After the polarizing reception and disappointing sales of Silent Hill 4: The Room, Konami made the controversial decision to forcefully disband Team Silent, the unofficial studio within their Japanese branch responsible for developing the Silent Hill series up to that point. Still wanting to continue the franchise, Konami turned their eyes to the west for future production. They contracted Climax Studios, previously known for developing a few Serious Sam spinoffs and a plethora of arcade-style racing games, to develop a prequel to the original game. Thus, Silent Hill: Original Sin was born; a Resident Evil 4-style action horror game inspired by Scrubs with a darkly comedic tone. Obviously, this is not the game that shipped to retail. Sometime during production, Konami decided they were unsatisfied with the work Climax was producing, apparently struggling with numerous technical issues as well as a general lack of direction for the project. Production was then moved to Climax's UK branch, where they were given a year to make an entirely new game out of utter garbage. Mark Simmons, the game's new director, decided to rework the title into a traditional survival horror game in the style of the first three entries. Hence, Origins was born. Was it possible for Simmons and his team to salvage what was a fundamentally broken game? Not really.
In Origins, you are Travis Grady, a lonely trucker delivering a cargo load to the small town of Brahms, taking a shortcut through Silent Hill to save time. Travis suddenly swerves out of the way when he sees a strange apparition run into the road. Giving chase, he encounters a burning house and finds the charred, but still somehow living Alessa Gillespie, dragging her to safety before passing out due to smoke inhalation. He awakens on a bench within Silent Hill, intent on finding out what happened to Alessa. Unfortunately, I found Origins' narrative to be quite underbaked. It's essentially trying to tell two very different stories, being both a prequel explaining the events leading up to the original Silent Hill and its own standalone story exploring Travis's childhood trauma. The game's story starts as a prequel, but then suddenly realizes after an hour that it needs to give Travis some character development with some of the most obvious foreshadowings and rushed characterization I've seen in a story-focused game. From that point on, it entirely forgets that it is a prequel to Silent Hill, focusing entirely on Travis's backstory before very abruptly remembering it's a prequel in the last 15 minutes of the game. Needless to say, I don't think the game really expands on the original game in a worthwhile way, nor does the original story captivate me at all. Travis is a very dull protagonist, and while he technically has more going on than say, Henry from Silent Hill 4, I found myself struggling to connect to him and his problems. The narrative also lacks any real story hook. I found myself questioning at multiple points why Travis was even trying to uncover the town conspiracy, considering how he had no connection to Alessa or any of the other characters in the game.
This isn't to mention that the supporting cast is practically nonexistent and contributes almost nothing to the story. Lisa Garland, one of the most memorable characters in Silent Hill, appears maybe two times in the game and acts completely out of character the whole time. Dahlia Gillespie, the main antagonist of Origins, literally only appears twice and all she says is stupid cryptic jargon that means nothing and contributes nothing. Dr. Kaufmann has been reduced to nothing more than a pitiful G-Man clone. Travis's characterization isn't much better. He's pretty bland and while he does plenty of emoting it's mostly just angry confusion and never once did I really feel for him. The game also seems to imply that Travis may be a misogynistic serial killer heavily in denial about what he is? This is hinted at very lightly like once and seems like a rather pathetic attempt at making Origins seem deeper than it really is. Overall, Origins' story is a pretty big mess that fails to expand on the original game nor keeping me invested in an original story. This, unfortunately, makes a whole lot of sense when you find out that Konami only gave writer Sam Barlow a week to finish the script.
Barlow also designed the game alongside writing the script, and it shows a similar level of haste. The game follows the traditional survival horror formula seen in the first three entries, but with further iteration on the combat. The game now features a destructible weapon system, which in concept I actually think has potential. Imagine being backed into a corner by approaching monsters, only to have your weapon break, leaving you defenseless. However, in implementation, it's quite half-baked. The issue is that there is no limit to the number of weapons Travis can hold, and the game is quite generous with the number of weapons it provides, therefore the player will have a ridiculous number of weapons in their inventory by the end of the game, which can make menu navigation difficult. Not to mention, a lot of the weapons just aren't all that different from another, so there isn't any reason to have so many. It's really scary when I'm fighting a nurse and my wrench breaks, so I pull out my fourth wrench and continue wacking away. On the note of enemy encounters, enemies can now grapple the player, forcing you to complete a quick-time event to break free. A quick-time event. In a survival horror game. Yeah. The game's main gimmick is the mirror system, which allows the player to switch from the fog world to the otherworld on command. This is another mechanic that seems interesting on paper but in reality, is underwhelming. There are a few puzzles that have to be solved by going between the two dimensions but they are rarely all that interesting nor do they take advantage of the mechanic. This isn't helped by how the levels in this game are ridiculously large and require ludicrous amounts of backtracking, more than the genre usually requires. Essentially, the already large levels get duplicated by two, artificially padding the game's short length. The game also isn't particularly difficult, neither in combat nor puzzles, minus the ridiculous motel puzzle near the end. Overall, the game design is filled with plenty of missed opportunities that threaten to be interesting, but don't fit their full potential.
