It took me 9 hours, but I finally finished Silent Hill: Downpour a couple of weeks ago. Being that I am a hardcore fan of the Silent Hill series (if you've read my mile long post of previous Silent Hill games), I thought I'd share my thoughts and opinions on the game after finishing it for my first time.
Being that I played the game blind the first time, I played on easy monster difficulty as well as easy puzzle difficulty. It was somewhat of a casual play through, and I missed a lot of collectibles, easter eggs and side quests. I plan on doing a second (at the very least) play through in the future. I managed to get the "Truth and Justice" ending my first time through, which isn't too bad, all things considered.
Alright, enough rambling.. on to the review/thoughts/opinions thing!
Pros
1. Murphy was a great protagonist.
Although Murphy seems to have received a lot of criticism, something about his character made me love the guy. He has a very unique demeanor, and his story and attitude seem to differ from other protagonists in the series. It was a refreshing change from Travis Grady and Alex Shepard, both of whom I'm not too big a fan of.
Murphy, in a lot of ways reminds me of Harry Mason (<3). While Murphy does technically commit a major sin (in all endings except for the A ending), his actions may seem justifiable by some. Murphy is somewhat of a small time criminal, only getting imprisoned after stealing a car and evading police. Besides that, he has a clean record, and seems to be somewhat of an upstanding guy. Murphy's time in Silent Hill (like Harry Mason) seems somewhat unfair, as he can be seen more or less as "innocent" (in comparison to some of the previous protagonists in the series). Murphy feels "real", and he displays such emotion in game that I really do believe that he does feel immense amounts of guilt, and that he is truly confused and afraid.
The symbolism of Murphy being a prisoner "trapped" in his own mind works perfectly, and this reflects on his character even before the events of Silent Hill. Some may find it strange that Murphy is one of the only protagonists who shows true fear, but I absolutely love it. It shows terror in a horror situation, adds a touch of realism, and gives the player a sense of panic. It creates a tense atmosphere, and shows that Murphy isn't an "invisible hero" and that he's just a regular joe. 'Nuff said. Love him. Moving on.
2. References to past Silent Hill games.
Yes, yes, yes! I love references! There were some some very well executed references from past Silent Hill games. Here are some examples:
- An EXACT replica of Henry Townshend's apartment that you're even able to visit, located right in the town of Silent Hill. Unfortunately I didn't get to go to Room 302 during my play through, phooey. :(
- There were a couple of references to Alessa Gillespie, including the presence of wheelchairs throughout Silent Hill, as well as having to chase a young girl as the main character. There is also a portrait of her in the Centennial Building.
- Murphy can examine a photograph and will mention that this "must be somebody's special place." This is a reference to Silent Hill 2.
- There's a large truck that's stopped on the side of the road near the bridge area. This may or may not be a reference to Travis Grady, the main protagonist in Silent Hill: Origins. He was a truck driver who made the mistake of taking a shortcut through Silent Hill.
- There are many pictures of areas around the town of Shepard's Glen from Silent Hill: Homecoming. There is also a side quest that becomes available on your second play through called "Digging Up The Past." This may also reference Homecoming, as one of the children were buried alive, and his watch can later be found in a casket.
3. They executed the sidequests well, there was a ton of collectibles, and Murphy's diary was interesting.
When I first heard that there were sidequests in a Silent Hill game I was a little bit iffy on the idea. Silent Hill has always had collecting, but never really doing a lot of mundane quests for the "residents" of Silent Hill. As I played, I really grew to love this feature, as it adds to the "completion" nature of gaming, and it allows you to fully explore the town. You also get some stories, artifacts, and diary entries from it. If you played the game blind your first time like me and are clueless on what it is to do, don't worry! The game allows a "free roam" period before the game's final area, and you're able to back track to several areas of Silent Hill. There's also shortcuts through the town's underground subway to make the back tracking easier and quicker. If the game puts in the feature for side questing, I'm glad that the game catered to the idea of back tracking.
I have no idea how Murphy managed to get a diary (video game logic), but I enjoyed this feature as well. I loved getting the entries scattered through out Silent Hill, and putting the pieces together. I l enjoy back story, as well as character development and information on the town of Silent Hill. I felt that sub character development was severly lacking in the game, and diary entries were one way of making up for it. That is, assuming that you can find the diary entries. It was also convenient that objectives and the map were all kept in the same place.
