Silent Hill Origins Comments by Kristan Reed

Seems a fair enough score on the basis of my two hours' playtime. Silent Hill never fails to be compelling, but the series badly needs an overhaul for the PS3.

(4 was a Silent Hill game in name only)

How do you reckon? Same combat, broadly the same locales, similarly icky monsters, similar soundtrack...

It was originally intended to be called Room 302. They admitted that the Silent Hill name was only added late in the day. It wasn't even set in Silent Hill, either, which is a moot point.

Quote from the interview I did in 2004:
"Originally this development was started from what we named Room 302, rather than Silent Hill, so the original concept wasn't from Silent Hill." Presumably that was to give the game a better chance commercially? He nods. "We started off with the title Room 302, but if the Silent Hill didn't exist then we still had the idea of Room 302. Without Silent Hill we didn't have this title, but because we did have Silent Hill we wanted to have something different, but it's kind of a mixture of ideas."

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?art...

The review was mostly giving me impression of a lower score than a 7 as not much positives, however as a Silent Hill fan and played Origins twice already. Thought it was a reasonable interpretation given the platform and it clearly tried to emulate Silent Hill 2 (best in series) and (only)one new feature is ability to transfer between two worlds by touching the mirrors.

Its does have great use of lighting and a real time shadows, for PSP this rocks and need to be seen to be believed. Textures can be bland but that is the hardware and generally graphically its stand up well, gameplay it could be better but Silent Hill fans would enjoy this in my view.

For me 7 is a reasonable score and would give it no higher than a 8.

Climax made a good game!

Well, seeing as the developers are taking the recent Silent Hill film as one of their main influences for Silent Hill 5, I think we can see this superb series moving into tired, cliched territory thats all about substance and not enough about surrealist horror which the originals did so well.

Another one for the list then!

It was originally intended to be called Room 512. They admitted that the Silent Hill name was only added late in the day.

Hmmm, okay. I'd still say the experience is very recognisably Silent Hill.

Shame Climax didn't try to extend some of The Room's more successful contributions to the formula- that first person viewpoint, for instance, and the way your apartment decayed as the game progressed.

+1 for the Depeche Mode reference

And what score would you give it if you've never played a Silent Hill game before?????? I tried a PC demo ages ago but this would be my first full experience

Goffee- play them in this order if you can.

Silent Hill or Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 3
Origins
Silent Hill 4

@dirigiblebill

Cheers, hope they come out on Playstation Store...

Room 512?

is that some kind of bizzarro hotel dusk: room 215?

"Room 512" - ooh, one of my favourite Wonderstuff songs!

\0/

Silent Hill 4 wasn't tied in heavily into the series mythology at all. They took a character mentioned in a memo in Silent Hill 2 and adapted the game's nemesis around it. Konami simply lost faith that the "Room 302" brand would sell and tacked on the Silent Hill name.

Replenishing health? Virtually invincible ghost enemies? The entire second half of the game being a spirit-crushing escort quest? These elements, thankfully, never featured in its three predecessors.

If this is half the game that Silent Hill 2 is, then I'll be glad when I finally get around to playing it.

edit: changed to 512 to 302 ;)

@Goffee

Have to disagree with dirigiblebill on the play order. If you play 2 first there's no point really playing 3 until you have played 1 as 3 is the direct carry on of the story from 1. Hope that's easy enough to understand :)

Edit: can't speel today :)

Sorry, it was 302, not 512. I must have Wonderstuff B-sides residually stored in my brain somewhere :)

ZuluHero- I wasn't suggesting Goffee skip the original, just that it wouldn't hurt if he played the sequel first. Both should take precedence over Silent Hill 3. Wasn't being clear enough, my bad :)

Bragelonne- The Room had a lot to differentiate it, for better or worse, but surely you have to admit that the look and feel were essentially consistent with the other games in the series?

This has turned out better than I expected, I suspect. Anyone, do a PS2 port and I'll buy it, Konami. ^_^

@dirigiblebill

I don't think I'll ever agree with the feel being consistent. In certain stages, I will concede that the look was faithful.

The Room touches a raw nerve because the series has fallen in quality since Silent Hill 2. After the third game, which in my opinion was too combat-centric, I had high hopes for the next offering; sadly, those hopes were dashed.

edit: I can't seem to pluralise my nouns today.

+1 for the Depeche Mode reference

Words are very unneccesary - they can only do harm.

;-)

I've been intrigued by the Silent Hill saga, even though my experience with it lies in a short encounter with the Xbox version of SH2, so I'll probably get this...

Of course. That's why War Of The Lions sold 520,000 in Japan alone. Those silly Japanese must not know how to flash their PSP's huh?

Not saying it doesn't go on - of course it does. But it shows how a quality title will always sell.

