I for one being fan of old silent hills thought this was best in series since silent hill 2. The real problem is people need to stop expecting silent hill 2. Downpour is a great modernized silent hill games have changed and wont go back to silent hill 2. They nailed the atmosphere and all my only issue combat is still not that great.

I'll get it when it's cheaper and/if they patch it.

Im also a fan of the old silent hill games, so this is encouraging. Im looking forward to getting the game but will probably hold off for a bit. Does the game still have that classic sense of dread that the first 3 have?

I really enjoy the game, combat is still clunky like everyone has said and the framerate and load times aren't great but the game itself is incredibly atmospheric and I'm really enjoying. My biggest complaint is when I first get to the town and wandered around for an hour without being able to figure out where to go.

i really enjoyed it, but i thought the enemy designs were the worst the series has had ever. last boss battle was great though

I also think this is right up there with the series best.

@fuzzypumpkin said:

i really enjoyed it, but i thought the enemy designs were the worst the series has had ever. last boss battle was great though

I agree with the bad enemy design as far as appearances go. But, I have to give them some credit as they still somehow managed to make them terrifying.

@TentPole

yea, they were kinda scary but didnt hold a candle to the mannequin enemies from some of the other ones haha, those scared the shit out of me

It's actually a very moody and tense game. I love it.

Still going to GameFly this before buying just because I don't want to get burned again, but I'm happy that it's getting positive feedback so far.

@Shun_Akiyama said:

I'll get it when it's cheaper and/if they patch it.

Why would they patch it. Consider alot of games with frame rate were they patched? Like mass effect? The frame rate is not that bad i installed it on my 360 studdering went down and load times.

Been watching some "Let's Play"-videos of it and I really can't wait to play it myself.

Only issues seems to be the crazy camera during combat, weird framerate hickups, and no idea what you're picking up until you drop your held item and pick up the new one.

@Shun_Akiyama said:

I'll get it when it's cheaper and/if they patch it.

Why would they patch it. Consider alot of games with frame rate were they patched? Like mass effect? The frame rate is not that bad i installed it on my 360 studdering went down and load times.

@Shun_Akiyama said:

@vidiots said:

@Shun_Akiyama said:

I'll get it when it's cheaper and/if they patch it.

Why would they patch it. Consider alot of games with frame rate were they patched? Like mass effect? The frame rate is not that bad i installed it on my 360 studdering went down and load times.

no the freezing is what I'm concerned about

I have it on PS3 it doesn't freeze

On topic - It's a great game it uses symbolism and and the psychological horror elements well, also the radio's are genius and the music that DJ Ricks plays is outstanding.

Also "Born Free" was an excellent choice.

Best Silent Hill since 4, I would except arguments that it might be the fourth best in the series next to 1,2 and 3.

@Shun_Akiyama said:

@vidiots said:

@Shun_Akiyama said:

I'll get it when it's cheaper and/if they patch it.

Why would they patch it. Consider alot of games with frame rate were they patched? Like mass effect? The frame rate is not that bad i installed it on my 360 studdering went down and load times.

no the freezing is what I'm concerned about

I have it on PS3 it doesn't freeze

On topic - It's a great game it uses symbolism and and the psychological horror elements well, also the radio's are genius and the music that DJ Ricks plays is outstanding.

Also "Born Free" was an excellent choice.

Best Silent Hill since 4, I would except arguments that it might be the fourth best in the series next to 1,2 and 3.

I never played a Silent Hill game, but I think I'll get the HD remakes and Downpour. I never even played a survival horror game at all, so I'm really curious and excited.

@Shun_Akiyama said:

@xaLieNxGrEyx said:

@Shun_Akiyama said:

@vidiots said:

@Shun_Akiyama said:

I'll get it when it's cheaper and/if they patch it.

Why would they patch it. Consider alot of games with frame rate were they patched? Like mass effect? The frame rate is not that bad i installed it on my 360 studdering went down and load times.

no the freezing is what I'm concerned about

I have it on PS3 it doesn't freeze

On topic - It's a great game it uses symbolism and and the psychological horror elements well, also the radio's are genius and the music that DJ Ricks plays is outstanding.

Also "Born Free" was an excellent choice.

Best Silent Hill since 4, I would except arguments that it might be the fourth best in the series next to 1,2 and 3.

Well you'd seem to be the only one

never frozen on me either. Stuttering, that's another story. Does that a lot especially when it suddenly tries to autosave... which is the only way you save games.

Things like that are easy for me to look past tho. Maybe not for everyone.

Not one freeze.

I'm glad i took a chance on Downpour. Vatra did a great job.

I was unsure about the side quests at first, but they ended up being pretty interesting little activities.

And the combat was crappy enough to keep the tension up, i feel like they didn't over do it either they left you alone quite a bit and let you get all paranoid waiting for the next encounter. and i had one freeze up.

I don't think there is any possibility of them being able to fix that.

Totally enjoying it. And considering i'm four hours in and 25 percent done with the main story and haven't touched the side quest stuff yet, you get your money's worth if you want to see everything the game has to offer.

