Silent Hill: Origins (2007 Video Game) User Reviews

"Was it all just a dream?"

[another_awakening · 6/10 · 10 June 2008]

"Was it all just a dream?" Maybe "Silent Hill" was just that: a dream... a dream surrounded by the misty haze of a medium far too young and shallow to understand the true value behind Toyama's masterpiece. Only by acknowledging this fact can one understand the often convoluted story behind the series. Had Konami Japan understood the (artistic and commercial) value of the series, I doubt they would have been so eager in wasting the series potential with such a lenient production policy. So, what is the story behind Silent Hill? First, a revolutionary game, that is the epitome of psychological horror (SH1); then a game that builds on that basis and adds a twisted storyline and aesthethic that in my opinion are worthy of a David Lynch movie (SH2); an uninspired sequel that follows the event of the first chapter, but that still manages to retain the same level of dramatic efficiency and production quality of its predecessors (SH3); and finally, a deviation of the series, that not only was unable to take the series forward, as it also failed in replicating some of the more important standards fans came to expect (SH4).

Alas, a prequel is made... by an outsider, American studio: Climax. Let me start by saying that I wouldn't like to be in their shoes, having to uphold to so much, and with so little experience to do so. Just think about it: in case they didn't stick to canon, they would be criticized for not maintaining the series core values, and if they opted for a strict following of the previous games, they would be criticized for not adding any value to the franchise. No win situation. Climax chose the second road, and "Silent Hill 0rigins" ends up looking like what you've come to expect of "Silent Hill": the same foggy town, with its empty streets, hospital, motel, and creepy monsters wandering about, the same camera angles coupled with a noise filter, the same eerie soundtrack. But, sadly, as you explore the dreamy landscape, you'll notice the subtle differences, and you'll realize they were as important as everything else in creating the horror masterpiece devised by Keiichiro Toyama. Not that Climax doesn't try hard to embody everything that is "Silent Hill", they do, but the fact remains that a copycat is only as good as his ability to perceive what made the original work of art grand... and Climax doesn't cut it.

"God is in the details." Small details, the type of which you'd thought wouldn't matter, but do. A simple example: a crucial aspect in any horror game is the surprise factor, the ability to catch the player off-guard (not necessarily to make him jump off his seat). In the first chapters of the franchise, there were a lot of unique scenes where the designers changed the field of play, messing with your head's preconceptions. For instance: the brilliant cat-scene in "Silent Hill", where you could hear a noise coming from a locker, and when you opened it, a cat sprung out, only to be killed by a demon-kid (or whatever you wanna call those things); later, when you entered the otherworld, the scene would repeat, a noise coming from the locker, but only this time, when you got the nerve to open it, the entrains of the cat where laying there. These small episodes were crucial in placing the player in an uncomfortable place, where every move ended with unpredictable results. In "0rigins", there isn't anything like that, everything moves along smoothly and predictably.

The "Silent Hill" universe always inhabited the realm of the surreal, where ambiguity and mystery went hand in hand. "0rigins", on the other hand, starts off with the worst of premises: to explain the events behind the first game. Now, you might not have noticed, but "explain" doesn't really mix with "surreal", "ambiguous" or "mysterious". Besides that, "Silent Hill 3" had already "explained" the first "Silent Hill" for the average player, so why try and explain more? No good could ever come from that mindset. The result is sad, at best: scenes pan out in predictable ways, with none of the edginess, creepiness or surrealism you'd expect; dialogs are poorly written and straightforward. Everything is just so linear, shallow and... well, I'm gonna say it: "American", that it manages to destroy any sense of strangeness that was still left in that world. Adding to that, all of the "explanations" in the game are irrelevant, serving only as canon fodder for the overly zealous fan to devour.

On a design note, there are some good aspects to Climax's venture: A higher focus on puzzles and exploration, a better use of sound and especially, of Akira Yamaoka's brilliant scores, and a battle system that is, for the most part, able to walk the thin line between responsiveness and clunkiness, i.e. not responsive enough to allow the player to feel either overly confident about killing monsters, and not frustrating to the point of making him throw his console out the window.

The first two "Silent Hills" were some of the best games ever designed, and that is an admittedly hard lineage to uphold, and as expected, "0rigins" utterly fails in doing so. Yet, it does manage to copy most of the formula of the series, making it a very pleasing game for the hardcore fans, as long as they don't expect to find herein the finer subtleties that made "Silent Hill" a grand masterpiece. "0rigins" is what it is: a mimic of a great work of art, that is as shallow and linear as the original was subtle and unique. The hard truth is that "Silent Hill" is growing stale and old, and the time will come when one must start wondering if we'll ever see such joyous days as the ones in 1999, when "Silent Hill" first appeared... here's hoping that it wasn't all just a dream.

