Customer Reviews

Silent Hill Origins

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I would actually give this game 4 stars, but I'm rating it 5 to help balance the 1 star review given by someone who obviously received a faulty copy. There's always going to be faulty discs, and he made it sound like all of the copies are faulty. Clearly they're not, because I've played this game through twice so far with no problems.

Here are my simple ratings for this game:

Music : 5 out of 5. Had to start with Music, because Akira Yamaoka's work is always my favorite thing about Silent Hill games. Can't wait for the soundtrack release.
Gameplay : 4 out 5. The gameplay was pretty much the same as the other Silent Hills, which is a good thing. They were very creative with this one in the way that you could use your surroundings more to help you survive.
Story : 4 out 5. Won't reveal too much, but it was another emotion-filled story that deserves to be part of Silent Hill's history.
Voice Acting : 4 out 5. Most of the Dialogue and Voice Acting was good, but like all video games, some of it was lame.

My biggest gripe is how short it is, but I've come to expect portable games to be short. If I did my math correctly, that's 4.25 stars out of 5. Pick this game up.

Now this review maybe a little subjective since I am an avid silent hill fan, I will try to be as objective as possible. First the review above is not a review but a complain so don't take it seriously, also there will be NO ps2 version this is an exclusive to the psp. (Much needed if I may add)

Silent Hill: Origins is about Travis Grady, a seemingly simple trucker who suffers from haunting nightmares that seem oddly familiar to him. The game starts with a visual of what appears to be a static radio frequency; Travis is talking over it to one of his fellow truckers. After the conversation the game proceeds to a cut scene where Travis is driving down the road. In the distance he sees a cloaked figure run out in front of his truck and slams on his breaks, narrowly avoiding a collision with the unknown pedestrian. Of course, once our hero exits the truck he finds the figure gone, but each time he looks in his rear view mirror he is confronted with the frightening vision of a young girl (SH fans will recognize this character as Alessa Gillespie) accompanies by eerie laughter. Once the high graphic scene ends the in-game visuals are put into effect. In front of his truck Travis spots Alessa and calls out to her, but she runs off. The player is given control and prompted to follow her. She leads Travis to a burning house, around which a suspicious woman (Dahlia Gillespie) is lurking about. Upon hearing a scream from within the flame engulfed building Travis runs inside. The player takes control of the game now and guides Travis through the house to where Alessa's charred form is lying over a red circular symbol on the floor. Despite her words 'let me burn' Travis picks up the burned girl and once more the player is in control of the game as the house is fled with Alessa in hand. Outside Travis faints in the midst of pleading for someone to help the poor girl he has just saved.

Upon awaking he decides to go to the hospital to see if Alessa made it. What he encounters at the hospital, however, is not quite what he had expected. And thus our game begins! (Original plot summary from first hand experience of the game.)

Pros:
-As always great storyline, even better dialogue. The main protagonists story (Travis
Grady) is in true SH fashion very depressing and human.

-The fighting system is great ALMOST anything can be used as a weapon from a type writer to a lamp. This provides even more realism to the SH world. Plus we finally have a character that can fight back with his fists! (Not a writer, widower, teenage girl, or renter). The monster are also very intimidating, not only on size how they look and walk.

-The graphics are amazing; the story unfolds amazingly on the psp. The sense of dread is greatly enhanced when you are playing on the psp with you headphones on. The visuals on the 3 main settings (hospital, mental hospital, and hotel) are very detailed and realistic. An example of the detail put into the game is when you kill a monster and step on his blood you leave tracks behind you as you walk.

-The score is amazing, as always Akira Yamaoka delivers the perfect sound/song to every scene in the game.

-The game length is relatively long (for the psp) from 5-6 hours on my account, exploration is fun yet terrifyingly suspenful since you never know where the monsters will come from.

-Also replay value is high since there are many achivements to be completed.

Cons:
-TOO many items and weapons. Every time I play SH I get this since of hopelessness, meaning I am alone all I have is a pipe to protect myself and a few bullets. This time I felt soo safe that it took away from the feeling that I usually enjoy. An example is, you get a machine gun in the middle of the game, when I got the gun I enjoyed it for a while but stopped using it since it felt like I was playing RE instead of SH.

-Monsters felt like they were mere copies from the movie or original games.This can be seen in the nurses and armless monsters. Also even though I enjoyed it there is a monster (The Butcher) in the game who takes an awful lot after the much beloved pyramid head. Even though I loved pyramid head I expect WAY better from SH then recycled enemies.

Overall I loved the game and would recommend it to any silent hill fan, or just someone looking to see the real POTENTIAL of the psp.

