Although Silent Hill is finally back after a lengthy hiatus, the offerings we've had so far have not been wholly well received. The Short Message didn't exactly set the world on fire, and the interactive experience Ascension was a massive disapp??ointment. As such, we're all waiting to see whether Bloober Team's r?emake of the legendary second game can save the franchise's renewal.

Given that Silent Hill 2 previews suggest the full game is going to be worth the wait, it's tempting to, once again, get excited about the future of this iconic horror series. In anticipation of the upcoming remake �scheduled to release October 8 �I've put together a list of the best Silent Hill games as noted by their Metacritic scores. You can also check out similar articles I've done for Splinter Cell, Deus Ex, and Quake.

As always, this one will list the mainline Silent Hill entries only. When doing a bit of research, it seemed there was some debate about which games in the series would count as "main" ones. With that in-mind, I'll be using this Wiki page for help, so anything that's classed as a? port or spin-off according to the site won't be inclu?ded. Now that that's out of the way, let's crack on.

Silent Hill: Downpour (2012) - 64%

Downpour forms the latter part of Silent Hill's original run. At this point, Konami's IP had been scaring the pants off us for about 13 years, give or take. The survival horror genre had been through peaks and troughs over the years, with the likes of Resident Evil gearing more towards action rather than scares in the later games. However, there was still plenty to enjoy, and the indie scene was making strides thanks in part to Frictional Games' terrifying Amnesia: The Dark Descent, which came out in 2010.

With horror offering so much, it sort of felt like Silent Hill: Downpour would always struggle to make an impact, despite it coming from such highly regarded stock. As a result, it ended with a 64% Metacritic score on PS3 (68% on Xbox 360), which is not exactly te?rrible, but it perhaps showed that the series wasn't able to keep up with what was happening in modern horror.

Silent Hill: Homecoming (2008) - 70%

I have a pretty vivid memory of buying Homecoming when it first came out. Aside from it being a new Silent Hill installment, one of the big draws for me was the bundle pack, which came with the game itself and an Xbox 360 controller. A red one, as well. I absolutely loved that controller. I kept it for years to come, long after I finally gave up on Homecoming.

I don't know what it was about it, but it just didn't resonate with me the way the classics had previously. I couldn't tell you much about it. I think there was a Pyramid Head-esque monster in there. Although, according to Wikipedia, this version was known as the "Bogeyman." If memory serves me well, the game also didn't allow for an inverted control scheme. That's a big no-no for me, but it is probably not the main reason it got just an okay Metacritic score of 70% on the system. Some people probably liked it, but again, it felt like Silent Hill was on a downward trajectory at this point.

Silent Hill 4: The Room (2004) - 76%

Developing a fourth game in a beloved horror franchise is never an easy feat. The three games that had come before it have gone down as classics in the genre, inspiring others since. But The Room is still a solid entry, one that's able to dole out the scares with its twisted and psychologically creepy mood. A score of 76% on Xbox and PS2 means Silent Hill 4 stands firm with its predecessors.

Although I never completed the game, I have fond memories of it. While still capturing some of the elements that made the previous games instant hits, The Room's main bargaining chip was those moments in t??he apartment itself. The fact that these sections were entirely in first-person was quite ?the appeal for me back then, especially as it just wasn't something horror was doing at the time. I remember looking through the spyhole, peeping through the hole at the neighbor's place, and seeing the disembodied, ghostly head floating past my window. It definitely had an eeriness to it that was evidently missing from my gaming life.

Silent Hill: Origins (2007) - 78%

Beginning life on the long-defunct PlayStation Portable, Silent Hill: Origins is the first mainline entry in the series that wasn't developed by Team Silent. Instead, the project was helmed by Climax Studios, which would go on to do ports for the likes of Assassin's Creed Chronicles, as well as assist in the development of Returnal. So, not a bad career, overall.

