Mini Game Review: Silent Hill Downpour

{Reupload} Okay, so anyone who knows me probably knows I'm a huge horror game and movie fan. I used to absolutely hate the stuff as a kid but as I've gotten older it's admittedly became a pretty guilty pleasure of mine, and in fact one of my favorite video games of all time now is Silent Hill 2, so needless to say I'm a pretty big fan of the series.

Now for anyone who has played a Silent Hill game, you'll know they are probably some of the most bone chilling things to partake in. Silent Hill doesn't need those cheesy jump at you scares or loud noises to send shivers up your spine, because the pure atmosphere of everything around you does the trick itself. It's one of those games where you'll be terrified to play in even daylight but the story and game play is so addicting that you just know you have to give in.

Anyhow, moving right on, I'll do a little mini review on Silent Hill Downpour, since most of the reviews I've seen on it seem to be pretty awful.

I got this game around Christmas time in 2012, but the very first time playing it I got about an hour into it until my Fat PS3 took a huge crap and broke on me, leaving the disc forever stuck inside (or so I thought). About  6 months down the line and 2 more ps3s later I finally stopped putting it off and opened the thing up to get my disc out and start again. It took me so long to get it out because I really didn't enjoy the game at all the first time I played so I didn't care much, but after playing and beating Silent Hill 2 and starting 3 and 4 I was just craving more.

I will admit the first few hours of this game are a huge drag. The entire time in Devils Pit doesn't feel anything like a Silent Hill game and quite frankly it's pretty boring. I promise you though the minute you get out of that place and into the real Silent Hill area it feels like 2 all over again. You have the infamous Silent Hill fog, the house lined streets and the scare that at any moment you're gonna uncover a foggy area into a death hole of monsters. What I really enjoyed about this game is for the most part you aren't stuck in one huge building for hours like the other games, near the end this becomes more frequent but nearly 70% of the game is just spent doing little side quests around the town and uncovering story details as you go. The side missions in fact really added a lot of fun to the game and an enjoyable twist so you have more stuff to do. The story in general is interesting and definitely keeps you playing throughout, in general it's really just your typical addicting Silent Hill game with a few extra curveballs.

Out of 10, I would honestly probably have to give this game at least an 8. Obviously like most of the bad reviews complain about, it has a pretty clunky combat system and a boring beginning with only about 4 different frequently encountered monsters throughout, but isn't clunky combat and a small variety of monsters a pretty usual standard for the series? My own complaint would be the lack of bosses, since Silent Hill 2 has a bunch while I would argue this game only has 1 main one, but he's pretty awesome looking so I let it slide.

Overall, I think this game was a great play and it definitely had me rushing home after work each night to play. It has a few flaws to it, but I think its the truest to the older games as it can be with some extra cool bonus stuff like the side missions to add a little more fun to the overall game play, with many memorable scenes and some of the most unique random events I've seen in the series, like the really awesome "mine train ride." I think even if you've never played the series before but you're a fan of scary games you'll enjoy the time put into it and what its worth.