• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Silent Hill Downpour |OT| Rain, Rain, Go Away

Bebpo

Banned
How is this game on PS3?

Awful. Just barely meets the "playable enough state to finish the game" line.

Apparently it's slightly less than awful on the X360, but has a lot of tech problems there as well.


But don't let the terrible tech performance of the game turn you off of it. It's worth a play if you are a SH fan.
 

MYE

Member
Awful. Just barely meets the "playable enough state to finish the game" line.

Apparently it's slightly less than awful on the X360, but has a lot of tech problems there as well.


But don't let the terrible tech performance of the game turn you off of it. It's worth a play if you are a SH fan.

:/
 

Mature

Member
It is perfectly playable on PS3. I had heard bad stuff too but I got it anyways and it's fine.
You haven't run into any slow down? I have the 360 version and I don't even consider that "fine" because of the heinous slowdown that shows up sometimes. The game is good enough that I can look past that, but still.
 

voodooray

Member
Finally managed to platinum this yesterday. and encountered numerous annoying bugs, but nothing too bad. The save system, as limited as it is, will be your friend when/if they happen.

For trophy hunters, Pinata Party demands that you
kill 10 weeping bats
, while they are still twitching on the floor with the killing blow move. Anything else doesn't seem to get registered, at least it didn't for me. Unless you are lucky to find them repeatedly spawn, you should kill all that you encounter early on, as they tend to become few and far between.

Not sure how it is on the X360, but on the PS3, it was possible to continuously run through the map long enough that you outpaced textures loading on objects! Eventually the game would need to fade to black, just so that it could load all the assets it needed. There is at least one place I found where its possible to use this to your minor advantage... When entering
hillside apartments
, you can run to the drawer before the fade to black and earn an extra med kit. When the scene returns, the med kit will magically still be there to pick up again.
 
Did Homecoming have performance issues on PS3 as well?
Yeah, I recently replayed it and it had screen tearing, framerate stutters, and such.


I think I'm going to go ahead and take the plunge this weekend... I'll probably be picking it up at bestbuy for PS3. Dang it, I wanted to hold out for $40, but I must play this!
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
Well... I just completed the game (a week ago). I dunno but I kinda liked Homecoming a bit more than this.

Here's how'd I rank it:

Top Tier:
Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 3
Silent Hill 1

These usually shuffle.

I like 2 because of it's morose environment and fantastic soundtrack.

I like 3 because of it's frightful look (probably the most frightful environments especially in all SH games coz of the wall peeling, ugh).

I like 1 because the story pacing is well done, not to mention Alchemilla Hospital was freaky.

Middle Tier:
Silent Hill Origins
Silent Hill Homecoming
Silent Hill 4
Silent Hill Downpour

Origins had scary areas sure, but they last way too long.

Homecoming is probably my top of the middle tier here, I like the music and environments but the latter part fell flat and the Otherworld looks like a dungeon.

SH4 has a fantastic environment and probably one of the scariest, up there with SH3, but the gameplay felt flat and redoing the dungeons was burdensome. The story for me is pretty good.

Downpour is probably below the list. The OST was nice but didn't have the "oomph" that SH had. The town was more like a ghetto unlike the previous SH giving of an "actually abandoned town". It can be a bit scary but nothing too shocking except for the Weeping Bats.

Crap Tier:
Silent Hill Shattered Memories

SH:SM was a running game, nuff said.
 

Bebpo

Banned
Eh, Shattered Memories is divisive. If I hand the game to a 100 Silent Hill fans I expect 50 to come back hating it and 50 to come back loving it.

It's a competently made game, just it's a very different genre of game so to 1/2 the people it's not really Silent Hill.
 

Mature

Member
Eh, Shattered Memories is divisive. If I hand the game to a 100 Silent Hill fans I expect 50 to come back hating it and 50 to come back loving it.

It's a competently made game, just it's a very different genre of game so to 1/2 the people it's not really Silent Hill.
I always think of Silent Hill as being able to branch into two separate, but equally represented facets. One being psychological horror, the other being macabre horror. SM was entirely 100% psychological horror-- so the people who play Silent Hill for that respect got the most out of it and the people who love how the macabre is represented didn't get anything out of it. It's certainly not the most quintessential Silent Hill experience, but I thought it was so unique and atmospheric it made up for that in a big way.
 
Just helping get the news out there - we've announced a patch for Downpour (and HD Collection). Look forward to fixes to framerate and that pesky "Saving..." misinformation. No specific date but we are hard at work making it happen.
 

Mature

Member
Just helping get the news out there - we've announced a patch for Downpour (and HD Collection). Look forward to fixes to framerate and that pesky "Saving..." misinformation. No specific date but we are hard at work making it happen.
Very excited about this, thank you for letting us know. :)
 

Shining

Member
Playing this in 3D on PS3 and i must say i am really enjoying it so far! I had no expectations whatsoever, and the framerate issue doesn't seem to be as bad as i have heard. Monster design is awful though.
 
