First details slip out about Silent Hill 5

There are no two ways about it: I loved Silent Hill 2. In terms of its unsettling plot, disturbing art direction and understated scripting, it was brilliant. That’s why I'm rather excited that the first big news to come out concerning the (presumably PS3-bound) Silent Hill 5 is that it’s going to resemble its predecessor, according to Akira Yamoaka. Speaking to Game Pro magazine as reported by CVG, the Silent Hill composer said that “At the moment I cannot reveal much detail on the story, or our progress, but I can tell you that this game will resemble Silent Hill 2 in the terms of the way the player is directed and the characters' behaviour.” Does that mean they're going to ditch the cult backstory and go for a more psychological experience?
The question of format is still up in the air. In my opinion, given the rest of the series I’d be genuinely shocked if it didn’t come out for the PS3. The big question is whether it’s going to be mutliplatform or not. "We are thinking of putting the next game on the next generation consoles like PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but we have had a good past experience with PlayStation [where the series was born] and we hope to continue that trend, but there are no definite plans as of yet" Yamoaka said. If the Sony could bag Silent Hill 5 as an exclusive, it would definitely sell a few consoles.

I’ll happily admit that the Silent Hill games were flawed in terms of their gameplay. The game used a similar control system as the Resident Evil (before part 4, that is) which made steering your character akin to steering an underpowered tank. Quite often the object hunts were a little dull. But yhe plots were fantastic, and part two had the best, ditching the rather clichéd cult backstory and featuring a more intense, disturbing Twin Peaks-style psychological thriller. If the series gets a complete overhaul and works, it could be the game that sells the PS3.

SH:O

Silent Hill: Origins is the first Silent Hill game for the PSP, the first game ever to prequel a Silent Hill game and is the first game which hasn’t been developed by Konami Japan’s Team Silent. Origins has a lot to live up to, and from early previews and interviews the team certainly know what they could be getting themselves into and how the fans would react if key elements were taken away or the things which made Silent Hill what it is today such a standout among other Horror franchises. The hardcore fans are extremely protective, and when Silent Hill: Origins was announced for the PSP at E3 in 2006 and not being developed by the beloved Team Silent the fans went crazy, but mostly not in anticipation. Things have changed dramatically since E3 2006, and the unveiling of what the game would look like in motion at GC 2006 from the obviously Resident Evil inspired over-the-shoulder camera angle and “Tyrant” looking monsters with tight blue jeans to what we really know to be Silent Hill. This of course happened after production was moved from Climax US to Climax UK. Climax UK have said over and over that they are Silent Hill fans and they know what the fan base can and will do if they don’t get this right, so in April 2007, we were shown exactly what we wanted to see. Classic Silent Hill, fantastic music by famed series composer Akira Yamaoka complete with familiar characters, locations and monsters. Can Origins work on a PSP with such a small screen? Does hiding under the bed with headphones make a difference? Did Climax pull it off, or has the Silent Hill franchise ended with Team Silent’s disbanding?Graphics / PresentationFirst off all I’ll get the basics out of the way. The graphics in Silent Hill: Origins are phenomenal for the PSP. Filters and such used throughout the game truly add to the horror effect. Couple that with some loud metal banging noises and it is seriously unnerving. Overall character model and texture quality is at a high, and the lighting quality rivals even the Playstation 2 instalments with the amazing attention to detail and of course, the fantastic unlockable smiley face torch projection. Running around the town, which is as always a huge map has been downscaled somewhat by barricades but is still a reasonable size considering there is virtually no loading times. You might think frame rates and such would suffer, but they have utilized the age-old technique of letting the fog mask the town loading. Building, character and monster detail remains consistent throughout the game wherever you are. However during cut scenes you can often notice jagged edges on the characters which games like Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops was riddled with as well. My only specific problem with the graphics was how much their hands looked like they should be on a Barbie doll, and Travis’ unusually green chest hair. Apart from the real-time graphics, Silent Hill: Origins includes some pre-rendered CG cut scenes like Silent Hill, and Silent Hill 2. These are of course some of the best CG graphics I’ve seen in any game and the scene with Alessa floating up as the staircase and walls around here erode into the metal grate and cracked concrete of Silent Hill sent a shiver down my spine, not just from the creepiness, the music or the fact that evil-hell-girl looked like she was about to kill me, it was the fantastic detail of the world crumbling and the hate in her eyes which made the experience so much more realistic.The whole game, even the menus have