Developed/Published by: Climax Studios / Konami
Released: December 6th, 2007
Completed: 8th September, 2015
Completion: Finished it.
Trophies / Achievements: n/a
Been trying to grind out a bunch of the physical games I’ve got so I can get rid of the clutter (I’ve got a “spring clean” that’s, as you can tell by the current season, somewhat overdue) and I remembered picking this up for about $5 a long-ass time ago, so it was next on the chopping block.
This isn’t, actually, the first Silent Hill game I thought I’d review here, because a while ago I started Silent Hill 2 (the poorly-received HD version, though) and after hours of wandering around a dark apartment complex trying every door I was like “fuck this” and decided to stop. In retrospect, I don’t think I went into it with the right mindset, but I have to be honest and say Origins has sapped any interest I had in going back.
Like, are all of the Silent Hill games 90% about wandering repetitive and dark places trying every door? Because that’s what this one is about. It’s actually sort of pleasantly OCD in that the map marks every door/dead-end you hit, so you get some tiny sense of accomplishment there. It’s also possible that the other Silent Hill games are actually pretty scary, unlike this one, where all the enemies are so dumb you can avoid them entirely, and you control any visits to the alternatives Silent Hill world (you know, the one inspired by that bit in Jacob’s Ladder) so it’s not even like that bit’s freaky. As close as it gets to an emotion is frustrating, because the camera is hilariously terrible—I defeated the first boss without ever seeing it.
This is one of those games where you struggle for something nice to say and resort to “well, it’s short?” but it is, at a deep level, one of those things that just does not need to exist. Even for a Silent Hill maniac there’s nothing here—the plot is slight, and as a prequel it’s totally unnecessary, adding nothing to the whole core story of the series that hasn’t already been covered in a few sentences. It’s like getting a prequel for Halloween where you watch Michael Myers shopping for his overalls. You’re like “ok, I guess this happened, but I don’t really see why this is important?”
Here’s the one thing I’ll say for it: I think it looks nice. It’s been long enough apparently that I’m nostalgic for low-poly textured graphics, and man, the PSP is an a real sweet spot where it’s all low-quality enough, but not so totally garbled it’s ugly (especially with the game’s noise effects and lighting.) That’s about it, I guess.
Will I ever play it again? Nope!
Final Thought: I’m concerned me and Silent Hill won’t ever get on. I enjoyed the plot and world of the first one but the intentional ammo scarcity boned me completely for the final boss, and I’m not sure how you make games where you make the player feel like ammo is scare while also allowing them to enjoy using the weapons they’re finding1. You probably know the experience—any RPG where you get to the end of the game having used none of the special items you’ve collected because what if you need them? I got to the end of Origins with the hero’s pockets unrealistically full of portable TVs and typewriters (one-use weapons) about three katanas and hundreds of bullets because I never wanted to use any of them. Would have I enjoyed the game more if I had? Probably not to be honest.
- I suppose the solution is to look at, as always, rogue-likes and like-likes; if you have to survive at all costs, you’ll do what it takes rather than save it for later. But in story-based games like this no one wants to die permanently… I think it’s just another symbol of how these linear experiences are un-game-like and can be arguably insufficient for the medium. ↩︎