When the bus taking him to another prison crashes(evidently, it was felt that they were due suddenly stopping a vehicle by their border - someone, please teach this place more ways to communicate; it could be a unique therapy resort), Murphy Pendleton(Boyd Konrad, reserved, interesting) seems to be the only survivor – and he sees a hope for freedom. Anne-Marie Cunningham(Price, obsessed with tracking him down, dead or alive), who was in charge of his transfer, however, is also still around, and she starts looking for him. Of course, this could be a completely random event. But given the small town that the two are now on the outskirts of, that doesn't seem likely...
This seeks to return to the series' roots, and does so mostly successfully. The combat is no longer the main focus, albeit the mechanics of it are unfair and frustrating. You may end up running to avoid it a lot. Melee weapons remain breakable, and you can now only carry one(no longer having to scroll through dozens of them, like in Origins... at the same time, one has to wonder why you can carry so many health kits, and several paintings, other objects...), making you suddenly have to get to another one in the middle of a fight – and due to the frequency of them, and the logical respawn of many of them(a toolbox can grant many wrenches, a fridge bottles, etc.), this is exciting, not irritating. You can always attack at short range, and do so towards any enemy even if there are a couple of them. Throwing is also possible, and you can somewhat aim.
You can holster one gun, and carry one additional one, though the latter will be exchanged for any axe(for boarded up doorways), hammer(to smash locks) or the like you may have to use to proceed(and can also use against foes). Unfortunately, you can't tell if what you're picking up is an item to be stored or something that will replace what you're holding(putting the flashlight in your hand(though it can be on either way) will do the same
and it can come in bright LED, or hint-highlighting UV), so you end up swapping the latter a lot. Thankfully, this doesn't happen while genuinely looking for something to hit something with
and as an ex-con, not unlike Travis the truck-driver, this protagonist can pick up chairs and fire extinguishers, stopping short of portable TV's.
The atmosphere is great, with "haunted house" all over the eponymous vacation spot. It's abandoned, somewhat decrepit, and will sometimes quickly turn into the horrifying, extremely lethal Otherworld, full of gears, barbed wire and spikes(that may be pushed out towards you, or you may be sliding fast down at an angle, moving to the sides to avoid them). In that dimension, you will be chased by a matter-eating sphere that can be slowed down slightly by knocking over "cells" of Hellraiser-like(that term also applies to several creature designs!) "people", very intense and thrilling, reminiscent of the Dahaka segments of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within.
You can now enter buildings around the largely open-world surroundings(albeit it can be unclear where to go, and exploration doesn't necessarily pay off), and they may contain optional side-quests(helping spirits with matters left undone, for example) that flesh out the world - and they definitely allow you to hide from the rain, which intensifies at random intervals, since this draws out monsters(that are sadly too similar in appearance), and makes them more aggressive. In general water is a theme, with it obstructing some areas, being used in some of the great puzzles(that have three difficulty settings, same as the main stuff, opening it up to a larger audience), and the like. Revenge is explored, and the plot is gripping with compelling twists. You'll go through caves, around the streets, a library, etc.
After "Shattered Memories" utilized the Wii sensitivity so well(to the point that they crafted the whole thing around that), this tries to do the same, changing to the PS3 and X-Box for their superior graphical capabilities(which this puts to nice use, where you can tell if your shirt is drenched from the weather, expressive and seamless faces... it does also lag, and loading takes too long and occurs often). The thumbsticks were made for the balancing across beams(!), manually pushing open doors and peeking through them as you are doing so, etc. However, they don't always live up to that, and panning the maps, notes and diary entries is a chore. Worse still, while you may be doing things right, it won't "accept" what you're doing when turning valves and the like, and this, more than anything else in the franchise, had me struggling to figure out what I was doing wrong in order to proceed.
This took to me 14 and a half hours to complete, and there are multiple endings. You make moral choices along the way. There are a number of setpieces in this, and this has an excellent pacing, building to the climax, and then giving you time to rest and breathe until the next one. This autosaves by checkpoints, only storing five files. You cannot choose any of these to be stored further back, and you don't get a choice whether or not to do it - and since it may happen on both sides of entering a new spot(as well as when you grab something collectible, same as other so grand games), you may end up not being able to go back very far. The HUD is minimal, and this has a 360 degree camera, leading to increased immersion. This isn't as "out there" and completely off-the-wall as the older entries. Dialog and acting are strong.
There is a lot of disturbing, bloody and violent content in this. I recommend this to any fan of Silent Hill, and psychological horror in general - you don't need to have played any of the others to appreciate this. 8/10
