Silent Hill Downpour Review

On March 13, Silent Hill Downpour, the eight installment of the popular survival horror series, is being released.  Downpour is being developed by Vatra games and published by Konami digital entertainment.  Anyone who has played Silent Hill knows what the series is about.  For a quick recap, it is a rural American town near Lake Toluca (Silent Hill).  The town holds a dark secret of a satanic cult that is trying to rebirth a God (among other dark things.)  The town is mysteriously abandoned and covered in fog, the protagonist must find clues to what is going on while the town around him switches between “normal,” and “nightmare,” a hellish version of the town where everything is dark and decayed.  The protagonist often wonders if everything around them is even real (the game is deeply psychological) Puzzles are challenging and grotesque monsters stalk the player.  There are all sorts of controversial and mature themes (Burning crosses, immolation, psychosis, etc) and an overwhelming sense of fear of the unknown.

Murphy Pendleton the games protagonist 

Downpour follows Murphy Pendleton, a prisoner who becomes stranded in the mysterious town of Silent hill after his prison bus crashes nearby.  Like previous installments, players will have to explore the town while finding clues and solving puzzles, all while fending off against malevolent monsters that lurk in the fog.  This game is rumoured to focus less on firearms (players will only be able to carry a single gun) and more on melee weapons to give the player a real sense of survival horror.  Fighting however is only going to be a small part of the game, as most the terror comes from exploring the desolate town whilst finding clues and the suspense of the horrors that lie within.  Like Silent Hill 2, this game will break from the Silent Hill Mythos story (The cult) and focus on the main characters personal struggle and inner demons.

            The release of Silent Hill Downpour crept up on me, and when I saw the trailer I was instantly reminded of the first time I played a demo of the original Silent Hill for Playstation back when I was nine or ten, I remember it so clearly.  It was a December night and thick snow covered the ground.  I had just gotten the new issue of “The Official Playstation Magazine” (remember, the one that came with the demo disk?)  I put the disk in and played a few demos until I came across Silent Hill and I started to play.  I controlled the protagonist Harry Mason, who is looking for his missing daughter Cheryl in the seemingly abandoned town after they crash their car near Silent Hill.  In town, a Cheryl is seen disappearing around a street corner, into the fog, so I followed.  The town is quiet, a veil of fog covers allowed me to only see a few feet down the street, and my heart started pounding because I couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right.  I walked into a side street, then into an ally, my hands shook as I walked by a pool of blood near a doghouse, then further into an ally that twists and turns like a maze, more blood, more fog, then everything went dark and Harry pulls out a lighter.  Something is seriously wrong with the town and I want to stop playing because I am horrified, but I continued.  I come to a small clearing surrounded by fences; dead bodies hang on the fences (but are they even human?) and they come to life and attack. Harry is defenceless and falls to the ground only to wake up in a diner in Silent Hill.  It was just a dream, but I’ve seen more than enough so I shut off the game.  I am horrified and I have trouble sleeping at night, but there is something that keeps me interested in Silent Hill and its mystery, and over the years I continue to read all about it from the safety of gaming magazines as they release Silent hill two and three.  As I grow older, and my love for horror grows, I buy the first three games.  They are still terrifying but also challenging, I lose patience with the fact that I can never figure out what to do next.  It was not until last winter, over ten years from the night I played that demo, I sit down and play through the first game.  Even though the graphics are outdated and the controls somewhat clunky, this game is still horrifying and deciphering the complex story makes it all a satisfying experience.

"The town is quiet, a veil of fog covers allowed me to only see a few feet down the street, and my heart started pounding because I couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right."

This game will have you running scared .. don't turn the lights off

            The fear Silent Hill invokes comes not from cheap tricks such as monsters popping around corners and tons of gore like we are used to in western horror.  The fear comes all from the atmosphere created as the player explores the town, searching the streets, elementary schools, hospitals, sewers, and more while finding mysterious notes and newspaper clippings describing murders, escaped mental patients, and other mysterious regarding the town.  Most times, the player relies on a lighter or flashlight to light the darkness, and line of sight is limited. There is little actual music, bit instead discordant atonal clashing of what sounds like metal smashing against metal, and there is never an explanation of the hellish sounds.  The whole time the player has a feeling that something horrible has happened here, something horrible is still going on, or something horrible will happen again very soon.  The most terrifying scenes in a movie or game I’ve witnessed come from this series.  One example would be in the first game, when Harry is searching the elementary school and a phone rings in the classroom. On the other end he hears his daughter screaming “Daddy! Daddy!” then silence.  In Silent Hill Three, you walk past a mannequin in a shopping mall, a few seconds later there is a clunking sound.  When investigating, you find the mannequin has been beheaded and there is a pool of blood around it!  The series is full of horrific moments like this, and to make it worse, they usually go about unexplained, leaving it up to our imagination.  I have seen horror movies from all over the world and played many survival horror games, and this is the only game I will not play in the dark, I even hate playing it alone in my room!

            Like most Asian horror, the Silent Hill series could get extremely vague in terms of giving away elements of story, especially the first game.  Many questions were left unanswered, but this was not because of sloppy writing.  The games are full of minute clues and details that give the player pieces to the mystery that is Silent Hill. (most of the streets names in the town are references to horror culture!)  The games require multiple play throughs to understand the whole experiences and achieve the multiple endings some of the games have.  Personally, I researched online to figure out a lot of the questions I had about the town/story and found a lot of great explanations for the game.  I could go on for pages about the series intelligent story, but I will let you explore the town on your own and experience the horror and wonder that is Silent Hill.  The past releases of Silent Hill have all differed in game play, characters, and story aspects (for both better and worse,) but the series has always keep me intrigued.  I have high hopes for Silent Hill Downpour.  Look for it next week and give it a try, you will never look at a foggy day with out getting the chills again.

Written by Michael Easton