Silent Hill Origins is the fifth installment of the Silent Hill series and the first ever to make it onto the PSP. As a fan of the survival horror genre, I was delighted when I heard this was coming; and with my anticipation came really, really high hopes. I remember wanting Origins to have a captivating story like Silent Hill 2. I wanted it to feature the same kind of disturbing atmosphere as its predecessors, if not spookier. Most importantly, I wanted this game to scare me silly. Did I get my wish? You can bet your hats it did.

Bye Bye Sleep

Imagine being trapped in a maze of claustrophobic, dimly-lit corridors and surrounded by walls that peel away to reveal chunks of rust and dripping dark blood. Imagine looking into a broken mirror in an abandoned restroom and seeing a grotesque chunk of human flesh chained with bared wire right behind your reflection. Imagine walking up to a nurse, and realizing her face has melted and merged with the skull within.

These are but some of the things you’ll see in “Origins” and boy did the developer do a good job at it. As with all Silent Hill games, part of the charm of “Origins” lies in its truly terrifying atmosphere. One moment everything’s perfectly normal and the next you’re trying to escape seemingly from Hell itself. This is a game designed to scare you, and the developer definitely isn’t holding back. This game will literally make you lose sleep, either from playing it or just feeling too darn frightened. Simply put, “Origins” scores a delicious 20 out of 10 in my opinion for scare factor alone. If you want to be scared by a PSP game, this is it.

Oh and hey, “Origins” does advise you to turn off the lights and hook up your headphones to maximize the “scare factor”. I did that for the first half an hour of gameplay and became too scared to go to the toilet alone. For the faint-hearted, I strongly advise turning on all your lights (and your TV too) while you play this game. That way you won’t be needing a CPR the next time your cat brushes against your ankle while you’re fighting a rotting, cleaver-wielding maniac.

Propelling Story that Might Disturb Some

If you have not played any of the previous Silent Hill games before, “Origins” is actually the back-story of the original Silent Hill on the original PlayStation, a prologue if you will. In the game, you play the role of Travis – a truck driver passing by the town of Silent Hill on one of his delivery runs. Things take a turn for the worse right from the start when Travis nearly runs into a little girl. Fearing for her safety, Travis chases after the girl, but ends up finding her burned to a crisp in a house on fire. Crazy as it may sound, the little girl is still alive despite being nothing more than a charred mix of blood and flesh. Exhausted from the rescue, Travis passes out, unknowing that he will soon be one of the first men ever to experience Silent Hill and its evil influence.

In every way, the story of “Origins” is great for a game. It has a mixture of horror and suspense that makes you want to proceed to the next destination just to find out what is going to happen next. If this is the first time you are playing a Silent Hill game, you will find yourself constantly asking “Who the heck is that little girl I kept seeing?” and “What’s the deal with Travis’s strange visions?” and you literally wouldn’t want to put down your PSP until you’ve reach the very end. Maybe it’s just me, but it’s seldom that a game story propelled me in a way like “Origins”.

Understandably, to fully appreciate the story of “Origins”, you’ll really need some understanding of what happened in the past titles (especially the first game). But first-time gamers would be glad to know this game is still an excellent a stand-alone horror title. Either way, you won’t be disappointed if you’re a horror buff.

Gameplay that Actually Increases Scare Factor

Gameplay-wise, “Origins” is standard survival horror stuff. You control your protagonist Travis from a third person perspective, fighting enemies and solving riddles over a huge expansive map as well as within several locations which include a hospital, an asylum and a motel. As with all previous Silent Hill games, exploration is an important factor in “Origins” and you are free to explore the entire town section of Silent Hill if you fancy. Though it is not necessary, you may sometimes find hidden healing items and ammos if you stray from your path. But beware, you’ll have to face monsters roaming the streets and some gamers might feel it’s better just to get to the next destination as quickly as you can.

In terms of riddles, there are no difficulty settings like Silent Hill 3 but they are still relatively easy to solve. Other than the standard “Use key on lock” type riddle, there are clues left scribbled on walls and on notes scattered around the game that will help you overcome the various obstacles. As far as I remember, there’s only really one real stumbling block in the entire game and it involves manipulating some kind of magic cube. Still, the riddles do make sense and they are not unsolvable if you look around your surroundings carefully.

Battle-wise, fighting enemies in “Origins” is not easy because the creatures you face are by far the smartest ever to grace the Silent Hill universe. Some of these creatures will lunge at you in the last second, some will spit acid at you from faraway, whilst some are just so freaking huge you’ll practically waste half your ammo just to kill it, only to meet another one shortly. In addition, some will grab you and you’ll have to press a sequence of buttons that appear on screen real quick before suffering fatal damage. Standing still and blindly hitting the X button will not get you far in “Origins”, as I found out the hard way in some of the middle stages.