You have to play this as they recommend, with the light out and head phones on. The music and sounds are just awesome. I swear I've jumped a couple times. I can't play this around my 7 year old with the head phones off because he says it sounds to scary...and that is a true testament to this game.

Really fun game for the PSP. No problems like the poster who gave the game 1-star. Controls work great. Storyline fits in well with the other silent hill games. Definitely recommended. Right up there with the best of the PSP (dark mirror, portable ops, etc)

Let me go ahead and say that this is my first time playing a game from the Silent Hill franchise. With that said, this is a good game. Incredibly scary for any first time player. I'll admit that I was awake for a few nights after playing. The game even suggests cutting out your lights and putting on headphones to make your playing experience better (this is VERY creepy). Anyways, the plot tells the story of a trucker named Travis Grady. You play as Travis throughout his time in Silent Hill and manage to learn some of the more... frightening parts of his life. Needless to say, the plot is quite creepy by itself. As for the game play, it's not too hard. In most cases, it's simply knowing how to get around, avoid the monsters within the town and figure out the puzzles. If anyone has played Resident Evil before then you know what I mean about there being puzzles throughout the game. Graphics and sound are quite good especially for the PSP as well. Be warned that some of the "Other World" scenes are very dark and can be hard to see at times. My only complaint is that the game is a bit short (5-6hrs at the most), but there are a few endings so that adds some fun in replaying the game. Overall, it's probably one of my favorite PSP games and definitely one to keep you addicted. Give it a shot.

The game is fun, it's not too difficult, and the puzzles aren't complex but they still make you think. I've enjoyed the game a great deal, the detective/mystery aspect to it is good and intriguing, the action makes you jump a bit here and there in excitement, and the controls handle well enough. Camera views will give you trouble at times, especially when in close quarters combat with an enemy, you may not be able to see where or what you're swinging at, and suffer unnecessary damage in the meantime. Other than that small and common found problem in many games of this nature, it's a good solid fun game.

When you're talking about a place like Silent Hill, where nightmares and monsters walk in the light of day, you wouldn't think it would ever be a relief to get back there. And yet, after Silent Hill 4 managed to avoid going to the actual town at all, it's actually good to see a new story told in that famously scary place. And in typical Silent Hill fashion, that story is disturbing to the core.

Silent Hill: Origins takes a jump back in time, to before the events of the original Silent Hill. Travis Grady, a lonesome trucker on the road, takes an unexpected detour and finds himself lost in Silent Hill as the fog descends. His exploration of the streets of the town is also an exploration of his past, into the depths of his own psychosis that he hints at even as the game begins. As the story progresses, we learn more about Alessa and Dahlia Gillespie and the history of the cult of Silent Hill, but we also learn about what in Travis' dark past has drawn him to this place, at this time. It begins when he saves a young girl, badly burned and unrecognizable, from a building in flames. He just wants to see how she is...then he just wants to get out, away, far away from Silent Hill and the memories he has.

The gameplay in Origins is pretty much on par with the rest of the series, you play in third person perspective as you explore each area, solving puzzles and riddles and fighting the creatures that come out of the dark. Camera control and combat are somewhat clunky, but unlike most people I appreciate that. The characters of Silent Hill are not heroes or combat veterans, so they shouldn't be really skilled or have lots of amazing moves. The camera angles are there to enhance the overall effect of fear, and they do that job well, even (maybe especially) when it means you can't see what's coming up behind you.

Origins' graphics are impressive, especially considering this is the PSP we're talking about. The graphics are roughly similar to those of Silent Hill 2, not quite as amazing as 3 and 4, but quite good, and certainly detailed enough to create an atmosphere of fear and creeping dread. The audio of Silent Hill is also right up there among the best in gaming, with another soundtrack provided by Akira Yamaoka -- this one may actually be his best yet!

Origins brings a few new features to the table as well. Melee weapons are now breakable, meaning you'll usually only get a few good whacks out of a knife or tire iron before it is useless. There are also some weapons (including televisions and file cabinets) that you can throw at an opponent from a distance for a quick damage. And in a surprising move, Travis is the first character to be able to move between the "normal" world of Silent Hill and the shadowy, dark world at will, using mirrors to transition from one to the other. Many of the game's puzzles use this feature cleverly, actually requiring you to do something in one world that affects the other. And there is an Accolade rewards feature that encourages multiple plays through the game to get multiple endings, new weapons, and as many as 13 different costumes.

There's a few innovations in Silent Hill: Origins that keep it fresh and interesting, but what's more important is that the core of the Silent Hill experience is here. The things that keep fans like me returning again and again -- deep psychological horror, an engaging and rich and disturbing story, interesting characters, moody music, incredibly creepy graphics, and a layer of pure fear covering it all like a dark shroud. It's all here, and I'm inexplicably glad to see it.

