Приємний десерт після основної гри у вигляді роуглайту. Спочатку ніби трохи важко, все ще таке невідоме, якісь нові противники, не знаєш що робити, а годинничок то тікає (з часом кожне проходження стає все важчим, тож бажано планувати всі свої дії наперед). А потім, коли вже вивчив локації, назбирав грошей та прокачав персонажів, то гра перетворюється у цікавий тайм менеджмент, де нам треба по черзі врятувати 5 людей з місячної бази, котра з кожним проходженням потрохи змінюється, так ще й способи порятунку мають бути різними.

Один з головних ексклюзивів віти, якщо не самий головний. Гра та її дизайн доволі унікальні, атмосфера дуже незвична. Головний гімік цієї гри - ми можемо міняти гравітацію для нашої героїні та вона буде падати у вказаному напрямку. Весь геймплей базується на основі саме цієї механіки, та розробникам добре вдалось утримати мою зацікавленість аж до кінця гри завдяки різноманітному використанню цих здібностей головної героїні. Відкритий світ доволі немаленький, але при цьому гра дуже добре йшла на моїй віті.

For all the survival horror that I've dabbled with over the past few years, this is the title that made me the most cognizant of the "survival" aspect. It’s this elaborate balancing act of juggling every limited resource at your disposal: ammo for bosses and enemies, kerosene to burn necessary corpses after downing zombies to secure routes, health items as fail safes, ink ribbons to save when deemed necessary, and most importantly, inventory space to minimize backtracking with the bare minimum (knowing what you’re likely to use up as you progress so you have enough room to forage). What’s key to all of this is that it’s often worthwhile not downing zombies at all to not only conserve ammo, but also prevent the possibility of a more dangerous Crimson Head when kerosene is not only limited but requires further planning for refueling and additional inventory slots (lighter + flask). It’s punishing, but in the best way possible; damage and death become instruments of observation to properly plan out backtracking and understanding exactly what goes where. Perhaps my favorite example of this in action was abusing the various doors in a room connecting the shed corridor with a safe room; by quickly going in and out of the entrances, I could not only reset a Hunter’s awareness and spawn, but also place myself in a position where I could immediately run at the Hunter to proc an attack and slip past every time. It certainly helps, regardless, that there’s plenty of leeway for careful experimentation, thanks to all of the scattered health items about the mansion (granted, often requiring careful planning to optimize grounded herbs in rooms and keeping enough inventory space open for trips). It’s also fairly firm at setting its boundaries by telegraphing enemy placement far in advance with rattling doors/windows to signify enemy shifts, background moaning when a zombie is present in the room, and even environmental noises like crunching fallen glass to make up for the lack of vision with fixed camera angles.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the horror has been neglected. If anything, I found this game far more unsettling beyond sudden surprises. It’s not so much the fear of the unexpected, but rather, the lingering fear of waiting for the other shoe to drop while you’re expecting the unexpected. They're scripted events, sure, but they're well disguised thanks to every room often acting as its own isolated microcosm without the presence of the protagonist (not to mention that it's pretty easy to get caught up in the middle of things and forget about each individual room, which makes it all the more viscerally shocking) and there's still a feeling of player control with careful planning and routing. This fits perfectly alongside its core philosophy of risk versus reward, the existential dread of having to backtrack through several zombie infested corridors when you realize you forgot an inventory key and having to constantly and deliberately throw yourself into tight situations just to save another trip across the map. It’s what makes this such an ideal speedrunning game: not necessarily because of satisfying movement or combat, but because Resident Evil is really a game about time management. Every second wasted tromping through another passageway is time that could contribute to a zombie reviving as a Crimson Head or another second spent replaying if you’re not willing to use that extra ink ribbon. The primal fear arising from guaranteed safety as a fleeting resource lends perfectly to the need for optimization; in that sense, pressuring players into constantly checking the map to avoid confrontations and getting lost goes hand in hand with spending as little time as possible, for nothing is more terrifying than having to rewind the simulations in your head for another go.

I can’t help but feel that every detail of this game was thought down to the bone, even the original tank control scheme. That’s right, I’m actually defending tank controls for once in my life… how the turns have tabled. Dodging enemies can seem tougher, but most are conveniently placed near corners and more open areas to give you the room necessary to dodge with a backstep/quick burst to the side if you’re willing to wait and bait committal attacks. More importantly, using tank controls lets you maintain your direction and momentum while running through different camera angles of a room. With alternate controls, you most likely have to hold down the joystick to maintain velocity and upon a new camera angle, will have to quickly retap to keep the intended direction with each new angle. This becomes paramount in tighter chase sequences, where even slight moments of stagnation can lead to damage/death, as well as one timed puzzle where I had to press a button and then quickly run through several fixed angles to get into position to push a statue. In addition, I found it rather difficult to reliably walk (as opposed to running full-time) with alternate controls over tank controls, which can absolutely backfire during an end-game sequence where running for a prolonged period can trigger an explosion during nitro delivery. Therefore, the circumstances created by the environment not only are doable with tank controls, but in fact necessitate the usage of such controls.

Everything just comes together as this tightly designed package. Puzzles have fairly evident tells and can be figured out with careful observation of the surroundings while facilitating the inventory scramble that plays so heavily to the game’s survival elements. The lore never feels overbearing or excessive, and does a great job weaving in hints for crafting approaches and figuring out exactly what has to be accomplished. There’s never an explicit timer on screen outside of the final ending segment, yet the game is great at creating circumstances where you’re forced to make decisions on the fly from environmental stressors and considering the mansion not just on a per room basis, but as a sum of its parts. I genuinely don’t think I have any gripes; it was more than happy to beat me down, but understanding its parameters to scale up against its challenges was an incredibly fulfilling experience. I’d damn well say that REmake is the most focused and cohesive survival horror experience I’ve ever played. Not just a perfect remake, but perhaps a practically perfect game.