Well, if the narrative and gameplay aren't up to snuff, does Origins at least capture the same tone as the previous four? Actually, it kind of does! Mostly. I played the PlayStation Portable version of the game on an emulator, and for a PSP game, it looks quite nice! Environments are nicely detailed, texture work is generally fine, and the fog doesn't look compromised in any way. The models are a little rough, but that probably isn't very fair of me to say, considering they were originally intended to be seen at 272p and I'm playing at 1440p. Not to mention, the game runs at 60FPS the whole time! I don't know how consistent the framerate is on an actual PSP, but it's refreshing to see. The soundtrack is quite nice too! It may not be Akira Yamaoka's best work, but it's appropriately oppressive and honestly, I found the music and the atmosphere it provided is mainly what caused me to push through the otherwise mediocre game. At points it's perhaps too oppressive though, Climax doesn't seem to understand that silence can be just as oppressive as noise so, in the otherworld, Yamaoka's score is just kind of constantly blaring. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the quiet moments in Silent Hill can often be the creepiest. The locations are a bit derivative and boring, which is a shame. Alchemilla Hospital is just ripped from the first game. The Cedar Grove Sanitarium is just an incredibly generic mental hospital in a town that already had one. The theater is somewhat interesting but once again suffers from being tedious. The motel is the most enjoyable location because although it is not the most original I found it to be the least repetitive. The monster designs, however, leave a bit to be desired. Certain monsters, like the Two-Backs and Calibans, are generally fine and fit the series, but aren't particularly scary. However, Climax straight-up lifted enemies from other entries in the series, which screams laziness to me. The Straightjackets are just Lying Figures. The Faceless Nurses are just Bubble-Head Nurses. The Butcher, a figure that the game spends a good hour building up, is one of the most blatant Pyramid Head clones I've ever seen. He only shows up twice, and by the time you actually fight him, he goes down pretty quickly. Due to the lack of solid monster designs and the uninspired locations, I struggle to find the game scary, which is a big problem for a survival horror game.
Overall, Silent Hill: Origins is a below-average, sometimes even bad survival horror game that fails to live up to any of the previous games. The story is weak, the gameplay is underbaked, and while the aesthetics are strong the game lacks any real scare factor. I struggle to recommend it to even diehard fans of the series, especially if your favorite game is the first one because you will hate this game if so. I can't really blame Climax for how the game turned out, after all, they were given a fundamentally broken mess and told to fix it in less than a year. Nonetheless, the final game doesn't really deserve the Silent Hill name.
In Origins, you are Travis Grady, a lonely trucker delivering a cargo load to the small town of Brahms, taking a shortcut through Silent Hill to save time. Travis suddenly swerves out of the way when he sees a strange apparition run into the road. Giving chase, he encounters a burning house and finds the charred, but still somehow living Alessa Gillespie, dragging her to safety before passing out due to smoke inhalation. He awakens on a bench within Silent Hill, intent on finding out what happened to Alessa. Unfortunately, I found Origins' narrative to be quite underbaked. It's essentially trying to tell two very different stories, being both a prequel explaining the events leading up to the original Silent Hill and its own standalone story exploring Travis's childhood trauma. The game's story starts as a prequel, but then suddenly realizes after an hour that it needs to give Travis some character development with some of the most obvious foreshadowings and rushed characterization I've seen in a story-focused game. From that point on, it entirely forgets that it is a prequel to Silent Hill, focusing entirely on Travis's backstory before very abruptly remembering it's a prequel in the last 15 minutes of the game. Needless to say, I don't think the game really expands on the original game in a worthwhile way, nor does the original story captivate me at all. Travis is a very dull protagonist, and while he technically has more going on than say, Henry from Silent Hill 4, I found myself struggling to connect to him and his problems. The narrative also lacks any real story hook. I found myself questioning at multiple points why Travis was even trying to uncover the town conspiracy, considering how he had no connection to Alessa or any of the other characters in the game.