However, because Origins only came to the PSP and eventually the PS2, it would have been easy to miss this one. As the name suggests, it's very much a prequel, beginning before the events of the first game. Everyone loves an origin story and this game is no different, putting us in the shoes of trucker Travis Grady as he comes face-to-face with some familiar characters. Earning a Metacritic score of 78% on PSP �just beating The Room �suggests this entry had a lot goi??ng for?? it. I'm sad that I missed out, truth be known.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (2009) - 79%

Another one from Climax Studios, the developer obviously had something about it that meant it was more than capable of creating a high-quality Silent Hill game. I think I'm also right in saying that this is the first and only installment in the series that was released on the Wii. The hugely successful Nintendo system wasn't really known for boasting a lot of horror games, though it did get a port of Resident Evil 4, which may be what prompted Konami to release Shattered Memories on the console.

This is one of those entries I wasn't sure about, in terms of adding it to the list. You see, Shattered Memories is considered more of a reimagining. It retells the premise of the first Silent Hill entry, but with a twist in the narrative, as well as changing some of the characters. Having said that, the? fact that it does change the story somewhat means you could also consider it a new game. So, here it shall stay.

Silent Hill 3 (2003) - 85%

Now we're into what I would label the classic Silent Hill era, which means we'll be seeing some big scores. The third game is one that I was very much late to. I only managed to get around to playing it a few years ago, not for any reason other than I didn't have the system to play it at the time of its release. I bought it as part of the much-maligned Silent Hill HD Collection, but that didn't detract from my experience.

With its themes of birth and pregnancy, not to mention the fact that you literally get to fight a god (spoilers!), Silent Hill 3 hit almost as hard as the previous two games. The fact that it came out just two years after what many regard as one of the greatest survival horror releases of all time (more on that soon) means the studio was able to keep that momentum going. Although perhaps overshadowed by the previous installment, the third game was still a remarkable achievement for Team Silent, with a Metacritic score of 85%. Just don't compare it to the PC version.

Silent Hill (1999) - 86%

During the mid-to-late 1990s, there was only really one word when it came to survival horror: Resident Evil. Okay, that's technically two words??, but you know what I mean. Capcom's iconic franchise has been a huge part of the gaming world for almost 30 years. Just before the new millennium �with a third entry about to hit shelves �it seemed nothing could stack up alongside it.

Then Silent Hill arrived, and we haven't felt the same since. Although to an outsider it looks like a Resident Evil clone, it offered so much more. Instead of zombies and biotech conspiracies, we had grotesque monstrosities, a creepy cult, and a foggy locale that, in itself, was part of the antagonism. The first game had its limits, sure, but it used those limits to full effect, such as the aforementioned fog which initially was a cover to make the game run smoother, but eventually became a staple of the series. It just wouldn't be a Silent Hill game without it.

Silent Hill 2 (2001) - 89%

I'm hoping many of you are familiar with Ben "Yahtzee" Crowshaw, the acerbic critic who brought us humorous (though serious) reviews via The Escapist on a weekly basis. I distinctly recall one of his videos in which he envisioned a world without video game sequels, forcing studios to be original every time they started a new project. A nice idea, for sure, but in this utopia of Croshaw's, we would have missed out on such important hits like Thief 2, Half-Life 2, and, of course, Silent Hill 2.

The second entry in the newly arrived Silent Hill series didn't just bring us more horror for the sake of it. Of course, it had plenty of scary moments, but its story was deep with symbolism; enemies that were representations of protagonist James Sunderland's anxieties and fears. It was mature enough to be taken seriously by critics and gamers alike. It's obviously aged at this point, but there's a very good reason it has an 89% score on Metacritic, typically sitting high on lists of the best horror games of all time. Team Silent wasn't ju?st banging rocks together when it?? made this one.

The post Ranking the mainline Silent Hi??ll ??games by Metacritic score appeared first on Destructoid.

Konami has announced today that patches are in the works for both Silent Hill Downpour and Silent Hill HD Collection. It ?will address a number of issues found in both g??ames. 

"Understanding the issues some users are experiencing, development teams are currently creating online patches for both games, which will fix the frame rate issues, the audio-synching in Silent Hill HD Collection, and the Auto-Save issues in Silent Hill Downpour," stated the publisher. "Players have voiced their ??concerns, and solutions to these issues ?will be fixed and launched in the coming weeks."

