Hell yes, IMO. I feel so sorry for NTSC territories for getting this pearl (grimy, rough, bleeding, burning pearl) so much later than us PAL\'ers... On second thought, I don\'t care, as long as I get more Silent Hill as soon and much as possible, harhar! Sorry... *hugs ya\'ll* This game is quite simply the scariest horror-related product I\'ve ever laid eyes upon. There\'s the Silent Hill atmosphere, and dozens of REALLY cool little touches that just made me go all goosebumpy. Too bad I don\'t want to give anything away... you\'ve got to see them for yourselves..
I got the game on the 21st, and now, on the 23rd, I\'ve finished it once. I must\'ve played for at least 14-15 hours, but the in-game counter says I completed it in 5:50... I had to reload some older saves and stuff after running out of supplies a couple of times. And when I play games, I just stock on supplies and save them like crazy, so this was pretty damn rare. I even killed most monsters with melée weapons!
But... all these monsters, there seems to be so many of them, that it actually took away some of the "Silent Hill"-feel of the title. Maybe it\'s just me. Combat feels more fluid than in previous incarnations, and actually is... not "fun" really, but it doesn\'t directly kick you in the nuts and scream "It\'s only a game!", well done. Overall, the monsters were lovely, some of the noises they make just make you wanna run the hell away from that room without even checking out what\'s waiting in there. It\'s just a shame the PS2 version doesn\'t support any sort of surround sound (XBox will have DD5.1, boohoo)... I used headphones through my adventures though, because when in Silent Hill, I want to hear even the littlest of moans the geniuses behind the game have come up with. Or maybe they\'re just sickos, dunno. But I love what they do. Then there\'s the puzzles. Oh how I love Silent Hill for these... REAL puzzles! Not "Find 2 items and place them here!"-missions, but real riddles to decipher and swear at. Although they are few and far between, rats. I\'ve only finished the game on the "Normal" riddle setting, which was, well, normal, a piece of paper and pencil and you\'re home free. Hard should be fun. Easy I don\'t exactly even wanna try, except if it\'s required to unlock everything possible.
The plot then, is so bloomin\' excellent I just can\'t say anything negative about it. Well, maybe it\'s not THAT excellent. It\'s basically Silent Hill continued, with hints toward Silent Hill 2 also. Although, SH2 was a bit of a spin-off, in the sense that it just centered on one individual getting drawn in for his own reasons. Time to return to the roots. Was that a spoiler? Oops...
You all know that SH ambient style; industrial machines, weird screams and moans, screeches. Love it or not, it\'s still pretty much the same, except even more noisy. The musics also follow the SH tradition, with simple guitars, pianos and drums playing the main role, and now there are vocals on some of the tracks too. The music is all nice to listen to, oddly calming and eerie at the same time, but there\'s nothing in there that I\'d rank as high as Laura\'s Theme from SH2.
Remember that early PS2 demo, where the machine supposedly ran the head of the prof from FF Movie in realtime? About time that sort of quality showed up. The character models, especially the faces, are the best at least I\'ve ever seen. There\'s not many a hint of artificiality in the models, the only thing that still need work is the hair. And maybe clothes, but mostly hair. Heather\'s hair for example is made out of dozens and dozens of little hair-lumps that move individually to give out a realistic impression. And it works very well, except if you keep staring at it all the time.
The only real disappointment for me was the absence of a bonus DVD with documentaries about the making and stuff, as with SH2. But I imagine it would be pretty much the same, so I\'m just gonna sit back and enjoy another go through this AWESOME game... There\'s a bunch of nice stuff waiting for those who take their time with the game. Hold your breaths..
Hawky\'s Verdict :
Graphics : 9
Gameplay : 7
Sound / Music : 10
Reviewers tilt : 10
Overall : 9.5
I have a strong negativity towards scoring halves (same as 20/20, eh? Silly.), but this is so close to the perfect gaming experience I\'ve come to wait nowadays, I just have let it go this time. I\'m officially a Silent Hill w**re... As a game it\'s not stellar, but as an overall experience, it deserves all the praise people give it.
