Scary Game Review: Silent Hill Zero - Origins

"What do you think? Too much blood? Not enough?" 

What's up, guys? Welcome to another Scary Game Review (you'd figure after so long I would come up with a better name). Silent Hill makes another appearance on here and this time it is Silent Hill Zero: Origins. 

My Review (From a Watchers Perspective):

As always, I would like to point out I'm reviewing a game from a spectator's point of view and not from a gamer (though sometimes it can be a combination of the two.) 

Origins is one of those titles I didn't think I would have any interest in watching and thought it was just a throw away title. You know franchises and how they like to bleed out as much as they can for a quick paycheck. I do got to say that I was wrong about Origins. 

It will probably be worthwhile that I watch Origins first before I watch the first Silent Hill (which I plan on doing very soon). The reason for that is because Origins takes place seven years before the events of the first official game. The game was released in 2007 for the PSP and later a port was made for PlayStation 2. 

I've watched this game on two separate channels. There is Aesthetic Gamer (which was earlier this year) and Harshly Critical (recently). I like to re watch some games again simply for the purpose of these reviews. 

Review: 

Although it doesn't have the best graphics (and can sometimes really show its age), Origins strong point is its story. Don't get me wrong, the story isn't groundbreaking. You play as Travis, a truck driver, who almost hits a little girl in the middle of a road. Once trying to find the girl, you stumble upon a burning house. You go inside, find the burnt body of said little girl, and you pass out. You awake in the fog and GASP! you realize you're in Silent Hill. You proceed to go to the hospital to find out what happened to the girl and if she survived. You're also met by a few familiar faces who make cameos throughout the game. 

As always, I do not like to give away too much of the plot, but there are a few things that I think are fine to talk about. One is the Butcher, who is a Pyramid Head type enemy who you eventually fight later in the game. His first appearance even mirrors Silent Hill 2's first appearance of Pyramid Head, where our triangle head friend is getting jiggy with two Mannequins and proceeds to kill them. Same thing with the Butcher, but he's not looking for a piece of ass, he just kills a nurse (yes, the infamous hospital nurses are an enemy in Origins).

"What kind of cut do you want?" 

But the more you play, the more you find out about Travis' messed up relationship with his parents. This echoes pretty much all the Silent Hill games where piece by piece you find out more. Travis is no different and has to face up to his demons. Which, compared to other SH characters, makes him look like a saint. I mean, seriously, there's really nothing wrong with the guy. His parents were douches. That's about it. 

I also liked some of the enemy designs and thought they were pretty creepy. Aside from the Butcher, there is also Remnant, which is a shadow creature that can only be seen by your flashlight. Good thing is they don't move very fast. Another cool feature is once you defeat a boss, they're seen practically everywhere on the streets of Silent Hill and remain an enemy throughout the entire game. There are some pretty messed up ones too that you'll just want to veer away from and not face them again.

They don't look like much, but the sound they make is creepy. 

But what are the down falls of this game? I'm not real picky about how a game looks as long as it has a good story and isn't too glictchy. But that also doesn't mean that I don't look at games and go, "oooo preeeeety." Cause I absolutely do. The voice acting is okay. But come on, Travis, couldn't you put some enthusiasm in your voice every now and then? Not everyone likes the cookie cutter tough guy gimmick. But like I said, the voice acting isn't terrible, but it's not the best either. Then again, as much as I love the Silent Hill series, they don't have Troy Baker skills. 

Also, watching and playing a game are different. You already know this, but when watching an entire game, it can become rather boring. This isn't the makers fault or the guy you're watching's fault. But then again, it can become rather boring to watch someone battle baddies and of course there's a lot of walking around and looking for puzzle pieces in Silent Hill games. I had the same problem with Silent Hill: Downpour, which became irritatingly boring sometimes. The thing I do is work on something while listening to the audio and once something happens, I check it out.

For a game like this, I don't think I'm going to give it a rating. I think the story is good enough for Silent Hill, but definitely not my favorite of the series. Which I believe is still Downpour. I'm looking forward to Silent Hills and yes, I have watched P.T. and was pissing myself the entire time.

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Future Video Game Reviews:

Haunting Ground will be the next review I post. It's probably my longest review, but also my most perverted. You will think you're reading a review for Leisure Suit Larry instead of a horror game. You'll understand once you read the review.

Claire is another. It's another pixelated, side scrolling game. Interesting story. Won't come for a little while cause I MAY have to watch it again to remember some things about this game.

Walking Dead by Telltale Games: Season 1. LOVED this game, so you can definitely expect a review coming after Haunting Ground.

As said in another post, I will be posting more Amnesia custom stories reviews. Some great ones, good ones, but no bad ones thankfully. I'm also watching another game, or about to, called Singularity. It's a rather unknown game for the XBox 360 and people who played it said it's great and reminds them of the Bioshock games. That will be coming within the next few months.

As always, thanks for reading these reviews. Hope you enjoyed them. If you have any game suggestions you want me to review, reply to this post. Take care.