Welcome....to Silent Hill.

Silent Hill: Downpour (Downpour from here on out) is the eighth installment in the Silent Hill franchise. It was released in March and April of 2012 in most of the world for the Playstation 3 and Xbox360 video game consoles. It was also only released on PS3 in Japan in November.

Downpour is a survival horror game starring Murphy Pendleton who is in prison for a ten-hour high-speed chase. Usually seen by the guards as a "model prisoner" the game starts you out going into the showers when a particular isolation prisoner is supposed to be there. This serves as your tutorial as well as the start of the story as it has you playing as Murphy to kill this prisoner.

Setting

As with most Silent Hill games Downpour is set in the quiet little town of Silent Hill with it's foggy streets and abandoned houses. Now this is where things are a little different from the first game (the only other Silent Hill I've played besides Shattered Memories.) You actually start out after the transfer bus taking you to another prison crashes and you go to try and find help, supposedly at least. You'll go through mines and old diners before you even reach Silent Hill itself. Now what's unique about Silent Hill is that it sporadically rains which plays a bigger part than just the setting. I'll get into that later.

Silent Hill seems to have a recurring theme to make the main character remember the truth of theirs or other people's pasts and sins and possibly make them atone for it; this is no different for Murphy though the game won't tell you exactly what's going on until the end.

There's also the Otherworld sections, like in every other Silent Hill game, where the main character somehow enters a dark world that seems to act on the greatest fears and worst memories of the main character. Murphy's are naturally filled with prison bars, demonic prisoners and a strange force that seems to suck in everything around it that chases him throughout the Otherworld.

Music

The music in Downpour has a lots of similarities to other games in the series with it's dramatic booms of drums and high-pitched screeching resembling rusty gates closing. They do also add some new music though in the vein of slow-paced action games with slightly orchestrated soundtracks still mixed in with standard Silent Hill screeching. I could be wrong here but it seems the music changes depending on the situation, or even on whether you fight or run away from enemies.

Voice Acting

I normally don't do a voice acting section but this game deserves a note at least. The voice actors fluctuate between good and somewhat monotone, particularly Murphy himself who goes from a low rumble when he's calm to a whiny scream when he's faced with terrifying things such as spikes trying to slam down on him.

Gameplay

This is where the game truly shines as you would imagine. This game puts an emphasis on the "survival" part of survival horror since you can carry a single weapon at a time and more often than not they will break very easily if you try to fight every enemy. It's usually better to run away and save your weapon for something that's really in your way though it's entirely possible to beat the game without killing any enemies though you can still incapacitate them (basically knocking them to the ground without finishing them off)

Another point that proves the emphasis on flight rather than fight is that when Murphy is close to an enemy he actually runs faster than normal. His adrenaline kicks in and gives him boosted agility to get away from attacking enemies!

The puzzles are a little simpler than ones from earlier in the series as far as main-game puzzles but there are now sidequests to do which involve puzzles that are slightly more complicated. Many times I found myself wandering for hours trying to figure out what to do because objects you an interact with are just out of site or are so small you can barely see them. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. On one hand it makes it harder to solve puzzles, especially when being chased by hordes of enemies and adds to the tension this game has created. On the other hand you could be wandering for a long time not realizing what you need to do is sitting right in front of you.

Downpour has better combat overall since it makes Murphy really weak, though he doesn't die easy so it's not exactly unfair as it just adds even more tension than before knowing you won't likely survive if you are up against more than one enemy. They also added escape sequences during the Otherworld sections that are derived directly from Shattered Memories in the way you run away and can knock things over to slow down the mysterious force that is chasing you.

The enemy variety is a little small yet they seem to play such a perfect role where they are placed between fast-moving Screamers who can stop you in your tracks by screaming in your ears, the invisible Dolls who can only be killed by destroying their host mannequins and the wall climbers (who's names I don't know) who can generally wreak havoc on you while slamming down on top of you when you get near them.

You'll also carry around a flashlight which will light the way in dark rooms with no light and will also get a forensic flashlight later that can show you hints and clues as to where to go and what to do for some puzzles or they will lead you to secrets!

Now, I did mention that the rain played a bigger part than just setting and this is why: When you are outdoors there's a chance that it will start raining. The rain makes enemies more aggressive and draws more of them to you so watch out when it starts raining! The rain also plays some other part in the story mainly for setting and some dungeons.

Your inventory system is NOT at all like the original games and only allows you to carry first aid kits (which can be used instantly with a tap of the left d-pad button), ammo and guns which don't count as your in-hand weapon unless you equip them. Ammo is quite limited so it's best to save them for those tough parts where you are half-forced into a room with a bunch of enemies and equipping a gun will make you drop whatever is in your hand unless it's another gun. Your inventory will also consist of your puzzle items. Everything is in real time as well so between using your inventory or entering passcodes into a keypad enemies can hurt you so you better run, run, run as fast as you can...

Graphics

There's nothing particularly special about the graphics in Downpour. They are particularly solid and the facial expressions are good. They don't particularly look artificial like most character faces these days. The lips and cheeks move just right so they look almost like real people talking. Eyebrows and the way the eyes move is the same.

Now, there is one problem with the game's framerate though. It has a tendency to start skipping for no apparent reason, even if nothing special is happening that would force a rise in CPU usage. Sometimes it'll end up skipping to the point where you'll find yourself ten feet in front of where you were or the camera will randomly skip much farther than you intended it to.

Overall

I would say overall Silent Hill: Downpour is a culmination of what made the series great whether in regards to old games and new ones. It took the best of all the games and added them together to make a wonderful survival horror experience that is terrifying for the weak of heart, tense for the not-so-easily scared and will give you a run for your money at the very least when the brick in your hand breaks and you are left barehanded to fend off a group of enemies. Dark areas will leave you wondering when the next enemy will pop up and sometimes nothing at all will come which will leave you wondering...."when will it come, if not now?" and might even psyche out some of you veterans. Definitely a must play for Silent Hill and survival horror fans alike. This game really puts the survival and horror back into survival horror!