 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Konami |
| Publisher: | Konami | |
| Genre: | Survival Horror | |
| ESRB: | Mature | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | Memory Stick Duo | |
| Buy Now: |   |
Travis is no superhero though, and is often better served by simply avoiding enemies rather than fighting them. Health kits are scarce, and defeating enemies doesn’t reward Travis with extra items or experience. Fortunately, most enemies won’t even notice Travis if the player walks with the light turned off, although the trade-off to that is of course that it makes it harder to discover new items and navigate the game world in general. That being said, Travis is by far the most agile Silent Hill hero yet in my experience, and it’s not necessary that the player avoid conflict given the dozens of weapons littering the environment.
Combat is passable, but certainly not a highlight of this game or the series itself. Weapons found in the environment wear out and break rather quickly (or run out of ammo in the case of guns), with some melee weapons that are one-shot (but do more damage) and others that can withstand several blows before breaking. To attack an enemy, the player enters combat mode by pressing the R button, and then presses X to attack (holding it or pressing forward to perform better attacks). The fixed camera angles often make it difficult to properly gauge distance between Travis and an enemy though, which leads to some cheap hits a more robust engine would otherwise account for. Once an enemy has been knocked down, Travis must finish it off before it will be permanently dead. To do this, the player simply walks up to the fallen enemy and presses the X button, which will cause Travis to perform a finishing stomp, stab, or other move depending on the weapon he’s currently holding. I found this mechanic to be a little unpolished however, as several times enemies landed in positions that wouldn’t allow me to perform a finishing move on them before they got back up. This game also adds grappling moves to the series, which require timed button presses to fend off the enemy.
Exploration during the 5-6 hour adventure requires a lot of puzzle-solving skills and logical thinking, although the difficulty level has been tuned down versus past games to make it more accessible to portable gamers. For example, an early puzzle involves interpreting a note and properly inputting the ages of several females found scattered around the environment to unlock a box. Most puzzles and navigation however revolves around the use of mirrors, which allow Travis to travel between the normal world and the Otherworld. The Otherworld has a similar layout to the normal world, only twisted with warped walls, disturbing imagery, and a much darker look overall. Actions taken in one often affect the other, which results in the player hopping between the two to access new areas and trigger events necessary to advance in the game.
While darkness overshadows everything in the Otherworld, fog engulfs the city of Silent Hill itself. The portion of the city used in this game is fairly large, although artificially limited by inaccessible areas and most buildings being closed off. The use of fog does allow for some fairly nice looking buildings for a PSP game though, with an impressive sense of scale (particularly in the sanitarium). Travis himself moves fluidly and looks good, and monsters in the game have a disgusting sinewy sheen to them including the ever-popular nurse monsters.
Bottom Line:
If you heed the game’s opening, and play it with the lights off and the headphones on as I did, you’ll find that Silent Hill: Origins is every bit as creepy and atmospheric as any of the previous console installments have been. While I found it a little lacking as far as being a true prequel is concerned, Travis’ story is compelling regardless and makes for a satisfying survival horror game.
Now Konami needs to re-release the original Silent Hill on the PlayStation Store, so those of us that missed it the first time around can play the games properly in chronological order.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 8.5 |
Posted: 2008-01-19 18:21:23 PST