I didn't have much of an issue with Downpour, though the problems with HD Collection are well documented. I remain skeptical that a ??patch will drag that little bundle of sin up? to par, but we can only wait and see.

The post Silent Hill D??ownpour and HD Collection getting patched appeared first on Destructoid.

I know a lot of people are unhappy about the direction the Silent Hill series is headed in right now. For me, however, the biggest question after the departure of series staple Akira Yamaoka was how would the series sound moving forward. Konami brought in composer Dan Licht, known best for his work on Showtime's Dexter series and for horror films including Children of the Corn. He seemed like a good pick, but I've?? found on several occasions that big-name composers brought on to projects like this tend to intentionally ignore the musical direction of past titles in the series, ad?opting an arrogant, "My way is the best way" attitude.

Well, not Dan Licht. In an interview published this morning on OSV, Licht had this to say in response to a question regarding Yamaoka's highly-praised soundtracks from Silent Hill's past:

I familiarized myself with the style and history of the previous Silent Hill themes and musical cues. I wanted this game to have the same flow as the previous games while adding my own signature sound. It was important for me to understand where the music was coming from, the overall story, and the use of the musical themes ??throughout the game...

I was already a fan of Dan Licht from his work on Dexter, and after understanding his respectful approach to the Downpour I like him even more. Oh, and having listened to the soundtrack, I can tell you it's not disappointing in the least, which was echoed in our review yesterday.

What do you think of Downpour's direction? Will you be checking out the game and its ??soundtrack tomorrow?

The post Silent Hill: Downpour composer respects franchise’s past appeared first on Destructoid.

Silent Hill 2 is my favorite videogame of all time, and it is possibly due to this that I have had a somewhat tempestuous relationship with the?? series ever since. My desperation to see Konami's classic horror series reach the narrative and atmospheric heights of its first sequel has led to great frustration with the games that have appeared since. 

I cannot deny that I bear a great resentment toward more recent Silent Hill games. Homecoming disgusted me; I felt Shattered Memories was a travesty; and while I found Origins to be surprisingly spooky, I can't say it engaged me to any great degree. With each game, ?I hoped for the best, and came away furious. 

With this in mind, I'll admit that I was prepared for disappointment with Silent Hill: Downpour. In fact, I was ready to despise it, especially after a particularly bad E3 demo. You need to know this, so you can understand just how remarkable it is that I beat Downpour in two sittings over the course of a single day, and was ca??ptivated the entire time.

Silent Hill: Downpour (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 [reviewed])
Developer: Vatra Games
Publisher: Konami
Released: March 13, 2012
MSRP: $59.99

Silent Hill: Downpour tells the story of Murphy Pendleton, a convict with a bad reputation and a seemingly violent streak (though to say more would spoil it). As we join him, he's on a prison transfer for reasons unknown, but has the grave misfortune of passing by Silent Hill on the way. As one would expect, the transfer bus meets with an unhappy accident, crashing in the woods and freeing Pendleton. Naturally, all things happen for a reason in Silent Hill, and as Murphy fights his way through the supernatural town, he realizes that someone -- or something -- knows about his private life and is intent on forcing him t?o face his past. 

While fans of the series know many of its tricks by now, and the plot twists seem incredibly familiar, Downpour still crafts an engaging story populated by intriguing characters. Pendleton is by far one of the more charismatic protagonists we've seen in a while, and as more of his history is revealed, it's hard not to sympathize with the path he eventually took. At various junctures in the game, minor "moral choice" moments influence the outcome of Murphy's journey and ultimately decid??????????????????????????e ?what kind of person he is. 

A series like Silent Hill is faced with a constant pressure to evolve, as many of the things that once made survival horror scary are considered obsolete and undesirable by modern standards. With that in mind, it is interesting to note how many contemporary concepts Vatra Games has ignored. Combat is unwieldy and inelegant. There are moments where fixed camera angles limit the player's ability to see too far ahead. Exploration takes center stage, with only a vague map to rely on and no compasses holding hands. Downpour is as close to old-school survival horror as a mainstream retail game has gotten in a long time, and could possibly? be allowed to get away with. 