Curious about it & waiting for gamefly to possibly send it, wonder if there's going to be a quick look on it once they get the gear set up.

Interested in it but haven't picked it up yet.

i feel like between all of the franchise games to to come out as of late (RE Op. Racoon City, the new ninja gaiden and this one) this is the most competent. thats not saying much, but it does well to know that the guys who made downpour actually wanted to deliver an experience true to the games origins.

I'm going to wait until I pick up Silent Hill HD Collection, play through all those, then hit up Homecoming and Downpour. I don't know why, but it just feels like the right way to do it at the moment.

One of the last areas of the game turns into mandatory combat arenas. It becomes fucking Arkham Asylum with shitty controls and no check pointing. I'm this close to not finishing this game out of pure frustration.

i didn't know what to expect when i picked it up, but i'm really enjoying it so far.

Im really interested in this game (especially since Raccoon City seems like a flop) and I haven't played any past Silent Hill games myself.

How does this hold up as an actual game? And how long is it? The creepy moody stuff interests me very much but I want to know if its fun as a game and not just a good Silent Hill game.

@Brodehouse: throw some spoiler tags on that...

How is the sound design though? did Dan Licht pull it off in making unique sound designs just like Akira Yamaoka?

But were not talking arkham asylum...were talking silent hill downpour...the key component in this game isnt combat like in AA and seriously some people might now want to know what the last sequence is like. Im just sayin, maybe you should just do it in case. I kinda didn't want to know what the end sequence is like so there may be others who feel the same.

i dunno how saying there is combat at the end of the game is a spoiler...but okay dood...

I may be at the part that you are talkin about Brodehouse, or maybe it's another part. It's a major bummer. I'm trying to solve a puzzle and there is literally infinitely spawning enemies from what I can tell. I quit the game for a bit because it was just annoying.

The game is by far at its best when you aren't fighting anything at all. I just like to soak in the atmosphere... it's an annoyance when enemies actually show up. Suppose that goes for most SH games, but I think the atmosphere in this game is just phenomenal.

i mean should it really matter weather you consider it to be or not? i don't want to know what happens at the end, regardless of how or what you say about it. that should be it, it takes 2 seconds to put tags around the text! it doesn't even matter to me any more, jesus you'd think i asked for the second coming of christ!

@RoivaS3ternal: Just so you know. You are coming off as being a wee bit crazy in all of this.

The fact that this game has combat and @Brodehouse thought it got to be a bit too much is in no way a spoiler.

alright then, in the words of dre, "fuck all, all yall, and if yall dont like me, blow me"

Well I got to the combat part at the end. I know what you are talking about now. Eh... it really wasn't bad. They gave you enough tools to deal with it with relative ease. I had it on normal difficulty tho. The part with the "infinity spawning" enemies I was referring to was partly my own fault. I had to turn off these machines to stop them from coming.

@RoivaS3ternal said:

alright then, in the words of dre, "fuck all, all yall, and if yall dont like me, blow me"

... welp if it upsets you that much don't watch the Gametrailers review because they even SHOW you the specific area that the combat occurs at the end of the game.

On that subject, the Gametrailers review is woefully bad. Even has inaccuracies. One point they made was that you never get a radio like in past SH games. That's untrue. I had a radio; I know you lose it at some point but it's in there. The point about you having to use your lighter in the cave and the camera zooming in also had me rolling my eyes. I guess they completely missed the intention of that part of the game.

They have been trying to troll against the game tho. They posted a video when the game came out of them standing still and just holding block while a monster attacked them... that was all the video consisted of for about a minute. The only reasoning behind that is they are going out of their way to make the game look bad. Odd for a professional gaming website.

Well, here's the vid http://www.gametrailers.com/video/terrifying-gameplay-silent-hill/728249. More to it than what I said but... ya worse than what I said really.

Hands down the best SH since 3. Even with its issues and obvious lack of budget it still shows even a B team outside of Konami can show there is still promise for the series. Its just so disappointing the downward spiral Konami has taken recently that they continue to dump all over Silent Hill a franchise that was at a time the standard bearer for the horror genre is now now relegated to low budget and eastern european developers. Not to mention the train wreck of an HD rerelease (seriously how do you make worse versions of 10 year old games?).

EU release date is tomorrow. I think I'll get it :)

I never played a Silent Hill game, but I think I'll get the HD remakes and Downpour. I never even played a survival horror game at all, so I'm really curious and excited.

@Sackmanjones said:

@Morrow

I never played a Silent Hill game, but I think I'll get the HD remakes and Downpour. I never even played a survival horror game at all, so I'm really curious and excited.

I'm kinda in the same boat. I loved the re games but I've never played silent hill. So I just picked up the SH hd collection as well as downpour. I'm currently near the beginning of SH2 and man is it terrifying. If you have any questions just let me know!

