Silent Hill 0rigins

[k0pp0]

Well, completed this earlier today, and it was alright.. Well actually I suppose I quite enjoyed it, and I might even play through again to get a few more of the achievements. Already

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Picked up the key to room 502

but dunno if I can be quite arsed to slog through to the point where I can use it.

Final verdict: 7/10 - see me after class.

[Dogg Thang]

Sounds like a fair verdict. I'd probably give it a high 6/low 7 but it's a game I enjoyed, even with all its faults. What acheivements did you get on completion?

[k0pp0]

Got the following..

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Saviour, Stalker, Collector, Brawler, Explorer

And I am quite tempted to go back and get the others..

[MattyD]

The PS2 version is out in the UK this week and mine popped through the letterbox today. I've just played the first section of the game (one or two hours-worth). Already I get the impression it's just a cynical cash-in

As soon as the opening dialogue (you don't even get a proper cutscene) begins you'll notice the voice acting is terrible. To be fair the dialogue the actors have been given to work with is pretty damn poor. I'd go as far as to say it's as bad as the first game's. The writing generally seems pretty poor though with all the clich?s going (You've got to meet someone in an asylum? How unexpected!) and a completely blank main character who doesn't seem the least perturbed by the weird goings-on.

Unfortunately the gameplay is just as disappointing. I can't even say it feels like a retread of an old Silent Hill game because it's not even that good - the controls are sluggish, the camera is atrocious and the combat is incredibly basic mashing-X-until-they-die stuff. There are so many obvious things wrong with this it's a wonder they weren't picked up at the design stage let alone playtesting - things like making you constantly walk into the camera even when navigating a hazardous environment, or the way monsters see and attack you before you can see them through the fog, eliminating any chance of creeping past them like in the old games.

The couple of 'puzzles' I've done so far are completely arbitrary and illogical item hunts to boot, with no relevance to the scenario or story, making it pretty obvious they've just been designed to pad the stage out with as much footwork as possible and then dumped into it with no regard for plausibility.

There are also a couple of major glitches that I've noticed already. firstly, there's some serious camera pop whenever a cutscene rendered in the game engine begins, and secondly I've noticed the music just cutting out for no apparent reason. I don't know if these happen in the PSP version but I've read that the PS2 version does have a lot of glitches. The game's PSP origins are pretty clear as well both in the low-poly graphics and in the lack of proper lighting from your character's torch.

I'm going to plough through out of fanboyism more than anything else but the total lack of imagination on display generally doesn't bode well even for fanservice appeal

[Flinty]

I like it, feels like Silent Hill to me.

[Dogg Thang]

I don't remember either of those glitches with the PSP version so they could be just the port. But the rest sounds fair. I did find it better than not playing it, if you know what I mean.

But I'd also imagine it's easier to forgive some things on the PSP though.

[MattyD]

Even though I laid into it in my last post (and with good reason) and even though it frustrated the hell out of me on several fronts last night (making you always take the longest possible route FOR THE LOSE ) I still found it had a few good scares in it. I played through the second 'stage', the

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sanatorium

, and there are some proper pant-wetting moments in there. Like the first time you go into the basement, and there's one of those weird

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lame dog

sort of things pushing itself along the floor. I was like, HOLY ?&$^ WTF IS THAT!!!1

I also ran into another 'do these people even play games at all' obvious error though - I completely ran out of health items and somehow managed to kill the boss on that stage without getting hit, all with the throbbing red border-o-death around the screen, only to find that after the boss fight there's no save point and a shed-load of enemies coming for you as soon as you leave the building. WTF is up with that?

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, there are a couple of moments in the game like that and I was asking the same questions.

Sounds like it's growing a little on you though. For all the obvious faults (and they are pretty large faults), I still found myself finishing it thinking, I quite enjoyed that. The flaw that haunted me long after was the camera switch - where you would be walking one way, the camera would switch and then you'd immediately walk back into the area you came from. Frustrated the hell out of me and was a problem that never, ever should happen.

[MattyD]

Just found the last piece of the

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Flarous

and now apparently I'm expected to peice it together. WORST - PUZZLE - EVAR. There's no lead-in, there's no clues, no hints, no text files to suggest WTF U R supposed to do with it - you're just given all the bits and left to get on with it without so much as an 'off you go'. I'm at that point with this thing where I'd feel justified looking it up in a FAQ because the game obviously doesn't want me to solve it.

[Dogg Thang]

->Open Spoiler<-

Don't the lines match up or something? Or matching symbols? I don't remember needing a guide but I can't remember how exactly it was done either. I do think it's just a visual thing though. I'm thinking if the right puzzle, right?

[MattyD]

Well I thought

->Open Spoiler<-

the symbols were supposed to match or something except that there's symbols on the centre piece that aren't on the outer pieces

In the end I read the first couple of sentences about it in a FAQ just to understand what I was supposed to do and then went through the motions myself. Trust the twelve-year-olds on GameFaqs to finish the game designer's job for them

This is just another thing I cannot believe they let through play-testing. Either they don't play enough games to realise they've done anything wrong, or they didn't do any focus testing, or both. I'm guessing they didn't have the time or budget for the latter.

Anyway I finished the game shortly after the puzzle above and although the FMVs at the end were quite cool in some ways, I was disappointed at the sudden transition in the last scene (those who've seen it will know it doesn't exacly follow very well).

I was also disappointed that, although this game is supposed to focus on what happened leading to the first game, it doesn't really improve your understanding beyond what you'd already know if you'd paid attention during the cutscenes or even just read President Evil's Plot Guide. I was hoping the game would delve a bit deeper in the conspiracy and into things that weren't really touched on in the other games such as the relationship between Kaufman and Lisa Garland, but beyond some token gestures there really wasn't much. It's basically a second-rate rehash of the story from SH2, book-ended with some cutscenes tying it into the main storyline. You could say that sounds like SH4 but then I consider that more of a gaiden than a main chapter.

I'm glad they released this as a budget title TBH as I'd feel very let down if I'd paid full price for this. I think it's probably a lot easier to live with on PSP as well where it can be forgiven for some of its technical shortcomings. I feel I probably got my ?18s-worth in scares and rusty, bloody metal, and the soundtrack is awesome (when it doesn't randomly cut out), but all the same I wish Konami wouldn't just dole out titles to any old developer and let them get away with making a pale imitation of the real thing.

[huxley]

I`ve been toying with getting this to kill some time before MetalGear 4 comes out and MattyD`s posts have me in the no go area. I`ve played all the other Silent hill games, Origins included (yes it got on my man bumps as well). I loved all the other games - two was my fav as well.
Is this port going to taint my love of the series?