Fortunately, it does just enough to not feel too outmoded, making the slightest of compromises to skirt the line between acceptable and disagreeable. Pendleton moves like a modern videogame protagonist would, without? the wild forklift-truck turns of old-fashioned horror characters. Fixed camera angles exist only in select areas, with a user-controlled view for the bulk of the journey. Modern conveniences such as one-button item heals and an on-screen inventory menu remove much of the hassle of supply management.?? By implementing these concessions, Vatra has made for a less stuffy, awkward experience while still maintaining many of the things that lent classic survival horror titles their power. 

The town of Silent Hill is not exactly an open world, but there's a little more freedom here, with many houses that can be entered and paths to be uncovered. These environments are not part of the main quest, often containing their own little side missions that can be safely ignored. Most of the optional houses have self-contained back-stories and unique puzzles to solve, with extra supplies as a reward. In this regard, the game is more akin to The Legend of Zelda than Grand Theft Auto, providing an ince??ntive to explore without creating a sandbox. The best part of these optional areas is just how much extra flavor they lend to the mythos of Silent Hill. From the junkie who stole from his neighbors to the woman who dealt with monsters in?? a mirror, there are many urban legends to uncover, and they regularly provide some shudder-inducing scares.

It's an interesting dynamic: although exploration can yield fruit, Vatra has done an amazing job of making Silent Hill a genuinely terrifying place to inhabit. Monsters are swift and merciless, while ghostly police cars patrol the streets, blasting out threatening sirens and encouraging the player to hide. Should they be spotted, a pack of brutal creatures will spawn. Then there are the moments that lend Downpour its name -- thunderous storms that drench the roads and cause enemies to become more aggr??essive. Subway tunnels make travel more efficient, but be warned that the town of Silent Hill is more oppressive than ever. 

It's not much better indoors, either. Downpour's intricate interiors are stunning in their spookiness. Murphy's journey will take him through a subterranean tourist attraction, a twisted orphanage, and a demented apartment complex full of intense set pieces and truly terrifying seqeuences. One moment Pendleton will be stuck in a prison cart, dragged through a mocking representation of his old jail. Another moment, he'll be on a rail car, with creatures howling at him from rocks as an automated narrator explains the history of Silent Hill's old mine shafts. Downpour brings back that "ghost train" feeling of cla??ssic horror games, where grand set pieces and unnervingly atmospheric arenas are punctua?ted with the occasional self-indulgent jump scare. It's an intricately crafted roller coaster created by a studio that clearly respects the series and remembers what used to make horror games great. 

Silent Hill's "Otherworld" regularly makes appearances, shoving players into a Hellish and gruesome parallel dimension. These section?s usually herald a chase sequence against a glowing red light that pursues Murphy and drains his life whenever it gets too near. Players will need to run like crazy to escape this entity, hammering buttons to knock down objects in order to slow the pursuer and making snap decisions about which direction to turn as doors slam in Pendleton's face and moaning torsos spit their intestines across corridors. While these sequences can be very intense, they all too frequently rely on trial and error, forcing players to replay sections until they learn the correct directions to turn and the right moments to pass through a trap. 

Another grievous flaw with Downpour is its insistence on forcing combat into the endeavor. The combat system is old-fashioned and consists mostly of sluggish hack-n'-slash attacks. This wouldn't normally be an issue, since com??bat's been designed to represent the flailing attacks of an untrained human being and encourages flight over fighting. Yet the game too frequently forces players into situations where combat is practically a necessity, pushing one to deal with a horrible, unrefined system that was never improved because it was never supposed to be crucial to survival. It? doesn't help that weapons -- including solid steel wrenches and fire axes -- break after only a few hits, requiring players to run around looking for something else to shatter. The lack of a targeting system (outside of a rudimentary and unreliable "locking" feature) is another nuisance, with Murphy perfectly happy to swat the air next to a monster... as opposed to the monster itself. 