Well thank you ^^

It only has a 3 star rating on Amazon.de so far, so I guess I'll wait a little until more people posted their opinion and make a pro/con list. Then I can judge for myself whether I'll get it or not ^^

@Morrow said:

@Sackmanjones said:

It only has a 3 star rating on Amazon.de so far, so I guess I'll wait a little until more people posted their opinion and make a pro/con list. Then I can judge for myself whether I'll get it or not ^^

Finished it a few days ago, and I think I can do that for you:

Pros

• Strong atmosphere. I really liked the rainy/foggy run down look.
• Quite a few honestly amazing moments. Like the miner mannequins in the QL but better. Some of the ways they warp "reality" is fucking bananas.
• I thought the story was pretty good. This is in the SH2 style - no cult, no connection to town, and it's really unclear about what's real and not at any given moment.
• Story unfolds well too. Good pacing into what happened to Murphy.

Cons

• Combat's better than something like SH1 (you can block here), but still clunky. But I'm in the camp that thinks not being good at combat benefits the horror.
• Main quest is short. Plenty to do in the side quests, but these are random "haunted house" bits. No story connection. Bummer if you're not interested in side quests.
• I can totally understand the "boring" complaints. Didn't bother me, but there's lots of quasi-open world wandering and backtracking through (mostly) empty streets.
• Very limited use of the Silent Hill "Otherworld." Basically chase sequences. They do a good job of progressively blending Otherworld and reality though.
• Framerate was all over the place on the 360. Seems to happen when loading new areas, but this happens a lot. Easily my biggest complaint.

In short, I thought it was tremendous. You could make a valid argument that it's not a good Silent Hill game, but it's one of the best horror games I've played in a long time. If you're not that into the mythology, and Silent Hill to you is just "a spooky town where messed up shit happens," then Downpour doesn't have much to complain about. Except that combat, but you can outrun pretty much every monster in the game with no trouble at all.

@Morrow said:

@Sackmanjones said:

It only has a 3 star rating on Amazon.de so far, so I guess I'll wait a little until more people posted their opinion and make a pro/con list. Then I can judge for myself whether I'll get it or not ^^

Finished it a few days ago, and I think I can do that for you:

Pros

- Strong atmosphere. I really liked the rainy/foggy run down look.

- Quite a few honestly amazing moments. Like the miner mannequins in the QL but better. Some of the ways they warp "reality" is fucking bananas.

- I thought the story was pretty good. This is in the SH2 style - no cult, no connection to town, and it's really unclear about what's real and not at any given moment.

- Story unfolds well too. Good pacing into what happened to Murphy.

Cons

- Combat's better than something like SH1 (you can block here), but not amazing. But I'm in the camp that thinks not being good at combat benefits the horror.

- Main quest is short. Plenty to do in the side quests, but these are random "haunted house" bits. No story connection. Bummer if you're not interested in side quests.

- I can totally understand the "boring" complaints. Didn't bother me, but there's lots of quasi-open world wandering and backtracking through (mostly) empty streets.

- Very limited use of the Silent Hill "Otherworld." Basically chase sequences. They do a good job of progressively blending Otherworld and reality though.

In short, I thought it was tremendous. You could make a valid argument that it's not a good Silent Hill game, but it's one of the best horror games I've played in a long time. If you're not that into the mythology, and Silent Hill to you is just "a spooky town where messed up shit happens," then Downpour doesn't have much to complain about. Except that combat, but you can outrun pretty much every monster in the game with no trouble at all.

@BurningStickMan:

Well thank you!

That is pushing me one step forward in buying it :D

One question though: Are the side-quests good for something (like rewarding you with items for example), or are they just there to extend the playtime and atmosphere?

@Morrow: Some give you goodies, many don't. More durable melee weapons seems to be the usual handout. I personally never kept any of them around to see a massive difference, but they're supposed to be significantly better.

That is one point I didn't mention about the combat. Picking up melee weapons is almost like Dead Rising - the game is littered with objects and you're grabbing anything and everything to fight with. You can holster a firearm, but can only carry one active melee weapon, so you're constantly swapping or replacing ones that break. Not a big deal, but not much chance for favorites either.

The quests aren't related to the story, but they're still pretty good. One has a very neat time-rewind mechanic. Another has you trying to spot what's changed in the room by using a mirror. Then there are the usual "find the objects and return them" or "run all over the town and use these specific objects" - but that last one gives you what's supposed to be the best melee weapon in the game.

sorry can't say that i do, it just does not hold up as a scary game period and the game could look better. Also my main problem is the combat gets old really fast. I will take shattered memories any day, hell i would even take silent hill the room.

@BurningStickMan:

I see. Well I'm mainly motivated to play games that give xp rewards or skill points or similar. I'm a sucker for RPGs and games with RPG elements. I don't have much faith in my gamer abilities and like to have the option to "lvl up" to easier beat a certain part of a game.

However, I'm starting to be more open-minded towards games using other mechanics, and I'm really interested in the Silent Hill games, so I think I'll pick it up for Easter :)

Thanks for your input! ^^

I'm getting a console soon and for some reason this is at the top of my want list. I played the original RE games on PSX and loved them and this seems like the best current generation version of that gameplay type. Is this roughly accurate?