is a nice diversion, and Travis' relatively low levels of stamina (he can't sprint for very long and often slows down to a panting crawl) adds greatly to the tension you feel when out and about on Silent Hill's monster-populated streets. Breakable weapons are a distraction: there's plenty of guns and ammo dotted about SH and the sheer volume of melee weapons left in your inventory by the game's end will make you wonder "why?". The difficulty curve is slightly easier than the latter half of SH4, so it's no pushover but certainly no Devil May Cry, either.

The major downsides of gameplay come from the camera angles (as with all games of this nature, there are times when it's incredibly poorly-implemented) and a sluggish response time when you try to load the map or inventory screen during battle. But overall, SH: Origins is fun to play: deeply unoriginal but who cares about that?

OVERALL: 2.5/5

Even if this had come out on PS1 after Silent Hill 1 it would only be a solid 3-star effort: the story is not engaging enough and the gameplay too basic to make this a firm recommendation. For Silent Hill fans it's a nice addition to the canon but not really competition for any other game in the series: it's too generic. Still, it's not a bad game, not by any manner of means - if you can get it cheaply then definitely do so.

Excellent

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Considering that this game came over from PSP to the PS2 it is a brilliant achievement of complete creepiness. The incorporation of the the mirrors which flip you between Normal World and Evil World is excellent. I physically felt dread as I touched that mirror in anticipation of Evil World. So dark that it is sometimes difficult to see, the strained eyes are worth it. I vastly prefer playing without the visual noise filter (which you can only turn off after beating the game). If you are a fan of these games, I consider this a must.

Silent Hill, the best in survival horror

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

If you are a Silent Hill series fan, you shouldn't miss this title. This is a great chance to play it if you don't have the PSP version.

For both silent hill completists and fans of horror, a psp port of ps-2 quality!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 08, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I've played every single Silent Hill. My first experience was the first game. Sadly I was not really able to appreciate its' deeper more profound symbolism when I was a younger age. Only reflecting later would I truly understand Cheryl and Alessa were the same person as well as the warped physics of the other-world. I finally realized just how brave Harry was and how much he had to lose. Truth be told Silent Hill was always more complex then Resident Evil. It focused more on the psychological and the occult then viruses and zombies.

The games that came after always either hit it big with me or had me give up. Alot of fans say "SH 2" was the best in the series. It was a good game but I could not really relate to a guy who killed his sick wife. (By now I'm sure EVERYONE knows about that. SH 2 has been out a LONG TIME.) However SH did introduce everyone's favorite geometric headed butcherer Pyramid-head as well as the possibility SH's energies are not only fueled by Alessa but rather by anyone who enters its' borders. SH 3 was a game I loved. Heather was one of my favorite protagonists and though people often critique her for being "too sassy" or "too whiney" I thought she was supposed to be a normal teenaged girl in the first place. Despite her short comings she was still brave and capable of caring for others. I get tired of people expecting their heroes to be perfect. If anything Silent Hill is about "imperfections" that come back to haunt us. SH 4 let me down completly. Once again some people thought it was awesome. I thought it was "good" for the genre yet something about it did not feel quite like "silent hill" to me. Henry was not "unlikeable" and being a bachelor I could relate to him finding comfort in solitude but all the back tracking and ending variables hinging on Eileen's health and exorcising spirits made the game more of a frusterating chore. Actually protecting Eileen would have been a reasonable task if not for those damned ghosts that can phase through walls to come after you. Walter Sullivan was one of the best antagonists in SH but the flawed gameplay broke the mold in a bad way.

Now we come up to origins. Honestly I was worried intially. Afterall I was buying a psp port to my ps-2. Would the game look like crap? Would it play like a dying mule? Would Climax seriously mess up some of my favorite characters in the SH canon? I'm happy to say "no" to each of those.

As you well know you are put in the shoes of Travis Grady, a stoic trucker who gets caught up in Alessa's life and tries to stop everyone's favorite crazies from seriously messing up conventional reality. There have already been complaints such as "Travis had no reason to be in SH." Hmmm. If you think you just clipped a little girl with your semi truck wouldn't you be just a tad concerned? If you say "no" to that question you likely need to talk to a therapist.

Anyway, Travis ends up following Alessa back to a burning house and saves her from a ritualistic sacrificial burning. After he passes out he awakes in Slent Hill. As you know once you're "in" silent hill it is hard to get out until you've conquered your inner demons. Not only does Travis stay around out of concern for Alessa but some of his own past memories are lurking the town's foggy streets. From this we are able to dispel the silly notion he has "no reason to be in silent hill."