Metals clash, and sparks fly. The rhythmic sounds of blades colliding put you in a hypnotic trance. Clink. Clink. Pause. Clink clink. It's euphoric. Sekiro has by far the most satisfying combat in gaming. From genichiro to owl father, each boss is like it's own song in a rhythm game, like piano tiles on steroids. Each moveset like an improvised line in jazz, the boss attacks like the sax, and you're the accompanying bass. One fuck up though, and your entire flow is ruined. It's game over in an instant.

Sekiro is hard. It's probably the hardest game I've ever played. But it's only hard in the beginning. If you're mentally prepared to suffer for just a few hours, I promise you, when you get out the other side and really learn how to play the game, and engage with it's mechanics, it makes you feel like an unstoppable cyborg ninja killing machine.

Well, beating this on my birthday sure was a nice surprise! Especially since this was a pretty great game overall. It was my Secret Santa game in fact, which was something me and my discord fellas participated in. I'll link the list I did for that here.

Any who, yeah this was really good. I beat Prime 1 last year for the first time and thought it was awesome. So I was excited to see how 2 fared and I was not disappointed. I do think 1 was better overall as 2 has higher highs in some parts of the game and lower lows but it's still really good even compared to 1.

When it comes to straight up improvements, there's a couple things 2 did extremely well compared to 1. Loading times are all faster, it takes like half the time for you to get to a new area now. Scans now go from red or blue to green when scanned and are much easier to see if they've been scanned or not. The scanning especially being a lot better than 1's would definitely make me miss it when I replay that eventually lol.

Obviously the game's big mechanic is the dark and light worlds and honestly, I thought it was awesome. I've heard some people say they found it tedious, and I never really had an issue with it. I thought it added a cool spin on Prime's gameplay and made you think. It could make the game difficult somewhat, especially when fighting some of those dark world bosses but I liked that.

Speaking of the bosses, they're very interesting in this one. Overall, I'd say they were an improvement from 1 tho there were a couple that were a pain in the ass. Spider Guardian obviously being the main culprit for most people. I didn't hate it but man was it frustrating trying to figure out what to do while fighting it cuz that one can be brutal. A lot of the bosses were actually pretty tough, they were certainly more complex than 1's bosses. Those last few tho, the 2nd Dark Samus fight...Quadraxis and the whole set of final bosses were easily the best in the game and better than all of Prime 1's bosses. At first I was a little disappointed with the boss roster in 2 but after fighting the endgame ones, overall I do think 2 has better bosses than 1.

Now the biggest thing I think that's holding this game back from being better than 1, is its world. Prime 1 was basically Super Metroid in 3D. You had a very interconnected world to explore that was more into showing not telling. Prime 2 is more similar to Fusion with its bigger focus on storytelling and more linear world. The game is definitely not quite as linear or focused on story as Fusion, but it definitely feels like it took inspiration from it. The world is broken up into 3 main areas to explore and 1 overworld type area you go back and forth from. Rather than exploring at your own pace like Prime 1, it feels more like you're guided around slightly as you have to go back to the hub to unlock each new area. Eventually the areas do have elevators that connect to other areas but even with that the world isn't as tightly designed as 1's I feel. The area's are all cool, especially Sanctuary Fortress...that one is awesome, however I feel there weren't as many "aha" moments whenever I saw areas connect like in 1. I also feel like the game wasn't as atmospheric as 1 was, at least not the atmosphere I dig as much. Still, the world does interconnect by the end, I just think compared to 1 it just aint as good.

As for other miscellaneous things, the OST is pretty solid tho I do think its a downgrade compared to 1. I love how the classic item room theme is back, that's sick. I enjoyed the connections the game made to 1 near the beginning. Dark Samus was awesome to see in this game finally and it seems like it comes back in 3 so that'll be cool. Pirate commanders suck ass and were easily the worst enemy in the game. They're basically Chozo Ghosts from 1, except instead of locking the doors only some of the time, they lock them every time they appear and they're tanky as fuck which Chozo ghosts weren't. Weird change tbh and was just tedious every time they popped up. Navigating menus in this game feels clunkier than 1, they tried to make it all cool but it feels like it takes longer to find a certain file if you wanna read it again. It was interesting to see the screw attack in this game and while I warmed up to it by the end of the game, I still can't help it felt a little lame compared to how it was in prior games. Also again, one of the best parts of the game was just getting collectables and seeing what puzzles you have to do to get/find them. That was still really fun to do in this game, especially with the Dark/Light gimmick. I did get every item, which is of course a Metroid staple, and got a good chunk of the scans so I'm satisfied.

Overall, this was very good despite some issues I had. I do like Prime 1 more but this was definitely a worthy sequel I feel. Thank you @QuentTheSlayer for having me play this as my Secret Santa game, had a jolly good time! Next is gonna be the original Klonoa. A nice short game will do me good methinks.

I beat this game about 2.5 months ago.
A single day hasn't gone by where I haven't thought of this game.
It's phenomenal and I'm so glad that so many of my friends recommended it to me.
I feel as if this game was made for me: a Mario-Galaxy-like, space exploration, lore-heavy, changing environment game feels tailor-made to me! Yeah, parts of it aren't perfect but no game is to me and honestly, this game might be the most flawless game I've ever played. It's my 2nd favourite game ever and just man... I love it. Don't get me started with the ending too!

