Silent Hill Downpour (PS3/360)

[crocky-chocky]

I'm enjoying this.

It's nowhere near as oppressive as 1, 2, 3 or 4, the horror feels way inconsistent and occasionally goofy....and the monster design is absolute sh*t.

But there's a lot to like about slowly edging through some quite lovely looking environments and exploring every nook or cranny. The puzzles are faithful to the series (though I'm still questioning the logic of the one just before the

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train ride

), and

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losing your torch just before the almost totally unlit mine

was a really nice touch. Some very nice music and incidental creaking and suchlike...disappointingly unterrifying monster sounds, though.

I'm just into Silent Hill now, and there's a great feeling of 'what the absolute feck is going on?'. You're totally left to your own devices, and the lack of any real signposting is a brave move that pays off, if you ask me.

I think I might've missed the map...

[MrKirov]

After I've done 3, I've got this waiting for me on 360! Eager to see how it holds up directly after a playthrough of 2 & 3!

[MrKirov]

So yeah, this is a bit... Well... Crap, isn't it?

It's simply not scary in any way, and to spite some clever ideas showing through early on, the game proper just doesn't hold up in any way. The combat is utter junk, you don't have any idea where to go, you're just aimlessly wandering around waiting for something to happen. The map is crap, not only is it difficult to look at because the zoom is pants, but also as its integrated into your journal, it's difficult to keep looking at consistently.

There's just no atmosphere here, the monster design is utter balls and I find myself really struggling to enjoy it. I'll press on, but after 4 hours I'm just bored.

Maybe coming off the back of the two finest survival horrors ever made doesn't work in its favour, but I can't see myself enjoying it even if not. I enjoyed Homecoming more than this, and that's saying something. Perhaps I was expecting a more traditional Silent Hill game, and haven't gotten it, but the whole free roaming/ side quest nonsense just seems so out of place. There was elements of this is the earlier proper Silent Hills, but they were more Easter eggs than anything, you were still funnelled towards something, here not so much.

I'll continue on, but right now I'm not sure I can even finish this.

I'm quite saddened by this turn of events actually, reviews were very mixed, but some fan reactions led me to believe it was more of an old school Silent Hill, and easily the best of the western developed SH games. Right now I can't see this at all.

[Neon Ignition]

Im right towards the end now and overall Ive really enjoyed it. Theres certainly not a lot of scares but I like the atmosphere and some of the side quests are okay. The open environment can be off putting but its countered by some pretty linear bits. The combat system is poor but enemies are very easy to dispatch with it which I find preferable to a more accomplished system which kills any sense of fear at all ala Resi. Its looking like a solid 7/10 for me

[crocky-chocky]

I agree with a lot of MrKirov's post...but amazingly, I'm still enjoying this!

The side quests initially feel out of place, but they're also the best source of Silent Hill puzzleage, and because you're occasionally helping people out, they give the main character a bit more depth/confuse your perception of him...At least that's what I get from it...

I personally love that Silent Hill is a bit more open, and exploration is my high point of the game so far. It's properly disorientating at times, but I think that's a strength, and like CTN says, there's plenty of linear sections to counter balance the confused wandering.

With the odd exception, they've very nearly nailed the cut-scenes with the townsfolk too, and their constant deflecting of Pendleton's questions is nicely frustrating. I could well be in for a disappointment, but for now at least, I'm really intrigued to find out what happens at the end.

The monsters are just terrible, though. Both in terms of design and AI. They just stand motionless in the fog, peg it towards you, then actually back off when you advance on them...Maybe that's a story thing? I dunno, but it means I can often just stroll past the things. In terms of enemy scares, all I've had is the odd surprise hug, or the quite funny looking monster that jumps off screen and does a ground smash...Like Goro. One monster moment in the Monastery could've been ace, but they actually cut to a shot of the source of the sound before you'd even heard it! Did really enjoy that level though.

I'm completely rambling now, but despite there usually being something sh*te to offset each good moment, I've enjoyed the old fashioned focus on puzzles and item foraging, and am also landing in the 7/10 camp.

