Just Not Scary

I have been the biggest Silent Hill fan, ever since I playes the first Silent Hill on the PS1, and have been waiting for this portable version to hit the PSP. Unfortunately, when I finally got my hands on it, I was disappointed to find that this was not the Silent Hill I remembered.

For those uneducated, Silent Hill Origin is a prequel staring a truck driver named Travis Grady. He stumbles upon franchise familiars Alessa, Dahlia and the Order, and thus sets off on a quest that unravels the origins (get it) of the whole Silent Hill story. Unfortunately, in trying to craft an original plot for this iteration, the developers added a new feature that all but kills any sort of fear to the game.

One of the hooks of the story is that the evil world (Silent Hill's "Other World") is crossing over through the mirrors. This in turn translates into a new feature where Travis has the ability to travel from the normal world to the other world through mirrors placed around the town. The problem with this is that one of the hallmarks of the franchise was the fact that your character never had control over when he traveled to the other world and back. It was completely random, and felt more like you were traveling in and out of your sanity than moving from two different real worlds.

By splitting the two worlds apart and making access easy, it makes the other world less scary because you can easily escape it. More so, it feels more like all the other world does is arbitrarily extent exploration without adding any real new areas. It really underminds the terror that Silent Hill's hallmark "Other World" has created for itself.

Another lesser strike against the game is the combat mechanics. Back from the dead od past Alone in the Dark games is the ability to fight enemies with your bare hands. It's a cool feature. But also returning from previous SH games is the unlimited inventory that allows you to hold ungodly amounts of stuff on your person. This, combo-ed with the degrading weapons that break after long term use, just makes the game feel even less scary. Degrading weapons is a good way to give a sense that you could be at a loss against your enemies. Unfortunately, you trip over weapons all the time. And since you can hold an unlimited amount of weapons on you, you're never without a weapon. Had they brought back the limited inventory of SH4, it would have made for more tense gameplay, where you are constantly needing to find a weapon. It really doesn't help the already mundane feel of the game.

Though these are big problems with the feel of the game, the overall mechanics are fine. Controls are smooth, gun-play and hand-to-hand combat are solid, and graphic are suitable, although due to the confines of the hardware, the graphics have a flat look compared to the later SH games on the PS2. This looks alot like a High-res version of the original SH. Audi-wise, the game is top-notch, especially the random break of story dialogue during gameplay.So all-in-all, it;s a competent game that just isn;t as scary as the likes of SH2 or even SH4.