Silent Hill: Downpour review (PS3)

Yet another Silent Hill sequel has been palmed off to a relatively new and unknown developer. This time Vatra Games is at the helm, and despite my reservations going into Silent Hill: Downpour, it has to be said that the Czech based studio has at least done a respectable job of capturing the feel of the series. Downpour flies the decrepit-backwater-US-small-town flag high, and to its credit, the atmosphere is spot on.

The story is also not terrible, although my expectations going in were pretty low so it wouldn’t have taken much to impress me. Players step into the unfortunate shoes of Murphy Pendleton, who is being moved between prisons following an altercation with a burly jail buddy. Actually, this incident forms part of the game’s combat tutorial. In true Silent Hill tradition, we don’t know very much about what’s going on, and the developer clearly got the memo about mystery and intrigue being key elements of the franchise.

While being transported between prisons, Pendleton’s bus takes an ill-fated shortcut through the town of Silent Hill. Before you know it, the bus is laying crumpled in a ditch, and our protagonist’s problems go from bad to worse – quickly. Plenty of rain, mist and creepy shadows make their way to the forefront of Downpour’s pervading aesthetic, providing a tried and tested backdrop for what plays out as a pretty straight forward survival horror game.

Silent Hill Downpour

The first few hours of Downpour are surprisingly linear, as players must guide Pendleton through a derelict mine system before reaching the town itself, at which point the almost on-rails design is switched out for a more open-ended approach. A map suddenly becomes available, and players are allowed to explore the town freely and even complete some surprisingly interesting side quests.

There are of course plenty of puzzles to be solved, and again, I was expecting worse. For the most part they are pretty solid, although you will have to suspend your belief regularly because they are unfortunately not tied to the real world seamlessly. Solve a colour sequence problem to get a train line working? Riiiight…

Silent Hill: Downpour

The Otherworld sections are also quite enjoyable, with surreal rotating walls, twisting corridors and other mind bending spatial contortions making for a disturbing and welcome distraction from the real world locations. Speaking of the real world, the rain is an important component of gameplay, and should you get caught in it you can expect Silent Hill’s nasties to come at you harder than ever. Downpour is far more combat orientated than previous games in the series, although you will only have to deal with a handful of unique monsters throughout the game.

The game’s greatest triumph is the manner in which it successfully tells a rather complex and interesting story. True to the Silent Hill series, the game ends with a variety of different outcomes, and there are a few twists, albeit unremarkable ones, thrown in along the way for good measure.

Silent Hill: Downpour

Unfortunately, Downpour’s greatest failure is quite serious, considering what Silent Hill: Downpour is supposed to be. Quite simply, the game is just not very scary, and that’s coming from someone who point-blank refused to play Amnesia: The Dark Descent until recently because it looks scary to the point of being unpleasant, and I struggled to get through Dead Space.

The problem may be that the franchise has simply become entirely too familiar. We kind of know what to expect, and despite Vatra’s solid attempt to lay it on thick (spooky churches, scary mine shafts, etc), I just didn’t feel very afraid playing through it, and so it is sort of reduced to an action/puzzle solving game that fails to incite any real emotional response.

The second biggest problem is that the game is sub-par on a technical level. Dodgy textures, inconsistent frame rates, and some pretty unforgivable clipping and screen tearing make it difficult to let yourself become immersed.

While Silent Hill: Downpour does a fair amount right, it misses its most important mark by failing to be scary, and as a result is relegated to being just another average action-adventure with some mildly spooky environments and a decent story.