When Will people learn, If you're driving in a deserted place and see a strange person run in front of you, just run them over and go on about your day. Is that so hard?
Ever since game companies started making games there
have always been rivalries between games and characters: Mario VS Sonic, Tony
Hawk VS Skate, Square-Enix VS Namco, Sony VS Microsoft VS Nintendo. One
interesting competition is Resident Evil VS Silent Hill. Now both games
actually dominate the Survival genre but it seems that they are actually
following a similar patter to that of what Resident Evil is coming up with. Both
Series have a very intriguing story line and up to date Resident Evil was the
only game of the 2 that actually gave a brief description of what had happened
with Resident Evil Zero. Now Konami releases a game that explains the
background for Silent Hill with Silent Hill Origins.
The
game begins with Travis driving his 18 wheeler, while driving he notices
someone that has fallen on the road and Travis stops his truck, steps outside
and sees nothing. He walks to the nearest town of Silent Hill where he sees a
lot of fog, later realized that it was actually a house burning. He hears a
scream inside so he decides to go in and save whoever is in there. He notices a
burned girl and saves her. When he steps outside he passes out and wakes up
next to the hospital. After he investigates he later finds that the girls name
is Alessa and she has passed away. This actually explains the story on why is
there a lot of fog on silent hill and it represents the smoke of the burning
house. This is actually interesting because up to date not a lot of people knew
why there was a lot of fog on Silent Hill. As the story progresses, you will
see the old Silent Hill that was featured in Silent Hill only with updated
graphics. You will also see some familiar faces as well as some new ones. You
will see Pyramid Head, Dahlia, Nurse Lisa, etc.
The
game handles just like the rest of the Silent Hill Games. While at the
beginning the developers where trying to implement a similar camera system to
that of Resident Evil 4 they decided to stick with the original and it couldn’t
have been better. It is a little hard to control the character with the PSP
controller it is very easy to get used to it. It has sort of the classic pick
up and play that Silent Hill fans have come to known. My brother, who has
played Silent Hill in the past and hasn’t played the game for about 4 years
(the last game he played was Silent Hill 3) was able to just pick up the PSP
and play the game with no problems or complications. He played the game as if
he plays any other game on the PSP. Just like Silent Hill the player needs to
collect items and weapons in order to combat the monsters of Silent Hill.
However this time around weapons don’t last for the remainder of the game,
instead you can use it to attack up to 3 enemies and then the weapon breaks.
You can change weapons with the D-pad and as you change weapons you can see the
weapons health and that should give you a basic understanding of how long the
weapon will be used for. Health items are hard to find in Silent Hill so
chances are you will most likely have to use your gun and keep your distance
from monsters in order to survive.
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Silent Hill origins follows’ the Silent Hill tradition and that is to keep you scared. Origins does a good job on keeping you on the edge of your seat with great music and sound effects. Most of the game is mostly Silent, however when the music starts playing in the background something is about to happen. Voice acting is great but the dialog can be cheesy at times. It seems that the voice actors don’t really do a good job in some parts. For example when you see something that is scary you would expect to jump out of your shoes however Travis will talk calmly as if nothing where happening. But I guess that truckers are used to seeing weird on the road. The sound effects are part of the experience and do add more to the suspense. In the streets, if you go near a trash can, you can sometimes hear the sounds of it moving, toppling over, etc.
If you go near where a road is caved in, you can hear the sounds of gravel and buildings collapsing.
Since
the Fog is present most of the time you will not be able to enjoy Silent Hill
as any other game, but the parts you can see will blow you away. When you see
familiar locations on Origins, you will take a trip down memory lane and with
the latest graphics it will be a memorable one. The game moves smoothly as you
progress and each monster you encounter will be as weird as you can ever
imagine. The developers paid attention to every single detail that you can
appreciate or if you just want to play the game and don’t care about that stuff
well it’s there just to let you know. The lighting is so well done that it will
require you to have your flashlight on at all times and when examining
something the light will also reflect where it is being pointed at. The camera
while functional most of the time can be annoying when you don’t have a lock on
the monsters or are forced into a corner where you can’t see anything.
Sometimes I wish they would add a 1st person view of things and aim
with the push of a button but I guess that is not going to happen any time soon
on the series. The main downside to the
game is when playing it during the daytime or in a well lit room you will get a
glare and you will not be able to see anything even at the highest brightness
of the PSP. The game or the PSP in general were meant to be played during the
night or in dim light conditions.
Each
Silent Hill game features multiple endings and with Origins that is no
exception. Each ending can be acquired by playing through the game multiple
times and doing completing a few requirements. The game alone will take about
5+ hours to complete but Silent Hill is one of those games where you must
comeback to play again. Going through the story alone over again is well worth
it. Other than that if you are one of those people that just plays through the
game and never touches them well this game will keep you at the edge of your
seat until you finish playing it.
Closing Comments:
While
everything still remains the same, Silent Hill is still a great game to play
through over and over again. While some people might complain that there’s
nothing new to introduce to the game play, the story alone is a great
experience. If you are a fan of Silent Hill, Origins is definitely worth
checking out. If you’re not a fan but love survival horror then definitely
check out Origins. The story while it doesn’t explain everything it does
explain how everything happened and is a great tie in to first Silent Hill.