an eerie feeling to them, the music is placed perfectly within them, and the game itself. The menus are different from past Silent Hill’s which have retained the same kind of style since Silent Hill 1 (except SH4) but haven’t changed totally. Health is still measured from a picture in picture shot of Travis corner of the screen, but this time Green is full and the image distorts and Travis’ heart rate increases as you lose more and more life. When your life is critical you get a pulsing noise and a red pattern round the edges of the screen as Travis stumbles along in pain. You still scroll left and right through items, but this time using the shoulder buttons to get your items, weapons, supplies etc. Once in these categories a Polaroid picture the stuff you’re carrying are moved around as you scroll through. The noise filters when an enemy draws closer really add the Silent Hill effect. Small parts of the presentation really impressed me like the spinning Flauros in the corner while the game loaded the next area, but others didn’t, like the white font which is used. My problem with that was if you were standing in front or a bright light, even though that was a rare occasion, it made the text difficult and irritating to read. As well as that, the font they chose seems bits generic, even if it is relatively easy to read given you’re looking at the right surface. GameplaySilent Hill is famous for having the exact same gameplay for 3 games in a row, and when they tried to change it just a little bit, it was seen as inferior to the older style so the old style has made a return. The Silent Hill 4 ideas have not been scrapped totally for Origins though. Optional on screen weapon change (You can also open the menu manually this time, thank god) and breakable weapons are present. A lot of people have object to the idea of breakable weapons, and I agree to some extent that some weapons shouldn’t break so easily, like the Sledgehammer. You can kill maybe 1.5 - 2 enemies until it smashes, but to be fair the wooden handle snaps which might well happen after beating 4 people to death hitting them about 5 – 6 times each but at the same time I do understand that if you could throw a TV at someone and keep picking it up, that would be too easy and there wouldn’t be enough variety. I liked how they added in seemingly random weapons like Toasters and Typewriters because if some hellish creature was in the room with you, you would throw the nearest thing and now we get to act out that exact scenario! Don’t think you’ll be without a weapon though, because they seem to be everywhere which isn’t a bad thing. Some have different strengths and durability and work better on certain enemies. As well as grabbing the nearest thing to defend yourself, Travis being a trucker, knows how to fight. You don’t turn into Neo and run up a wall, you can punch monsters in the face if you’re unarmed so you’re never without a weapon to defend yourself. While people might think this makes the game easier, and it does give you an advantage, it doesn’t inflict nearly as much damage as the sledgehammer or the Katana, as you might well have guessed. As for the shooting side of things Travis hits his target a whole lot better than Harry, James, Heather or Henry. William Oretel has already touched on this saying that Travis has used a gun before and owns one himself, while the other Silent Hill mains had not used a gun at all prior to the game. This gives him a bit of experience with a gun and therefore means he has far better accuracy. The general controls are pretty solid and much better made than the likes of the original Silent Hill. Movement is easy and you don’t find yourself straining to turn a corner, the mêlée weapons are actually able to hit your target and the overall animations and the way they respond to the controls is very solid. So far I’ve seen it as a criticism, but when you start running from a standstill, Travis does a step forward before he goes into his run/jog, which I liked. The way it looked and felt was realistic. No one goes straight into a run instantly. However, one other more realistic aspect of the movement irritates me a whole lot. Travis can run for about 10 seconds (if that) before being tired out and turning into a sloppy slow jog/walk. Strangely enough if you keep running in this state you just randomly get the ability to sprint again which is good because you don’t have to keep stopping but while Travis is doing the “about to die from exhaustion” run, most of the monsters can catch up to you which is also a new addition to the series, so it’s best to beat their head in.Another new addition to Silent Hill: Origins is the “cineractive” sequences which some of the monsters can start. This is basically when a monster, like the nurse, does to stab you with her syringe or whatever she is attacking you with and the game prompts you to mash X until Travis pushes them away, or if you’re too slow, Travis gets stabbed and takes the damage. This feature has been added to increase tension, but in all honesty it doesn’t really. Sometimes it makes you go “whoa!” when something jumps on you and you don’t realise but other than that it doesn’t make it scarier really. All it does is makes you interact with the monster more, which is good, but it doesn’t up the fear factor. If you follow the on-screen commands correctly and press the buttons at the right time you don’t take any damage… and that’s it. There’s no counter move or anything, you just push the