Honestly a pretty phenomenal bit of dlc, I'm a but sad I didn't play it sooner but that's what tends to happens when a lot of games you're excited for come out around the same time. I was a bit disappointed at first when it was revealed it wasn't an epilogue as both me and several other people felt the main story would have benefited and while the ending of this dlc does try to give some closure to that I would say some of grievances with the main game ending weren't completely answered. But ignoring and just looking at the dlc on it's own, this was just a good time. Lot's of exploration that rewards you, a more fine tuned battle system that feels great, a fun and frankly insane party gameplay wise that can pull off some crazy damage. Game was just fun from beginning to end.

In a 1999 developer interview. Keiichiro Toyama says “What is it that sets Silent Hill apart from other games? If I had to answer that question in a nutshell, it would be the atmosphere, which I suppose is vague and ambiguous. However, if you play the game, I think you will understand. Silent Hill is an orthodox game with no outlandish or innovative gameplay mechanics, but it is suffused with a unique atmosphere and mood, not only in its appearance but also in the story and sound.” - Director of Silent Hill 1(SH1).

I couldn’t help but come to the same conclusion as Toyama’s answer of ‘atmosphere’ as the final credits rolled in my blind playthrough of Silent Hill 1. The atmosphere permeates throughout my time running through the titular town full of dense fog. As I controlled the main character. Harry Mason. An everyman who has no special titles, or special powers, is neither rich nor an individual who has super connections of note. He is simply a regular dad desperately searching every house and street for any clue, to recover his missing daughter Cheryl after a car crash gone wrong. And so begins our journey, as he battles/evades otherworldly creatures all while unknowingly trying to survive in this horror-filled place.

Storywise, I found his journey to be a cross between safe storytelling mixed with a jigsaw puzzle. Looking back I can construct how the narrative is achieved by effectively omitting key details. By the time I had all the pieces, I could complete the ‘puzzle’ so to speak. In doing so I was treated to a relatively safe journey in regards to not throwing my suspension of disbelief into smithereens while spreading the plot breadcrumbs interesting enough to lure me further into the mystery. In spite of the slow threads in the beginning. Be that as it may, once I hit my stride in schools and hospitals my will to continue deepened further. Enabling me to question everything and everyone within the bounds of not delving too outside the box to conjure. The regular who, what, where, when, why whodunit. Kept my brain tingling for morsels of information to seek the answer to my relentless inquiries. And thankfully the ending I received satisfied me to a measure I cannot help but applaud for. Well at least for receiving the ‘G+’ ending. And while there are other endings I’ve seen on YouTube. The overarching narrative felt uncommonly used amongst the other horror games I've played thus far. I wish I could give more concrete examples, but that would inadvertently lose the magic and surprise.

The atmosphere toes the line between the unknown and frightening to an absurd, but realistic degree. As I traveled deeper into the mist surrounding the locations of Silent Hill. Taking inspiration from Stephen King's The Mist among other influences. And to its credit, the close draw distance to maximize fog nearly in our faces works cleverly to hide the technical limitations of the PS1 era. The missing inhabitants while replicating a small town out in the country oozes with mystery in a sort of “Will there be something?” is teased mercilessly. I enjoyed exploring to my delight and wasn’t scared too much despite the oppressive silence and lack of inhabitants. Instead, I found otherworldly creatures prowling the dead of the day. Hairless malformed dogs prowling the streets, as winged creatures fly indiscriminately above Mason’s head to claw at him. To the nurses and doctors who are out of their freaking mind looking like a zombie at times. I admit to being scared and simply ran away from these ghastly enemies. The dense fog adds to the intrigue with incessant questions in the back of my mind. “What's happening? Where is Cheryl? What should I do? Why is this happening? How can I survive? Am I dreaming? Is this real?” These questions and more will inevitably pop up as you stumble & struggle.

The struggle is real. As I cautiously checked for enemies in rotten corridors, clean hallways, and entering empty rooms splitting the real and unreal. Confusing me, yet a handy map can be found nearby upon entering a new location. Making backtracking painless. Allowing me to easily strengthen my will, admire the presentation and reference what I had already been to. The map updates as you explore making it a vital tool to utilize. Reinforced by how simple the mechanics are. Mason can run, walk, use guns, and melee weapons, and interact with objects in the environment. The radio too helps as a sort of sound radar for nearby enemies. Helping us to prepare for what's to come. As a result, no gimmicks or very innovative systems at work as Toyama stated above. Focusing on other elements brings the core strengths to the front and center for players to devour. Grayish mist compliments well with the dead air of the soundtrack while feeding breadcrumbs to the player early on to piece and make their deductions. It is fascinating if not slightly stressful since I am playing a survival horror game. Yet I wasn’t all too bothered by the gameplay formula.

Puzzles felt adequate without being too complex. The simple systems lend themselves again and again. Becoming cyclical as you progress further in new buildings without feeling like a drag. Encounter a mysterious item? Maybe we can use this later to open a door or slot into a mechanism to open a path. Hmm, bottle? Must be some liquid I need. Keys? Oh, a locked door I couldn’t enter before surely will this time. Every puzzle I found difficult had a nearby solution to help players give off clues to solve their current dilemma. And usually, they may connect to another component, solving a dilemma could be a key to finally removing an obstacle. Out of all the puzzles I encountered. Only one of them is incredibly difficult. This was the only time I felt compelled to check a walkthrough and once I found the solution I couldn’t help but smack myself silly. So here’s a helpful tip. Check your surroundings to make sure of any missing pieces, having a separate monitor or paper on hand to visualize text hints can offer a different point of view. There are puzzles here without a hint so visuals and any patterns as delicately as I can vaguely say will prove invaluable to the naked eye. Don’t overthink, sometimes the easiest and most gut feeling may prove to be the right one.

