Konami's Silent Hill: Downpour, the eighth instalment in the Silent Hill series, sees another new developer take the reigns of this franchise. At the helm is European studio Vatra Games, which is comprised of former employees of 2K Czech.
You play as Murphy, a convict whose prison bus went careening off-road and was remarkably spared from the tragedy. With the shady canopy of the Konami booth providing the appropriate masochistic "lights off" atmosphere that is so complementary to Silent Hill, we start the playable demo.
The game begins with a walk into an abandoned gas station where the first prudent action to deploy involves a quick look back over the shoulder. This button will surely be useful in a tactical way in the final version of the game, but in the demo it simply heightened the mood.
As the creepy ambience of the abandoned road-side gas station became too much, this button was judiciously employed. But then with Silent Hill, it's seldom wrong to err on the side of caution.
Even early on the game shows multiple solutions to problems and some puzzles. A lock can be taken down by a crowbar or cracked with a rock found nearby. These items also don't stick around for too long if you use them too frequently.
After stumbling into a diner, the dark sense of inevitability that defines the Silent Hill series becomes overwhelming. Murphy isn't even safe from himself, as he manages to accidentally start a gas fire, then activate sprinklers that flood the diner. This leads us floating off to the Otherworld, the place where the truly awful things happen in Silent Hill.
The fleshy, rusty look of the Otherworld at this point looks like something out of a contemporary exploitation horror film rather than the psychological horror that has defined the series.
What appeared to be a vortex came into view, requiring a quick escape down an otherworldly hallway that receded into the horizon, with the game prompting the player to throw down various nearby objects into the path of whatever it is that is chasing Murphy.
A quick trip down a not so appealing waterside and the demo fades to black.
Although no combat was shown, we were assured that this is not a combat-free title like Shattered Memories. Downpour positions itself between the non-combat Silent Hill and a more action packed game. Though I did take a few swings at a fence just to prove to myself that I could hit something.
The controls are amongst the best yet in the Silent Hill series, the refinement of which is an often re-iterated complaint. Not a lot of music was present in the demo, which has always been an integral component in the series. For the two people out there who dropped serious coin on the PlayStation 3 3D setup, you are in for a visual feast. Those of us who haven't yet taken out a second mortgage on our house will also be well taken care of, as the game looks spectacular.
Sadly, along with this demo came the revelation that Downpour has been delayed, with the final release date unclear.
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