I’ve seen rain puddles with more depth
Silent Hill has made a huge comeback recently. The masterful Silent Hill 2 remake and a slew of future titles being announced have things looking very bright and hopeful. That being said, we can appreciate what has brought the series back from the dead, let’s look at what killed it in the first place. Origins was decent enough, Homecoming-was a very mixed bag to say the least, Downpour- was the final nail in the coffin of this franchise for close to a decade. Let us take a look at this travesty and what went so horribly wrong.
Downpour has the player in the shoes of Murphy Pendleton, an escaped prisoner. While enroute for a prison transfer, the bus transporting them ran off the road. Using the chaos as cover, Murphy escapes and finds his way to Silent Hill. A prisoner in Silent Hill, what hijinks shall ensue? Murphy runs into various characters, none of them not memorable. There are optional dialogue choices but honestly, it all still feels really inconsequential. While the story is half-way decent, the series’ tropes and cliches keep this game’s narrative from spreading its wings.
The design of this game is a mess though and through. The locations are woefully bland and uninspired, failing to stand out from any entry in any meaningful way. The developers tried to do something different and have the town be semi-open. This includes side missions and quick travel. This simply does not work, at all. The quick travel is confusing and the side missions lock up after a very arbitrary amount of time. Seeing as the maps are much more open-ended, it’s easy to miss the map and run around aimlessly not knowing where to go. The monsters in this game range from meh to just flat out laughable. Enemies based on prison trauma should have been an absolute win. The enemies instead look like generic monsters you would find at a halloween haunted house. Even funnier, is that enemy police cars are patrolling the streets throughout the game. When they catch up to the player, the monsters come out of said vehicle and attack you. You heard that right. Monsters driving a cop car in Silent Hill. Who the HELL thought this was a good idea?
Downpour is a bland, uninspired, and dull game throughout. This game fails to capture ANY of the essence of what made the previous titles worthwhile. I dare say a good analogy is that the developers looked at the cookbook, but rather than going out and buying the cooking supplies, they simply took pictures of the ingredients, put those in the oven at half the recommended temperature and called it a day. This is the ONLY game in the series I do not recommend in ANY capacity. Stick to Silent Hill 1-Origins, Silent Hill 2 remake and maybe Homecoming if you’re curious. Otherwise avoid this murky water of a title like James’ wife depended on it.
Toss this trash in the rain.
Fil
Verdict:4/10