Re: Got Downpour? Want to share impressions? Post them here!
Posted: 05 Mar 2013
I finally finished the game. I can't say I loved it much but some parts were good.
I haven't enjoyed traveling around town since SH2 but Downpour has one of the best three towns in the series. It's big and doesn't force you go on a linear path unlike Homecoming which had the worst town creation ever. The water theme was a good approach too. I liked the side quests. Although they add absolutely nothing to the story. I liked the bogeyman as a boss. And that's all what I liked about the game.
The game is full of glitches. It kept lagging all the time. Especially when using the subway. I didn't like the story. It was like a rehash of the earlier games from beginning to the very end-If I see one more annoying kid behind bars out of reach...- I didn't like the supporting characters either. We only saw once most of them and they didn't serve any purpose. I don't know what "forced" meaning they have for their existence in the game and I don't care. I never had to think what Angela was doing in SH2 or Lisa in SH or Eileen in SH4. They all felt like they belonged in there. But what on earth was that DJ doing in the game!?
The monsters were terrible. They all had two arms, two legs, a head... Pretty much what humans have. They all looked human, they were all human. Nothing scary. Just annoying. But not as much as that thing which chases you. It was much worse than the red mist in SH3. The combat is also terrible. People say the combat was always bad in SH games but it was never this horrible. I stopped fighting them at some point in game not because I can't handle it but because it's only irritating.
The lighting/darkness balance is still nowhere to be found. They just can't manage to do it properly after SH3. It's been either too bright-SH4- or too dark-Homecoming- ever since. Downpour has both too bright locations and too dark locations and the flashlight totally sucks. The game keeps saying the lighter is not a good source of light on loading screens but I beg to differ. It lets you see what's in front of you better than the flashlight. Homecoming had the exact same issue. No game can be darker than the first three Silent Hill games but never I had an issue with the darkness once I turned my flashlight on back in those games.
The music was just meh. I couldn't hear anything the entire game unless the radio was on or some stupid human was chasing me.
The game is too short. I couldn't believe how quickly it could've ended if I hadn't wasted my time dealing with the side quests.
Actually I could love Homecoming more if it allowed to explore the town and didn't try to copy a movie which is a copy of a game. It was a decent game with no bugs/glitches while Downpour feels like an insult to me. Yet I have to place it above Homecoming because at least it tried to be an original installment though it failed pretty much in every aspect.
So my new order goes like this:
SH3>SH2>SH>SH4>Downpour>Homecoming>Origins>Shattered Memories
I haven't enjoyed traveling around town since SH2 but Downpour has one of the best three towns in the series. It's big and doesn't force you go on a linear path unlike Homecoming which had the worst town creation ever. The water theme was a good approach too. I liked the side quests. Although they add absolutely nothing to the story. I liked the bogeyman as a boss. And that's all what I liked about the game.
The game is full of glitches. It kept lagging all the time. Especially when using the subway. I didn't like the story. It was like a rehash of the earlier games from beginning to the very end-If I see one more annoying kid behind bars out of reach...- I didn't like the supporting characters either. We only saw once most of them and they didn't serve any purpose. I don't know what "forced" meaning they have for their existence in the game and I don't care. I never had to think what Angela was doing in SH2 or Lisa in SH or Eileen in SH4. They all felt like they belonged in there. But what on earth was that DJ doing in the game!?
The monsters were terrible. They all had two arms, two legs, a head... Pretty much what humans have. They all looked human, they were all human. Nothing scary. Just annoying. But not as much as that thing which chases you. It was much worse than the red mist in SH3. The combat is also terrible. People say the combat was always bad in SH games but it was never this horrible. I stopped fighting them at some point in game not because I can't handle it but because it's only irritating.
The lighting/darkness balance is still nowhere to be found. They just can't manage to do it properly after SH3. It's been either too bright-SH4- or too dark-Homecoming- ever since. Downpour has both too bright locations and too dark locations and the flashlight totally sucks. The game keeps saying the lighter is not a good source of light on loading screens but I beg to differ. It lets you see what's in front of you better than the flashlight. Homecoming had the exact same issue. No game can be darker than the first three Silent Hill games but never I had an issue with the darkness once I turned my flashlight on back in those games.
The music was just meh. I couldn't hear anything the entire game unless the radio was on or some stupid human was chasing me.
The game is too short. I couldn't believe how quickly it could've ended if I hadn't wasted my time dealing with the side quests.
Actually I could love Homecoming more if it allowed to explore the town and didn't try to copy a movie which is a copy of a game. It was a decent game with no bugs/glitches while Downpour feels like an insult to me. Yet I have to place it above Homecoming because at least it tried to be an original installment though it failed pretty much in every aspect.
So my new order goes like this:
SH3>SH2>SH>SH4>Downpour>Homecoming>Origins>Shattered Memories