Combat I wasn't fighting every step of the way like tank controls. Instead I embraced the simple fighting system and abused them to my advantage. Harry can equip one weapon at a time. Utilizes a multitude of melee and ranged weaponry. From pipes to knives to a pistol, shotguns, etc. The armaments helped tremendously like a hammer and the shooting mechanics aren’t all too complicated due to the absence of a reticle. As long as you focus in the direction of the enemy. You can shoot them with extreme prejudice. And man does it feel good to lay them out on the floor and kick em when they're down. Go close to an enemy? Eat a full round from my shotgun. Enemy closing in? NOPE. Time to run in a zigzag and not look back. Dying in about one blow? Excuse me while I chug a kit and some bottles without a required animation to take effect. See several mobs? Yeah forget that, Ima run past them. Pick your battles, don’t fight everything, to conserve ammo.

Felt the resource collection and using my stockpile satisfactory. Supplies are spread throughout the town so you’ll have to do some exploring off the beaten path to see any health kits or bottles to replenish your vitality. I had a surplus of bullets and avoided combat where I could to save ammo. Didn’t need to heal every time, only when I needed to. I wasn’t hindered by any inventory limit, nor was there any sort of stamina meter. He does have a health meter once you enter the menu with a press of the button. Making the lack of any real user interface where you would traditionally see one noticeable, albeit not necessary to see. I didn’t find any major issues with finding resources.

I’ll talk more about this later, but for now, I'll praise the tank controls. The mechanic where you move the player is similar to the process of how a tank moves. And this is a process you’ll need to contend with throughout the entirety of a playthrough. Nevertheless, as I became more familiar with tank life(This was my first time experiencing the phenomenon.) I found it weirdly satisfying to look at the element from a different angle. The controls accentuate certain camera angles to invoke a sense of anxiety and unease. The combat adds to this which I didn’t mind at all considering the game doesn’t shout to the high heavens to play for the fighting module. This in turn creates anticipation and tension adding to the already unsettling atmosphere. So I like it. For adding depth to the combat and fleeing.

Honestly, this emphasizes cutscenes when they play by displaying different camera angles while the dialogue occurs. And boy do I have some good news. I’m surprised by how little text there is in the conversations. Thereby not slobbering players with text logs or lore logs. Though as a lore nut, I firmly believe as long as you have enough relative lore in hand it could prove beneficial. But that is neither here nor there. Words and phrases are used sparingly as if to uphold a sacred tenet that fewer words equals good. SH1 for example follows this rule to a T. I did not see any wasted text. Puzzles and hints are included. It's like a subtly minimalist Chekhov's gun here. And oddly enough I am praising the usage of short conversations between Harry and whoever is speaking to him to excellent effect. Why? This adds mystery and intrigue to the central locations while increasing tension, fear, etc. Reinforcing the enigmatic atmosphere Toyama envisions. Seriously this is great stuff preserving minimal, but essential text to have players piece their own conclusions. Showing us, but not telling us.

In a 2015 interview from Factmag Akira Yamaoka(composer of a majority of the Silent Hill series) talks about the franchise's soundtracks and why it continues to be as influential as ever. “One of the greatest ways that Yamaoka enhanced Silent Hill’s fear building is by using music and effects in ways that run against what you’re expecting. “I wanted it to be unpredictable: maybe during a big scare I cut everything out, and maybe if nothing was happening at all there would be a lot of sound.” You have an empty hallway? Layer a few sirens and mix it in the red. You have an establishing moment with a villain or environment? Use only the sound of a sharpening knife.”

This unpredictability by Yamaoka works to an impressive degree throughout the entire soundscape. Where I felt the absence of regular conventional instruments in favor of creepy silence, air vibrations, the beating of unconventional items like banging of doors, the scrapping of blades, and the heart-pumping scratches and fluctuating radio frequencies awakens dread. Some examples I’ll pull from the OST have silence integrated well such as: ‘Downtime, never end, never end, never end, alive, nothing else, justice for you, heaven give me say, far.’ These tracks accompany many of the gameplay segments and cutscenes in a congenial manner yet interlaced wonderfully facilitating differences from the usual effects we often hear. Creating an unsettling tone to repeat for days on end as you boot up the game. Not to the point of over-use since a lot of tracks differ in tempo, rhythm, and how untraditional sound works. Seriously listen to any of those tracks and see how it differs from classical instruments. The names of these tracks also share similar connotations. Giving off a break if you will. Or time of rest. By comparison, there is another layer. And that is the panic tracks. Imagine low drums combined with a background of haunting wails or cries of ghastly echoes.