For this reason alone, much of the game's final act is miserable, as it attempts to become more beat-'em-up than horror game -- complete with respawning enemies. This last chapter of an otherwise thrilling journey is an exercise in pure frustration, and thr?eatens to ruin the entire journey. All of the combat's clunky imperfection would have been fine had it remained a last-?ditch option for players in a bind, but it seems the developers ran out of steam toward the end and attempted to hinge everything on sub-par melee scenarios, just to shunt players toward the end credits as soon as possible. 

It pains me to say that the bestiary is not exactly enthralling, either. Gone are the perverse animated Giger paintings that infested earlier games; gone is the sickening symbolism that past monsters brought with them. Instead, Downpour prefers rather literal and infinitely more mundane beasts, such as mutant prisoners and giggling ghost women. So much imagination went into Downpour's environments that it's a little disappointing to see an unvaried host of humdrum adversaries that could easily have populated any other game. They can be capable of providing a fright and are certainly intimidating in numbers, but they're disappointingly ordinary all the same. One expects a higher class of nastiness in Silent Hill. 

At the risk of complaining too much, I should also add that Downpour would have benefited from a way to distinguish between weapons and other items, such as med kits or notes. An icon flashes for everything you can pick up, but it's the same icon no matter what type of object it is. This proves problematic because Murphy can only carry one weapon at a time, w??hich leads to exasperating moments where he keeps dropping a fireaxe and swapping it for a ketchup bottle. Using another button for non-weapon pickups, or at least a separate on-screen prompt, would clear up the confusion. 

All these stated blemishes are quite significant, and your tolerance for them may vary, but Silent Hill: Downpour ends up doing so much right that it's difficult to let the bugbears spoil the whole show. Silent Hill hasn't been this powerful in a long time, and it's truly wonderful to see the series in the hands of a studio that actually gets it, for the most part. It certainly stumbles along the way, but this is the closest Silent Hill has come to its roots in a long, long time, with Vatra retaining the old survival horror elements that work while discarding most of the ones that don't. It is a remarkable balance between new and old that reminds me why I loved t??his series so much in the?? first place. 

Special mention must be made for the soundtrack, which comes courtesy of Daniel Licht. In short, it seems that the perfect successor to Akira Yamaoka has been found. Licht's blend of latin sounds and sinister industrial pounding couldn't feel more at home, and it was a genius move to bring the Dexter composer on board. Skeptics will have their cynicism washed away during the game'??s interactive title sequence, where Licht sets? the tone with an utterly sublime tune. 

When it's not forcing a sub-par combat system on players, and when it allows itself to be as imaginative as it can be, Silent Hill: Downpour is a stylish, slickly produced, beautifully foreboding game. As haunted cop cars roam the streets and unseen women cry in darkened basements, few players will absorb themselves in this eerie adventure with their nerves intact. You'll get around eight hours of gameplay for your money, and more than that if you choose to explore Silent Hill fully and complete the side quests. For the true fan, Downpour also provides more ?than enough incentive to replay it, just to enjoy the peaks of its thr??ill ride once again. 

It does not approach the triumphant creative heights of earlier games, but nevertheless manages to keep its head well above the pitiful lows that recent installments have sunk to. All told, this is a return to greatness for a classic series, proof that there's life in the old town yet -- provided a studio with the proper respect for it is allowed to work its magic. Once again, it's a very good time to have a bad tim?e in Silent Hill, and I couldn't be happier about that. 

The post Review: Silent Hill: Downpour appeared first on Destructoid.

Release dates for this year's trio of Silent Hill games have been all over the place, but Konami sent along a note that clears everything up and seals the dates in stone ... unless they change again. If you're confused over whi?ch games are arriving on what days, worry not and check out these dates. 

