Silent Hill Downpour

[Zilfer]

Alright, wanted to make a topic about this and figured fraternity was the best place to do it because I Know their was at least one fan on here.

I picked it up yesterday from my reserved copy and played 5 hours, I'm trying to take my time because I know the game will be over before i know it. (always is since i playnothing but my newest game for awhile.)

If your a fan i can say thus far it's got a pretty good story, which keeps me guessing however i THINK i've pieced a good portion of it together. I have the vague "this probably happened" just not that how and who. I won't spoil it here however lets just say the game starts out pretty Macabre with you in jail and the showers. (I'm sure your imagination will fill in the rest whether it's the right image or not is not for me to tell )

Anyways down to the actual game itself, it's setting is run down and uninhabited like most silent hills and something unique if you haven't been following the game development is it rains, and the heavier it rains the more agressive and more often you'll run into monsters. (so you need to get indoors to let the storm pass... unless your good at fighting.) This is how the developers got you to explore more of the town, looking at the achievements there's 11 side quests which makes me have the fleeting suspicion that i've missed a good number of them.

Combat they tried to make it old school, the ones with clunky controls that took a little practice to get down. Where you can't over power most monsters and direct head to head confrontation will most likely kill you or make you use more health packs then you should (unforunately, no matter what game I like to try and kill every monster that gets in my way, i've only ran away from 2 encounters... xD my med kits are paying for it). So I give you forwarning on this if you decide to get it. But this is what all the silent hill fans were asking for during development was something that did not repeat homecoming where you could fight every monster and you were pretty empowered during that game.(protagonist being a soldier or.... supposed to be....) So just keep an open mind they did that on purpose. xD

Monster design as most online reviews will point out, not quite as inspired as say Silent hill 2 where all the monsters were custom made to represent James Sunderlunds' "sins" shall we say. These are more generic, monsters that you'd find elsewhere. (along with amonster that in the previews reminds me so much of Resident evil 5's axmen, but just replaced by a huge hammer. Haven't gotten to him yet so i'll get a better view of him soon i think... i saw his shadow ) I myself do not really mind the more generic designs, why yes it would have been nice to tailor it to his crimes, I think since we "KNOW" player wise that silent hill usually does this, it would give hints and clues to the ending. So I don't mind the monsters not linked otherwise i'd be guessing even more.

They have a few cool sequences that I won't spoil but needless to say surprised me, and just a tip. Don't be looking at your inventory out in the middle of Silent hill.... your liable to get jumped. I was sitting there looking at my inventory just opened it up and within like 5 seconds I got jumped.

Difficulty wise, Don't know how many of you are gamers but for a casual gamer i think this would be a bit hard for them, combat wise if they try to do it. Weapons break in this one after awhile and you have to pick up new ones. I've heard complains about this, honestly there's so many weapons that I have hardly ever had one break in mid combat. Some people like some people dont... to me it adds an interesting element.

Don't buy it expecting it to redefine the Silent hill experience but i can say it's a decent game, and I'm enjoying every minute of it thus far. To me thus far I haven't encountered a Silent Hill game I haven't liked yes that includes Homecoming .

An interesting note, the defaults for the story, is Combat : Easy; Riddle : Normal

Not sure if they did that because they consider combat harder or what. I'm playing through on normal because I.... "Dont believe in Easy." xD

If anyone else has played (I doubt since it just came out yesterday) Feel free to post. Or if you have any questions You can post or ask me through PM.

For those who silent hill obsessed like I am i'd recommend waiting for the price to go down. to me it's worth 60 but to most it can probably drop in price before you go explorering the rainy/foggy streets of silent hill....

For the beginning of the game.... watch your first step... it's a doosey.

[High Priest Mikhal]

Ah, you beat me to a review. Of course that could be because this is an insanely LONG game if you do the sidequests.

Overall, Zilfer, you've nailed it. The "ax men" are a reimagining of the Bogeymen (Pyramid Head), and the monsters aren't wholly generic; they each have a tie to prison life, even if it is obtuse. It's not the worst Silent Hill game I've played, but it's not very good either. You're limited to two weapons max: a pistol and a melee weapon (that will break like in Origins!) or a pistol and a shotgun. There are no special weapons besides the Golden Gun (a reward for completing the Cinema Verite sidequest) which is just a pistol that hits harder. Entering a certain code (there are three known) at a green locker with a numberpad will unlock a new melee and ranged weapon, but once entered you can't go back and change it unless you completely remove the game and saves. These new melee weapons can and will break, but they are a bit tougher.