While the foreground is immersed with a layer of banging utensils harshly being hit on steel walls in a pattern that evokes slow encroaching terror. Yeah, terrifying isn’t it? Try listening to these tracks: Die, ain't gonna rain, half day, dead end, ill kill you, bitter season, don’t cry, for all, devil’s lyric, over, until death. I had to stomach through the OST again and it is incredible if not spooky. Yet thankfully enough here’s a secret to lessen the tension and anxiety. Lower the volume, no shame in doing so. I admit to doing so! The naming sense also is interesting to note again, with most of the tracks I chose from a small sample conveying notions of death, threats, and bittersweetness. I could’ve added more, but you can see the rest here and suit the tracks in other patterns. Regardless, I want to focus on a pattern. The silence tracks and panic tracks from the ones I listed earlier follow a theme, eh? The former inhabits an eerie vibe throughout yet doesn’t go to the steep lengths of making the player run to the hills. In my ears, I felt they were used to excellent effect, conveying a tingle of mystery as I ran to new rooms and buildings. By comparison. The latter displays the rush, the unbearing suspense mixed with a persistent rhythm forming an incessant need to get out. Run faster and get the hell out of traps and dead-ends. As a result, the panic tracks I think work in its favor and complement the silence to a proportion, I find myself fascinated by the two accompanying themes.

However, a third and smaller portion of tracks not of the two kinds emerges. And this brings to the forefront the classical tracks to a shotgun-filled bar full of emotions and relief. These tracks finally make use of classical instruments like the guitar strings. For example in the track ‘She’ I felt they provide a profound degree of closure. Some may see this as an abrupt slap of whiplash, on the other hand, I found it comforting. In the near silence and panic-filled corridors of ambiance. I found at the end of my main character’s journey and to my great satisfaction a longing feeling of contentment and tranquility. It is apt and so powerful to hear classical instruments shine so bloody hard. I am amazed how different Yamaoka's style conveys so uniquely and so beautifully to listen to. Granted, the effects on the unused may be perceived as annoying to hear repetitive noise effects. Although, I think it works to its benefit. Complementing the game to magically transport the player into the Yamaoka’s soundscape. Like a puppet master controlling how we feel. Just wow. Very different from other Japanese composers I'm familiar with listening such as Nobou Uematsu, Keiichi Okabe, Yasunori Mitsuda, Yoko Shimomura, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Masashi Hamauzu, Masayoshi Soken, Keiki Kobayashi, Kota Hoshino, Falcom Sound Team jdk, and Xenoblade composers. The OST manages to ride the fine line of not being either bombastic or slamming us with gentility. Filling the player with enough suspense to not overflow in sheer terror while giving enough intrigue to the limit of genuine courage. It is as Yamaoka talks about earlier. Unpredictable in building fear.

As much as I could continue praising and analyzing every morsel. I must talk about my mixed feelings. These are neither positive nor negative, but simply some things that gave me pause, could be better and perhaps a hot take down below.

First tank controls for the unused can make it difficult to achieve the right balance in the beginning. When Harry moves in a single direction, turning becomes difficult. So you’ll have to swerve to the right or left before coming around. Takes some getting used to. I was never familiar with these types of old movements and considering it was my first foray into it. My first 15 minutes were clashing onto walls. I understand it's a product of its time. And while some may say it adds tension and anxiety, which I agree to a certain extent. More often than not I crashed into walls and wished it controlled better. Could be a dealbreaker for some. I’ve heard the newest entries after the first have better controls. Though for a first entry, it's not something I'll judge too harshly. Once an hour passed by I became used to them. To help, quick-turn using L1+R1. Helped immensely for my playthrough and thankfully the game’s runtime isn’t too long or medium to deal with. HLTB estimates put this at a short length.

Second, this might be a hot take. But I think going into the game blind completely would be a mistake. I tried playing blind for 95% of my experience and while I did have a good time, once I removed some tips to know beforehand along with some of my friend's advice I would’ve unknowingly struggled. Please check out some tips. I'll put some links further below to help newcomers. Therefore to prevent further suffering. Not required, but it doesn’t hurt to know ya know? For example, Running away from enemy mobs in the streets to conserve ammo. Quickturn if you hit a dead-end and I abused the hell out of that to counter the rough tank controls. Furthermore, going blind may inadvertently cause players more trouble when trying to achieve certain endings. They can be strict. Without going into concrete details of spoiler territory. To get the G+ ending, players need to somehow pick up a liquid in a hospital and use it in a boss fight. Not the last one. There’s a bit more, but I'll let Before I play handle that. Highly recommend referencing that in hand while you play. I hope that’s vague enough to say. I am not advocating for everyone to achieve that outcome, rather I think it would help in the long run when thinking about the game as a whole. It is simply a suggestion.

Third, boss fights I think could’ve been improved a little more to induce more puzzley in design without reverting into too gimmicky territory. As vaguely as I can say. I usually evaded their attacks, then shot bullets during appropriate moments. I’m torn on this point since I think this ties into the combat not being a true highlight to look forward to. I didn’t come to SH1 to be amazed by fighting. Yet unironically Toyama in another interview back in 1999 echoes similar sentiments by saying how “The action part of the game is really just something to create the horror.” A medium to enhance the horror if you will. Although, I still can’t help but add my suggestions on how this could be remedied to make boss fights more horrory. Off the top of my head: More on escaping, instead of traditional fights. Destroying objects in surrounding environments then switching to a different weapon like melee. Surprise me with dialogue maybe and if I answer wrong, game over. Taunt me while chasing me. I wouldn’t say they're bad by any means. The first, second to last boss and final boss do a decent job.

Fourth, I wish there was more interaction in the environment instead of literal observations anyone can make. When exploring anything of relative interest in his surroundings. Harry will make a direct, blunt phrase. “No useful books.” “Nothing unusual.” “Drugs? Better leave it.” “Just a wall.” Granted, there are plenty of notes, diaries, letters, and documents to give some relevant lore or plot hooks so it’s not all bad. Feels weird though. Why not have him say different lines like “Cheryl would’ve loved this book.” or “Ah I remember this drug from long ago my wife used to use.” See how those suggestions would’ve changed some of the stale observations? Makes me wonder if the other installments made some changes to his inspection.

