2/5 ★ – Kalle_Deimos's review of SILENT HILL f.

TLDR: I want to know what game these journalists played because this one is lowkey ass. Gameplay: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This is something the devs probably should have heard during development. The pre-release footage was kind of rough. But I was like "oh man, so what it seems combat heavy? I liked destroying enemies in SH2R, why not now?" Well, I didn't realize what I was signing up for. My first sniff of something being afoot was the rice field puzzle. Actually, that isn't true. My first sniff that something was wrong was when the game starts with a chase segement out of nowhere and there's an objective in your top left corner that says "Escape the fog monster". Like...yeah? What else am I supposed to do? Anyway, the ricefield puzzle. Read the clue, pick the right scarecrow. Except the clue is totally vague. Pick the one with the polite smile. Okay well I picked the smiling one and it was wrong. The scarecrow attacks me. Not too bad of a punishment right? Well your weapons have durability, you'll use a decent chunk of it fighting these things, health items if you get hit and you get nothing for killing enemies either. I kept making mistakes on each stage of this puzzle and I didnt know why. I had to look it up because I was completely confounded on what I was getting wrong. Oh, I had to pick the one that was smiling and had a frowning mask on her head too? Alright fine. I kept playing because I was having fun (mostly). But then I kept walking through this linear town with no interesting paths to explore with enemies spawning behind you and a not very interesting cutscene with Shu every block. And I turned to my girlfriend and said "Oh no. I think this game kind of sucks." Let's talk about the combat because this game is combat focused. A combat focused Silent Hill game, yup. You have a health bar, a stamina bar, a sanity meter, what the fuck? First of all, the sanity meter is foolish and misnamed. I thought maybe there would be negative effects for low sanity like Eternal Darkness or something. No. Sanity just lets you do special moves. Then it shouldnt be called SANITY it should be called FOCUS if it doesn't have anything to do with your SANITY. I've mentally swapped the names in my head and it makes much more sense like this. You can perfect dodge and even counter attack enemies. Something you'll likely need because enemies can delete your health in an instant. The problem however, enemies are very erratic and difficult to punish. Sometimes moves that are counterable are suddenly not counterable. And you get punished hard for not performing well in combat. I thought maybe they'd wait to give you the hard enemies until late game but you get tough enemies immediately (and unfortunately they get much easier over time because you see the same enemies through the whole game). The Otherworld segments alleviate this yet double down at the same time, giving you weapons with infinite durability and eventually special abilities. But eventually these segments just become combat gauntlets to progress like the devs didn't know how to make the game longer. And if you die then go back to your save. Which results in you obsessively running back and saving as you complete rooms because you don't want to slip up, die and do it all again. There's a section of the game where you get the "Kudzu Seal" and you can do the whole GoW Spartan Rage (which is insane for a Silent Hill game) And this game made sales numbers. Fastest selling game in the SERIES. This horrifies me. Because all I can see is Konami being rewarded for this and continuing it into their future projects. Especially their Silent Hill 1 remake. Holy shit. I really hope a dev on Bloober team thought this was stupid because if I see Harry Mason doing any kind of focus meter, kudzu seal, counter attack I'm gonna freak the fuck out. Story: "Defeat your parents" ALRIGHT I GET IT F has notes that are like "I hate my Dad! I hate everyone! I wish I was a monster and could kill everyone!". 2's notes are like "There's a hole inside of my ear that whispers violent things to me and my eyes are turning black so I can no longer see the sun". I feel there is little nuance in the story. Things are very cryptic until literally the final cutscene and even then they are still cryptic. But what really drives me crazy is that a bunch of context, answers and story is behind NG+ cycles. Go on reddit and there's dudes like "yah i appreciated the game more when i played it 3+ times back to back with minor differences". I've heard of games having new notes and small things but not totally different endings. Including the true ending that you may want to strive for. The issue lies in that the gameplay is not good enough to warrant sticking around for so many playthroughs. I had trouble getting through the first playthrough considering the latter half of the game is mostly made up of combat arenas like the devs ran out of ideas. I don't understand why they didn't just make this information already present in the game. Lock it behind secret areas, hidden side paths or something. Make the several endings based on decisions I can make like in SH2. Anything but this. It feels like padding, plain and simple, in a game that is already padded. Graphics: Graphically the game looks good. Artistically I can't say it's scary. Intimidating and violent maybe. But I was rarely scared. Silent Hill always felt like such a dark and claustrophobic game and that's simply not present here. Sound: That theme in the beginning is so banging. Extra: Most of the extras come from playing the game over and over. But because of how linear and frustrating the game is, I do not want to do these things. It's just too much for me. Favorite Thing: The melee counter sound is so violent. Not My Favorite Thing: The overall feeling of being misled. I do not feel like this was a strong Silent Hill game. It has the idea of Silent Hill but I don't see how it connects to the series in story, gameplay or spirit. More than that, I don't feel like this was a strong game period. I was so excited after the reviews came out. But I ended up playing yet another game that was tacked on to an existing franchise for marketing purposes. If this wasn't a Silent Hill game, would people like it? If this wasn't a Silent Hill game, would I still dislike it?