Silent Hill: Origins for PSP Reviews by Gamers

I was never much of a Silent Hill devotee, but I did drop in to visit the PS2 version of The Room and have always enjoyed the particularly twisted take on the tortured creatures and blood-slicked atmosphere of Silent Hill. The movie was even worthwhile for its bleak vision and the wonderfully disturbing transition to the Other Side.

Here, Komami has attempted to shoehorn in elements of the movie Silent Hill with the previous game iterations, taking a game that made its name on consoles to the small screen.

Impressively, they seem to have hit the major issues. This is definitely a latter-gen PSP title, because load times, controls and visuals are all pretty well polished. Brief load delays going through doors don't halt the action for more than a 3 or 4 seconds, the controls have been suitably simplified for PSP and a new inventory system allows quick flipping between the destructible weapons and items.

Speaking of weapons, just about all manner of objects in Origins is fair game. A TV set, for example, proves an effective if one-time attack. I wasn't sure I'd like weapons that 'went bad' after a while, but they work to keep your inventory clear and there's no shortage of stuff to use. It becomes a bit of a challenge to make sure you save the more lethal items for bosses, though, so it's not a walk in the park.

And what a walk this game is... Visually, it feels every bit as disturbing and eerie as the console predecessors. Enemy entities are disjointed and appear alarmingly, although it's not a heart-attack shockfest like Condemned, for example. But still, the music and graphics suit the Silent Hill aesthetic perfectly.

In short, the action and plot are simple yet really no more than what you'd want on a portable. It's not a 'pick up and play' title, however, delivering a rather complete Silent Hill experience on the PSP, which many will find worthy of acclaim in and of itself.

One last note - turn the lights off and put the headphones on! It works...