After playing Silent Hill Origins I found it difficult to sum up exactly how much of a waste of time my time it had been, 90%, 95%, 100%? It seems to me that Climax missed the point in such a spectacular way it ends up feeling like they knocked up something in Japanese survival horror maker 4.1 then dropped in the entire library of Silent Hill elements that Konami sent them, hit compile and shot off down the pub. Of course I’m not really sure what I was expecting from a company whose greatest hits to date include the PC port of Viva Piñata and Sim Coaster. I bet they where wetting their pants at the idea of getting their mucky paws a Silent Hill game and finally be taken as a serious game developer, sadly though it’s not worked for me.
As a Silent Hill game it's all there, rusted wheel chair, trail of blood, fog, evil child (maybe), bloke with troubled past, pyramid head guy, sexy nurse. Then they have of course added there own elements and changed parts to make them their own with varying degrees of apathy and or ignorance. For example child seems evil only due to looking grumpy and saying sod all, pyramid head turns up kills a nurse that's it, the last you see of the bastard it's the SAME sequence as in Silent Hill 2 for fucks sake. Then there is of course a fleshy lump monster and the only other evil nasties in the game that they didn't just import from the Konami Silent Hill library are all more fleshy lumps in various shapes and sizes, Christ how much sodding lazier can you get? I'll tell you how much shall I. Other brilliant innovations are ripped off from other games and never build upon whist at the same time adding bugger all worth to the experience, such as melee weapon damage. You have a rag and bone mans wet dream of random crap you can pick up and beat evil do-ers to death with, great but a complete waste of time for one because they break after a few wallops and two most of the time you can just run past them, those that do really get in way are very few and you'll have plenty of ammo for them anyway. Ah yes the guns, in a game where your mostly supposed to be frightened for life why the tossing hell do you get an assault rifle and a pistol you put a bullet though a fiat uni with? Other genius additions include being able you switch between evil and not so evil world whenever you feel like it. Tell me please what is the point of having a scary nasty evil world where you can get out of it whenever you feel like it, sort of takes the edge of don't you think? What else? It's far too short, maybe a blessing, there is an achievement for finishing it in 2 hours, puzzles seem to consist of IQ tests for special children, oh and the highlight for me come when running down random corridor the camera flips to another angle, fine yet for some reason without moving the analogue stick I end up running in a different direction, usually the way I came. Oh how I chuckled to myself slapping my thigh every time that happened.
Honestly when I began to write this I really didn’t think I’d give the game such a berating, whist playing it didn’t really seem that bad. I think the problem comes when you try and remember back to Silent Hill 2, placed up there, at the pinnacle of the series, origins really does feel very very lacking. It’s not really terrible, well ok pretty close, but it is one of the best looking games on the PSP and sure it’s unimaginative and the story is a pile of balls among other failings but it was sort of a nice stroll down a road your still nostalgic for. A gentle walk that is then only enhanced by being as easy as abseiling down a log as you get into the rhythm of trying 100s of doors that don't open and running past things that have no chance of getting bite of Jimmy sandwich. The walkthrough of this title is then improved by the level design by numbers approach that gives you keys to doors your about to walk up to, a puffer jacket that can hold a small Dixon’s inventory and puzzles you can solve with your dog.
To sum up I kind of enjoyed playing it, until near the end where it tries way too hard to be a Silent Hill game and ends up looking silly. I guess it’s worth you giving it a go, just make sure you’ve never played Silent Hill 2, wait until you’re a bit hung over and don’t let this stop you playing another Silent Hill game, it does get much than this I promise.
As a Silent Hill game it's all there, rusted wheel chair, trail of blood, fog, evil child (maybe), bloke with troubled past, pyramid head guy, sexy nurse. Then they have of course added there own elements and changed parts to make them their own with varying degrees of apathy and or ignorance. For example child seems evil only due to looking grumpy and saying sod all, pyramid head turns up kills a nurse that's it, the last you see of the bastard it's the SAME sequence as in Silent Hill 2 for fucks sake. Then there is of course a fleshy lump monster and the only other evil nasties in the game that they didn't just import from the Konami Silent Hill library are all more fleshy lumps in various shapes and sizes, Christ how much sodding lazier can you get? I'll tell you how much shall I. Other brilliant innovations are ripped off from other games and never build upon whist at the same time adding bugger all worth to the experience, such as melee weapon damage. You have a rag and bone mans wet dream of random crap you can pick up and beat evil do-ers to death with, great but a complete waste of time for one because they break after a few wallops and two most of the time you can just run past them, those that do really get in way are very few and you'll have plenty of ammo for them anyway. Ah yes the guns, in a game where your mostly supposed to be frightened for life why the tossing hell do you get an assault rifle and a pistol you put a bullet though a fiat uni with? Other genius additions include being able you switch between evil and not so evil world whenever you feel like it. Tell me please what is the point of having a scary nasty evil world where you can get out of it whenever you feel like it, sort of takes the edge of don't you think? What else? It's far too short, maybe a blessing, there is an achievement for finishing it in 2 hours, puzzles seem to consist of IQ tests for special children, oh and the highlight for me come when running down random corridor the camera flips to another angle, fine yet for some reason without moving the analogue stick I end up running in a different direction, usually the way I came. Oh how I chuckled to myself slapping my thigh every time that happened.
Honestly when I began to write this I really didn’t think I’d give the game such a berating, whist playing it didn’t really seem that bad. I think the problem comes when you try and remember back to Silent Hill 2, placed up there, at the pinnacle of the series, origins really does feel very very lacking. It’s not really terrible, well ok pretty close, but it is one of the best looking games on the PSP and sure it’s unimaginative and the story is a pile of balls among other failings but it was sort of a nice stroll down a road your still nostalgic for. A gentle walk that is then only enhanced by being as easy as abseiling down a log as you get into the rhythm of trying 100s of doors that don't open and running past things that have no chance of getting bite of Jimmy sandwich. The walkthrough of this title is then improved by the level design by numbers approach that gives you keys to doors your about to walk up to, a puffer jacket that can hold a small Dixon’s inventory and puzzles you can solve with your dog.
To sum up I kind of enjoyed playing it, until near the end where it tries way too hard to be a Silent Hill game and ends up looking silly. I guess it’s worth you giving it a go, just make sure you’ve never played Silent Hill 2, wait until you’re a bit hung over and don’t let this stop you playing another Silent Hill game, it does get much than this I promise.
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