Most pre-owned stuff can be found at Blockbuster for £12-15 anyway, which is pretty good.

"Does anyone even buy PSP games?, sales of PSP games say you're all pirating them. Once I can be bothered to learn how to flash one of those new PSP slims I will probably join all you thieves.

And don't say you actually buy PSP games, we're not fucking stupid here mate."

So, do you understand that if everyone is pirating the games, then developers will stop making them?

And don't say you actually buy PSP games, we're not fucking stupid here mate.

Yes I actually buy games, in order to support a few games I want to see more of in the future. Shit games however, those I pirate every now and then.

see now i feel like i should take my freshly bought copy of SH:O back to the shops now :(

*because i should have pirated it like the filthy pirate everyone seems to be - not because of the review ;)

Square-Enixs' best selling game of the year was a PSP game, so clearly people are buying them.

Dabo, I did make the point in the closing summary that it's as good as you'll find on a handheld, but in the context of it being an important new Silent Hill game it takes the series precisely nowhere.

It's 7 as a game, not marked down because of the platform. Just because it's the best survival horror game on a handheld doesn't mean it suddenly deserves an extra mark.

Bragelonne: "I don't think I'll ever agree with the feel being consistent. In certain stages, I will concede that the look was faithful.

The Room touches a raw nerve because the series has fallen in quality since Silent Hill 2. After the third game, which in my opinion was too combat-centric, I had high hopes for the next offering; sadly, those hope were dashed."

I agree completely. 4 didn't feel like Silent Hill. You were never in the dark with your flashlight, there was too much irritating combat, the characters weren't engaging. It was a shambles. I gave up during the escort bit because I was sick of Walter Sullivan shooting at me constantly and me being unable to do much about it, it wasn't fun, it was thoroughly unpleasant.

I finally picked up a PSP to play this and so far I agree with Kristan's review. You could say it's a homage to classic Hill but it's almost like fanfic made by fans for fans. No attempt to do anything new, just to get in all the ingredients to make other fans happy.

I love Silent Hill especially 2 but this series really needs the kind of rejuvenation that Resi 4 gave to that series. I wasn't massively impressed by the story of Hill 4 but I was impressed that it was trying different things. I don't really agree it was Hill name because despite it's development history Yamaoka really brought the Hill feel to it.

But right now the series doesn't need more games revolving around people getting caught up in the Silent Hill cult, carrying around a radio and a flashlight constantly checking maps to mark one one of hundreds of locked doors. It's just not as scary anymore after the 5th time.

I'm going to finish Origins because it seems to be really well made, and playing it with headphones in the dark is quite a spooky and intimate experience. However we really need something new to stop this amazing franchise slipping into mediocrity.

"How the hell do footy games on the DS get an 8 when compared to their big console couterparts they're worth about a 2?"

It's for great points like these that I still read EG's comments threads, despite them so often being full of complete fanboy crap.

I am one of the few who liked SH4 - I prefer it over 3, in fact, because the first part where you're locked up and slowly "discover" the apartment was great. The apparitions later on spooked me, too (much more than SH3's ghost house, for example). Combat was disappointing, though, but overall, I was disturbed by quite a few scenes (creepy hospital room, prison tower, hidden apartment room, anyone?).

Neither 3 nor 4 come close to 1 and 2, though. There should be a return to the underlying, Lovecraftian horror to rekindle the series, I feel. Turning it into an action-oriented game a la Resident Evil 4 would be a disastrous move.

Oh, and I will be stop-gapping my PSP S&L with a store-bought copy tonight =)

@dabo

I think he was on your side dude (unless he was being cunningly sarcastic...)

...

"Konami were very hands-on in ensuring that the game lived up to the technical standards of its predecessors"

hehe

I find it really odd that a lot of people rank SH3 as a low point in the series. Yes, it did away with multiple endings and yes it wasn't as puzzle-centric as its predecessors - but as a piece of story telling it was excellent, and IS the definite conclusion to the original Silent Hill story and arguably the whole SH conundrum. SH1 and 3 is the main story arc, integral to whole series, while everything else is just side-stories added to the proceedings.

Like I said earlier I have a brand new copy of SH:O sitting on my desk, if it helps to further explain the events leading to the first game in greater detail (even though I am fully versed in the lore) I will be overjoyed.

Zuluhero, I don't think 3 and 4 are perceived as a "low point", as in bad or disappointing - they're good (story-wise, definitely), but 1 and 2 really tower over 3 and 4. They simply are at a lower point compared to the titles that started it all and where the character count was small and eerie enough to leave things to the imagination, where the true horror happens =)

Did you read the plot synopsis on GameFAQs? I think that, if 5 (or 6, more likely) can somehow flesh out the underlying philosophy, we'd be back at the quality of old.

What’s with the Depeche Mode references?

