Alright guys, here is my review on the game.
I'm sure that you all know I am a huge Silent Hill lover, of pretty much everything that has been done with the game. From taking ridiculous blows and getting barked at for showing my much support for the game, I've always been here for it. I've loved and supported the series all the way, but SH:SM has disappointed my heart.
First of all, I want to start out by saying that I was not excited when I first heard the plans for the game. I thought "No combat?" "Winder Wonderland? and all those other thoughts that I've thrown out there. This is gonna be bad. I got barked at by nearly everyone by just stating that I didn't like how the game was sounding to turn out, but who cares. It was my opinion on a game that hasn't even come out yet. Then by listening to the people on here (well half you guys), I tried to stay optimistic about the game and though, "Hey, maybe I might actually like this game" "It's Silent Hill! We rule supreme!" I should have stuck with my gut feeling. The game wasn't horrible, but it was not good either.
The controls for the game were a bit ridiculious at first, but I did eventually get used to them. I understand it's a port from the WII version so they tried to make it as interactive as they could, but I found at times they were just a bit confusing. It's a PS2 game... man I bet tons of us haven't even touched out PS2 in months, maybe even years! At least I know I haven't. So I had to spend time getting used to the controls and trying not to confuse them with the 360 since that's what I usually play on. The first door with the lock, I honestly got stuck. Since when ever in a Silent Hill game do you have to unlock a door by moving the little chain thing off? That was ridiculious, I felt stupid. In Cybil's police car it took me forever to realize that I had to pull that little lock thingie up on her door to get out of the freaking car! So controls we not at their best with this game. To run you had to hold the R2 button, which was something new, but went pretty well with the game.
Chase scenes.. Seriously, these were the only parts of the game that made me remember that I was playing a "Survival Horror" video game. This was the only part of the game where I actually felt intense and had to pick up a walkthrough to get through them. Why? There should have been many more moments in the game where I had to feel that I needed to strategize and keep on my feet. Something that kind of killed the whole experience was the fact that while you're running, sometimes you'd have a complete lead over those little 'raw shocks.' Oh and the fact that you could automatically jump over fences and blast through doors like that. Honestly, it helps you out a bit but what would make me feel a lot scarier is if I actually had to push the A button to get over that fense knowing that shocks were coming up right behind me. Seriously, the only chance that you can die throughout the game is during those 5 little moments where you're hauling ass from creatures that just want to hug you. And the fact that once you die you start right at the beginning makes it so much better.. Lol. What I don't understand is why are the monsters only there during the chases? The point of survival horror is that you should feel 'horror' somewhat throughout the whole game! When I was out of nightmare world, I knew I was safe. I'm not even going to call it Nightmare world because it was pretty ridiculious. How akward is it to play a SH game knowing that you're safe. Of course in the previous games, you get into a room and kill enemies in there and even though they are all dead and nothing can come in to get you, you don't even feel safe. I kept wondering, "Why am I feeling safe while playing Silent Hill?" That wasn't what I wanted to feel at all. I missed feeling fear.
As for characters, this was I guess the games best point. I liked most of the characters, just hated Dahlia. There was no point for her to be this like total 'punk rocker.' Really no point. I guess to draw in more of the teen crowd, but I don't know why they did this. Dahlia's 'young' character was not explained at all which pissed me off about this game. Harry looked good, almost hot. His personality, I loved the most. He really seemed concerned and more convincing than Harry in the first game but I still love that Harry Mason more! The part that made me LOL was when Michelle was like "Are you here for the reunion?" and Harry was like, "No." That was hilarious! Cheryl was adorable. Michelle, I loved Michelle! She is certainly one of my favorite SH characters although she was a characters that honestly was not necessary at all to the game. One thing I don't understand is why make her last name Valquez, which is almost exactly like Cynthias! Phlease Climax, We just need to stop trying to use other people's names and stuff and trying to wild people up. I know they are not related but damn. There are billions of last names out there in the world! Cybil and Lisa kicked ass in this game. I didn't like the original Lisa, but Lisa in this game was pretty cool. Stupid though for inviting Harry to her apartment, alone.. but better than the last. I got sexy Cybil for some reason, but I found the more casual Cybil to be a lot more appealing to the story line. I hated the shrink just because he was drinking some crazy water.