Ultimately I found Silent Hill 1 to be largely a leap of faith as one Ubisoft franchise likes to say. While it does have some dated mechanics like the tank controls which may vary from person to person. And the story may not resonate with everyone. Along with my other mixed feelings. In the end, hidden beneath these varying qualities I found the everyman plot to be equally as satisfying as my time in Signalis. I can only leave pretty positive after my ten hour playthrough. And oddly enough, I regret not playing this title back then in my childhood. Never played any other entries in the series either. And yet for a PSX title released in 1999, I am pretty impressed how much it holds up. Stands tall amongst the other horror games I played. Sure the title doesn’t boast the Lovecraftian edge Bloodborne grasps. The excellent pacing of The Last of Us. Great lessons from Omori or hitting the fine balance of horror and action in the Evil Within series and Metro 2033. Nor does it provide richly diverse cast to the gills like Shadow Heart and Koudelka.

Rather, Harry Mason’s troubled venture to recover his daughter is a powerful incentive to keep in mind. And the feelings of “annoyance, anger and incredible kind of powerlessness” evoked by the protaganists voice actor Michael Guinn moved me enough to see what happens in the end. Strong to witness amongst the clever backtracking, colliding with interesting and well-thought-out puzzles. Constant showing, not telling, and remarkable use of minimal dialogue I found in contrast to Parasite Eve. Demonstrating how much this little gem can achieve in a concise manner without padding. I wasn’t bombarded by useless cutscenes or tearing my suspension of disbelief a new one. Beyond the palpable unique atmosphere, intriguing everyman story and excellent sound design lies something special to anyone who has never played Silent Hill 1. I’d even go as far as to say the game has made me appreciate horror much more than I thought.

8.5/10

References & Additional Material:
1st interview - Shmuplations translated the 1999 interview with Toyama and others
Wiki links - Everyman - Inspirational works of Silent Hill - Tank Controls - Chekhov’s Gun - SH1 OST - Soundscape
2nd interview - Akira Yamaoka interview
3rd interview - Another interview with Toyama back in 1999. Different from 1st.
4th interview - a 2018 interview with none other than the original Silent Hill voice actor for Harry Mason. Michael Guinn. Fair warning does contain spoilers for SH1 & SH3. I only read the SH1 portions.
Silent Hill 1 Before I Play Tips
Silent Hill 1 manual
A short history article on the origin of Tank Controls - Cool TIL tidbits.
My spoiler thoughts on Silent Hill 1 - Heavy spoilers from beginning to end of the game

Does exactly what it says on the tin. Cute, charming, funny. Full of spontaneous energy, as if it was made in the spur of the moment. Anti intricate game design that doesn’t try to take too much on its plate; in fact, briefness seems to be the name of the game here and I love it. Big crunchy pixel art style and ambient music make it feel homely as you glide around its beaches, mountains and forest valleys. The island is finite, but you never feel the world wrap around itself. Instead it continuously goes left or right until you arrive at where you began and that makes it feel more vast than it actually is. Sometimes you get to look at your surroundings from binoculars and then the top down perspective you are accustomed to is substituted by a more typical three dimensional one. It lasts only while you look through the viewers, but it gives a different feeling of adventure to the game, when you can see distant peaks and low island coastal strips in fog begging for you to explore them. It even changes the flow of traversal when it introduces a new biome in the later half. More games should have the focus this 3 hour romp does. I can imagine myself going back to this just to wind down for an hour or two to take my mind off things. Really lovely.

Played on Oculus quest 2

With the sole exception of Beat Saber, which I gave an absentminded spin on in the local gaming bar, this was my first proper foray into the VR landscape. I had no point of reference for what to expect, but what I did have was a condescending attitude, despite that I had fun with the aforementioned title. My negative supposition stemmed from my inability to view these titles as ’’serious games’’, much like mobile games and for similar reasons. One expects them to use the technology as a crutch and in the process, forget the myriad of things that make a game, like narrative, length, pacing, progression ,variety and so forth and so forth. Games for VR have, it feels like, just recently started evolving and on account of the major financial investment they require to be played I expected it to be years before they developed their sufficient language. In a sense, I just expected a glorified tech demo.

