The "Silent Hill" media franchise is a strange beast, indeed. It has gone through highs and lows, thick and thin... good and bad. But I have always and will always stick by its side, even when the future seems bleak and unsure. Because it started out so strongly, and a part of me believes that no matter what, it will someday recover and return to its former glory and resume being the best survival-horror series in modern gaming, a title that I firmly believe it held during it's first four entries between 1999-2004. Before it began a gradual downfall into mediocrity.
Yes, starting at about 2004, after the underrated fourth game ("The Room") was released, there was a downgrade in quality within not only the games, but the media franchise as a whole. Starting with some truly awful comic books, followed by a theatrical movie in 2006 that garnered mixed fan reception, and finally the decent but flawed fifth game in 2007... it suddenly almost felt like the franchise was starting to buckle a little bit. And it continued over the next few years, before the series reached the lowest of the low in 2012... When the abysmal and pretty much unanimously hated theatrical sequel ("Silent Hill: Revelations 3D", which I hated as much as I possibly could hate a film) and the two lowest-rated game in the series were released. Including this game, the incredibly mixed missed-opportunity that is "Silent Hill: Downpour."
"Silent Hill: Downpour" follows convict Murphy Pendleton, whom escapes a prison transport bus after it crashes one dark, rainy night. Fleeing, he comes through several obstacles before finding himself in the dark, twisted town... Silent Hill. And there, he will face a variety of characters, a plethora of monsters and a dark, twisted storyline that will determine whether he lives or dies.
The graphics are very mixed in this entry. Character and setting design is nice, but the visual themselves left a sour taste in my mouth. It all looks and feels just a little too... "last gen." Visuals seemingly haven't improved in quality since the fourth game for the PS2 which was released 8 years prior, and to be honest, the previous entry, "Silent Hill: Homecoming" had more fluid, smooth and realistic graphics. The creature design also left something to be desired, as enemies this time around just sort of look bland. If not downright terrible. (Seriously, guys... evil cop cars? Really?) Although I will admit, I did find the real-time transitions between the "light" and "dark" versions of Silent Hill very awe-inspiring.
The sound work is quite a bit better, though. Voice acting is amongst the best in the series, and Murphy, despite being a criminal with a dark past, is given great life by a very good performance. And to address a giant elephant in the room- the music is fine. Series veteran Akira Yamaoka, who scored each of the prior games, did indeed leave. But his replacement in American composer Daniel Licht is a perfect fit. Licht, best known for his amazing work in the series "Dexter", has a similar mindset and style to Yamaoka, and I found his music to be just as good as any of Yamaoka's prior work. Particularly his main "Downpour" theme, which is fantastic, and just drips of "Silent Hill." And I will even admit, the controversial choice of choosing metal band Korn to provide the main title theme, works. It's a decent theme and fits into the game's opening movie sequence perfectly.
Controls and gameplay, though. Uh... the best way to describe them is with a sound: "Blech!" The controls are very mixed. They are way too loose, and feel slightly over-simplified. It's difficult to get a handle of them, and you'll often find yourself pressing the wrong buttons, accidentally turning off your flashlight or dropping items when you didn't mean to, which is frustrating. And the combat is pretty foul. It's slowly-paced much of the time (aiming and firing your gun just flat-out sucks, and you'll end up taking a ton of damage before you can even fire off a shot) and usually just devolves into a button mashing nightmare. While combat was never a strong point, here, it's taken to a new low.
However, there are silver linings to be found despite this. In addition to the fantastic aforementioned soundwork, the atmosphere is top-notch and there are some startlingly set pieces that work perfectly. This is a creepy, creepy game (despite over-reliance on gore at times), and I did find it almost as unsettling to play as the first few entries. There are also a lot of great moments, such as a bizarre and freakish mine-cart ride that feels like you're riding a train to Hell, and it worked fabulously.
The story is also fairly well-told and interesting, if not predictable by "Silent Hill" standards. The idea of following an escaped prisoner is nice, and some of the metaphoric imagery surrounding this works perfectly. And you will be generally interested enough to want to stick it out and finish the game to see how it ends.
All in all, this is a very mixed game. The graphics, controls and some really questionably bad choices by the developers almost ruin it, but some decent atmosphere and an intriguing enough story salvage it. I will say though, with confidence, that this is the worst game of the series. And I hope the next entry is able to resolve it's many issues.
I give "Silent Hill: Downpour" an extremely mixed 5 out of 10.