Come back to Silent Hill. Come see what happened before it all began. If you dare.

I will have it be known that I bought my PSP for this very game, along with SILENT HILL EXPERIENCE.

I have been a Silent Hill nerd since it's release in 1999. These games are my life!

Silent Hill 4 was not so grand, with series fans. Many new annoying features, backtracking, character acting, and what not, made for a sad experience overall. Thankfully, ORIGINS has proved that Konami still has the series by the hand. Correcting nearly every flaw 4 possessed, while throwing in a few clever game play features that work delightfully well. :]

It was a total thrill seeing old characters brought to the screen--my heart fluttered with excitement at every scene! ORIGINS answers a multitude of past character questions while taking gamers through the fresh, terrifying, psychological, journey of trucker, Travis Grady.

The music is OUTSTANDING [as always] AKIRA YAMAOKA makes Silent Hill =-Genius!
--Full soundtrack composed - Stands with as much surreal beauty as past work, if not more!
So breathtaking, some tracks, that you may likely pick up and play just so to reach one a beloved track...

Silent Hill: Origins is a wonderful edition to the series. While perhaps not the best, it certainly holds it's own!

I hope to see another made handheld in the future!

Although I have seen Silent Hills 1-4, Origins is the first in the series that I have played myself, and it is a great entry in the series. It flawlessly recreates the creepy, hellish environment of Silent Hill but makes Travis more versatile as a main character and allows him more options for fighting enemies. Not only is the slew of melee and projectile weapons fantastic, but Travis can also always fall back on good ol' fisticuffs. These things alone make Origins a great game to play for those interested in getting into the series.

This was the very first time I played a Silent Hill game for any system, as I have usually gravitated to the Resident Evil series. After getting this game for the PSP and quickly went out to buy Silent Hill 2 and 3.

This is a great game for the psp and it is phenominal to finally have a real survival horror game on the psp (now they just need to make Fatal Frame or RE). There are tons of weapons in this game from Kitanas, to wood, to whatever you can think of. In addition to great gameplay the game has a great replay value in the shape of its accolade system. Once you beat the game once you can unlock all kinds of secret weapons and goodies for use in replays. Unlike the RE Code Veronica, the camera angles are quite good and the control scheme is great as well. The camera can hinder you occasionally, but aside from the few times it does, I would say it works very well. I must commend the makers on the fluid controls, anyone who has played RE Veronica knows that bad cantrols can make a game really crummy. And worse off, bad controls/cameras are worse enemies than the ones actually in the game, thank god SH Origins does nothing fancy like this!

The storyline is absoluetly awesome, and it works well to make the monsters creepy as hell. The music isnt bad in the game either, although I generally dont pay much attention to the music. Anyone who is a regular MVC2 games tends block out the music automatically (mvc2 had one bad horrendous track- best fighting game ever though!).

My only few minor complaints against this game is that while the camera angles are good, they can be really bad in close quarters boss battles. For instance when you are batteling Helen in the Sanitarium, the camera angles can get screwy and cause you to misjudge the length of the spikes coming out of her cage. Secondly, I do wish there were a few more save points in the game, for that I am thankful that the PSP allows me to shut it off and turn it back on without losing my progress (its either like a million save points in one place like the theater or too few in the motel or asylum). Lastly, I did find avoiding monsters to be a little too easy. If you keep you light off they cant see you at all and you can just walk right up to them and beat the hell out of em. Definately be careful with carrions, they are a pain and in my opinion the hardest monsters in the game to deal with since they are so fast and deal so much damage.

In retrospect after finishing the game for the first time, the game is definately quite short. You have bassically 4 main sections. The Hospital, the Insane Asylum, the Theatre and the Motel. The enemies are not terribly difficult as long as you sneak up on them. On my first playthrough I got the "brawler accolade" in which I killed most of the enemies with my fists instead of with a weapon, including the first 3 bosses (For the memory of Richard you will DEFINATELY need a gun! I find the extras to the game uber exciting and great for replay value. During the 2nd play through you can get the motel key to open the secret ending to give you a secret weapon. I do wish they gave you harder modes to play in, as they did in SH3.

Finally, I must say the game is great for casual and hardcore gamers alike. For casual, play on the subway gamers like myself the game is not too hard (truthfully I was able to beat the hospital, asylum and theatre without using any weapons and without any damage, and this is pretty amazing considering how crappy of a gamer I am). Once you finish the game, you can make it harder for yourslef by searching for hard to find items, and by getting all of the secret accolades, weapons, endings and costumes. Also, watch out, while enemies in the levels do not respawn, they do in the main town which is a huge pain.

Definately get this game, it is awesome, my favorite for PSP