[chopemon]

Yeah, the combat isn't great and it doesn't have the oppressive dread of classic Silent Hill but it's one of the best survival horror games in years. I love that it doesn't hand hold you and I loved just exploring the town and figuring stuff out for myself. The first areas don't give you any of that but the middle third is great. I just utterly loved wandering around and solving the side quests without being told what to do.

The combat is the weakest part, the enemy design isn't great, it has technical problems because of how they are trying to use the engine, it feels like there are huge chunks of the story that were cut to get it done on time and the characters aren't very well developed but I still became enraptured by it.

Most of all I enjoyed playing a western game that didn't treat me like a baby and let me find my own way through it.

A word to the wise there is a point of no return that is not sign posted at all. After you have done the

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orphanage

make sure you do all the side quests before doing the next story mission. I was really getting into exploring and had just got across to the next part of town and I triggered the story mission that takes you to the end without realising it.

As another word to the wise, when you complete the game it doesn't overwrite your checkpoint before the final moments so you can go back and see some of the other endings if your actions throughout the game prior to that allow you to see them.

[crocky-chocky]

Cheers for that, Chopers! Just passed the

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orphanage

last time I played it!

[chopemon]

It really bummed me out that it just took me away from the town. I had the

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missing paintings

side quest to turn in and needed to find the last

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bird.

Incidentally, when reloading my last save to see some of the other endings, I noticed that it actually saves your last five autosaves. It was useless to me once I realised I wasn't going back but I could see that being a handy feature in other games.

[chopemon]

This is only for people that have completed the

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orphanage

mission.

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Wouldn't it have been great if the Bogeyman appeared in the town as well? You are walking down a street and you see him emerge out of the fog and come towards you. It's up to you whether you stay and fight or run away. He never dies though, you only slow him down. While his design looks like it fell out of a death metal music video I love the Deadly Premonition Raincoat Killer style and it would have been great to have him hunting you. Especially if he wasn't aligned with the other enemies and you could lure them into attacking each other. Like Big Daddies.

[MrKirov]

Just finished this. Forced myself.

Thank **** for that, this trash will never have the luxury of infecting my 360 with its filth again.

It's getting flogged tomorrow!

[neoboy259]

Just finished this. Forced myself.

Thank **** for that, this trash will never have the luxury of infecting my 360 with its filth again.

It's getting flogged tomorrow!

Same here. Thought that it had some nice touches and was very atmospheric, but the clunky combat, and having to reload because I didn't do something earlier, resulting me in getting trapped whilst solving a puzzle, made me want to smash the disc up. Silent Hill Downright Poor.

[Neon Ignition]

Finished this last night too and it did manage to make me jump once in the last sections. I got to one of the better endings so things wrapped up well enough. If anything I was expecting a more brutal outcome than what the actual explanation was. Certainly a 7/10 effort.

[crocky-chocky]

Finished this last night. My ending was absolute bobbins...

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Cunningham is woken up in a prison cell by Murphy, who is the Prison Guard

! The end. Then I was soothed by the strains of Korn, possibly Bryan Adams or Bon Jovi, then Louis Armstrong in the credits.

I tried to do all the sidequests, but stopped with a couple left unfinished. The town really loses any sense of dread once you're totally familiar with its layout, and just becomes really boring. Definetly could've used a Nemesis/Pyramid Head style pursuer.

There were some great moments in the

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Prison

though, and I actually liked how the story unfolded despite the ending. All very literal though, nothing to think about after the credits rolled.

I could get really caught up in dissecting stuff they could've done better. But hey, it kept me playing and it was a nicely oldschool and none hand-holdy adventure.

[JazzFunk]

Bought this last night on Live for ?7.49 (it's in the current weekly sale, all Konami games, MGS2&3 is the same price). After the pleasant surprise that was Homecoming, was right looking forward to this...but it's all a bit Steve Davis, innit, Christ it's dull, what a draggy, claggy 3 hours of gaming...hope this **** gets better, it's not even scary, best thing so far has been a swish subterranean waterfall, all the puzzles have been fucn CRANKS...the weapons and combat are pathetic...yet I've finally got to Silent Hill now and wanna get my ?7.49's worth, ain't even found a gun yet, it's positively soul-leeching.

Silent Hill Downpour? Silent Hill DownBORE, if you ask me!