SILENT HILL: DOWNPOUR

As you all may know, I have highly praised the Silent Hill series over the years and even though there were a few bumps along the way the game still manages to surprise me. The latest installment in the Silent Hill series; Downpour, is a great addition to the franchise. Since Silent Hill 2 came out, which was back in 2001 I haven't found that tension in the series that I yearn for but now I feel we're finally starting to get back into the rhythm. While Shattered Memories was a worthy edition to the series in 2009 and Silent Hill 3 in 2003 they still didn't quite reach that level Silent Hill 2 once offered. Now don't get me wrong, Downpour isn't the greatest game to praise my TV screen but it's certainly a well designed game and knows what it's trying to be; survival horror. Plus if there's one thing that freaks me out the most it's mannequins! The atmosphere, tension and confusion are back in full force with this game keeping you guessing at every turn. Exploration throughout the town is exceptionally fun and returns to that Silent Hill 2-esque style ambience that sends shivers down your spine. Traversing the fog stricken streets of Silent Hill this time round is especially terrifying and with the implementation of side quests the game further pushes you to explore derelict streets. Much like its predecessors there are unique place to explore each with a variety of tricks, traps and puzzles. I'll endeavour to shed the light a little more on the Silent Hill series this time round as my review of Silent Hill 2 back in April was a little short.

This time round the primary victim and protagonist for this chilling story is Murphy Pendelton, an inmate from a prison who becomes entangled in Silent Hill's twisted web after his prison transport bus over turns in a thunderstorm. After a rather freaky opening Murphy finds himself in dire need of escaping Silent Hill as quickly as possible, unfortunately this means traversing through the eerie town first. Throughout the game Murphy is relentlessly haunted by his past and one of the prison officer who survived the crash, Anne Cunningham. The story progressively unfolds revealing interesting details and twists surrounding Murphy's past and actions. This creates a great gameplay experience as you are constantly trying to push on and uncover both Murphy's and Silent Hill's secrets. Downpour received some very mixed reviews with a lot of people either loving or hating it, unfortunately the majority hated it, but don't let this sway you, I still consider it a worthy edition and as a horror enthusiast that's definitely saying something. Much like my beloved Silent Hill 2, Downpour still focuses on the town itself as the primary set point all the while dragging in unsuspecting victims to its horrific jaws. The cavalcade of characters who you encounter are all interesting, each with their own creepy past that fits perfectly into the story line. The transition between the real world and Silent Hill's 'Nightmare dimension' is smooth and well designed with the twisted realm leaving you truly on edge and afraid of what's to come.

The gameplay itself was something that a lot of reviewers were not fond of but in all honesty there's nothing wrong with it. If you've played a Silent Hill game you know the kind of gameplay to expect and personally I don't see what all the fuss was about. It's a survival horror game, what do you expect? In your inventory this time round you can carry only a handful if weapons and one melee weapon at a time, which is all you need. Weapon degradation occurs over time so you must be wary when entering combat with one of the stumbling entities. The implementation of this into a game like Silent Hill is great and I think it adds to the mood of the game, nothing is more frightening than having your 2x4 break mid combat forcing you to madly stumble for a new weapon while you're being chased. With the fluent gameplay and the stellar atmosphere which I previously covered I feel that this is a sorely overlooked game in the series and the survival horror genre. While it's not Silent Hill 2, I still praise it for giving the franchise a solid go and am proud to have it in my gaming library. I'm glad that there are games like this still being made because they're far and few and generally really great overall. I'm curious to see the path that the Silent Hill franchise takes over the coming years given the dividing opinions from gamers as of late. So for those who are looking for a great horror and psychological experience I strongly advise you to give this a crack.

Genre: Survival Horror
Platforms: PS3 & 360
Score: 9 / 10