This changed the moment I put it on. The whiteness of the loading screen and its opening titles slowly dissipate to lay bare an image of a city engulfed in smog. Before its immaculate detail can make an impression, a plethora of veiny cables supported by huge steel rail systems force your gaze to follow them upwards to an oppressive megalithic structure- The Citadel. Your nape has to bend backwards for you to investigate its ending, lost somewhere between the sky and sun, blocked by thick haze. It’s in my first moment with the game, that the VR system makes me feel something I wouldn’t have without it. The towering presence of the Combine Headquarters has its intended dominating effect on me precisely because real life movement enabled me to feel it. Speedy aircrafts take off left and right; huge mechanical spider-like government sentinels roam the rooftops scouting for trouble; the only organic life form is a tiny (in comparison) pigeon flock that wizzes past you in a second; I veer my head frantically to catch it all. I haven’t even started moving yet and I’m dumbfounded. Looking around is more than enough for my first minutes with it. It’s surprising to me that I have found the space to be as immersive as it has been, that I immediately accepted the presented reality and found it palpable. I see a railing in front of me and cautiously peep my head over it as if a chance of a fall existed; I already respect the depth of the world subconsciously. It also helps that Valve have gone to extremes to describe the detail of this world, both visually and mechanically. After I surveyed the street and its passengers I noticed a radio on my right. A core frequently asked question that comes to you throughout the entire game arises in that moment: ’’Can I ?’’, a mark of any great game. My fingers aim for its little antenna and I raise it to receive the signal. It works. I go for the knob and it turns. I bend over, pick up a matchbox and shake it beside my ear to hear the trembling of the matches inside. I lift a pot and wonder if can time it’s fall and drop it on a pedestrian's head. It doesn’t work ( didn’t expect it to), but I'm already in play with the systems. The physics engine reputation Valve has built hasn’t been damaged and City 17’s tangibility invites one to see what it’s made of. My appetite for experimentation is growing and I begin to see how much unknown the space for play is.
I wonder if it is a coincidence that VR has finally emerged as a real thing when graphics have become photorealistic, or hit the gradient of becoming. I’m sure a basic, low poly version of this would still extract a reaction out of me and have merit; yet, it’s full mesmerising effect hits due to the cutting edge graphics worthy of a non-vr competitor game. While you enter your first interior in the game, you walk through a dingy corridor. Not that it has anything to do with it, but at that moment I got reminded of P.T, Kojima’s infamous unreleased cult project and its treatment of light shadow, texture and reflection (The Order 1886 also sprung to mind for similar reasons). Naturally, graphics have been moving the bar ever since 2014, but it was at the beginning of that demo that I thought a new graphical fidelity plateau was established, and not just by pure graphical horsepower alone. It was in the way it gave them the opportunity to express drama through it, how light reflected off different surfaces, while still allowing for the personality of the material to be noticed, like stains on mirrors or smudges on the floor. It could account for the whole spectrum of light and shadow, having a corner of room in pitch darkness, and then gradually transition to full lightning. The same physical based rendering techniques are present in Alyx and it is many a times where it’s detail made an impression; entering an abandoned hotel lobby, singularly illuminated by sunbeams suggesting all the unclear air and accumulated dust by the years of neglect; fighting for dear life in a pitch black basement with a flashlight, only having some light reflect of smeared old monitors and dirty ceramic tiles or just taking in the last sunset rays bathing the industrial buildings sheet iron rooftops.
It was after my initial techno stupor wore off, that I noticed my hands and was intrigued at how they shadowed my real life movement so well. The mind connection I made between my real hands and virtual counterparts was mind boggling. I inspected them thoroughly, their back and front and I moved them closer to my face and really far from it. For all intents and purposes these were my ’’real’’ hands, and as such, they became the most intuitive controls any game has ever had. I had many of my friends come and try it out and it’s always the same, despite the major difference in gaming experience we all had. By the fifth minute of the game, by the time you go down the elevator, they play with it as if they have done this their whole life, and in a sense, they had. Drawing from real life experience of the physical world, walking, crawling, tip-toeing to see something, even shooting had become a second nature in the game. These types of controls minimise the gap between intent and execution of action so much that it practically opens a new horizon for 3D space. An interesting instance of this is the concept that hands and head are tracked separately, which might not sound like much, but brings so much more life to the virtual world. You can open a door with your right arm slightly, just enough for you to peek inside and have your gun ready to terminate with you left, while you still hold the door with your right one, prepared to close it and protect yourself from danger. You turn cranks in panic, hoping for a door to open before some (beautifully rendered) freak gets you, cycling in the process between him, the door and the crank. Chances are you fumble in your haste to reload and drop the life saving mag you could not reload. I could also never resist the temptation to break glass whenever I had the chance. To watch it shatter piece by piece while I was trying to make an opening in for my grenade was a delight .The examples of this are many and it made me think that I hadn’t really noticed how classical controls lacked this continuity of motion and made these in-between moments of tension and discovery get lost between the cracks.
The remarkable thing all of this manages to do is make you reinterpret conventional video game syntax. It is indescribable how different the process feels, when you have to perform an action in its full capacity. It reinvents the basics, like walking, picking ammo, reloading, throwing, aiming a flashlight, lining a shot yourself, and even the tedium of looting. Raviging kitchen drawers and cabinets has never been this involving. Changing ammo isn’t a heedless press of a button, but a whole affair of reaching behind your shoulder to an imaginary backpack and performing the magic hat trick of pulling out not a rabbit, but a fresh clip. After that you have to manually cock the weapon to use it, which you often do and it never gets old.
