Silent Hill Origins- PS2

Silent Hill Origins starts off on a high note. Good story, excellent visuals and nice "dark" gameplay make up the majority of the things that were really good about this prequal to the series. One problem though- The game just feels like it wasn't finished yet.

The first thing that struck me about this was the "weapons" glitch in the inventory screen. Highlight your shotgun for a reload and the image of said shotgun turns into a handgun. Same problem with some of the other weapons too. It's just the image that changes though so it doesn't really change the gameplay in any way, but something small like that just comes off as lazy.

Another glitch is sometimes a health drink won't restore health. This wouldn't be too bad, but health is so scarce in the game, every little bit helps. You'll be looking everywhere for it (And it seems to be extra scarce right before boss fights.)

But that brings up another problem: Your character "gets tired" after about running for more than 4 seconds, and needs an energy drink to keep on going fast. This wouldn't be such a problem if it weren't for the enemies in this game being so damn fast!

When the enemies do catch up to you most of them try to have monster sex with your character. To avoid this they have the stupid God of War type "hit the button at the right time or your fucked" gameplay which is really annoying now that every game has it. It's really not that good of an idea. It's just annoying.

Another bad idea would be making the weapons breakable. Something like a tire iron breaks after about 5 times using it and your stuck using your fists. I don't know why but using weapons in a game against monsters can still be scary, but for some reason when your playing as a trucker punching monsters in the face, the game is just turned into something funny. Maybe I'm just sick in the squash.

Okay so enough of the stuff that doesn't work. Time for the stuff that does. The game is classic Silent Hill with newer places to explore, (I really liked the theatre) and the enemies look more messed up then ever. The story is pretty good (not as good as Silent Hill 2) but entertaining enough to make you want to play more, and being able to control between light and dark Silent Hill was a nice added touch.

It's not the best in the series, but well worth the $20 for a weekend of fun. Be sure to play with the sound up and the lights off.

7/10

Written by: Josh