I picked it up yesterday from my reserved copy and played 5 hours, I'm trying to take my time because I know the game will be over before i know it. (always is since i playnothing but my newest game for awhile.)
If your a fan i can say thus far it's got a pretty good story, which keeps me guessing however i THINK i've pieced a good portion of it together. I have the vague "this probably happened" just not that how and who. I won't spoil it here however
![Razz :P](./images/smilies/icon_razz.gif)
![Razz :P](./images/smilies/icon_razz.gif)
Anyways down to the actual game itself, it's setting is run down and uninhabited like most silent hills and something unique if you haven't been following the game development is it rains, and the heavier it rains the more agressive and more often you'll run into monsters. (so you need to get indoors to let the storm pass... unless your good at fighting.) This is how the developers got you to explore more of the town, looking at the achievements there's 11 side quests which makes me have the fleeting suspicion that i've missed a good number of them.
Combat they tried to make it old school, the ones with clunky controls that took a little practice to get down. Where you can't over power most monsters and direct head to head confrontation will most likely kill you or make you use more health packs then you should (unforunately, no matter what game I like to try and kill every monster that gets in my way, i've only ran away from 2 encounters... xD my med kits are paying for it). So I give you forwarning on this if you decide to get it. But this is what all the silent hill fans were asking for during development was something that did not repeat homecoming where you could fight every monster and you were pretty empowered during that game.(protagonist being a soldier or.... supposed to be....) So just keep an open mind they did that on purpose. xD
Monster design as most online reviews will point out, not quite as inspired as say Silent hill 2 where all the monsters were custom made to represent James Sunderlunds' "sins" shall we say. These are more generic, monsters that you'd find elsewhere. (along with amonster that in the previews reminds me so much of Resident evil 5's axmen, but just replaced by a huge hammer. Haven't gotten to him yet so i'll get a better view of him soon i think... i saw his shadow
![Razz :P](./images/smilies/icon_razz.gif)
They have a few cool sequences that I won't spoil but needless to say surprised me, and just a tip. Don't be looking at your inventory out in the middle of Silent hill.... your liable to get jumped. I was sitting there looking at my inventory just opened it up and within like 5 seconds I got jumped.
![Razz :P](./images/smilies/icon_razz.gif)
Difficulty wise, Don't know how many of you are gamers but for a casual gamer i think this would be a bit hard for them, combat wise if they try to do it. Weapons break in this one after awhile and you have to pick up new ones. I've heard complains about this, honestly there's so many weapons that I have hardly ever had one break in mid combat. Some people like some people dont... to me it adds an interesting element.
Don't buy it expecting it to redefine the Silent hill experience but i can say it's a decent game, and I'm enjoying every minute of it thus far. To me thus far I haven't encountered a Silent Hill game I haven't liked yes that includes Homecoming
![Razz :P](./images/smilies/icon_razz.gif)
An interesting note, the defaults for the story, is Combat : Easy; Riddle : Normal
Not sure if they did that because they consider combat harder or what. I'm playing through on normal because I.... "Dont believe in Easy." xD
If anyone else has played (I doubt since it just came out yesterday) Feel free to post. Or if you have any questions You can post or ask me through PM.
For those who silent hill obsessed like I am i'd recommend waiting for the price to go down. to me it's worth 60 but to most it can probably drop in price before you go explorering the rainy/foggy streets of silent hill....
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
For the beginning of the game.... watch your first step... it's a doosey.