Origins really sticks its' neck out to make new innovations. Some are great. Others are not so great. For example melee weapons break after a few uses and you can lug around tvs, toasters, and type writers to literally throw at oncoming nasties. To balance out the weapons issue Travis can go fistacuffs with opponents like a boxing champ. The only problem is when more then one monster is in the vacinity he'll often keep focusing on the baddie knocked down instead of facing the lurching one that is the bigger threat. Honestly though "Survival horror" is not about making combat perfect. If you could easily cream hordes of demons it would be more akin to an action plat-former. Travis though being the toughest protagonist is still in over his head. If you are a true SH fan you want it that way. Having a flashy pretty boy like "Dante" from DMC running around unstoppable on the streets of silent-hill with a big sword and infinite ammo would kill the atmospheric terror aspect quick.

One thing you should be aware of is this time around the creatures are faster and meaner. The first time I saw "the patient" monsters in the distance I thought I could easily out run them. Afterall the similar monsters in SH 2 were slow as a southern drawl right? Wrong. These "things" are unrelenting. They will shamble at you quickly and try to crush you with their legs or in the case of the nurses put a rusty syringe in your neck. That cannot be sanitary! This brings up another new combat mechanic. Travis can "shake off" assaults by tapping the x button really fast. I find overall this is a good feature because without it you would be even more screwed.

Instead of shifting to the other-world at random Travis acesses mirors to step between realities. Some say this kills the suspense but frankly so much is creepy about the game it is hard to say if it took the frantic edge off my nerves personally. Afterall I first encountered "the butcher" in the "normal fog world" cutting open a nurse creature with a huge cleaver. I didn't really feel safer in either dimension.

Moving along you will meet Dahlia, Kauffman, and Lisa. Though they look significally different their personalities are very much entact from the first game. Dahlia is as evil and creepy as ever so the designers did not try to make her a more sympathetic character like she was in the movie. This does stay in line with the first game though her movie counter-part had more layers. Likely that was one of the things Director Gans did well. For some reason Dahlia seems like Cruella Deville from 101 dalmations to me. Antagonists that are evil just to be evil work for cartoons but they do not do so well in a serious and frightening survival horror setting. If they portrayed Dahlia as at least having some guilt and remorse issues the end result would have been much better contrieved. What if for example you found her telling her confessions to a preacher in a church weeping? You would still not like her but she would come off as being alot more "human". Yeah she's crazy, but can't crazy people still love their children?

Kauffman is cold,aloft, cruel, and calculating living up to his usual "ice man doctor" arch type to a perfect T. Lisa is sweet, flirtatous, yet misguided which is refreshingly loyal to the ground work in the first game. For some reason people yammer about poor Lisa seeming like a "slut" but she does not seem to go about things differently in her interactions with Travis then she did with Harry. She flirted with Harry too and everyone knew she had an abusive relationship going with Kauffman. Does that coupled with being a nurse make her a tramp? For those few self annointed "elites" complaining I'd like to say "whatever prudes." You had no problem with her in the first game despite her drug addiction yet you do in origins? Bury the fan-baby angst already. It's not as if Climax tried making Lisa like Cynthia. (Not that Cynthia was a bad person either. Being a "hooker" does not make a woman automatically deserving of death or less of a person.)

Beyond this point you can guess the formula. Alessa needs your help and guides you through Silent Hill. Each time you defeat a boss you get pieces to the overall puzzle unlocking more info about the cult and your own difficult past. My only complaint is each completed area seems to get locked off. Yes, you can beat the game in 5 hours if you're good at navigation and have a faq handy to tell you where everything is but most likely if this if your first time playing it'll take you 8-10 hours.

Wrapping up I have to say this is my favorite SH game since 1 and 3. I'm surprised it looks so good on my PS-2 being that it is a psp port and equally delighted Climax handled each and every detail with loving care.

Pros

+ Loyal to the SH canon.

+ Alessa gets more love and a chance to let out more frustrations onto her tormentors.

+ Lisa is likable this time around too. I know some disagree with me over that fact but I found myself caring for her and feeling sorry for her just like I did in the first game.

+ Monsters are varied and vicious with new attacks though admittedly alot of their designs seem to be from the other games.

+ Great scares but you should play it in the dark for more jump out of your chair moments.

+Vivid and lucid sound-track.

+ Travis is a good guy. I found it easy to relate to him and liked how he took responsibility for his own actions.

Cons

- Character models were changed aesthetically a bit. I did not care so much but I know certain fans will.

- Camera angles can be really bad here and there.

- Alessa seems more "mischievous" and "dangerous" then "innocent" and "helpless". However I understand why she'd be driven insane and want to screw with people after being burnt alive. Poor kid.

-Combat can get frusterating especially when fighting multiple foes or the "biggy-beasts" in this installment. Word to the wise. Its' ok to run sometimes!