• Silent Hill Downpour: March 13
• Silent Hill HD Collection: March 20
• Silent Hill: Book of Memories: March 27

Konami is calling this the "month of madness," but I don't think it quite understands the irony of such a catchy phrase. After all, releasing three games in a series within the span of an already-packed month certainly is madness, and not in the creepy, guilt-ridden, that-monster-represents-my-sexual-repression sense. It's just common garden insani?ty. 

I sometimes think Konami doesn't realize there are oth?er videogame publishers in the world and that this is an actual indust?ry, not just one company's personal hobby.

The post Fi??nal launch dates for Silent Hill HD, Downpour, Memories appeared first on Destructoid.

It's safe to say that a major part of the atmosphere in the original Silent Hill games was the soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka. Any new music in the series will inevitably be compared to his work, which is almost unfair, since the man is such an exceptional musician. So when the intro track to Silent Hill: Downpour gets posted on Soundcloud, what can fans do but c??ompare it ?to what came before?

A good intro track should set the tone for a game, and going by this one, we can probably expect the rest of the soundtrack to be mainly atmospheric, like most modern games. There's a simple guitar and piano riff at the beginning, and then lots of hollow ambience. It's not bad, but nothing special, at least until the end. When the percussion kicks in, you finally get a good feel for what composer Daniel Licht (Dexter) is aiming for. It's no Theme of Laura, but the last part gives me hope for the?? rest of the soundtrack.

[Thanks, Andreas!]

The post Listen to the i??ntro track for Silent Hill: D?ownpour appeared first on Destructoid.

Konami has announced release dates for all three Silent Hill games due out this year. The Silent Hill HD Collection is due March 6, Silent Hill: Downpour is slated for March 13 and Silent Hill: Book of Memories is coming March ??27. Looks like March is g??oing to be the scariest month of the year! Ooooh!

I'm still holding out hope for Downpour. I didn't like what I played at E3, but I am willing to chalk it up to a bad demo. Book of Memories hasn't impressed anybody so far, with its weird focus on top-down multiplayer. For me, the most promising title is the HD Collection, only because I already know the games are good. 

That's kind of sad. All I want is for thi?s series to be brilliant?? again. 

In any case, Konami released new screens for this game but its press site ?is a mess. I just uploaded?? a bunch of images and you can look at them if you want.

The post Silent Hill HD, Downpour??, Book of Memories all dated appeared first on Destructoid.

One of my fondest memories playing video games is my time with the original Silent Hill. I may be dating myself, but in a time before Skype and other Internet communication tools, the onl?y way to share a video game experience with a friend over a long distance was by picking up a phone, tilting your head at an awkward angle, and hoping that the phone didn't slip. 

This is how I played through Konami's survival horror classic and, to be honest, I'm not even sure I would have made it to the credits without the comfort of knowing my buddy was on the other end of the line, cowering through all the same psychological thrills I was.

Silent Hill: Downpour is Konami's latest attempt at reviving the surreal feeling their series was once known for. Let's face it: the franchise has been off its stride with its past iterations, but after getting some hands-on with Downpour I think I might ju?st need to play this one with a friend on the other end of my headset.

Silent Hill: Downpour (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 [previewed])
Developer: Vatra
Publisher: Konami
Release: March 6, 2012

Back in early December, I had the chance to play through roughly the first two hours of Downpour. The game opens with a very shocking scenario that hints Murphy Pendelton's character. His past is shrouded in mystery much like the iconic town of Silent Hill, and with that developer Vatra hopes to recreate the nostalgic feeling of past entries. It's a tall order, but if the sheer eeriness that the game evokes -- especially after the first blood curdling cry is heard -- is any indication, Downpour is set to deliver a genuinely fright filled adven?ture.  

"For awhile we've been looking for ways to expand the audience," Tomm Hulett, the? senior associate produce??r, explained to me. "You can't just sell a game to the same X amount of people over and over again."

"On Downpour we wanted to stick more closely to the formula of the old games, and combat is maybe 30 percent of the game and atmosphere and exploring is the other 70 percent," Hulett continued. "You could fight monsters or you could run from them; it's up to you. We really wanted to do that instead of trying to change what Silent Hill was." 

