Violent night, holy fright!

Back in the 90’s, two big Survival Horror series battled for gamer’s affections, asking players to explore, solve puzzles, shoot monsters and beat bosses to escape some grisly goings on. The big difference was their approach to horror. Resident Evil delivered hammed-up zombies, corny dialogue and a straightforward story about gene-altering viruses and corporate double-crosses. Konami’s Silent Hill was demonic, darker, grotesque, and far more disturbing.

I took an interest in Silent Hill, but always preferred Resi. Ironically though, with Resident Evil 4 ditching puzzles and going all gung-ho action, PSP Silent Hill Origins is now the new flag bearer for an old-style Survival Horror experience.

And what an experience it is! Silent Hill Origins delivers exactly the sort of hideously great traditional survival horror fun fans will have wished for, and makes the majority of PSP releases look like PSone ports by comparison.

Silent Hill Origins is a nasty looking game, and that’s why its visuals are so impressive. There’s not a series around that screams tension or does decay like Konami’s scare-em-up. The twin worlds of Silent Hill Origins are respectively eerily cold and decayingly decadent, with monsters to scare you silly and an art style Clive Barker would be proud of. 3D games aren’t new on PSP of course, but a title looking as good as Silent Hill Origins still feels like a grin-giving novelty on the smaller screen.

The smog covered ‘normal’ world of Silent Hill is joined in Silent Hill Origins by a rust-covered, blood-splattered hell dimension accessed via mirrors. It won’t be new to avid Silent Hill fans, but on PSP it’s unique; driven by a need to discover Origins’ freakish goings-on and sent on an ever-more-dangerous hunt for items needed to get to new areas, you’ll be passing at will between both worlds, enjoying the slow drip-feed of story through notes left lying around, and mashing up the undead with Silent Hill Origins’ nifty combat.

A step forward

In this regard, Silent Hill Origins is no Resi 4, but for a Silent Hill game it’s a step forward. Firstly, there’s lock-on gun combat, with a hefty number of firearms discovered as you go. However, Origins also boasts melee combat via the R and X buttons, with hammers, baseball bats, hospital drip stands and more selected via the D-pad and free to swing at your deformed foes, with not a small number of projectiles available to lob at enemies too.

It’s not madly sophisticated, but Silent Hill Origins’ combat simply works. The main drawback is that gun ammo is so plentiful you’ll often not need to use melee items at all – and when you do, even though they break, you’ll still find you accrue far more than you use, so the tension factor is lower than it could have been. There are also some enemies later in the game can make a mockery of Origins’ clumsy, ham-fisted, slow-to-throw main character, Travis.

A trucker by trade, Travis Grady stumbles into the hell of Silent Hill Origins after he narrowly avoids running over someone collapsed on the road into Silent Hill. Events soon take him to Silent Hill’s hospital, and from there the story only gets more gruesome, spanning the town’s two dimensions and seeing Travis running into the likes of Alessa and Dahlia from the first Silent Hill.

As a prequel to the iconic original, Silent Hill Origins will grip both fans and Silent Hill newcomers, with well-delivered dialogue, dread-inducing sound effects and a haunting musical score that combine to offer the kind of presentation we’re more used to seeing on home systems.

Silent Hill Origins is horrifically graphic, sometimes hard to follow, not overly long and downright old fashioned as action-adventures go; and yet it’s inarguably one of the best releases the PSP has seen, proving that the genre still has room for a title balancing puzzles, action and narrative in one immense, intense package. Credit to Konami, this is Survival Horror as it should be done.

GAME's Verdict

• Old fashioned, PS2-quality Survival Horror as it should be done
• Immersive story, enjoyable action and satisfyingly head-scratching puzzling
• Wonderfully scary production best played with the lights off and wearing headphones

• Hard to follow and will most entertain those who enjoy being freaked out
• Combat is a step up, but still not of Resi 4 quality
• On the short side as action-adventure games go

Review by: Mark 'Scare-Easy' Scott
Version Tested: PSP
Review Published: 23.11.07

Silence is [g]olden...

It’s been a long road for the oft-troubled first PSP release in the Silent Hill series. Originally envisaged as a Resident Evil 4 style action game, Konami changed tact after underwhelming fan reaction to the game’s first footage last year, handing Silent Hill Origins to Climax’s Portsmouth studio to condense a more authentic Silent Hill experience onto PSP.

Silent Hill Origins brings us back to the sleepy, creepy American town we’ve come to love and dread, in a tale set seven years before the acclaimed original Silent Hill. As the title suggests, Silent Hill Origins is very much about the origins of the town’s troubles, and will even delve into the history of some pivotal characters from the first Silent Hill.

Trucking hell

The player character in Silent Hill Origins is Travis Grady, a trucker who unwittingly stumbles into the titular town’s horror show when he nearly runs over a creepy little girl, then chases after her into the smog. That leads him to a burning building, where another (or is it the same?) little girl lies badly burnt – and after rescuing her, promptly passes out, only to awake on a park bench. Which is where Silent Hill Origins hellish tale begins proper.

Origins is a Silent Hill game in every sense, and Konami’s Portsmouth team have paid heed to adapting the series’ defining conventions to handheld. Rumble feedback and stereo sound are out for conveying health and nearby enemies respectively, and in come red glow and flickering celluloid on-screen effects. There’s an in-game brightness control too, allowing those playing Silent Hill Origins on-the-move to adjust the screen to their real-life surroundings.

Silent Hill’s gameplay has always been a blend of evocative exploring, abstract puzzling, hideous monsters and supreme psychological chills, and Silent Hill Origins will bring these stylishly to PSP. Fans can expect to see some typical Silent Hill-style locales, beginning in an unnerving hospital, and to delve into another of the series’ signatures; a second darker, rust-covered version of the gameworld that Travis accesses via mirrors.

There are also elements which betray Silent Hill Origins’ action game roots. Combat is more brutal than past Silent Hills, and the option to pick up objects lying around and bludgeon enemies with them is a first in the series. There’s also a button-mashing minigame to stop an up-close enemy from mauling you, which comes right from Resi 4. It’s hardly original, then, but Origins’ improved action is no bad thing, and should compliment Silent Hill’s adventure aspects nicely.

Dark, decaying fiction

Of course, Silent Hill has always been a series with high production values, and Origins shouldn’t disappoint. Indeed, Silent Hill Origins is possibly the PSP’s best looker yet, capturing the franchise’s consistently foreboding feel with its dark, decaying fiction and effectively minimal torch-led lighting, while the sound – done by Silent Hill veteran composer Akira Yamaoka – is of Silent Hill’s usual exceptional standard.

It’s rare to see a home console IP treated with such lavish care on a handheld, but Silent Hill Origins is looking one such release. About the only fear we’d have for Origins is it’s suitability for short-burst play, but if the save system allows for that then this portable Silent Hill could be a game for proud PSP owners to really shout about.

Preview by: Mark Scott
Preview Published: 10.10.07