Review – Silent Hill: 0rigins (PSP)
- Ethan Cole
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RUNDOWN
Travis the tool; a trucker with a screwy past, yielding good intent he stumbles into the solemn town of Silent Hill.
STORY
The mystery here isn’t initially strong enough to be compelling; hindered by the fact that it’s a prequel with light retcon elements, therefore the source material and history is known prior as far as the gamer is concerned. As a result 0rigins lacks the almost masochistic driven mystery and progress of SH2 or the curiosity and riddle-laden questions of SH4
The term retcon has been dropped a few times, but this isn’t a cheap rehash that dilutes the source material, but successfully adds to it by playing it safe and tidy, which is a rarity in an age where retcon is almost a slur. However by playing it safe and tidy, there isn’t a particularly strong motive for Travis to be running around the town like a fool - so as a result no real drive for the gamer. Particularly when it’s the equivalent of being slapped around – which does work well in so far as forming a connection with Travis though the experience as opposed to through his character and the greater mystery.
Travis himself isn’t particularly interesting as such – but the imagery utilized and the level design through which it is expressed, more than compensates – particularly in the theater and the motel.
PRESENTATION/GRAPHICS
The menus are clean; a good interface that isn’t cumbersome; easy to access, with the exception of having to scroll all the way to the end or beginning of a packed inventory (especially if you favor fists to other melee items).
The dialog and text could have used another pass, in some instances the white text is hard to read due to a bright background – furthermore a bit of tidying up on the amount of text scrolled. Not to nitpick but there’s a difference between “childish” and “child-like” – but then this could speak to the character of Travis not knowing the difference such as it is his impressive skills of deduction.
The staple film grain, dust and scratches look excellent – particularly with the flashbacks and in which the distortions work to great effect. In addition to this the pre-rendered cutscenes used sparingly providing a most excellent dramatic effect at the right moments. The most welcome addition: you can pause the game during cutscenes in game/pre-rendered – or choose to skip them.
Whilst the animation is excellent some of the human character models are a bit on the rough side – though by current PSP standards they look fine. On the other hand, the monsters look fantastic, complete with the wet mannequin sheen. The monsters are well designed featuring the series regulars such as the Straightjacket monster to new additions.
The cinematic camera angles are an awesome sight evocative of the dramatic intent and emotive adding a significant element of power to the visuals. Unfortunately… there are instances when the camera is downright fucked up. There are often times when you can run straight into an enemy that you can’t see or your view is obscured and you can’t see Travis. A majority of these issues are evident in the sanitarium and the hospital – a few times during the trek through the foggy streets of Silent Hill, but for the later half of the game all’s good.
The inconsistency with the camera could be rectified if it were reprogrammed achieving the quality exhibited in latter portion of the game. Effectively this could open up the possibility of the L shoulder button being utilized for something other than resetting/centering the camera – which is seldom effective.
The fog looks fantastic – a pure grey out; drifting. If you were to take away the monsters and some of the more ominous sounds in the distance it’s a nice somber yet relaxing place to mellow out.
The lighting is impressive; excellent use of darkness from an atmospheric aspect and on a technical level it’s brilliant with dynamic shadows. Of particular note is the lighting involved with the mirror – a great contrast of light and dark whilst simultaneously reflecting the light from the torch.
GAMEPLAY
The structure for the most part consists of Travis exploring an area, interacting with a character, runs around sound, fights a boss and falls unconscious, wakes up then follows up on a recent clue; moving on to the next area. It’s a somewhat dated element of sort but he’s yet another example of the typical gaming pawn – it’s not to fault the game for this – but the core issue here is the lack of drive (as mentioned earlier in this review).
The combat isn’t terrible (unless you’re like that idiot at 1UP), for the most part the combat is decent. This isn’t a fighting game. Aside from a few instances where you’re forced to fight, it’s more than possible to avoid combat and evade enemies, which allows weapons to be saved for the boss fights. Featured here is perhaps the best combat in the series, wherein Travis’ fists are the most effective weapons for most situations. The fists are useful for combat in confined spaces – 1 on 1 (especially fun when pounding theater mannequins; like battering a punching bag), and whilst weapons may break, Travis has fists of steel. At times it seems almost too strong – but works to compensate for the idiots who would waste all their weapons then complain about the combat.
The melee weapons vary from single-use (such as a TV set) item to an assortment of blunt and sharp instruments (such as a drip-stand or a katana). The reach and collisions of the weapons can seem a bit off at first, but it’s something you’ll get used to. There’s a good selection of guns which are powerful and obviously useful for the Boss battles. Consequently some are a bit too easy, less you’re some trigger-happy ammo wasting retard that’s been playing too many FPS war games.
The series finishing “stomp” move can be a bit fickle at times in light of the camera and relative position of Travis – but it’s only in a few instances. Given the abundance of weapons the breakable items is a welcome addition – as if Travis were able to kill everything in sight (which he can, though not without effort) it would be to the detriment of the foreboding atmosphere. As for the quick time grappling can add to the tension in some cases, but in other's it comes as more of an annoyance - pretty much down to the situation.
The loading screens whilst brief can get tiresome, particularly when on a item hunt and/or exploration and/or being swarmed by a horde of erotically-charged monsters waiting to fuck you over. It’s not helped by the camera switch in some instances where the 180 degree line is crossed.
The mirror mechanic works for what it is – the manual switching of light/dark Silent Hill almost feels like that of the hole/room in SH4 in which it comes off more of a puzzle and less of an experience. It does to some degree detract from the mindfuckery of being a poor sap being jerked about by the town, which would have worked well in Travis’ case. The animation for the change over is nicely done despite utilizing a blatant static screen to conceal the load.
Where this becomes annoying; is the sanitarium – as it becomes an overly drawn out section laden with a hefty degree of backtracking that almost feels like an attempt at extending the game. The later sections however make better use of this – particularly the theater.
AUDIO
As expected, the soundtrack is awesome; powerful and dynamic melodies; strumming tunes, pounding beats culminating in a heightened sense of awe and tension courtesy of Akira Yamaoka.
The sound design is impressive particularly for a portable system; excellent use of silence and evoking the presence of imminent danger whilst simultaneously conveying a much larger world from the open or contained dry/wet ambient noise to the muffled screams or moans of the town.
The audio glitches, distortions and crackle are evident and made good use of during the flashback scenes – consisting of old-muffled 8mm and reel-to-reel styled audio. Unfortunately it’s slightly marred by the less than stellar voice acting, in particular the mother sounding like someone imitating an accent than actually having the accent of that era.
CONCLUSION
Silent Hill: 0rigins has the makings of a great game here, but it’s lacking a needed polish that would elevate it to that state. There’s a certain something that’s just ‘off’ about the experience – something that could be remedied if given more time perhaps – but unsurprising it’s evident here in light of the production history.
The game can take anywhere from 3 to 5 hours roughly depending on your play style and how much exploration you partake in… or should you stand atop a high point absorbing the atmosphere…
Despite the ability to batter the shit out of enemies, there is some genuine tension to be found – and to a certain degree through the level design: mindfuckery. In conjunction with the imagery at work and the contrast of death and sub textual eroticism the psychology at play is effective but obviously not to the level of SH2. For what this is, it gets the job done.
There’s a fair deal of replay value to experience with the amusing/useful accolades and the good, the bad and the UFO endings.
Rating: 8.2/10
Cumjackulation Rating: 8.8/10
(ratings explained)