After making my way past the intro and most of the E3 demo section, I found myself in the forsaken town of Silent Hill. As I walked the streets, the game began to open up from its mainly linear beginnings. The sense of freedom, as i tried to come to grips with the typical insanity that befalls those who enter the cursed city, really gave me that old explorative feeling that the series had moved away from in Homecoming.

Enemies are as twisted as one would expect, but as in Homecoming, are more easily dealt with than in earlier games thanks to a better balanced fighting system. With a more refined weapon system that limits players to only equipping weapons ?they can carry, there is a g??reater sense of urgency to make sure the best weapon is used for whatever traumatic experience rears its ugly little head.

"We?? did make the combat easier to control and more fun to play," Hulett said. "So when you are fighting creatures it feels better. You don't feel like you are battling? the game."

"But keeping your weapons limited, you can't feel empowered,' Hulett added. "You can't feel like you've got a shotgun in your pocket, and a flamethrower, and a knife because then you're not scared. It's important to feel vu??lnerable and if you screw up that ?thing is going to kill you. "

The constant threat of being swarmed by mutated monsters and the knowledge that my weapon could break at any time created a feeling of helplessness that has been missing in many recent games in the survival-horror genre as of ??la?te.

To compound this, the sense of despair created by the game's dynamic weather system that brings sudden torr??ential downpours -- hence the games subtitle -- only makes things more chaotic. Water is the game's hook and usually spells trouble for Murphy when it begins to spout out of control: enemies swarm in greater numbers in the rain, and while moving indoors prov??ides temporary protection, it's an unpredictable gambit -- sometimes, what is inside is far worse

Ducking in and out of rundown buildings, creeks in the floor boards, and the bone chilling shrieks that come with the Silent Hill territory finally feel believable thanks to a more cinematic presentation. Environments are more than just empty settings and contain a?? sense of life that once was, but is now abandoned. There is a lot ?to see in Silent Hill and thanks to many side quests, players will have a chance to uncover even more about the town's dark past throughout the story.

"The Silent Hill series has always been really story based and... about the characters," Hulett said. "So it's really about bringing that presentation up to the standard peopl??e are expecting.??"

Perhaps this is made most evident by the crazy range of characters I met in my brief travels. While there still is a certain level of Silent Hill camp to be found, each ??character helps deliver a more vivid world as discussions with them shape the narrative -- offering branching decisions that affect the outcome of the game's multiple endings, Hulett told me. For example, a scene I came to early in my travels presented me with the choice of trying to save someone's life. Would it benefit me to help them, or was this person someone who was going to cause me more trouble later? It was a?? tough decision.

Story choices aren't the only thing that can alter the path that Murphy ultimately travels. Playstyle plays just as importa?nt of a role in determining the grand scheme of things -- so those who tend to ?be more aggressive will see things unfold differently from the player who tends to run and hide.

My time with Silent Hill: Downpour was quite satisfying. While the genre has evolved considerably since Konami's survival horror franchise was last relevant, the level of exploration that made this series so sacred many years ago appears to be back. I went into Downpour w?ith heavy pessimism, but after a few hours with the game I'm more than excited to see just how twisted Murphy's dark journey through Silent Hill will be.

The post Surviving the first two hours of Silent Hill: ??Downpour appeared first on Destructoid.

Originally slated for this year, Silent Hill: Downpour has been delayed to the second quarter of next year, as confirm?ed by Konami. Considering the game was due November 4 and has had very little marketing, I don't think anyone's surprised.

Konami's given it a windo?w of Q2 2012, which would put it somewhere between Mar??ch and June. 

I am very glad of the delay, because when I played it earlier this year, I thought it was awful. Our Editor-in-chief liked it, but I've heard that it didn't thrill everybody at Eurogamer Expo last month. I want the game to be good, as I'm desperate for a Silent Hill that doesn't suck, and I ?hope the delay can make that happen.

Silent Hill: Downpour delay confirmed by publis??her [Beefjack]

The post Silent Hill: Downpour delayed to Q2 2012 appeared first on Destructoid.