"Superfluous" would be a more fitting subtitle

[TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews · 6/10 · 12 September 2012]

PS2 port review. Travis Grady is a trucker(well, supposedly... dude faints like you wouldn't believe; roughly a third of the cutscenes(almost all of which are in-engine, we only get two animated ones) involve him getting back to his feet and/or waking back up), and he takes a shortcut through the town of Silent Hill(because he is unfamiliar with this series), he almost hits someone with his car, and there's a young girl(stop me if you've heard this before... man, they really wanted to cash in)... he soon finds Dahlia wearing a snazzy fur coat, and a burning house(yes, *that* one). He rushes in to save the girl he can hear screaming inside, and... well... you know that really tense bit in Max Payne? You're in a building, suddenly there's all these flames around you getting closer to you all the time, you have to keep moving and make the right choices about where to go or you literally meet a firey death? Yeah, this is absolutely nothing like that. Maybe it's that there is no hurry, that anyone who's played the first game(who thought that one needed a prequel? Everything can be inferred from the clues, this merely shows us stuff we figured out on our own... and to an extent, it feels like a remake(look, while the original was excellent when it came out, this was released in 2007, we expected more with the passing of 8 years...!), with you going to the same places, meeting the same people... and this protagonist has no connection to the main mythology(which is not even explained fully in this, so it doesn't stand on its own), so the only thing you can get into is his personal story and the delving into his mind, which is decent) knows where this is going... I don't know, I honestly cannot put my finger on it. But it did not excite me. And that's one of the big issues with this... it's boring and uninvolving(and blatantly copying what worked before). Oh, it gets the atmosphere pretty well, with your surroundings looking recently abandoned, the sound making you feel like there is something just around the corner, the eerie music and grotesque, well-designed monsters(and in spite of the first couple being oldies, the majority are new, such as Remnant(nearly invisible but shining a light on them casts the shadow of a female person) and Carrion(cattle roadkill that leaps at you, from a seemingly weakened state)) keeping you on the edge of your seat - and The Otherworld where floors are metal gratings overlooking seemingly endless drops, walls are rotting, and metallic banging(I didn't know Lord Melchett had it in him...) terrifying you - and now, you go there manually, via touching mirrors to go back and forth between the two, opening up, and utilizing, many options for making the player put effort into figuring out where to go and what to do(twice as much room!)... at the same time, although the static is creepy(you don't like seeing that on your TV!), I did feel cheated out of proper transitions. The length is roughly 12(or 9, according to the in-game clock) and a half hours(and I rushed through it, the only time in one of these), and this has genuine puzzles, something otherwise missing from these since 4(except for maybe Downpour, have not played that yet). That is it for the positives, I'm afraid... this is the worst of these. It is way too hard(did I mention there's only one difficulty setting?), with massive amounts of enemies appearing from early on, and increasing in volume from then on out(especially the streets... those are a freaking war zone), and then several that come down to lousy programming or handling(never the way a VG should be challenging). The lack of camera control, and the angle choices is going to make many put down the joystick almost immediately never to pick it back up, and I can't argue with that decision. It will literally hide not only opponents, sometimes you, as well! Center View hurts as much as helps, and add to all this that every time you get a perspective switch, your controls change to accommodate! The direction you push the stick is the way you'll go, regardless of if it swaps 180 degrees from one moment to the next, and yes, this does occur. Wait, did you mean to retreat or charge? Eh, I'm sure you meant well. Load and try again. The numerous melee weapons are now breakable over time(read: two kills, tops, then they're gone) - oh, you won't run out, you find them all the time. However, they behave differently, and you'll either trial-by-fire through them all or spend a lot of time swatting at the air getting used to the next thing you'll be using. And when they bust in the middle of a fight(when else would they? You can't throw the ones that are almost gone away, by the way), you default back to your fists(passable, lacking in range), and if you want to equip another, you'll have to cycle through any throwables(dozens of types of things, stuff like portable TVs, toasters, etc., that you can toss(once for each you pick up) at creatures(hoping that they don't move and you thus miss), provided you can see enough to line up your shot(rare)... because this is now the WWE, apparently) that came before the next hand-to-hand one(they're arranged in order of pick-up), because they couldn't be bothered to make a third category for that(even though going back and forth between those takes no time at all), even in the useful quick inventory. You can grapple with some foes, not losing health as long as you speed-click what you're asked to. Buttons don't respond immediately, causing you to be hit because you thought it would pause(even in boss battles). There is a lot of bloody, gory, violent and disturbing content in this. I recommend this solely to those looking for their fix of this franchise. 6/10

A nice S.H sequel (or prequel!)

