I don’t know if it will be interesting to you after so many years of the game’s release, but I still decided to post a review of this game here. First, it’s worth introducing yourself to complete the picture. I am not a seasoned survival horror player, I rarely play such games due to the fact that I prefer to sleep at night. I also watch films on similar topics very rarely. This is all to say that I am not one of those people who are no longer afraid of any horrors due to experience. However, I really appreciate the plot, character development and setting in games.
One day I watched the story of you know what series and decided to touch on this famous franchise, but the question arose, which part. After looking at the graphics of the second and third parts, I decided that this process would not be painless for my eyes.
My choice fell on Downpur, since I still had an xbox at that time, and the story seemed more interesting to me than the others, and I started playing. And in the end I was very impressed by the game, it managed to scare me, but I could not fully understand its plot (by the way, I played with Russian subtitles on a pirate version). However, it is worth understanding that this happened three years ago, when I was 17. Accordingly, at that time I was more impressionable, and I understood much less about games and the plot.
Recently I decided to get acquainted with the classics, tobish with part 2. In short, everything that can be said about it has already been said, except for one very big minus – it’s not a survival horror. There is no survival from it, since you can at least bombard enemies with cartridges and first aid kits. And these enemies themselves do not pose any danger and you kill them rather out of pity. It’s a terrible horror movie, because it scares you very weakly with its “atmosphere”, and only at first.
This is enough for the genocide of all the inhabitants of the foggy town.
By the way, not long ago I started playing through the third Silent in order to appreciate the classics, and according to first impressions, this game is a good survival game and a so-so horror game that can terribly infuriate you with its controls. No, in the second part it was even worse, but there the enemies did not pose a threat, and in the third the enemies were so mobile. Yes, and it’s boring to go through locations without any development of events and revealing characters. Therefore, playing the third Silent, I want to turn it off not out of fear, but because I want to sleep.
I wrote all this background for the sake of completeness, as well as to explain my position on the game. And also for the fact that I consider the lack of fear and the so-so combat system not as a minus of this game, but as a “feature” of the series as a whole.
So, Silent Hill: Downpour
Let’s start with the plot and characters. As far as I know, there are three concepts of Silent Hill: cultists, purgatory and Shattered Memories. I like the last two. The second part and Downpur relate entirely to the concept of purgatory.
The helplessness of one and the inexhaustible anger of the other
We are used to seeing video games mostly as entertainment, without bothering to think about what it would look like in real life. The brave heroes kill tons of hostile NPCs for the glory of the princess/honor/themselves beloved/the frenzy/laziness of the screenwriter. We are used to the fact that killing someone is the main means of achieving goals in most games. BUT have you ever wondered how you would behave in the shoes of characters who spend 30 to 90 percent of their time engaged in genocide of the gaming space?. That’s what I like about Downpur’s prologue in the first place. When we kill that guy
, we first of all kill the person who at first does not believe in everything that is happening, who is in pain, who begs us until the last cry of despair bursts out of his mouth.
After some time, we observe the protagonist being transferred to another prison, however, he is in a state of stupor, when neither the reaction of the prisoners nor the special attention of the convoy guard Anna worries him at all. He is ready to go anywhere, nothing worries him anymore. So it seemed to him..
Next, I would like to move away from the retelling and consider each character individually, his influence on Murphy and on the story.
If you remember parts 2 and 3, there the city spoke to us through notes from the doctor, from the receptionist, from the man in the sewer, and it looked very interesting. In Downpur, the city communicates with us in a completely different way. The Postman and the Nun are some kind of ambassadors of the foggy city, bearers of its will. Hence such images: mysterious, speaking in incomprehensible riddles, but revealing to us the truth from which we were hiding within ourselves. Someone may say that these characters are not developed, but they should be like that due to their surroundings.
We’re not the only sinners in Silent Hill. Here it’s John Sater and Bobi Ricks.
John is a typical example of https://777tigerscasino.co.uk/bonus/ negligence. One day he came to work drunk, resulting in an accident in which children died. Now this man has nowhere to go, he cannot return to the city, and he decides to commit suicide. Like Angela, he argues with Murphy about the meaning of life and whether she is worthy of them. But with Bob it’s still more unclear. What is he doing at the radio station and why is he there, the game doesn’t have time to tell you about it. From the sidequest rewards (which are discussed below) you can find out that Bob was imprisoned in Silent Hill because of his cowardice, but this does not justify the game.
In general, if we compare with Angela and Eddie from the second part, then here they are interesting, but not really developed, especially Bob. They have very little screen time, as a result we can only get a rough idea of their character.
Suel and Napier are typical monsters in human form. By killing one, we make a deal with another, but overall there is nothing more to say about them.
Frank Coleridge is almost a relic among the guards. He is an honest, kind and sympathetic person who tried in every possible way to help Murphy, but this is also not a well-developed character. It’s a shame that such a cruel fate awaited him at the end, for which Murphy blames himself, partly because of this the protagonist is seemingly indifferent to everything at the beginning of the game.
And finally we move on to the main characters: Murphy and Anna. I apologize to those who do not want to see spoilers, but there is no other way to convey their motivation and character.
