Where it all began... in the PS2
As a initial remark i'll review this game based in this characteristics alone, without comparing with the Playstation Portable's version.
Now i'll bring it on...
The latest game in the series for the Playstation 2 is suprisingly consistent with the rest of the series, and a good adition to the franshise and widely satisfying to players.
While its story isn't surprising nor the way it is told, it's engaging and a pretty well crafted. A little disapointing in the fact that while it ought tell of the beginning the brewing evil that rots in Silent Hill, it doesn't give a lot of background to it. It focus more in the ghosts that haunt the main character, Travis, than in the happenings surrounding him. Overall in the end you will probably feel pretty satisfied with what you've come accross.
The graphics department while it aren't the best you'll ever face, are nice to look at and do well the job of emersing you in the game. The weak points go to the stiff animations of character and to the graphic's dark tone, that makes pretty hard to distinguish anything when you have the flashligh off in dark ominous places.
The camera while makes hard to focus the action of the player, especially fighting, in the object you want to interact with, it was well thought, making it just troublesome near the end of the game, where you will be in very tight places.
The gameplay it works well, like in every other Silent Hill game released before, mainly because it is the same. The only significant change though a little rought in the edges is the weapon deteoration system. While it was implemented in the Silent Hill 4, it's now much faster, as you can hack just two three foes with a melee weapon before it is broken beyond any use. Nice idea though.
The audio department is well crafted with great musics made by Akira Yamaoka, and voices of high quality. The only real problem, suposed to be a glitch, is the fact that sometimes the music doesn't play when you enter a room.
The game in its whole is a good one to experience, especially for horror fans. It is amusing and scarry, and the story is very gory. It's not all that long, making it an enjoyable game to play thru.
In the downside it has, as all Silent Hill games, a the great deal of unreachable places blocked with broken doors or beyond menacing holes. Also, in this one, one of the levels (near the end of the game) interacts badly with the camera, loosing focus of the action, picturing it in a bad angle making hard to play thru the first time.
As a plus it has a great deal of unlockables in form of three endings and a total of 14 accolades (suits), making it enticing to play it through again.
As my final remark, i have to say that, though the game stays true to it's roots, it is very fun to play and has some little amazing details to it, like some backgrounds, or some parts of the story (like the beginning).
So all and all, i rate it as GOOD game to play.
I hope this review has cast shed some light about the this game for the PS2... and if you have any suggestion or continuous doubt haunting your mind give me an email, that i'll clear it out.