- shit someone else beat me to it :(

Is there a room 101?

I am an honest little horsey, I admit to being an Xbox fanhorse. Sure I buy all the consoles but love is fickle and my MS passion is always beating. BUT...I love the PSP, it is about a million times more useful than the DS; music, mp4, homebrew, cheap cheap cheap UMD discs and games....well....That is the sticky point. Thank god for games like this.

PSP has more than double the user base of the 360 yet precious little in the way of good exclusives. Come on Sony stop flogging the PS3 horse and dish a little love for the rather spiffing little PSP.

SH1: Best plot & puzzles
SH2: Best music
SH3: Best action/gameplay
SH4: Most original
Origins: ???

I wonder if it's worth picking up a psp for just one game. I don't think it's worth it tbh.

Wow, how did I miss this review? I'd very nearly buy a PSP for a new SH game (especially now that the new one has a TV connector). Not quite though. Maybe if I can find one on ebay for under 80 euros.

Climax pays such close attention to the ingredients of the first three Silent Hill games that it's basically an unapologetic homage to them. As such, it makes very little attempt to innovate, or take the series forward to any meaningful degree whatsoever


Seeing how "taking the series forward" these days only means "dumbing it the fuck down so it sells better", that actually sounds pretty good.

Is it linear like SH3? Or more free mess-around-in-town, like SH1?

Grrr. Just checked in the stores. For some inane reason, 0rigins will not be out in Belgium until the first quarter of 2008. Grrr.

Hmm. Does EU version differ from US one? I checked the e-shops and there are apparently displayed two variants of of box arts (so I am not exactly sure whether they are the same or not)...

This one: http://www.gamehoof.com/images/silent-hi...
and this one: http://www.djuegos.com.ar/fotos/silenthi...

EDIT: Yet another one title picture????
http://www.consoleshop.be/product/47073/...

I think the first picture was a concept version for the US release, since it has the "RP" rating (Rating Pending) which then got canned in favour of the second picture. The third picture would be for the Euro release, as evidenced by the rating.

Thank you.

But aside the box art, US and EU versions are the same? I haven't found any info about differences so I assumed so (though I am not absolutely sure).

I am usually buying US releases of new games (because shops here import from US quite often it seems and EU releases are really delayed). I am quite new into console gaming so I was (and quite often still am) confused about these region issues.

I don't think there will be a lot of differences, although it's probable that the German version will be censored in one way or the other.

Region differences used to be a problem since there have been two region-locked formats for SDTVs: PAL (50Hz) and NTSC (60HZ, with less scanlines). Since most console games were originally developed for the NTSC regions and porting was often very rudimentary, we (PAL region) would almost always end up with a slower, black bordered game. You wouldn't complain if you never played NTSC games, but once you went NTSC, it was extremely difficult to swallow the PAL version of a game. Be glad that (I suspect) you weren't around back then.

Luckily, things are much better now, with True HD becoming the universal standard. Therefore, a game released in region X should display and run properly in region Y. So basically, a gamer can buy his poison from anywhere and it'll run, so he/she can try to import as early and cheaply as possible.

However, unfortunately, developers/companies are noticing this and thus we are seeing things like artificial region locking, Valve disabling Steam accounts if you had the audacity to buy a game like the Orange Box cheaply from a certain region, etc. And of course, we're still stuck with the dreaded Japan -> US -> Europe + Aus -> Rest of World release cycle (for Japanese games, games by western producers are distributed in a much better way, thankfully) which cause those ghastly, months-long delays or the game not appearing in Europe in the first place.

Ok :-)

So I can safely assume that US releases are (in most cases and when not specifically told otherwise) either the same (or superior to) EU ones?

If I recall correctly, then (as an example) Disgaea: Hour of Darkness EU was released without japanese audio, wasn't it? While US one had JPN audio. So those not immediatelly apparent differences left me kind of uneasy.

Hmm, I am heading way off topic here, so I'll better stop.

SH Origins definitelly looks interesting (well, and now, give me finally some PSP Resident Evil game, Campcom .-)

Ok, Eurogamer... So, we'll roll our eyes at the hospitals and sanitariums, shall we? I highly doubt that; these things defined Silent Hill, it's how we recognise it. And I for one will never get tired of the atmosphere these places create.

However, some people think the games are getting repetative... and then bash SH 4 for it being 'unlike the others'? I thought it was a brilliant game. So we're not actually in Silent Hill; big deal. It's the atmosphere. It's ALL ABOUT THE ATMOSPHERE!1!! Besides, we get plenty of references. And awesome new enemies- HELLO PEOPLE?!

Also- At least this game is coming out for PS2. That gets rid of the only reason- yes, the ONLY reason- to buy a PSP.

Now, all you boys and girls be thankful for the nice games you have.