To make your battles harder, the melee weapons you find in “Origins” are breakable, usually in about 2 to 3 enemy encounters. This literally forces you to switch weapons so you won’t have the luxury of simply using one favorite weapon from start to finish. You’ll also have to plan well if you face more than one enemy because your weapon might break upon killing the first, making you stunned for a moment that leaves you open to the others. Having said that, you’ll find a huge selection of weapons ranging from sticks, razors, knives, hammers, spears, katanas and some weird ones like portable TV, filing cabinets and table lamps throughout the game. Eventually you’ll also find a variety of pistols and rifles (but with limited ammos). You’ll have a real blast experimenting with the different weapons on different enemies.

One last thing that I know many people actually complained about is the quirky camera angle in “Origins”. Sometimes you may enter a room, hear the alarming noise of an enemy attacking you, but not know where it’s coming from until you run a few steps allowing the screen to pan to another angle. Strange as it may sound, I actually think this adds to the scare factor of the game. There’s nothing more frightening than hearing the grunt of a mutant nurse and not knowing whether it’s coming from your left or right. So I’ve got no complaints on this one.

Looks and Sounds Just Like Silent Hill

Graphically, “Origins” is excellently done to reflect the town from Hell that is Silent Hill. Just like its predecessors, the overall exploration area in “Origins” takes place in a constant shroud of fog, which limits your visibility and ensures you can’t see where the monsters are until you’re just a few feet away.

In terms of details, everything is appropriately done to reflect the carnages that have swept through the town. You’ll see peeling walls, broken furniture, boarded windows, mould-infested toilets, rusted bars, stained paintings and just about everything else that are designed to make you feel you’re actually in Silent Hill itself. There are also a few rendered movies in “Origins” and when they do appear, the quality is comparable to Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII except the latter takes place in a futuristic setting and this in a devil town.

Music and sound are where “Origins” truly excels in. The theme song is suitably dark and moody, and appears just at the right moment (ie. when Travis decides to walk into Silent Hill). During battles, you’ll hear disturbing grunting and growling from the monsters and when you do defeat them, you’ll even hear the satisfying crunch of body giving way as you smash your steel bar onto their limb bodies. As if that’s not enough, the developer also throws in a variety of noises ranging from road collapsing, glass shattering to actual human conversations just when you least suspect it. Some will send chills down your spine while others will make you throw your PSP into the air in fright.

Play It a Second Time

Considering the fact this is survival horror game, there’s really no pointing replaying “Origins” once you’ve completed it and found out the ending to the story. Still, Konami tries to make you play it a second time round by introducing something called “Accolade”. In a nutshell, you’re rewarded with secret stuff like additional costumes, weapons and options should you fulfill certain criteria. One example would be getting a fireman suit if you manage to save the little girl from the beginning in less than a certain number of seconds. I didn’t really bother with this but I suppose many might find it cool dressing up Travis in a biker’s jacket and equipping him with a torchlight that emits a smiley face beam, all while plummeting a monster to a bloody pulp using a pair of absurdly-powerful secret gauntlets.

If playing dress-up is not your thing, perhaps you might still be tempted to play the game a second time for the hidden “alternative” endings you’ll get only after playing through the game for the first time. These endings are simply possibilities and do no part in adding to the actual story of the game but they do prolong the longevity of “Origins”; making for a great extra for die-hard fans who have no other games to play before the release of Silent Hill 5 in the distant future.

Prepare Yourself for Silent Hill’s Powerful Influence

Simply put, I love “Origins”. It has everything an adventure or survival horror gamer would want in a game. Great story and excellent gameplay? Check. Twisted monsters in a warped reality? Check. Too scared afterwards to sleep with the lights out? Double-check.

Many might argue the game is too short (I clocked only 4 hours, not counting the number of times Travis died), but then again, games like “Origins” are best judged by the quality instead of quantity. Still, if you are going to pay a quarter of your monthly allowance on a game, I suppose you you’ll be totally freaked out if it only lasted half a week… especially if you’re not planning to keep this game as a collector’s item like what I’m doing.

Judging this game not as a horror fan but as a normal gamer with a tight budget, PSPHyper gives Silent Hill Origins a near-perfect 4.5 out of 5, points deducted only for the lack of replayability. But if you are an avid horror fan as well as a gamer, Silent Hill Origins easily gets a perfect 5, every way you look at it.

Posted in PSP, Reviews on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 12:50 pm | Comments Feed | Leave a response | Trackback