Our protagonist is the type of person who always gets into trouble. An orphan who has a chance to start a new life. He got married and had a son, he finally had that thread that connected him with a normal life. But it was cut short when his son was drowned by a rapist, his neighbor Napier. The pedophile is put behind bars, but Murphy’s life goes downhill, his wife leaves him, and he decides that he has nothing to lose. The protagonist ends up behind bars and negotiates with Sewell to arrange a meeting with an old neighbor. The job is done, but you have to pay for everything. Sewell demands reprisals against another person, who turns out to be Frank. Frank was the very thread in prison that could connect Murphy with a normal life, but it also breaks off. It ends not only for him, but also for Anna, his daughter. Just like Murphy, Anna loses the meaning of life and decides to get to Murphy at all costs. She wanted to shoot him, but couldn’t, since it would be a betrayal of her father and his ideals, she decides to put him back in the cell, but she can’t get through anywhere from the foggy city, and finally she understands that the best prison for Murphy is Silent Hill. That’s why she doesn’t let him leave on the boat.
This story is about a person’s choice, its consequences, about the price to pay for actions, about the difference between people and non-humans, and where this line is located. Having lost everything, Murphy decides to take revenge on that bastard, although he will not return his son, and Frank believed in him to the last. As a result of such a reckless act, two more lives are destroyed, those of Frank and Anna. And the heroine decides to follow in his footsteps, risking even more trouble as a result. Will the main characters be able to remain human and gain another chance at a normal life, or is everything already predetermined for them??
Despite the shortcomings of this plot, I find it a damn good piece of work. I can safely call this game a work of art, based on the definition “Art is a work that, through artistic images, carries an idea, a thought”. Plus, this game has good voice acting, I recommend everyone to at least watch the dialogue between Murphy and the Nun in the morgue on YouTube.
Well, the script section has finally come to an end.
The plot is great, but you still have to play the game. What’s up with the gameplay?? The mechanics of this game are mostly two modes – exploration and combat. During the research process, three methods of illuminating the area will gradually be available to us – a lighter, a regular flashlight and with an ultraviolet mode. We can’t fight with a lighter in our hands, which is used in mines as an element of intimidation, like in Doom 3.
The flashlight can be attached to your belt, and it won’t get in the way. But there is also a forensic flashlight with an ultraviolet mode, through which we will be able to see numerous inscriptions, traces of a stroller, even some enemies (more on which below).
While wandering around the locations, we will come across various notes, questionnaires, advertisements, reports, signs that reveal some details, reveal characters additionally, and are also things for quests.
Speaking of riddles. They are here quite in the spirit of the series (judging by the second and third parts, and with a normal translation, of course). I got stuck on two of them specifically – with the bells and in the cinema. I wouldn’t say that the level in the previous parts was higher, I played both games on normal.
It’s time to talk about the city as it is one of the best parts of Downpur. The city is quite large by Silent Hill standards and at the same time quite detailed. In the buildings and at the ends of the street there are first aid kits and cartridges, everywhere there are inscriptions and traces of a stroller visible in ultraviolet light, various notes, various sidequest places and objects. One of the features of this game is rain. "Downpour"), since the main character suffers from hydrophobia. The heavier the rain, the more enemies there are on the streets and the more willingly they attack the player. The way out is to hide somewhere. Based on all this, we can say that the city here is made in detail and a lot of effort has been put into it.
If we started talking about the city, we can talk about the locations. As you know, the silent world can either be in a relatively normal foggy world, or it can turn into an infernal one. In terms of ordinary locations, everything is as usual: we walk around a large room while beating/avoiding monsters and find elements to solve the puzzle. Research, research, research.
I don’t know about you, but this kind of architecture amazes me.
All this continues exactly until the moment the world goes into the infernal. I find it damn good and overall the best in the series. The process becomes dynamic, there are many traps and other machines of sadistic penetration, geometry and the laws of logic go to hell, in general, this world is truly infernal and becomes the last place where you would like to end up after yesterday’s drinking. However, sometimes there are puzzles there too.
Another important innovation of this game is sidequests. I find them quite interesting and entertaining, and some of them are in no way inferior to the main game in their idea, presentation and puzzles. Moreover, they sufficiently complement the game world by telling the stories of the inhabitants of the foggy city. By the way, completing them will open Murphy’s notes about each character in the main menu. It’s a small thing, but it’s nice.
This was the part about the calm part of the gameplay, but there are also enemies, and you have to deal with them somehow. The game offers two options – fight or flight. As already written above, in all silent games (except for homecoming, perhaps) they could not boast of a normal combat system. In this game it is of course much better and more responsive, but it still doesn’t represent anything interesting.
Another thing is that this game can be called a full-fledged survival game. There is a constant shortage of first aid kits and ammunition, and weapons here tend to break down. That is why you can only carry one melee weapon and one firearm, which is logical. These elements imply survival as such. Due to this, a constant tension is created in the game, which is enhanced by a crackling walkie-talkie. But is it scary?? No. You can’t really call it fear. The moments when the game is truly scary are very rare, but they are very good.
By the way, if we started talking about fights with monsters, then we could imagine these monsters, but first we need to clarify something. Many people make complaints about monsters, they say they don’t feel a certain amount of symbolism and mystery. Especially for these people, I will say this: a person is such a brute who can believe and impose anything on himself. For example, I read somewhere that the monsters on the ceiling look like bats and symbolize the closeness of the main character, his desire to remain in the shadows. In other words, symbolism can be imagined even in the songs of Nyusha or Sergei Zverev, the main thing is that there is a desire.
Another question is whether this makes the monsters from Downpur want to delve into their own wilds. Their design may seem good to some individuals, but in comparison with the previous parts it is inconspicuous, both in quantity and quality. There are only 4 types of enemies, of which only one is interesting (a mannequin, whose ghosts are visible in ultraviolet light).There are, of course, still stumps of bodies on the walls and a red glow, but they are more of an obstacle in the alternative world than full-fledged opponents.