Review: Silent Hill Origins
I've been waiting for an excuse to head back to the rusty hallowed halls of Silent Hill. After the somewhat disappointing Silent Hill: The Room, Konami has come back in full force to hit a home run with Silent Hill: Origins. Read on to discover the best new reason to pick up your PSP.
Story: Silent Hill: Origins is a pre-quel to the original four Silent Hill games and give us the full story on how Alessa came to be the twisted demonic soul we all know and love. This time around, you are put in the role of Travis, a rugged trucker who rescues Alessa from a disfiguring fire and ends up in the lonely, misty town of Silent Hill.
SH:O builds on the Silent Hill legend, filling in the blanks and carefully crafting an engaging and terrifying storyline that is much easier to follow than previous games. As much as I love the franchise, the story was often hard to follow, requiring some research to truly understand. The appearance of characters from the older titles also helps tie the whole thing together in a nice twisted bow.
Gameplay: Anyone who has played the previous Silent Hill titles will instantly feel at home with the gameplay of Silent Hill: Origins. Exploring, picking up items and solving grisly puzzles are all explored again although with some interesting differences.
Unlike some of the older titles, in this game your weapons (with the exception of firearms) only last for a finite amount of time before breaking. There are also a wide variety of weapons including some "single use" items like typewriters, bottles of alcohol and small TVs that cause large amounts of damage but break on contact.
Traveling between the worlds of the two Silent Hills has changed as well. Incorporating a Through the Looking Glass device, Travis is able to get to his destinations via various mirrors. It's a nice gimmick used to great effect throughout the game.
The types of puzzles remain relatively the same with a few exceptions. One involving collecting plastic organs and placing them into a mannequin is particularly creepy.
Music: As always, composer Akira Yamaoke provides us with a soundtrack that adds more than it's share to the game experience. His trademark music and sound effects make the world of Silent Hill live and breathe. Much like the mansion in The Haunting of Hill House, the soundtrack almost becomes a character of its own.
In Conclusion: If you are a PSP owner looking for a great title to while away the hours while subsequently scaring the bejesus out of you, I would highly recommend SH:O although a history lesson in the previous games would certainly be helpful.
If you are a long time Silent Hill fan, you will find a lot to love about Silent Hill: Origins. It is a glorious return to the town that carved out it's own creepy niche in the survival horror genre with a rusty blade.
4.5 out of 5
Fruit Brute
Posted to Hot Stuff, Reviews, Video Games on 16 November 2007
· Comments (6)
Other stuff like this: origins alessa, psp, silent hill
Damn. I don't want a PSP (I cant afford one), but I NEED this game!
I wish sony would just release it for the PS2, but I can see why the didn't :(
Well, that's another $200.00 leaving my wallet. Thank goodness that God of War demo came in with the $15 off a PSP coupon.
It's strange... As completely and utterly obsessed (I was the PH guy who won that costume contest last Halloweenish) as I am with Silent Hill in general, I wasn't really a fan of this one. I played it and beat it in three hours, and now I feel totally done. I seem to be the only one who feels this way, though. Weird.
Three hours? Seriously!? Anyone else flown threw it that fast? If so, I'll be sorely disappointed.
Yeah. I think that's part of why I didn't like it. It wasn't different enough. I played through all the other ones so many times that this one was just like playing any of the previous 4. I never once got lost, and I never once got stuck. It was like I knew it by heart already just from playing the other ones so many times.
I also founded it short, but not three hours short. There is a lot to do (the accolades), so it has some replay value. All in all, it is a great game for the PSP, and I love seeing this kind of games (original titles, not ports) on the PSP. Can't wait for Crisis Core and Kingdom Hearts.