The shooting is in the same vein, familiar and also different, enhanced by a witty gameplay addition on Valve’s part, very similar to the Gravity Gun in Half-life 2. The big deal with that weapon, despite that it was really cool to play with, was the use it made of the groundbreaking physics engine made for Half-life 2. In a similar stroke of pragmatic genius, they’ve replicated this in Alyx with the introduction of the Gravity Gloves. The VR realm is a great place to update this concept, because on one hand it provides a tool for you to experience the tangibility of the objects in the world while you zap them around; on the other hand, it swiftly deals with a problem the devs would’ve had, that is present in any normal shooter i.e the picking of ammo, or for that matter, everything else. In Alyx, you just extend your arm and beckon at the desired object (usually ammo) for it to soar in your direction. Before you know it, you already use it on the baddies and continue on your path of destruction. Could you imagine if you had to walk to every piece of ammo or collectible on the ground and bend over to pick it up? With the gravity gloves you avoid redundancy and insert a really fun sense of pace into the gameplay, which consists mainly of shooting stuff hither and thither.
It's enjoyable to face off against the headcrabs and their hosts, but the action shines once you have your first fight with enemy soldiers that can shoot back. As the synth and drums start blasting their beat, enemy fire becomes the supporting background music to the encounter. I land a couple of shots, but then duck behind a shielding concrete column and cower on my left knee, waiting for the enemy fires to cease. I pop up from my cover for a second, enough for me to squint an eye and headshot a dude, immediately after which I renew my safe position that's still getting shot at by the remaining soldiers. I giggle, imagining myself in my living room, hunched, playing pretend. It looks like a scene in a sci-fi movie that’s not even twenty years old, yet it’s my current reality and I participate in the outlandish scenarios people envisioned we’d have in the far future. Sure, it gets you a little dizzy if you play sessions longer than an hour and a half and you second guess your judgement of reality in the first moments you remove the headset, but it doesn't have the dystopian feeling I expected it to have. Instead, I’m engaged in a game, something that happens less and less in today's overblown mega budget titles and want to see what its systems can do.
It doesn’t take much time for me to fully roleplay while doing this. It's definitely not required, but it feels like such a shame if you miss the opportunity to do so; you have the tools to take so much out of this. The Combine militia enters the arena and I reach for safety. They open relentless fire on my position and stop me from moving anywhere. A grenade lands beside my feet, thrown by a frustrated soldier that can’t get to me. Escape is impossible due to enemy fire and death seems imminent. It’s out of reach, but I have a couple of seconds to get to it before the explosion proves fatal. The looney tunes bulb above my head lights up and I remember my trusty gravity gloves. I extend my arm and the speedily beeping grenade teleports in my grasp. The physics engine of the game creates a reliable realistic world and the intuitiveness of the controls invite you to test its limits and it’s so fun when you do and have your curiosity rewarded. I throw it back at them, which opens a window for me to escape. Later, they have me pinned down again and force me to crawl to my nearest cover. I frantically exit my shielding and shoot, then duck again several times. My health isn’t enough for me to stay in the dangerous open for long. I try to shoot blindly by bending just my wrist and pistol around the corner, while the rest of my body is still protected. I empty the entire clip and it seems in vain. I can’t tell if I got someone but the prospect of it was fun. I lay on my belly and press the stick forward, while moving my limbs like a crab, emulating the real life motion of crawling to escape the situation. I move intensely in real life and in the game and my heart is racing from the physical activity. Everyone, but an advancing heavy combine soldier is terminated. A remaining shotgun shell is my only ammo left available and I scour the surrounding for anything that can help me. I'm out of luck and wait for my demise with my last remaining drop of health. Like Trinity in the iconic scene in The Matrix, I wait flat on my back, both of my arms pointing at the space where I expect the grunt to appear to finish me off. His breathing and walking can be heard and is clearly getting closer. The intensity ramps up and I can feel the salt from my sweat dripping from my brow to my mouth. I'm frozen like this and starting to feel fatigue in my upper abdominal muscles because I’ve been contracted in this position for a while. The thumping gets louder and louder. I dare not blink, for I could miss the exact frame he appears to end me. As soon as his silhouette appears above me I blast him with my last remaining shell to save myself and continue on. If that ain't cool I dont know what is.
The biggest fault of the game is how uninteresting the plot and narrative are to the point that Alyx might not even classify as a game that has them. You just fuck around a lot to get MacGuffins and listen to people who give you instruction via comms. Not that different from it’s predecessors, but this one has a distinct lack of character and even semi-interesting writing. I doubt a single line of dialogue will affect you in any way. It’s easy to speculate that they deliberately made it this way in order to protect the ’’canon’’ of the Half-life universe by making a game that wouldn't make a dent in the overarching narrative. Is it because they didn’t want to alienate people that could not afford the hefty asking price of a game and whole system or was it due to fear that a bad experimental title would tarnish the legacy of the series. I personally couldn't care less but this franchise has zealous fans and Valve is aware of that. It’s a shame that they did not try more in this department, but in the end, it doesn’t bother me that much and I close my eyes to this just for the ending. So much else is at offer here, that it feels petty to critique.
All these descriptions I have given of the Alyx experience is to illustrate how special a step it is, if not the leap people fear it could be; it doesn’t work if it’s not in VR. I watched as my friends gave it a spin and it was boring as shit. It looked like any old game, or even worse, thanks to the inherent jankiness and silliness of titles made for VR. The shift in perspective is just untranslatable to normal screen based gaming. The success of this title is summarised in this quote by lead designer David Speyrer: ’’... yeah, we’d watering down the VR experience to try to do both at the same time, and as we explored the idea it just drove us in a place where the game became essentially VR, not just superficially VR.’’
With that core production philosophy Valve also crafted the epilogue. Right at the tail end of it, a final moment of interactability is presented to you. In a standard game, a press of a button would suffice, even if the physical action was the same. In Alyx, you have to do it yourself. Extend your arms and receive what is offered. As I was doing it, I felt the weight of action more and was awestruck again by the wit of it. This one moment made me excited for the future of VR and how a story might be told uniquely by this specific branch of gaming in the future. Hands off to Valve for that. It's insane that they put their chips on niche hardware that only bourgeois gaming royalty will be able to afford, made an exclusive twenty hour game for it that actually delivered both a worthy sequel to a beloved franchise and made a technological leap in history. It doesn't birth anything new, but brings a different perspective that shows what we had before in a different light and gives a glimpse of what we might have in the future. I can’t wait to find out what that is.

P.S the Jeff chapter rocks and the collapse of the Vault was one of the coolest things