Unseen is a Morality score that will determine the ending. Saving and consoling people as well as sparing disabled opponents will add to Morality, while not saving or mocking people and finishing off foes will lower Morality. At the end you have a choice to spare or execute someone, and this is coupled with your overall Morality score to determine the ending. Positive Morality score and sparing is equivalent to the Good+ ending; positive Morality and execution is Good; negative Morality and sparing is Bad+; negative Morality and execution is Bad. Being killed by this person leads to a fifth ending. On subsequent playthroughs you can also dig up Silent Hill Artifacts and get a special "Surprise!" ending akin to the Dog Ending of SH2. Sadly there don't appear to be any rewards for beating the game or getting specific endings.

Downpour is also so large it has to install part of itself on your console and even then can be quite jerky if you move through an area too fast. The story is good and the atmosphere is very creepy like the original game. Combat isn't nearly as frustrating as Homecoming's system, but it does engender more of a flight strategy whenever possible. Ammo is likewise scarce and there are points where you lose some, or all, of your items and have to collect them anew.

For rabid Silent Hill fans it's not a waste of money, but for others it's best to rent it. As I said it isn't the worst SH game (Shattered Memories is) but it also isn't the best.

[Zilfer]

If you've gotten the "Secret" ending let me know. I've seen all the other endings from playthrough's already. (I'm not sure if it was a programming oversight but you can get 2 of the endings at the end by getting an ending and then just hitting continue again and doing the opposite choice.) Kind of a cheap way to get 100Gamerscore but meh.

I’m not sure what you mean by Homecoming’s combat being atrocious, it’s actually well done. (if you look at it from being a combat side from a horror side probably should be that good). In fact I play on homecoming’s hardest difficulty and still have 15+ healers by the end. This is with killing every single monster in my path and without using the infinite ammo alien pistol from homecoming.

I haven’t played Shattered memories, but I’m not a fan of running around with no weapon. Though I am curious about the reinvisioning of Silent Hill 1’s storyline.

As Mikhal said ammo is hard to come by however I managed to stock pile over 50 bullets only to lose them later on.

[High Priest Mikhal]

I’m not sure what you mean by Homecoming’s combat being atrocious, it’s actually well done. (if you look at it from being a combat side from a horror side probably should be that good). In fact I play on homecoming’s hardest difficulty and still have 15+ healers by the end. This is with killing every single monster in my path and without using the infinite ammo alien pistol from homecoming.

You must have better reflexes than me. I just find the speed while aiming isn't quite up to par with what I need to snap off a shot and succeed (maybe there's an option to increase sensitivity; it's been a few months since I played).

[Zilfer]

Try aim and walking backwards? Other than that I mostly don't use the guns i save them for a few of the bosses that I don't fight melee. The centipede looking one for example, and the last boss is very easy if you have full ammo in all your weapons.

I don't know but the Knife is pretty much the best weapon in the game no lie I kill everything with it. Just don't try going through the thing without killing any monsters (or the least amount of them, that type of playthrough isn't fun)

[High Priest Mikhal]

I don't know but the Knife is pretty much the best weapon in the game no lie I kill everything with it. Just don't try going through the thing without killing any monsters (or the least amount of them, that type of playthrough isn't fun)

That's something the designers of Downpour actually steered away from: combat-heavy gameplay that's dominated the series since Silent Hill 2. In the original Silent Hill you did get the infinite ammo alien blaster as well as other special weapons (katana, rock drill, chainsaw) based on what ending(s) you got. But even with those it was less about combat and more about dark mystery. If you haven't played it, the Silent Hill HD Pack is out now. I forgot it came out and haven't picked it up yet.

[Zilfer]

I've Played #2 which is indeed my favorite. Definately mystery to that town, and yeah i've been wanting to get that HD collection just got to wait a little bit longer to get it. I've never played number 3 so i'm sort of glad it comes with two games since i'm rebuying an old game. (I don't have my PS2 anymore so definately worth it anyways)

[High Priest Mikhal]

SH3 is a direct sequel to the first game, including what the reincarnated Alessa and Harry Mason have been up to, more on the Order, and what exactly they hoped the birth of their "god" would mean. Pretty combat-heavy compared to the first game (there's an infinite SMG you can unlock, along with a flamethrower and energy saber, and after killing 333 enemies through several playthroughs you can unlock special eye beams ). There are also numerous costumes to unlock by entering certain codes after you beat the game; they're listed on several cheat sites, including gamefaqs.com. I'll just give one hint since this is something I've read numerous questions asking: before the final boss fight, after some dialogue with the main antagonist, use the necklace you've had in your inventory since the beginning or you will die.

[Zilfer]

haha! good to know that last part. I know Harry dies I haven't played the first but i know the story is linked, and it has one of my favorite lines from SH.

"They look like monsters to you?"



Also that God is ugly looking though I guess it technically wasn't birthed from it's.... "original mother" shall we say.