2.5/5 ★ – Tye_Boy's review of Silent Hill: Downpour.

From the get-go, I went into Silent Hill Downpour with minimal expectation, already knowing that it would not come anywhere close to the terrific first four games in the series. I didn’t even intend to play it this year, only doing so when I had an opportunity to nab a copy. Of all the Silent Hill games made after 4, Downpour seemed to be the least worst, from what I heard beforehand. Going into it, it didn’t seem too bad, with certain points across it carrying that same stamp of not too bad. But for the majority of the game, and subsequently the game in general, it’s a mixed bag of mediocrity. Not the worst game I’ve played, ever or in recent memory. Just a game that I feel down the middle about. It has its moments visually, but is otherwise a blurry concoction of textures, environments, and character models. It kind of has a look that could be compared to if it got a Switch port, except that it was running off my PS3. One of its bigger problems has to do with performance. Frequent screentearing, frame-rate dips and drops, long load-times, and chugging along at times makes for an experience that is far from smooth. I can’t say that it’s unplayable due to this, but it’s definitely a rough time going at it. Control-wise, it’s alright. From a third-person perspective with occasional fixed cameras, movement is fine as it is. Combat, on the other hand, is a clunky, frustrating ordeal. And I know that the first four games have intentionally clunky combat, but here, coupled with the performance issues, I found myself taking a lot more damage across the entire game than I wanted to. The change to having melee weapons of many types placed all over the game, breakable after some use, was kind of neat. Especially with how a few are needed to break down certain barricaded doors. There were moments where I had to run around and improvise with finding weapons and fighting back, which was neat. Well, either that or running away. That works too, lol. The story in this isn’t half-bad. There’s some intrigue and mystery to be found, although some characters are confusing in terms of their proper roles in the story. It has a few shining moments of genius, imaginative presentation, with little snippets of imagery reaching that same peak. As for its horror factor, it has little of that, with its effectiveness matching that same minimal amount. General enemy designs are plain and generic, becoming more annoying than scary after some time spent with the game. Other scares, between sound cues and more noticeable ones, have stock sound effects and fail to elicit much of a reaction from me, respectively. Although, I will say that some moments of tenseness came up, as well as me jumping most often whenever doors closed behind me. The game’s voice acting is alright, as are the characters and their development. What is rather disappointing is the music. While the series composer stuck around for most of the games after Silent Hill 4, a different composer was brought in to make the score for Downpour, with forgettable results (minus one or two ambient tracks). For good portions throughout the game, there are opportunities to explore Silent Hill and do side-quests. Personally, I could not care for these, due to the aforementioned problems of the game making it cumbersome, plus the fact that they don’t matter much in the grand scheme of the game. From what I know, they don’t affect the ending you can get. On top of that, risking my health, items, and dying in a SURVIVAL HORROR game to look around and do side-quests did not seem all-too worthwhile to me. I did however do a few for the sake of it, getting a taste of them, but not bothering with them for most of the game, alongside exploring the town. Present in Downpour are a couple of gameplay mechanics that are new to the series, outside of the breakable weapons I mentioned earlier. The UV light, while a unique idea for puzzles and combat, ultimately feels under-utilized to me. The same can apply to the day/night cycle, with enemies spawning more at night, during the downpour outside. You can hide indoors to stay clear of them during the night, but it ended up feeling like a chore to deal with. I basically had to wait here until the rain stopped, taking a bit of time to do so and switch back to day. I wish that both of these ideas could have been better implemented. Part of me is glad to have played Silent Hill Downpour; the first Silent Hill game I ever played outside of the initial four ones. The other part of me is glad to now be finished it, with no intentions of playing it again.