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Wednesday, 4 April 2012

Silent Hill Downpour review: Return to Silent Hill where terror and fear is inescapable

The Silent Hill series has been popular for several years ever since after the first game and it's first two sequels were released and received a high amount of positive reviews compared to the Resident Evil series. After the first three became a big success in the franchise the series were less received by gamers because the formula is now new in the new Silent Hill games. I mainly played Silent Hill Homecoming and I've played the other Silent Hill games. There's no denying for me that after Silent Hill 3 the other games went down the hill. With the release of Silent Hill Downpour this game has all of the old school formula elements back again in a more serious and darker way.
The new Silent Hill game is now once again in the hands of another gaming company Vatra games based on the Czech republic. Vatra games this time has taken the series to an all new direction where we are introduced to a new story, new characters, new enemies, return of old school tricks and puzzles and an all new soundtrack from Dexter composer Daniel Licht who replaced long time composer of the Silent Hill series Akira Yamaoka.

Silent Hill Downpour is a new and bigger improvement over the previous Silent Hill games with new features and of course more genuine spooks and scares than the old Silent Hill games. For Silent Hill fans Downpour is a game that will please the hardcore fans of the Silent Hill series because Silent Hill Downpour is a mixture of old school and new school elements. This game also has the psychological Horror theme back on the game mixed with suspense/thriller themes that will make the Silent Hill fans play more in the game.

To start with the good things of the game let's try to discuss things for beginners of any gamer who never played the Silent Hill series.

For beginners who never played the Silent Hill series this game is a nice experience in gaming for beginners. They will rather know the things about the Silent Hill series once they played this game. This game has some disturbing content on a couple of paces from the start of the game then the game changes into survival an terror mixed with some disturbing content this game has everything new for the fans of the series. It was a good thing that the game does a unique job than the older Silent Hill games due to it's new, fresh and clean content and everything about Silent Hill Downpour is pure fantastic and absolutely stunning and amazing.
The most fantastic thing about Silent Hill Downpour is that the game has a better hand to hand combat system this time you can only use one weapon at the time and each weapon is breakable and once a weapon breaks you mainly have to run either the weapon you use breaks or there are two or more monsters that are about to kill you and the combat system is way better than Silent Hill Homecoming's combat system but still I still like the combat system of Silent Hill Homecoming and I'm not saying that Silent Hill Homecoming is a bad game but it is just a game that is fine but could have been better if that game did something different to please the fans as well and receive positive reviews. I personally like the combat system's idea of a weapon breaking once you use it too much on every monster and you have no choice but to run for your life that idea for this game is really incredible and nice as well because the combat system of Homecoming is too action instead of scary but I would say that Silent Hill Homecoming is a bland game. This game does a unique job to be successful in the Silent Hill series and the good thing about this game is that it borrows and shares elements from the first three Silent Hill games and from the later on Silent Hill games like Silent Hill Origins, Shattered Memories and a couple of good elements from Homecoming and I'm going to explain each of the elements from the previous Silent Hill games that they shared and borrowed for this game. From Silent Hill 1-3 they borrowed the foggy elements because the fog in the game is like in the first three and there are so many fixed camera angles in this game n a couple of parts from the game. While from Silent Hill Origins the use of weapons that breaks easily like bottles, chairs and other things that were used in this game is like in Silent Hill Origins because the gameplay elements of Silent Hill Origins is when the weapon like a bottle is used on an enemy it breaks easily or other breakable weapons like the scalpel and knife this game has those elements from Silent Hill Origins. While from Shattered Memories the chase mechanics like when Murphy gets chased by a red glowing ball and when it gets too close Murphy's health decreases slowly as the red ball gets nearer to Murphy and the idea of knocking down objects to slow the red ball is like in Silent Hill Shattered Memories only better, longer and more intense than before. While the elements they borrowed from Silent Hill Homecoming is the transitioning from the normal world to the otherworld.
 Speaking of the otherworld in Silent Hill Downpour. The otherworld in this game is back and it is one of the most terrifying parts of the game and the way the normal world transits through the otherworld is done in a scarier style than Silent Hill Homecoming's transition. The otherworld is much more newer in this game and there are certain places when the normal world changes into the otherworld has a couple of new sequences where Murphy will end up running through endless staircases and stretchy hallways that are also endless which will disorient your head and Vatra games really understands the world of Silent Hill and it's feel and concept which will please the fans of the series and let them continue playing more of the game.
Aside from the amazing transition of the otherworld the town of Silent Hill is much more different looking than before because the setting of this game takes place in the unexplored region of Silent Hill if you saw this on the map of the old Silent Hill games well this is the actual setting of the unexplored region of Silent Hill only the fog is thicker and darker looking.
This game also has some old school things that are back in Silent Hill Downpour. The mind bending puzzles are back on the track of this game and this time the puzzles are much more easier because there is a difficulty setting for the puzzles either it can be easy for beginners, normal for people who played easy many times and hard for experts who played the game on normal difficulty. Aside from that the new characters of this game are  likable. Murphy Pendleton is the best character in the Silent Hill series since James Sunderland from Silent Hill 2 and Henry Townshend from Silent Hill 4 The Room and Murphy Pendleton shares similarities to James Sunderland due to his personalities and other stuff as well. The soundtrack is also an incredible part of Silent Hill Downpour. The music this time is composed by Dexter composer Daniel Licht since longtime composer of the Silent Hill series Akira Yamaoka left to compose the soundtrack for Silent Hill Downpour. Daniel Licht's music is much more newer than Akira's music and they are done in a darker style. Silent Hill Downpour is a fantastic game that had all of the old school gameplay elements and formula back to it's serious roots and it is the best in the Silent Hill series.

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