-Arguably the shortest SH if you know exactly what to do and where to go.

- The power to travel to the fog world and other-world at your own leisure may kill the suspense for you. It didn't for me though. Both places seemed equally twisted.

My Silent Hill Origins Review

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 21, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I would like to start by saying I have been a huge fan of this series since the first game in the late 90s for the Play Station. However with each new game they release I always feel a little more let down in some ways.

This game was originally realeased for the PSP; the problem with this is that the PSP is a gamble, and a large number of gammers, some being former fans of the Silent Hill series hated the PSP. So they decided later that they would rerelease this title for the Playstation 2. When I first heard about this I was pretty hyped up about it. When I first saw it in stores, I bought it without a second thought.

It didn't take me too long to find something very screwed up about this game.

Simply put; SHADOWS... They screwed up the the shadow graphics very badly... When you shine your flashlight on an object, you get a strange jig-saw pattern that is suppost to be the objects shadow, and it's distracting and annoying. Next to that, the game is too freaking dark, and I don't mean that in a good way, I mean you can't see any further than a couple feet away from your character, even with the flashlight on. Because of this it becomes difficult to avoid enemies that are too close to you, and you may often miss important items that you run past unless you pay very close attention. The darkness facter in this game seems more geared towards eye-strain than trying to increase the fear-factor of the game as a whole.

Also it seems that since this was originally a PSP game, they got pretty simple with the level design sometimes, a lot of rooms in this game there were absolutely no need for... Very often you will open a door to an empty room with absolutely nothing in it... No monsters... No items... Not even a picture on a wall... Just an empty room... How exciting. And lets not forget the glitches with the inventory system. In the firearms menu for example, as soon as you change or reload a weapon, the picture of the weapon you are toying with will change to the next weapon to it... Why is it that your handgun suddenly turns into your shotgun?

Overall I did enjoy this game and I loved many of the ideas behind it. I loved the new combat system. I found the temporary melee weapons interesting, as well as a little annoying sometimes. I loved the new monsters they introduced. And most of all, I loved the fact that this game was a prelude to the first game, I enjoyed learning more about the story history behind what caused the first games' story to be.

This game had a lot of promise, but I just felt let down because it feels like the makers didn't care enough to test play it a few times before releasing it again. There are just too many glitches and errors that I felt that if they would have taken a little time to test it first that they may have been able to fix them before releasing the game.

Now we can finally see how the madness began...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 31, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Well what can I say?
I am a huge fan of the Silent Hill series.
This is a great and worthy addition to any fan's collection.
The classic atmosphere is intact with a few new twists in the gameplay.
There are plenty of things to un-lock and lots of items and weapons to track down through the game.
The creature design is great and its just so awesome to re-visit some of the areas from the original game and there are some excellent new locales as well.
If you are a fan of the series and you don't have a PSP, then please do yourself a favor and grab this one right now!
I would have given it five stars but my only gripe is that the game should have been a little longer but there is alot of replay value to make up for it.
Have fun and try not to get lost in the fog!

Creepy! Scary! Horrorific!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Well-done, and well-fun. I was scared to the end. A very scary game. Nothing like it. I've not played the prequels, but very scary.

Hope for the series yet

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 26, 2008
Author: Amazon User

In my opinion, the Silent Hill series began to fall with the third installment, but was completely annihilated with the fourth game - but in Origins...Silent Hill is resurrected from the dead and has this long dedicated fan salivating for more.

This time you play the role of truck driver Travis, whose persona has a lot in common with the memorable James Sunderland from the second game, as deep supressed and unwanted memories are forced out the more the haunted town claws its way into his soul. While Travis goes into this world of self discovery, you the player uncover the Origins of Silent Hill and see firsthand the separation of Alessa and Cheryl, and the birth of all the madness.

The exploratory element that the third game neglected to utilize is brought back in Silent Hill Origins. All the streets are there for you to explore. Other than the usual Twilight Zone scenery, its unfortunate, however, that there is not much to discover down the narrow alleys or at the end of each road like what we had with the second game (like a corpse clutching on to the page of his final journal entry, or another Bar Nelly's with a blood stained map and strange writing on the wall talking about disappearing holes). That bar alone from Silent Hill 2 caused mile-long discussion forums all over the internet. Them were the days....

But the streets are there to explore nonetheless, and to think that they were all absent in Silent Hill 4.

One of the other small gripes that I had with this title is that the monsters appeared too early. I prefer a slow agonizing descent into madness, getting more intense the deeper you explore. This was something Silent Hill 2 perfected with the walk through the woods; first it was strange sounds, then strage shadows, then tracks of blood....a good build up before you were even confronted with anything. Not so in this game.

