Overall, it's alright. It's hard to criticize a fan-made modification that was not only made out of love for the franchise it's based on but was also released entirely for free. Visuals are Alchemilla's strong suit, and it looks gorgeous. It looks like if Konami decided to make a new, official Silent Hill game for the Source engine and clearly this is where most of the time and budget went. The sound design is great too and really makes the player feel uneasy. The mod's main premise revolves around you running around and solving puzzles, with no combat or enemies to speak of. That's the main problem with Alchemilla though, is the lack of any real scares. The mod makes me uneasy, but it never goes beyond that. Since there is little to no threat of death, I never felt properly scared. The mod tries its hardest, using audio cues and such, but that cannot replace a real sense of danger and becomes old fast. The puzzles themselves are fine, but they're implemented pretty clumsily. There is no map system, no memo system, and no inventory system. As a result, it's really easy to just forget what items you currently have and where they can be used, and the lack of a map makes navigation stupidly difficult at points, especially in the otherworld. This can make otherwise fine puzzles feel overlong and tedious, which is a shame since that's all of them.

Alchemilla's story is also told pretty clumsily. The protagonist, predictably, has a tragic past that isn't how he remembers it. It's set up throughout the story but due to being the only person in the mod, it's hard for it to be developed outside of a poorly written inner monologue. The protagonist's voice actor is also trying way too hard to be mentally fucked up and you can tell instantly that he has secrets to hide. It's just not a very involving narrative and I'm probably going to forget it pretty quickly.

Overall, if you're a Silent Hill fan, you should check this out warts and all. It's worth it for the presentation alone and it's only about 2 hours long. However, if you haven't played a Silent Hill game before, this will do nothing for you.

Reviewed on Aug 18, 2021


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