This isn't to mention that the supporting cast is practically nonexistent and contributes almost nothing to the story. Lisa Garland, one of the most memorable characters in Silent Hill, appears maybe two times in the game and acts completely out of character the whole time. Dahlia Gillespie, the main antagonist of Origins, literally only appears twice and all she says is stupid cryptic jargon that means nothing and contributes nothing. Dr. Kaufmann has been reduced to nothing more than a pitiful G-Man clone. Travis's characterization isn't much better. He's pretty bland and while he does plenty of emoting it's mostly just angry confusion and never once did I really feel for him. The game also seems to imply that Travis may be a misogynistic serial killer heavily in denial about what he is? This is hinted at very lightly like once and seems like a rather pathetic attempt at making Origins seem deeper than it really is. Overall, Origins' story is a pretty big mess that fails to expand on the original game nor keeping me invested in an original story. This, unfortunately, makes a whole lot of sense when you find out that Konami only gave writer Sam Barlow a week to finish the script.
Barlow also designed the game alongside writing the script, and it shows a similar level of haste. The game follows the traditional survival horror formula seen in the first three entries, but with further iteration on the combat. The game now features a destructible weapon system, which in concept I actually think has potential. Imagine being backed into a corner by approaching monsters, only to have your weapon break, leaving you defenseless. However, in implementation, it's quite half-baked. The issue is that there is no limit to the number of weapons Travis can hold, and the game is quite generous with the number of weapons it provides, therefore the player will have a ridiculous number of weapons in their inventory by the end of the game, which can make menu navigation difficult. Not to mention, a lot of the weapons just aren't all that different from another, so there isn't any reason to have so many. It's really scary when I'm fighting a nurse and my wrench breaks, so I pull out my fourth wrench and continue wacking away. On the note of enemy encounters, enemies can now grapple the player, forcing you to complete a quick-time event to break free. A quick-time event. In a survival horror game. Yeah. The game's main gimmick is the mirror system, which allows the player to switch from the fog world to the otherworld on command. This is another mechanic that seems interesting on paper but in reality, is underwhelming. There are a few puzzles that have to be solved by going between the two dimensions but they are rarely all that interesting nor do they take advantage of the mechanic. This isn't helped by how the levels in this game are ridiculously large and require ludicrous amounts of backtracking, more than the genre usually requires. Essentially, the already large levels get duplicated by two, artificially padding the game's short length. The game also isn't particularly difficult, neither in combat nor puzzles, minus the ridiculous motel puzzle near the end. Overall, the game design is filled with plenty of missed opportunities that threaten to be interesting, but don't fit their full potential.
Well, if the narrative and gameplay aren't up to snuff, does Origins at least capture the same tone as the previous four? Actually, it kind of does! Mostly. I played the PlayStation Portable version of the game on an emulator, and for a PSP game, it looks quite nice! Environments are nicely detailed, texture work is generally fine, and the fog doesn't look compromised in any way. The models are a little rough, but that probably isn't very fair of me to say, considering they were originally intended to be seen at 272p and I'm playing at 1440p. Not to mention, the game runs at 60FPS the whole time! I don't know how consistent the framerate is on an actual PSP, but it's refreshing to see. The soundtrack is quite nice too! It may not be Akira Yamaoka's best work, but it's appropriately oppressive and honestly, I found the music and the atmosphere it provided is mainly what caused me to push through the otherwise mediocre game. At points it's perhaps too oppressive though, Climax doesn't seem to understand that silence can be just as oppressive as noise so, in the otherworld, Yamaoka's score is just kind of constantly blaring. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the quiet moments in Silent Hill can often be the creepiest. The locations are a bit derivative and boring, which is a shame. Alchemilla Hospital is just ripped from the first game. The Cedar Grove Sanitarium is just an incredibly generic mental hospital in a town that already had one. The theater is somewhat interesting but once again suffers from being tedious. The motel is the most enjoyable location because although it is not the most original I found it to be the least repetitive. The monster designs, however, leave a bit to be desired. Certain monsters, like the Two-Backs and Calibans, are generally fine and fit the series, but aren't particularly scary. However, Climax straight-up lifted enemies from other entries in the series, which screams laziness to me. The Straightjackets are just Lying Figures. The Faceless Nurses are just Bubble-Head Nurses. The Butcher, a figure that the game spends a good hour building up, is one of the most blatant Pyramid Head clones I've ever seen. He only shows up twice, and by the time you actually fight him, he goes down pretty quickly. Due to the lack of solid monster designs and the uninspired locations, I struggle to find the game scary, which is a big problem for a survival horror game.
Overall, Silent Hill: Origins is a below-average, sometimes even bad survival horror game that fails to live up to any of the previous games. The story is weak, the gameplay is underbaked, and while the aesthetics are strong the game lacks any real scare factor. I struggle to recommend it to even diehard fans of the series, especially if your favorite game is the first one because you will hate this game if so. I can't really blame Climax for how the game turned out, after all, they were given a fundamentally broken mess and told to fix it in less than a year. Nonetheless, the final game doesn't really deserve the Silent Hill name.