monster back and get a couple of seconds to attack it in a normal fashion. Some kind of reward for getting the sequence right would have been nice. I wouldn’t say that they are bad, nor should they been taken out, they just could have been improved a little bit. In past Silent Hill games, I have found the camera angles extremely irritating especially when you’re running down the staircase. Silent Hill: Origins doesn’t have a 3D camera like Silent Hill V will, but it does have a center button like traditional Silent Hill. In some specific places, like staircases, they fix the camera so you can’t get it trapped in the wall or anything annoying like that. You can clearly see where you need to go, when you need to turn and where you have been. The camera angles are by no means perfect and sometimes get stuck on things or doesn’t position properly but overall it’s an improvement at the least. The worst part about the camera is after exiting a room and you know there’s a monster out there. If you choose to fight then fine, that’s all good but if you choose to run the camera doesn’t follow you properly and often turns In the wrong direction so you can’t see Travis or it points from in front of you so you can’t see where you’re running to. This is pretty rare for this to happen, but it has happened more than once and I have to say it was probably the most annoying part of the game. That being said the camera angles are better than the previous games so take that as you will.SoundAs a Silent Hill fan I probably biased but Silent Hill has some of the best game music in the industry, and it’s famous for it. Akira Yamaoka, the only returning member of the original Team Silent, has once again graced us with a fantastic OST. Every song that is played is excellent and it’s perfectly with the scene from Mary Elizabeth McGlynn’s stunning voice to the metal banging noises when you encounter an enemy. All the sounds used are very Akira, very Silent Hill and very well made. One problem I did encounter with the sound however, and this isn’t really a gripe about the sound itself, but there was a bug at one point when I was walking around the town when all the sound effects except the background music weren’t playing. No footsteps, no gunshots, nothing. I saved and restarted my PSP and the bug was gone and the sound was back and I haven’t had it since, so perhaps it was a one off thing. Let us know in the forums if you get this bug. Other than that there isn’t much else to say about the sound really other than I can’t wait for the OST to be released.Replay ValueThe full game sadly is rather short ranging from 4 to 5 hours long. That’s short as in average game time, not much shorter than the others. However, once you’ve finished the game and attempted to pit the pieces of the storyline together yourself as you often do with Silent Hill games, what’s left? Well, Silent Hill: Origins follows the tradition of multiple endings such as Good, Bad and the infamous UFO ending. As well as this you can unlock “Accolades” which are certain rewards you get for finishing the game and doing certain things during the course of it, like completing certain areas within a time limit and such. These range from costumes to extra blood and more weapons. Seeing the 3 endings is well worth your time, considering each Silent Hill has multiple and they always give you another angle of what’s going on or what happens to your character in the end and of course the UFO ending is great.Closing CommentsI had a great time playing Silent Hill: Origins and in short; I loved it. It improves on many of the issues encountered in previous Silent Hill’s but also creates some of its own. Travis’ story was really good and interesting, and the “bad” ending leaves loads of room for speculation and possible origins of some favourite characters, hence the name. However good the story was, it becomes fairly predictable as the game progresses and every time I see a cut scene I want to know more and more, but the characters don’t really give anything away, and at times the reasons for the characters being in a certain place doesn’t really make much sense, but then all the other Silent Hill’s are mysterious that way. By no means am I saying the storyline is bad though, it’s very compelling and as you play you want to know more and more. Sometimes I was just playing to get to the next cut scene and learn a bit more.Even though it lacked a little in the twist of the game, the actually getting to it was truly an experience. Pretty much everything about the game got Silent Hill right, in terms of characters, battling the monsters, the monsters themselves, the noises they made, the music, the atmosphere, everything was spot on in my opinion and the majority of Silent Hill fans should love this new instalment. If you have a PSP, buy it. It has worked perfectly on the PSP and the next horror game for PSP is going to have to try very hard to beat this. Just make sure you accept the games tip of wearing your headphones and turning out the lights - it makes a huge difference. I think that's all I've got to say about Silent Hill: Origins. I’m not sure if there’s anything else I can add to this to give you the impression that I loved the game so I’ll leave you with this; If I didn’t already have a PSP I would have certainly bought one for Origins, and I would have considered it a good purchase. If Climax has any plans to release another Silent Hill game for PSP I am completely for it and I personally can’t wait.