Silent Hill Downpour Review
Developer Vatra Games
Publisher Konami
Platform Xbox360, PS3
Release Date Out Now.
Under the control of a new development team at Vatra Games the Silent Hill series goes in a new direction in an attempt to breath new life into the series. While they have added a lot of new concepts it still retains the Silent Hill feel although it fall short of the early successes of Silent hill 2.
You play a new character, convict Murphy Pendleton who on his way to the prison is given one last chance at freedom when his transport bus is involved in a crash. Murphy is one of the lucky few who survives the crash but his nightmare is only just beginning.
Murphy’s back story is slowly revealed throughout the game by using strange visual clues, this is coupled with a number of in game decisions that influence your characters development within the story although these choices do not hold the impact on the overall game that they should.
Combat is probably the biggest change in direction for the series and unfortunately it is quite a disappointing one. Murphy makes use of anything he can get his hands on to fend off the creepy enemies. The developers make excellent use of weapon disintegration that really adds to the sense of panic felt in the game but sadly the combat mechanic is difficult to grasp and you often find yourself swinging wildly into the air getting frustrated by the experience.
Although there are guns in the game they are so rare that you will find yourself relying on two options whether you want to get up close with a me-lee weapon or just turn and run. I ran away a lot!
Thankfully Silent Hill was never a game that depended hugely on combat but rather its puzzles and this is where Vatra have done a good job, making good use of the environment to deliver well thought out puzzles and mysteries for you to solve.
As always Silent Hill is a weird place filled with misery and while it is made to look visually appealing despite its dreary setting it has its moments of disappointment too which is a huge shame as you will just be thinking this is starting to pick up when it will hit you with a huge technical failure that brings you right back to the reality that Silent Hill Downpour just never hits the heights it should have easily reached.
Overall : If you are a fan of the series and are expecting a game along the lines of Silent Hill 2 or even 3 then you will be disappointed but in saying that it is not that bad either.
SCORE 6.5/10
