Post by Bytor on Jul 8, 2009 19:17:48 GMT -5
-Visuals- 8/10
If you have ever played any of the Silent Hill installments then you will certainly be at home here. The fog shrouded streets and gray look to everything, except blood, will be instantly recognizable. My biggest complaint was the lack of attention to detail, considering that this is a relatively newer game Konami did not do a very good job with the finer details, for instance items on desks do not look at all 3D, it almost appears as if they were a part of the desktop itself. There are plenty of other examples readily spotted as you traverse the town as well (I found the parked cars to be especially bad).
-Sound- 7/10
The soundtrack was decent but while other reviews I have read have praised it I found it to be monotonous and after @5 hours of gameplay simply annoying. Wile Silent Hill 2 delivers on suspense and excitement utilizing the sound here it was simply used non-stop and although I did feel some suspense in the beginning it wore off in less than one hour of play.
-Gameplay- 5/10
Possibly one of the most annoying games I have ever played in my entire life. The controls were awkward to use, and I found it unwieldy to attempt anything quickly. And that's nowhere near the worst part. The developers felt that a camera which constantly shifted based on your movements would add to both the gameplay and the feel of the game. Instead they created a true monstrosity to play, one minute you are facing an enemy and attacking, you move forward, the camera shifts and you are now actually facing away from your adversary. It continues into the rooms you explore as well, wheat ever you do don't change the angle of approach to any object or you will very quickly find yourself facing a different direction and possibly (probably) walking out of the room by accident. And while we're talking about walking out of rooms, whenever you exit a door it takes maybe 5 secs or so to load the new area, and 9 out of 10 times an enemy will not only be waiting BUT will attack you before you A: notice it and/or B: before you have time to even ready your attack stance (back to unwieldy controls again!). Oh, and did I mention the enemies are ridiculously hard to kill, well, time consuming anyhow (it took me 22 blows to kill an average creature in one of the hallways) and to make matters even more fun they don't stay dead, leave and come back to the area and they are regenerated...and you get nothing for killing them, honestly it's actually in your best interest to ONLY fight boss battles, which are nothing special either (I killed one with 9 shotgun blasts and she never even touched me.
-Story- 7.8/10
A prequel to the famous series, you play as Travis, a truck driver who decides to take a shortcut through Silent Hill who stops his truck when he almost runs over a little girl. For some strange reason he hikes a ridiculous distance into the town to find out if she's OK (I guess, you never really get to know what his motives are). The story then, somewhat explains how the town got to be what it is (I guess).
-Overall- 6.8/10
Good story and good graphics cannot overcome simply awful gameplay, remember Knoami, this IS a game, not a movie. I feel generous...so...6.8...it's over, I finished it and it'll now go back into the game case to gather dust