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If you're anything like me, you might have been thinking that sidebar to the right of the page looks just a little bit bare. And you'd be right. But now, along comes our saviour EDR (the 'Evil Dead Rabbit' himself) with the first ever brand new review for the brand new ByteSized Gaming.
Today, he looks at Konami's Silent Hill: Origins, the first 'proper' attempt at bringing the much-loved survival horror series, and its eerie, unsettling atmospherics, to a games system that fits inside your (rather large) pocket. Is such a feat even possible? Only one way to find out...
The Big Question
Is portable survivor horror possible? More specifically, can a portable survivor horror be scary? These are the questions Konami and Climax attempt to answer in their portable installment of the Silent Hill series for the PSP. Although it isn’t the first attempt at bringing the series to the portable market (Japan received a text-only adventure game based from the first PSX game), it is the first attempt at bringing its trademark atmosphere and gameplay intact. For the most part, Konami and Climax have done an admirable job, but there are some issues that keep this from becoming a must-have title.
Sons of Butcher
As the title suggests, this game is a prequel to the series and attempts to answer several questions many fans have had and also leaves some questions to be answered. The story is centered around a truck driver named Travis who is sucked into the demented world of Silent Hill through a vision of a mysterious girl named Alessa. While being propelled into a quest brought forth by Alessa, Travis soon discovers that he has some history in Silent Hill. In order to solve these mysteries, Travis must fight his way through a town that has been seemingly ripped apart while facing some aggressive opposition.
Talk of the Town
Since its inception, the Silent Hill series has been known for its audio and visual prowess and thankfully, Origins does not disappoint. The PSP is capable of rendering the infamous town with several creatures running about at an impressive and smooth framerate. The trademark fog is back and is used effectively to isolate the player from the distant background where the grotesque creatures hide. The same amount of attention has also been put to the audio department. My only complaint is the Akira Yamaoka soundtrack—this is not to say that the music is sub-par, but outside of some key songs, many of the tracks sound too similar to previous games’ soundtracks.
Shattered Glass
How does survivor horror work on the PSP? Well, the Silent Hill Origins approach is to take elements from the first three games and take the most annoying element from the fourth. The journey through Silent Hill should be very familiar to fans—navigate through a town that is hell-bent on making you take illogical trips in order to get to target destinations. Travis must fight monsters in traditional Silent Hill/Resident Evil fashion while solving (easy) puzzles along the way. Combat works well on the handheld, although strafing is made more difficult due to the lack of buttons on the handheld. I question the gameplay decision of breakable melee weapons. It is clear that it is an attempt to build tension while fighting the aggressive creatures, but must every single melee weapon be able to break after five or six hits? In the world of Silent Hill, sledgehammers and katanas must be made out of dollar-store-toy plastic. Gun combat hasn’t changed at all, but thanks to limited ammo supplies, it is usually left for boss fights or multiple enemy encounters.
New to the series is the ability for the player to willfully navigate through the Misty World and the Other World with the use of mirrors. This addition is integral to the game’s progress, requiring the player to move back and forth in order to complete objectives. While it can be argued that Climax has used this mechanic effectively, it could also be argued that it removes some of the mystery and atmosphere of Silent Hill. Previous games have made players dread the coming of the Other World transformation, but in Origins, that sense of dreadfulness is eliminated since the player can (and must) travel back and forth between these worlds.
While gamers anticipate the release of Silent Hill V, Origins makes you examine the faults of the series and potential obstacles for its evolution. Whether it is a product of the game being developed for a handheld system or the series being exhausted in general, Silent Hill Origins isn’t that scary anymore. The creatures in Origins are a mix of old and new, but the new is really just re-imaginings of the old. The lack of imagination is more apparent with the presence of the Butcher, which can only be described as a half-hearted copy of Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2. People who are new to the series will not see these faults, but SH veterans will not be surprised by anything.
Replayability
Survivor horror has always been a type of game that doesn’t last more than a handful of hours (with the exception of Resident Evil 4) and Origins fits right in. On first completion, it took me a little over four hours to complete the game. Replayability comes in the form of multiple endings and unlockable costumes and weapons. For survivor horror junkies, this may be more than enough, but I wish Konami and Climax took the Resident Evil approach to alternative game modes (for example, the Mercenaries mode).
The Fog Has Cleared
Silent Hill Origins is tough to recommend—if you’re new to the series and would like something to play on the road, then this game is perfect for you. If you’re a Silent Hill veteran who eat, sleeps and #$@%s Silent Hill, then you should try this game as it adds some (retconned) history to the series’ plotline. Everyone in between these two extremes would be better off waiting for the price to drop a bit before picking up this title (or better yet, renting it).
