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In a strange way, I owe many of the friendships I've made online (here and elsewhere) to the Silent Hill series. I first joined GameFAQs when I went there to download a plot guide to SH2, and it was there that I met the people who would form the core of my own message board in 2005; and one of those friends sent me a link to Gaia one day that same year, though whether that was a blessing or a curse has yet to be determined. xp Anyway, I have something more of an emotional investment in this series than in the average video game, so when I heard that Konami had outsourced the development of Silent Hill Origins to Climax, instead of leaving it in the hands of Akira Yamaoka and Team Silent, my heart sank. What the hell could they possibly be thinking?

Then again, the last Yamaoka-produced installment, Silent Hill 4: The Room, was widely regarded as something of a disappointment, so what they were thinking was probably along the lines of: let's forget all these weird experiments, like abandoning town exploration and making the player deal with an annoying limited inventory that doesn't even let you stack ammo boxes, and get some people who are fans of the games to come up with their own take on the series. At least, that's the vibe I get from Origins, which at times almost feels like an incredibly overenthusiastic work of fan fiction. It also feels like a not-entirely-successful attempt to blend the narrative approaches of the first two games in the series; and if you recall how different those two games were from each other in terms of their storylines, you'll realize why such a merger couldn't fully succeed.

Origins is a prequel to SH1, set approximately seven years before the events of that game. You play as a trucker named Travis Grady (I wondered for a moment if his first name was a Taxi Driver reference, but I don't think so), who takes a shortcut near Silent Hill and ends up rescuing a mysterious girl (who isn't so mysterious if you've played the other games, but I don't want to spoil anything) from a fire. His effort to find out her fate afterwards leads him to explore the fog-enshrouded town, and as he uncovers the truth about the girl he also remembers his own connection to Silent Hill, and the role it played in some major traumas during his childhood.

If you've played the first two games, you know what to expect; in fact, there are many elements that are overt homages to those installments-- the map uses the same design and typefaces as SH1's, and a major villain called the Butcher bears a distinct resemblance (in behavior and physical characteristics) to SH2's fan favorite Pyramid Head. Travis wanders around the town finding weapons and items, fighting monsters-- or, more likely, running away from them, for several reasons-- and occasionally exploring a major location, including SH1's Alchemilla Hospital, filled with puzzles and shifts between the real world and the Otherworld (the rust-encrusted, nightmarish mutation of Silent Hill). In these areas, you have to solve puzzles in order to progress, and there's always a concluding battle with some sort of hideous boss monster. But since SH3 and SH4 cut out so much of the town exploration, this return to the old formula isn't a bad thing.

The problems start with the changes Climax has made to the system. Combat's always been more an annoyance in SH than genuine fun, and Origins increases the pain by making all melee weapons breakable. Sure, Travis can fight with his fists (unlike previous SH protagonists), so he's not totally helpless when a wooden plank or a wrench finally gives up the ghost; but it's an artificial way of trying to increase the difficulty of a game that's a cakewalk otherwise. The puzzles are probably the weakest of the entire series-- there isn't a single one that requires any real thought, the memos Travis finds pretty much spell out exactly what to do in any given situation, and in general they lack the imagination of the old puzzles. It took me four and a half hours for my first playthrough, which was mostly due to lots of wandering around in town searching for items.

The story is also a mixed bag. There are two distinct strands-- one ties in directly to SH1 and works just fine, the other concerns Travis's past and doesn't work so well. This is partly because it feels like a weak attempt to recapture what made SH2 so special, even though it's mawkish and overly sentimental where SH2 was genuinely moving; but it's also because it never really ties in with the first plotline satisfactorily. So by the end, you wonder why it was even necessary. Couldn't the game have just been about Silent Hill and the cult, and not have bothered with this more personal (and less satisfactory) story?

But I still enjoyed playing Origins, and I know I'll replay it to see all the endings and get all the secret items. I just can't help but feel it could have been better.

Rating: 6.5/10