GC 2006: Silent Hill Origins Hands-on - IGN (original) (raw)

Portable scary done right? Looks like it!

Konami today revealed a playable version of its upcoming PSP horror, Silent Hill Origins, which marked the first time the title was available for firsthand impressions since debuting at E3. The game looked absolutely dazzling too, wowing us with a visual presentation that most PS2 software still hasn't achieved. In fact, Silent Hill Origins' graphical detail is so well-crafted that even the most subtle things -- things you'll probably never even see through the darkness -- have been rendered in some fashion or another (down to the individual cracks in the walls) and the signature Silent Hill fog looks appropriately ominous and realistic.
Played from the RE4 perspective and heavier on action compared to previous iterations, Origins is still a Silent Hill game in every sense of the word. That means that yes, the storyline still takes center stage and figuring out how to get the hell out of Dodge without losing your soul is still the primary goal. In the build we demoed, however, it was the town itself that Konami wanted to focus on. A good 30% of the environments here have been recreated from the original's PlayStation One days and the artists have done a good job of making it feel both familiar and new at the same time. Now as any fan of the Silent Hill series knows, there's a whole lot more to the game than just its visuals. If you're a fan of brutal monster-crushing weapons, then the PSP iteration should have plenty for you. Six completely different items (broken into two categories) can be used to kill the indescribable things that populate the haunted town. The sledgehammer, shovel, and tire iron make up the melee arsenal, while the laser-sighted 9mm, 44 magnum, and traditional shotgun make up the ranged weapon set. Our personal favorite is the sledgehammer, though. One quick swing of the handle results in some major, gooey creature damage that begs to be done over, and over, and over again.

The one big gripe we have with the game thus far (and granted it is early) is that the controls are a little sluggish. Somewhat on the mechanical side, the movement of "Mr. Trucker Guy" falls victim to the same stiff response that most third-person actioners suffer from in their youngling stages. Konami tells us that there's still a boat load of optimization left to do with Silent Hill Origins, though, so to fault it too much so soon probably wouldn't be right.

Hopefully we'll get more time with the game over the next couple of months (it isn't due out until 2007), but in the meantime our readers should definitely check out our media page below for movies and screens from the latest version, and follow this link to view our two previous (and very extensive) previews.

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