I also think creatures should be stranger and more otherworldly, not bigger and more aggressive in a Silent Hill game. But that's just me.

And I'm tired of having ways to warp back and forth from world to world, which this game borrowed from Silent Hill 4 with its stupid tunnels. Was it not crazy enough when the whole world around you would physically Shape-Shift every time the fire Sirens screamed? This I personally believe Silent Hill 1 was best at (check my review for that game).

Those are my four biggest complaints. This is otherwise a very authentic Silent Hill game, and by the time you make it all the way to the Riverside Hotel, you will feel like you're playing Silent Hill 2 all over again. This game features four abandoned buildings to explore which include the Hospital (of course), a Sanatorium, an Amphitheater and the RiverSide Hotel. A couple smaller placeses include a General Store, a Butcher's Shop, a Lumber Yard and the Antique Shop (where the altar from the first game is). Its the small things that give the town a character of its own and that's important since its the town that keeps bringing players back.

When Silent Hill comes out for Next Generation, I expect mostly every vacant house and room open for exploration, with ghastly little surpises in each. One can only hope. This game has got me waiting anxiously for the next title of a series I thought died with "The Room".

Almost another Silent Hill masterpiece.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 22, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Summary:

I love this series, and this game is no exception. I had a great time exploring this classic, unique psychological horror experience. It has loads of benefits working for it, but there are some production quality issues that just keep this addition to the Silent Hill series below par to the rest.

Why I love this game:

1. Visuals: Great graphics. Very appealing and unique style, especially for the psychological horror genre. Enemies are very realistic and creepy; fun to look at and fun to bash in. :)

2. Music: Perfect. Memorable tones accompany the story progression, infusing it with emotional impact. Eerie tracks keep you on your toes during combat situations.

3. Sounds: Great. Sounds match the enemies. Ambience works great to pull the game world together.

4. Difficulty: Balanced for the player's enjoyment. Plentiful weaponry and healing items counterbalance the more difficult aspects of the combat such as gripping enemies.

5. Story: Great psychological horror thrill. Most of the gameplay is tied into the grand story in the game. Story progression is slow enough to spark curiosity, but fast enough to retain interest. Being a prequel, this game is very much tied into the future of the Silent Hill series.

Why I hate this game:

1. Controls: Generally fine, but there are three serious hang-ups: (a) slow button response, (b) difficult to perform 'finishers,' and (c) investigation/attack button overlap.
(1a) The slow button response I found to be really annoying. When you press the PS2 triangle button to open map or the X button to investigate the game world, there is often a very slow game response. This causes me to push a button twice, wondering if I had pressed it at all. Double pressing causes me to instantly open and close a screen I wanted or to skip investigating an item I just picked up.
(1b) The 'finishers' are when your character kills your opponent with a final blow while they are knocked out on the ground. The major problem for this is activating it. On some enemies, it is very hard to position your character to activate the 'finisher.' This can be very very annoying when you miss the 'finisher' and have to knock out your enemy all over again.
(1c) Investigation, attack, and 'finishers' are all performed with the same button - the X button. This causes you to investigate when you want to attack if you're too close to an object of interest (any object that prompts text when you investigate it). And trying to perform 'finishers' near doors can cause one to exit the room by accidently investigating the door.

2. Shadows: Shadows tear frequently. By this I mean the should-be solid shadows have broken lines across them sometimes. Very visually unappealing and very unrealistic.

3. Soundtrack: Music and ambience randomly stops. For no apparent reason, the soundtrack in the game just randomly ends. This is a serious disservice to the wonderful soundtrack and the player. I don't think I've heard a track completely through in this game. It just seems like bad production quality.

4. Bugged: There is a glitch when you reload a gun from the menu screen. The graphic of the gun changes to a handgun when reloaded, and the gun selection cursor is changed to the first gun on the list.

Great Game For Silent Hill Fans

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 20, 2008
Author: Amazon User

To sum it up, Silent Hill Origins is a fantastic game for the hardcore fan, but not very good for someone new to the series.

Akira Yamaoka's music soundtrack is absolutely amazing as usual. The graphics are nicely detailed with that classic gritty Silent Hill style (I was surprised how good it looked for being a PSP port). Now the story: Without spoiling anything, the hardcore fan such as me will enjoy the different perspective put into the story, with some of the past silent hill happenings given new light. As far as adding something new to the series, this game falls flat on its face. SH Origins pretty much piggy backs on the past Silent Hill history, but brings nothing new to the table.

So if you're a Silent Hill fan and wish to dive back into all of the Silent Hill creepy goodness just for fun, definitely pick this title up (but don't expect anything new). If you're new to the series, definitely don't start with this title!

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