I can say that I liked what the game was going for.
If Resident Evil is a holywood blockbuster with a coherent storyline and a narrative you can follow from start to finish and not be confused, Silent Hill is more akin to a David Lynch film, an arthouse piece, with a narrative that is scattered all across the medium and is never 100% clear with what it's doing. You always have to finish picking up what it's trying to put down.
I'd say this is probably the strongest part of the whole package here - the story, the dreamlike way of it's storytelling and the ambience of Silent Hill. The enemy designs are great, and the music really makes you feel unwell in the more suspensful parts of the game.
However, as much as I like the ideas of the game, it's "gameplay" part leaves me wishing for more. This was my first playthrough of it ever, I never had the chance to play it when it was more relevant, so I come with some of the modern ideas about gameplay design in the genre, and I am just not a fan. Sometimes it's the janky camera, sometimes it's the hitboxes, sometimes it's just the encounter design in general. None of the bosses were memorable (except maybe for Eddie, but that's a maybe), and they are most often just damage sponges that test your patience.
I can sense some artistic statement in the way the gameplay works, but I just honestly did not find it that fun or helping the other parts of the game (I'd say even the puzzles are somewhat better).
One metaphor that I noticed was that when you first start going to Silent Hill on the beach, the camera actually shows you the face of the protagonist, and does not show you the way forward, almost as if it wanted to say "Turn Back". There are many cool camera tricks in the game, but that maybe stuck with me the most.
I feel that it aged, and a newer coat of paint would do it good, but boy i am not sure if Bloober team is going to hit the ball.
We can only hope.
If Resident Evil is a holywood blockbuster with a coherent storyline and a narrative you can follow from start to finish and not be confused, Silent Hill is more akin to a David Lynch film, an arthouse piece, with a narrative that is scattered all across the medium and is never 100% clear with what it's doing. You always have to finish picking up what it's trying to put down.
I'd say this is probably the strongest part of the whole package here - the story, the dreamlike way of it's storytelling and the ambience of Silent Hill. The enemy designs are great, and the music really makes you feel unwell in the more suspensful parts of the game.
However, as much as I like the ideas of the game, it's "gameplay" part leaves me wishing for more. This was my first playthrough of it ever, I never had the chance to play it when it was more relevant, so I come with some of the modern ideas about gameplay design in the genre, and I am just not a fan. Sometimes it's the janky camera, sometimes it's the hitboxes, sometimes it's just the encounter design in general. None of the bosses were memorable (except maybe for Eddie, but that's a maybe), and they are most often just damage sponges that test your patience.
I can sense some artistic statement in the way the gameplay works, but I just honestly did not find it that fun or helping the other parts of the game (I'd say even the puzzles are somewhat better).
One metaphor that I noticed was that when you first start going to Silent Hill on the beach, the camera actually shows you the face of the protagonist, and does not show you the way forward, almost as if it wanted to say "Turn Back". There are many cool camera tricks in the game, but that maybe stuck with me the most.
I feel that it aged, and a newer coat of paint would do it good, but boy i am not sure if Bloober team is going to hit the ball.
We can only hope.