Silent Hill: Origins

"One of the best games in the series, and a must-buy for the PSP"

Story: 7/10

Silent Hill: Origins is a prequel to the original game and follows the adventure of Travis Grady, a truck driver who is mysteriously pulled into the quiet, foggy resort town of Silent Hill after rescuing a girl from a burning house. Unfortunately, he's unable to leave after that because all the roads leading out of town suddenly end with nothing but a steep cliff and fog at the end. On top of that, the town is almost completely deserted, besides hordes of nightmarish creatures.

Most people would assume that this game was being made just to clarify a few murky plot points of the original (which had a confusing and ambiguous story), and it does do that a little bit. However, most of the story actually focuses on the new character you play as, so longtime fans of the series can still expect something new. It's not anything groundbreaking or drastically different for the series, but it's still interesting.

One problem this game has that some of the other games in the series also have is that you don't always know WHY you are doing what you are doing. You're just sort of wandering the town and hoping to find something. Also, why does the main character not seem surprised to see all the enemy creatures? Why does he not question the non-playable characters about them? Why does he not ask them what they have been doing, or where everyone is? In the other games, your characters would always either know what was happening, or they'd question what was happening. The character in this game just seems kind of dumb.

Overall, it did a good job of tying together a few loose ends from the other games (SH1 and SH3 specifically, as those are the other "main" games in the series) and throwing in a new little story to add to the Silent Hill mythos.

Gameplay: 9/10

More like the older games, kind of like Resident Evil, and not very much like Silent Hill 4. This is a good thing. You'll explore the town of Silent Hill, fight off some gross enemies (why are they barfing up acid on me?!?) and solve some cryptic puzzles, all the while gathering healing items and weapons to survive. You'll quickly discover that Silent Hill has two "layers" just like the other games: the light world with thick fog, and the nightmare world which is in a state of decay and everything is tinted red with rust. Unlike the other games however, you'll actually be able to willingly move between the two worlds by traveling through mirrors. So you'll travel back and forth in order to solve many of the game's puzzles.

Two classic Silent Hill tools return here: the flashlight and the radio. Your flashlight will of course allow you to see in the dark. However, it will also alert enemies, so be careful when using it. The other tool is the radio, which gives off a noise to tell you that enemies are close. Don't worry about not being able to hear the noise if you are playing this game on the go (it's a handheld system, after all). The developers were smart enough to put in a visual cue as well: the "film grain" effect over the screen becomes harsher and makes the image appear to be an old scratched movie reel the closer you get to enemies.

The game uses an analog control setup (push the analog nub up, and your character will move to the top of the screen) rather than the "tank" controls (push up, and you'd move in the direction your character was facing) that were default in most of the games. The controls work perfectly, and the camera seems to follow you around most of the time rather than abruptly changing angles. This is good because it means that you can move the direction you want much more easily. There's also a button to reposition the camera to where you are facing, although sometimes it won't point where you want it to.

This game does a few new things. One is that melee weapons break, so you'll need to keep picking up new ones. Some people have said that they find this annoying, but it didn't bother me since there were so many melee weapons available. While I wouldn't call it annoying, I would say it was unnecessary. Another new thing is "grappling". Sometimes you'll get into little struggles with enemies, and you'll have to hit the buttons displayed on screen or else you'll be damaged. It was another unnecessary thing, but it can sometimes raise the tension. It certainly doesn't take anything away from the game.

Graphics: 10/10

When you see the graphics, you will say "wow".

Silent Hill looks just like you remember it from the other games. There's a lot of unique buildings in the game that really make it seem like a fleshed out world. Of course you can't enter most of them, but the fact that you can see all kinds of different types of stores and places (scrapyards, playgrounds, cemetaries, etc.) really creates the illusion that this was a real town that people lived in.

Like the other games, there's also the "nightmare world", and the dirty walls, macabre imagery, and general decay are just as disgustingly beautiful on the PSP. You'll need your flashlight to help you navigate this place, and the flashlight effect in this game is even better than the one in the PS2 games because it is a smooth circle rather than having jagged edges to it. It still creates realistic shadows of the environment and enemies, too.

In terms of texture quality, it's almost always as good as the PS2 games. The only thing that ever bothered me about the graphics is thr character models. They are clearly of lower polygon counts than the PS2 games, and this is noticeable during the real-time cutscenes when the camera is zoomed in on their faces, which lack the ability to convey expressions the way the characters in the PS2 games could.

Even with that small complaint, you've gotta remember that this is the PSP and not the PS2. This is as good as it can get for the PSP, and because of that the graphics get a perfect score.

Audio: 9/10

Voice actors are surprisingly, although some characters from SH1 that are in this game too have different voice actors, so they sound a little bit different (Lisa has a slightly southern accent...) but it's not too bad. I'm just glad that all the dialogue in the game in fully voiced over, because the PSP has less storage space on it's discs than console games, so some PSP games have gotten the shaft with voice acting (like the Metal Gear games on the PSP which have a lot of text to read).

Anyway, the real great thing about the audio is the fact that series composer Akira Yamaoka delivers yet another haunting musical score. The misty world has some slower and calmer music, and then the nightmare world has disjointed, creepy music. It's hard to describe, but anyone who has played any of the first three games will know what I am talking about. It's not my favorite soundtrack out of the series, but it's still excellent.

Overall (Final Score): 9/10

This is one of the best games in the Silent Hill series, and I would reccomend it to anyone who enjoyed the other games, or anyone who likes the Resident Evil series.

It's pretty much a perfect conversion of the SH formula to the PSP, with the only flaws being things that were problems in the other games: some questionable storytelling and a short gameplay time (although it has some great replay value with alternate endings and some things that are similar to Xbox 360 Achievements). It's still a very enjoyable ride while it lasts, and is a must-buy for any PSP owner.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/19/08

Game Release: Silent Hill: Origins (US, 11/06/07)