Cons
1. The so called "monsters"
Konami, I am disappoint. Please give the original Team Silent a call, because they need to give the developers of Downpour a lesson in scare tactics. The enemy designs were awful for this game. The lack of thought and design, as well as lack of variety was extremely disappointing. Not to mention that there are next to no boss battles, and the regular enemies can be easily skipped, or incapacitated. The final boss was 'meh', and was, in my opinion, very boring.
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| Does this look even slightly menacing to any of you? |
I miss the scare factor of enemies flying at you, looking incredibly menacing, making you run for your life. These enemies were scattered haphazardly, and were not menacing in the least bit! Murphy wasn't exactly on a field trip, but the Void was the most menacing thing in this game. The enemies also feel out of place, as most have no real symbolism to Murphy's past life in Silent Hill. The ones that do, well.. they used the SAME character design for two enemies. Dafuq?
I played on an easy difficulty, but I do know that on a higher difficulty enemy health is increased. Enemy encounters are not increased, and you would just have to deal with these stupid enemies with the even stupider combat system. Rage. The enemies in this game are a slight annoyance and a nuisance at most, but nothing scary. I'm an incredibly jumpy person, and even I was wondering when it was that I'd be jumping out of my chair. The moment never came. -gonk-
2. The crapfest ending of the game.
I felt that Downpour was pretty fluid all the way through, and I was really looking forward to the ending of the game. Downpour was a little more "quiet" with lack of great supporting characters, few "Otherworld" sections, and pathetic monsters, but it was still enjoyable to play. I was hoping that the mediocre aspects of the game would be made up with a great ending. A great boss battle, SOMETHING. Throw me a bone here Silent Hill. There's a huge lead up to the final part of the game....
and then there's nothing.
Although I enjoyed the final "Otherworld" section, the winding down of the game into it's final moments was nearly enough to make me shut the game off in frustration. First of, the game hands out first aid kits, guns, and ammo like it's candy. Secondly, they give you a fucking gauntlet of enemies near the end. What the hell? What's more fun then defeating hoards of the weakest enemies in the game (yes, they put the weakest enemy in the final area of the game -_-) with a shotgun that the game practically begs you to take? Anything. Really.
The ending felt incredibly rushed, and that the developers just got plain lazy. It was developed with next to no thought, no difficulty, and nothing new from the rest of the game. I realize that I don't have much of a right to criticize, as making a game is no easy feat. But in comparison to other games in the series, this ending makes me shed angry fan girl tears. The ending had so much potential, and it was wasted. I wish it at least felt that there was some effort put in, but it feels as if no fucks could be given on the day that they developed the game's ending. I was left feeling almost robbed at the end of the game and was asking myself, "I solved all of those puzzles and went through Silent Hill for this?"
3. The supporting characters.
I mentioned before that I loved Murphy, and it's incredibly disappointing that no other character in this game reaches a level of being likable like Murphy was.I feel that the character design was sloppy. There was no real focus on supporting roles, and the scarce amount of characters is also a shame.
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| *sigh* |
Characters that Murphy does run into only make an appearance once or twice, and offer little to no help. They speak in riddles, and all seem to know what's going on.. which is odd. The game has a lazy way of "killing" off characters, and some mysteriously disappear with no real explanation at all. The positive side to this is that it puts more focus on Murphy, and it gives a more "helpless" sort of feeling to the atmosphere. Every Silent Hill game has at least one memorable supporting character or antagonist.. but this game stands out from that, which is a shame, as characters are a large part of what makes Silent Hill so great. Just like the ending, there was potential, and it was flat out wasted.
Even the main antagonists of the game weren't focused on all that much. While you get the general idea behind the antagonists and the role that they played in Murphy's life, they are not elaborated on much. No awesome boss battles, not a lot of confrontation, next to no focus, and most don't even get much screen time in the game. Silent Hill antagonists are famous for being evil, complex, sick, twisted human beings. They're even characters that you love to hate, and a part of you looks forward to their role in the story. Unfortunately, Downpour fails to meet this standard.
Overall...
If the original Team Silent had been working on Downpour, I think that this would have turned great. It ranks nowhere in the tier of SH1, 2, or 3, but I still preferred it over Origins and Homecoming.
Although my criticisms seemed rather harsh, I feel that the game is still worth playing (at least once), and it does still include many of the "Silent Hill" aspects. If this is your first Silent Hill game, you may find it more enjoyable then I did, as I compared it to the rest of the games in the series as a whole.
There is a LOT of room for improvement with this game, which is my main problem. The parts that they did well, they did really well. However, the same can be said about the game's negative parts.
Feel free to let me in on your thoughts and opinions on the game, and I hope you all enjoyed this rather lengthy post.
