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Name: Silent Hill: Origins

The Silent Hill franchise usually boils down to low lit rooms, blood dripping walls, crying children and other such evil devilry best not spoken for fear of reprise from the evil pyramid head. Silent Hill: Origins is of course no exception. The game is a prequel set before the original Silent Hill which appeared on the PlayStation back in 1999, the protagonist being a trucker named Travis Grady. Travis has been having nightmares, familiar ones, being out on a job near Silent Hill, he nearly runs over a girl and as she runs off towards the town of no return, thinking she is hurt, he gives chase.

The Silent Hill series is famous for its suspense building stories which put you on the edge of your seat wondering what's going to happen next, this however is lacking if not missing from this one. That isn't to say the game isn't scary, it has it's moments, but for some, the crying children can be enough to put them off playing for good, Origins doesn't have anything like that which is unfortunate. During the opening, it's questionable as to whether Travis should even really be in Silent Hill, one would imagine the town would have some sort of eerie folklore about it and anyone passing by would stay well away. Origins borrows a lot of the looks and feel from the previous games, since its set in the same town it's to be expected, but the game doesn't really bring any originality to the table. Their are more reasons to Travis's visit to Silent Hill which you'll find out as you progress, and for fans of the games you'll find plenty of story to fill in pieces of the lore from the rest of the series which does make it worthwhile.

You control the games protagonist, Travis, from a third-person perspective while exploring the foggy streets of Silent Hill. There are two worlds within Silent Hill however, the normal less creepy world, and the otherworld which is where you'll come across the worst aspects of the city, by which we mean blood – and plenty of it, dirty precarious hall ways and various creatures from the denizens of god knows where. The otherworld which acts like another dimension can be travelled too by touching one of the many mirrors around the town, this in itself is new to the series and quite welcome since the otherworld isn't forced upon you, even though you do need to go there to progress. Most of Silent Hill is made up of puzzles, many of which form part of a larger puzzle which are all intertwined requiring you to explore here there and everywhere in search of clues. They are well thought out and apart from the slightly disappointing story, they don't get tiring.

Origins weakness however is its combat. You'll encounter many different forms of what can only be described as monsters, some new to the game and some old friends you'll no doubt have encountered before if you played the previous games. While combat does include guns, it isn't all plain sailing, with ammo in fairly short supply your often required to use melee to get by which involves the use of various forms of weapons such as televisions you can pick up, hospital stands, filing cabinets, planks of wood, radios and other random objects you can find lying around. Some of them will provide you with a one-time limited use where as others will last a few hits before being destroyed. One of the questions you'll be asking yourself while playing though is how Travis can carry all these items at once? Unfortunately the combat feels clunky and difficult. Their are certain parts however where it does become interesting and this takes the form of a minigame, at times when an enemy is attacking you, it can trigger the minigame where you're required to hit the necessary buttons as displayed on screen within a set time limit, thus avoiding taking any damage. This type of addition isn't new however, being used in many games before and Origins hasn't made it any different than what is offered elsewhere, it does however break up some of the combat making it somewhat easier. More intriguing however are the Boss fights. The majority of combat can be avoided while playing and if you do manage to find a spot where you can't, it's always best to conserve your ammunition and go melee, your ammo will be most useful during the Boss battles, the Boss's themselves being huge monsters which make for some really great battles as long as you don't have to go into melee combat.

Graphically, Silent Hill sets the scene of the game perfectly with detailed environments, from the interiors of the buildings whether in the normal world or the otherworld, to crisp textures for the blood soaked walls of buildings and many other things you'll come across. Travis's character model however looks stiff as he moves and performs various actions, while it's not terrible, it doesn't look completely natural especially when carrying certain objects as weapons.

Thankfully the soundtrack and effects are great, Origins really plays on the ambient sounds you'll hear while making your way through various the dark and dirty areas of Silent Hill. Distant echoes of moans and grumbles make you wonder what's up ahead, while the great music by Akira Yamaoka who did the previous Silent Hill games give the game an eerie feeling that makes you wonder what exactly is round that next corner but it doesn't feel that it builds upto anything major, you never question yourself as to if you really want to go round that corner or find a different route that will be less dangerous or scary.

With its faults, Silent Hill: Origins isn't a bad game, but it doesn't set itself apart from the previous games in a way that hasn't been done already and better by its predecessors. It feels like the game is a collection of some of the highlights from the Silent Hill franchise all thrown into one - with bits and pieces holding them all together on the PlayStation Portable, the best bits are few and far between however and never really makes you feel as worried about playing it as the other games did.