I hated the storyline.
There was so much unnecessary crap in there it made me want to bash my controller and stop playing. Although I loved exploring the new areas, it just wasn't enough to save the plot. why was there a brothel in Silent Hill? Of all places, Silent Hill. I don't even think we have one of those anywhere in Wisconsin, but they have one in Silent Hill. Oh gee. If it were a strip club, it would be more realistic but no, it's a brothel. I also didn't like how dang near sexually explicit themes were in the game. Silent Hill does NOT need boobs to be a good game. And I don't get why the game had to be so centered over that. With Silent Hill 2 it fit perfectly with the game, but I feel with this game Climax was trying to hard to have it make sense, but it was soo unnecessary. Seriously. How akward. Exploring the high school was really interesting to me because I love schools and whatnot. Did anyone understand the whole plot behind the high school? Or did they just throw in a bunch of teen drama in there because you are at a high school and they were running out of good ideas? To me, the story was to ridiculious and crazy to even think about. I understand that it's a "reimagining" for the first Silent Hill, but I deny the whole game. Think about it, to say this storyline was good is pretty much completely denying our whole series. As much as the crazy cult stuff with Dahlia and Alessa always slipped my mind, I really do miss it.
The music was not good this time. It was pretty weak and the music is pretty much the reason why I love to play these games so much. It adds to the atmosphere. I love Akira Yamaoka and I haven't ever critisized his work before so I do not blame him! I blame the music people who put the music in this game at the crappiest moments ever! I heard the game song a couple of times when I went through a couple of areas in a row. It's not supposed to be like that! The music timing and areas where it was played was ridiculious. I don't remember exactly what part that was, but it might have been the woods. For example, I entered the woods and the music started to play. I entered the cabin and the music started to play again. I went back out into the woods and I don't remember music playing, but later in the game like in the High School I entered the Janitors room and heard the SAME EXACT SONG playing that I heard before in the woods. Talk about reuse of material.
Music has always been a strong point for Silent Hill, but this one blew. The soundtrack is freaking amazing, it's just the music director really screwed it up for this game. Origins has the best timing for music and one of the best soundtracks (in my opinion), so there is no excuse for SM to have sucked this bad with their music and timing.
The psyc evaluation could have been better. It was an interesting idea but it failed on a couple of parts. The coloring book had me thinking, 'wtf?' It was completely off of what type of person I really am when it got to the end. During the evals I felt like I was in class on Bully. LOL!
OMG typing all of this out is making me extremely tired. I'm going to wrap this up. Here are just more of my random scattered thoughts about the game.
Raw shocks were not scary! I did love the fact that they were almost reflecting Chery's emotions by hugging onto Harry, but that was about it. And what happened to the bosses. The chase scenes did not compensate for the bosses at all!
Collecting mementos was the most boring part about the game. I did not understand what they were for or what the reward was. I found it unnecessary.
There were no puzzles! I loved SH for it's puzzles but there was absolutely nothing in this game.
I miss when static would play when there was a threat around you, not just a "ghost" that you have to photograph.
I have a lot more to say but I'm getting tired. I've probably said a lot of jerky stuff in here and stuff ya'll won't agree with, but it's my opinion. I'll probably post more of my ideas around the forum as I go around and read more into this game. It was an alright attempt. Did it do any good for the series? No. Am I afraid for the future of Silent Hill? Now I certainly am. Usually I reccomend every Silent Hill game that I play to my friends, but this one I honestly don't know what to say. I don't want to be like "Yeah, any of them are freaking awesome except for SH:SM." I can't see myself doing that, but that's what I feel like. For now, this game is going to be pushed into the back of my mind like it never even happened. This game hurt my heart and I don't know how much love is left now.
*EMO*
4/10 Rating..
Oh and I just want to say that I 100% agree with pretty much everything that Sirea said.