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IGN Review of Silent Hill: Origins
By now, gamers have become well aware that if any character mentions Silent Hill, they're in for a world of pain. Full of insanity, skinned monstrosities, alternate dimensions and a freakish cult hellbent on destroying the world, this supposedly sleepy town has ensnared its visitors with a unique brand of survival horror. Over the course of four console games and a feature length movie, fans have descended its depths and explored its buildings, looking to escape from its fog-enshrouded streets. While it first infected the PSP, Silent Hill 0rigins has finally returned to the consoles with its recent release on the PS2. Unfortunately, while it explains what made the town so twisted, it barely manages to take advantage of the PS2, and feels like a weak port of the title.
Players are introduced to Travis Grady, a truck driver with insomnia and other issues. With a past that he doesn't like to talk about and even has trouble remembering, Travis is alone in the world, and likes things that way. Unfortunately for him, he finds himself driving his freight towards the town of Brahms on a stormy night, and decides to take a shortcut past Silent Hill to save himself some time. What unfolds, however, is much more than a simple detour, as Travis slams on the brakes when he sees a small child in the road. The trucker finds himself dragged into Silent Hill, where, unbeknownst to him, his fate is intertwined with that of Alessa, Dahlia and the Order.
Or do you? Unfortunately, while the concepts behind combat in 0rigins are cool, the implementation is somewhat skewed. Sure, your melee weapons break, but there are so many items that you can acquire to replace them that you never feel like you're in danger of relying solely upon your fists to survive. I killed a number of creatures and broke plenty of drip stands, spears and crowbars, but there were always plenty of objects to replace them. In fact, by the time I got to the final boss, I found that I still had at least twenty or thirty melee weapons of various conditions in my inventory.
Another strike against combat is that your projectile weapons quickly become useless against many of the monsters you face off against. It's pretty easy to toss a television into a nurse because she's pretty slow and weak, but later enemies can frequently shrug off some of these one hit kills. What's more, hefting and throwing these items takes a long time, which can easily open Travis up to injury against some of the faster enemies or monsters that spit viscous liquid at you. Additionally, the quick time events that you'll find yourself engaging in if monsters get too close don't have the same impact that they do in other games. You don't gain additional damage on monsters, but instead push them away, which feels like a bit of a letdown compared to the other battle elements.
Another issue that crops up is the problem of the camera, which is designed to highlight dramatic angles or impart a sense of claustrophobia. While it does this rather well, it fails during battle, as you will frequently find yourself struggling to see what is attacking you from off-screen. What's more, you may find that as you swing or move forward in battle, the camera angle will change and you'll accidentally move in the wrong direction or run into danger rather than away from it. Even trying to remedy this is hampered, because centering the camera doesn't work as well as it should, which is very unfortunate.
What's truly unfortunate with the camera system is that 0rigins really doesn't take advantage of the PS2, which highlights just how weak a port this is from the PSP. Instead of taking advantage of the second analog stick and refining the camera, the game remains locked to its poorly managed camera angles, which made sense on the handheld, but doesn't work on the PS2. What's more, you almost feel as though you're fighting some controls, primarily because it was designed more for the analog nub than the analog stick, so instead of sensitively maneuvering through environments, Travis seems to control a bit more tanklike.
Of course, combat and camera controls aren't the only facets within 0rigins -- Players will find themselves exploring the town, collecting objects and using them to gain access to new areas. Frequently, this will take you across both the foggy "normal world" and the industrialized "other world" that has become synonymous with Silent Hill. However, 0rigins has a rather unique twist that makes exploration a bit more flexible, but is possibly controversial as far as the series is concerned. Instead of being dragged into the other world kicking and screaming, feeling as if your grip on reality is being stripped away from you, you pick and choose when you're going to travel between both worlds with the use of mirrors that have been scattered across the town. Since you can control these at will, the sense of dread or foreboding is sometimes stripped out of venturing into the other dimensions in favor of searching for a door to unlock or a new item to collect. The mental institution, in particular, is guilty of this, because that section drags on for way too long.
Also in keeping with the franchise standards are the inclusion of multiple endings, although there's a bit of a twist in the form of accolades and extra options. Once you've beaten the game, your performance is evaluated over multiple criteria, such as the number of items collected or the number of enemies you killed with your bare hands. These unlock different items for you, such as outfits, flashlight skins or other options. Imagine taking on the skinned creatures of Silent Hill dressed as a Mexican wrestler with a flashlight that projects a smiley face -- thanks to some creative awards, Travis can explore the town in brand new ways. The one downside with the PS2 version is that there really aren't any new elements added to the title, which means that if you own it on the PSP, you're not gaining anything new or improved with the game. That, coupled with the controls, doesn't make a strong argument for the title if you already bought it before.
What's more, while it was pretty stunning on the PSP screen, it's definitely weaker on the PS2. This is particularly true if you compare the two games side by side with a PSP that can project the game onscreen; the PS2 version is blown up and looks much more pixilated and rougher edged. While there are some sequences that look a bit cleaner, particularly during cutscenes, the overall presentation of the game is much uglier than the portable. What's more, it highlights some of the flaws from the PSP series that simply haven't been fixed. For example, some finishing move animations will completely miss an enemy, but you'll still be credited with the kill. This was somewhat forgivable on the PSP, but on the PS2, this is simply ridiculous.
