Quick Points
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Silent Hill: Downpour is developed by series newcomers Vatra Games who are trying to revitalize a series that has seen better days. Downpour takes players into a different type of Silent Hill which is set in a new area of Silent Hill, with a new character, Murphy Pendleton, and focuses more on action and combat. The title is marred by control issues and technical issues and continues the slide of this once great series. Murphy Pendleton is a convict who is transferring prison when your bus crashes killing most of the passengers aboard and puts you into the city of Silent Hill. Murphy’s background is given in bits and pieces throughout the game. There are limited choices for you to build Murphy’s character with events such as trying to help a guard from falling off a ledge or stopping a guy from committing suicide though the actual event doesn’t change with either decision. Combat seems to have been a bigger emphasis in the game then previous Silent Hill games, though like many other horror games the combat has its difficulties. The combat just doesn’t feel right with Murphy taking large slow swings at enemies or blocking in ways that doesn’t always protect you. There are many weapons of different types spread around the environments which degrade over time. The game offers the chance to run from slow enemies giving the game a fight or flight aspect of the game though with the combat as it is you’ll find yourself doing the ladder more often. Enemies’ attacks will often leave Murphy staggering with not enough time to regain composure before the next strike. It would seem that the developers were split on having more combat but wanting you to run more often than not. One interesting aspect of the game is that it uses rain to act as tension builder with the enemies spawning more and acting more aggressively while it rains with the idea of listen for radio reports on when it’s about to rain to run for cover. Puzzles have always been a big part of Silent Hill games and they remain an important part in Downpour. There are traditional and environmental types of puzzles which will have you doing stuff like deciphering poems or using items to get to places you can’t reach for example bringing down a fire escape with a fire poker. There is also a lot of exploration to do in this game which will build up the lore of Silent Hill. Houses and apartments are strewn throughout the world to explore if you want. There are quests that have you returning stolen items, freeing animals, or interacting with the town’s people. The other major issue with this game is the shear amount of technical issues it has. Whenever a level you’ll have several seconds before all the textures pop in, several frame rate drops throughout the game with drops during combat with several enemies, the game comes to a complete halt for several seconds whenever a trophy is awarded. The game as a whole doesn’t look good enough to forgive these issues which just adds to the below average experience of this game. This game is a creative and technical mess that make for a mediocre experience overall. There are the occasional bright points that showed that the developer tried ultimately it doesn’t not do enough to regain the brilliance this series once had. |
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