[angie2911 · 7/10 · 23 December 2008]

So.. Sequel or Prequel... hmmmn. Origins takes us on a journey in the life of Travis, your average all-American, friendly truck driving guy. He's a loner (awww) and is happiest alone driving his truck. He tends not to forge relationships and he prefers to leave his encounters in his rear view mirror. Until he stumbles upon a house ablaze in a sleepy little town called Silent Hill.....

This is, actually, quite a good game in the S.H series, (better than Homecoming in my opinion) but it still lacks a certain something. It's not up to the standard of S.H 2, 3 or 4 (the room) in terms of complexity, darkness, oppressive fear, subtle creepiness and plot. And the overall time it takes to complete is WAY too short. You do sort of get the impression this one didn't take too long to develop in comparison to the former titles. However, it still has the foundations of a great horror RPG with a dark dense atmosphere, nice graphics and game-play. Along with the typical scares, puzzles and nasty creatures to defeat which are all synonymous with Silent Hill. The extra addition of improved combat whilst fighting enemies is also a nice new feature. Overall a 7 out of 10 (for me). I did enjoy it, but it is nowhere near as good as the earlier titles (but better than Homecoming). Whether the like of S.H 1, 2 and 3 can be recreated in this age, remains to be seen, and is doubtful. But I'd still recommend it if you are a S.H fan, and if you're not, you'll still enjoy the back seat ride! On a side note-- I purchased one and played it (and it had a couple of VERY annoying glitches). however, I purchased another very recently, and it had none?

The best game yet in the Silent Hill series thanks to an improved movement and combat system.

[Aaron1375 · 9/10 · 10 June 2008]

The story is not quite as unsettling and eerie as say two or three and I do prefer my game to have a good story more than just fighting. However, that being said the improvements made in the combat engine and the way you move can not be ignored. Neither can you ignore the fact Travis, the lead character this go around is the best butt kicker in the series as well. The dude can simply beat the enemies to death with his bare hands. The atmosphere is still top notch as well as Silent Hill is nice and foggy and you get to visit many locales during your trip through this nightmare town uncovering secrets about Travis' life as well of that of a mysterious little girl. The story is rather good, I liked two and three's a bit better as there really is nothing new being brought to the table. Basically, it is a prequel to the first Silent Hill game. You are Travis, a trucker who while on the road one night nearly hits a girl. He follows her and ends up pulling another girl from a burning house and after this wakes up in the nice little town of Silent Hill where he heads to the hospital to check on the girl. Suffice to say it is not to long before the nightmare creatures that inhabit Silent Hill are hot on Travis' tail as he must also navigate a mental institution, a theater, and a hotel to uncover the mysterious secrets surrounding his own life as well as the little girl. You also have the ability to enter a more evil form of Silent Hills as in previous editions. This time it is a bit less subtle than the way you entered the more demented world in part three as you touch mirrors, but it is rather cool looking in the mirror and seeing the more warped version of Silent Hill, or the slightly more normal Silent Hill. Fighting the monsters is fun too as I killed most of them by beating them down with my fists, still you have your typical pipes and hammers and guns too. Along with the weapons you typically find in Silent Hill, there are also some that are a bit different as you can now throw everything, but the kitchen sink at the enemy. So for a nice little trip to Silent Hill, try this game on for size...for me it is the best trip yet.

Silent Hill: Boring

[Carrigon · 2/10 · 2 November 2008]

I just finished playing this game. I found it boring. There was nothing new. It's all the same old thing. You go through the levels, find a key, a puzzle, whatever. Kill the monsters. It's not that this game was made badly. It's that it's played out and the main character you play is dull and boring. I just didn't care about his story. And when you finally start to learn what his story is, it's like who cares.

If I had never played a Silent Hill game before, I'd probably give this a higher rating. But as it stands, since I've played them all, I was just plain bored. They need to get different stories going or just end it already.

Graphics were fine. But nothing really new.

Levels were okay, but just really the same old thing.

I have no desire to play this game again. I'd only recommend it if you have nothing better to do, but like I said, I was bored. You might be, too.