Even with these problems, Climax and Konami have managed to capture the disturbing nature of the series. From the cluttered and junk strewn locations to the rusty, chaos filled doppelgangers of the alternate dimensions, everything feels like it fits into this twisted universe.
©2008-03-17, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Players are introduced to Travis Grady, a truck driver with insomnia and other issues. With a past that he doesn't like to talk about and even has trouble remembering, Travis is alone in the world, and likes things that way. Unfortunately for him, he finds himself driving his freight towards the town of Brahms on a stormy night, and decides to take a shortcut past Silent Hill to save himself some time. What unfolds, however, is much more than a simple detour, as Travis slams on the brakes when he sees a small child in the road. The trucker finds himself dragged into Silent Hill, where, unbeknownst to him, his fate is intertwined with that of Alessa, Dahlia and the Order.
Or do you? Unfortunately, while the concepts behind combat in 0rigins are cool, the implementation is somewhat skewed. Sure, your melee weapons break, but there are so many items that you can acquire to replace them that you never feel like you're in danger of relying solely upon your fists to survive. I killed a number of creatures and broke plenty of drip stands, spears and crowbars, but there were always plenty of objects to replace them. In fact, by the time I got to the final boss, I found that I still had at least twenty or thirty melee weapons of various conditions in my inventory.
Another strike against combat is that your projectile weapons quickly become useless against many of the monsters you face off against. It's pretty easy to toss a television into a nurse because she's pretty slow and weak, but later enemies can frequently shrug off some of these one hit kills. What's more, hefting and throwing these items takes a long time, which can easily open Travis up to injury against some of the faster enemies or monsters that spit viscous liquid at you. Additionally, the quick time events that you'll find yourself engaging in if monsters get too close don't have the same impact that they do in other games. You don't gain additional damage on monsters, but instead push them away, which feels like a bit of a letdown compared to the other battle elements.
Another issue that crops up is the problem of the camera, which is designed to highlight dramatic angles or impart a sense of claustrophobia. While it does this rather well, it fails during battle, as you will frequently find yourself struggling to see what is attacking you from off-screen. What's more, you may find that as you swing or move forward in battle, the camera angle will change and you'll accidentally move in the wrong direction or run into danger rather than away from it. Even trying to remedy this is hampered, because centering the camera doesn't work as well as it should, which is very unfortunate.
What's truly unfortunate with the camera system is that 0rigins really doesn't take advantage of the PS2, which highlights just how weak a port this is from the PSP. Instead of taking advantage of the second analog stick and refining the camera, the game remains locked to its poorly managed camera angles, which made sense on the handheld, but doesn't work on the PS2. What's more, you almost feel as though you're fighting some controls, primarily because it was designed more for the analog nub than the analog stick, so instead of sensitively maneuvering through environments, Travis seems to control a bit more tanklike.
Of course, combat and camera controls aren't the only facets within 0rigins -- Players will find themselves exploring the town, collecting objects and using them to gain access to new areas. Frequently, this will take you across both the foggy "normal world" and the industrialized "other world" that has become synonymous with Silent Hill. However, 0rigins has a rather unique twist that makes exploration a bit more flexible, but is possibly controversial as far as the series is concerned. Instead of being dragged into the other world kicking and screaming, feeling as if your grip on reality is being stripped away from you, you pick and choose when you're going to travel between both worlds with the use of mirrors that have been scattered across the town. Since you can control these at will, the sense of dread or foreboding is sometimes stripped out of venturing into the other dimensions in favor of searching for a door to unlock or a new item to collect. The mental institution, in particular, is guilty of this, because that section drags on for way too long.
Also in keeping with the franchise standards are the inclusion of multiple endings, although there's a bit of a twist in the form of accolades and extra options. Once you've beaten the game, your performance is evaluated over multiple criteria, such as the number of items collected or the number of enemies you killed with your bare hands. These unlock different items for you, such as outfits, flashlight skins or other options. Imagine taking on the skinned creatures of Silent Hill dressed as a Mexican wrestler with a flashlight that projects a smiley face -- thanks to some creative awards, Travis can explore the town in brand new ways. The one downside with the PS2 version is that there really aren't any new elements added to the title, which means that if you own it on the PSP, you're not gaining anything new or improved with the game. That, coupled with the controls, doesn't make a strong argument for the title if you already bought it before.
What's more, while it was pretty stunning on the PSP screen, it's definitely weaker on the PS2. This is particularly true if you compare the two games side by side with a PSP that can project the game onscreen; the PS2 version is blown up and looks much more pixilated and rougher edged. While there are some sequences that look a bit cleaner, particularly during cutscenes, the overall presentation of the game is much uglier than the portable. What's more, it highlights some of the flaws from the PSP series that simply haven't been fixed. For example, some finishing move animations will completely miss an enemy, but you'll still be credited with the kill. This was somewhat forgivable on the PSP, but on the PS2, this is simply ridiculous.
Even with these problems, Climax and Konami have managed to capture the disturbing nature of the series. From the cluttered and junk strewn locations to the rusty, chaos filled doppelgangers of the alternate dimensions, everything feels like it fits into this twisted universe.
©2008-03-17, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved