![]() ![]() New to this game are side quests and weapon degradation. It seems counter-intuitive for a video game to be praised for its lack of polish, but in this case, it works well enough and lacks only enough polish to not become frustrating. ![]() You can get away with a lack of polish because it creates an environment conducive to fear. That's the thing you have to understand about this genre and this series, specifically. Your character moves slowly and the combat system is basic and problematic at times, but you never feel like you're comfortable, which is the sign of a good survival horror. It's still clunky in Downpour, as it was in Homecoming, as well. Now in 2012, it's a judgement call to whether or not the controls should be improving. In the earlier games, it was sort of an accidental attribute as you felt powerless and weak in the face of spooky enemies, which is terrific if you're trying to scare the hell out of the player. Often times, if not everytime, your character's movement feels clunky and heavy. One thing the series has always lacked is a bit of polish in the controls. They spoke to the nature of the ghost town and what it really means to find yourself in Silent Hill (HINT: It's never a coincidence). The two endings I saw were both very satisfying for me, as a huge fan of the series. There are only a small number of actual choices, but whether you choose the "good" or "bad" options for these, as well as how many side quests you do, will determine which ending you'll get. The ending you arrive at is based on moral choices you make throughout the story. They range from happy endings to torturous ones to things in between and there is even a joke ending (though not the customary UFO ending like previous iterations). And speaking of where the story ends up, the game, like all others in the series, has multiple endings. Having said that, few games keep you guessing like this series can do, and I didn't know where the story would end up until I got there, which is a staple of the series. The story in Downpour, then, is a bit too derivative of the horror gaming and movie genre to stand toe-to-toe with SH2. The only problem is his wife has been dead for years. In SH2, you play James, who returns to Silent Hill after his wife sends him a letter to find her there. One of the issues every Silent Hill game has is trying to top the second game. Morbid allusions to a death in Murphy's family are made, but much of the story remains in the shadows until the second half of the game. As we progress through the story, much of Murphy's history is told through flashbacks while we limp our way through the town in search of an exit. What we already know, and what Murphy learns, is that is a task easier said than done.Īs he encounters mysterious people and malevolent, demented creatures, he realizes he is living a nightmare he couldn't have anticipated. He takes the opportunity to liberate himself, but he'll have to go through Silent Hill to get away. Murphy is shaken but luckily alive, where it seems no one else was as lucky. On the way there, however, as it always seem to be the case in a horror scenario, the bus crashes. He seems soft-spoken and quiet, and something certainly weighs heavy on his heart.Īfter the murder he commits, he is sent packing to a higher security jail on an island not far from his current residence along with some of the prison's top criminals. An early sequence allows us to play out a violent murder in the prison at the hands of Murphy, yet we still feel like he is out of place in the facility alongside more legitimate psychos and crazies. Immediately, we're shown a duality of Murphy. We're introduced to Murphy Pendleton, our newest unfortunate tourist of the foggy, twisted town. The narrative of Silent Hill: Downpour begins, rather ominously, in a prison. ![]()
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