Playing this in 3D on PS3 and i must say i am really enjoying it so far! I had no expectations whatsoever, and the framerate issue doesn't seem to be as bad as i have heard. Monster design is awful though.

I didn't have many framerate issues either but once I got the second half of Silent Hill it got much, much worse. Not to mention the subway door glitch on me and is now permanently locked. Hopefully that gets fixed too.
 

John Harker

Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
Finally getting to start this! Excited. Booted it up on Xbox.

Anything I should know off the bat? Any secret or ending related trickery I should shoot for while playing?
 

PooBone

Member
I've been having some framerate issues so I installed the game. Haven't tried it again since. I'm about 4 hours in, I just got to the
radio station
and so far I really like it. The music is the thing I expected to dislike the most and it is quite good. The game is fun even though the combat is shit. I'm intrigued by the story and the character.

And SH2 is my far and away favorite. SH3 after that. And I hated Shattered Memories. Shit Wii games are shit.
 

John Harker

Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
I'm dissapointed that your footsteps don't make any noise. That's kind of... a weird oversight. Considering how important sound is to this series. I'm walking in these large, dank caves thousands of feet below the ground... and nothing. Wasted opportunity to do some trickery with sound echoes and distance to enemies and all that. These bad dudes crawling around on the ceiling don't make any noise either. Odd.
 

PooBone

Member
The worst thing about this game is the enemies. I can see the brawlers being "prison inmate-like" but really none of the psuedo-psycho elements to let you know the enemies are being born from the protagonists own psyche like the "good" silent hill games.
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
I finally got this game off of GameFly and got to start it tonight, and I might have to buy it one day just to get a reprieve from all the copy-pasted dudebro shit I've been playing this generation.

It definitely doesn't stack up to the PS2 Silent Hill games but compared to everything else that's come out this gen it's a goddamn breath of fresh air. It's like they tried to make an actual adventure game for once. Being able to turn off hints and action prompts is a godsend, and it makes exploring the environment and solving puzzles feel as organic as it used to in games.

Even if this game ends up not being scary or atmospheric at all, and ends up being a shitty Silent Hill game, I may have to give it its due just so I can play something on modern hardware resembling a dark Japanese adventure game, which is what I've been in the mood for, for a while.
 

RedAssedApe

Banned
"Soon" is the best we've gotten on a date.


Also, Book of Memories is showing to be released on Oct. 31 2012 on amazon. Curious.

Haha...I thought that game was already out. I guess that explains why there is no official thread. I just thought it was DOA and sent to a watery grave by Konami after the HD Collection fiasco.
 

SadAli

Neo Member
It definitely doesn't stack up to the PS2 Silent Hill games but compared to everything else that's come out this gen it's a goddamn breath of fresh air. It's like they tried to make an actual adventure game for once. Being able to turn off hints and action prompts is a godsend, and it makes exploring the environment and solving puzzles feel as organic as it used to in games.

Yeah despite my arguments against it, my gf picked this up at the weekend and we ended up playing through a fair bit of it together. It's pretty far from perfect and the technical issues we're experiencing with the PS3 version are unforgivable but, having said that, really enjoyed what I've played.
There's a lot of nice touches in there with the side missions that make you feel like you're doing them for something other than box ticking and, occasional total frustration at getting lost on the map apart, have spent a lot of time so far exploring the town rather than rushing from main objective to main objective. Missions such as the
film splicing to get the golden gun
really showed thought and attention had been put into this at some stage.
I don't think I could honestly recommend it to anyone outright but, as someone who has had a survival itch dying to be scratched for ages, this is really pleasing me. Would personally rank it quite a bit higher than Homecoming as well.

Only thing I would say though is that, as PooBone mentioned, the enemies are really underwhelming so far and, having got to the
orphanage
, I'm guessing they're not going to get any more exciting.
 

John Harker

Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
Wait, I don't get it. I've played all the SH games. I'm working on Downpour now. I'm about on the third floor of the library (is this even far in? Can't tell). I've played the game a couple times before it was released at various events and was always a little disappointing, but I was hopeful. Now, a few hours into it... I don't know, it really seems lacking. The combat is the worst the series has seen, the environments are such a mixed bag with messed up or altogether missing sound affects (actually prefer the stuff pre-SH town), and after all this time, there is barely any story at all to motivate me. Which is a sin in a SH game.

What started off with an AWESOME opening, has really fallen off in terms of entertainment value. Right now, I'm not even seeing how it's better than Homecoming.

When does it grab you?
 

SadAli

Neo Member
Personally I do think it gets better from there story wise (the action and variety kicks up a gear reasonably soon after the library) but are you doing the side quests as well? I got more satisfaction out of the various find clue, solve puzzle, fetch it quests than the main mission to be honest.

I really can't defend it as a great gaming experience and it probably helps that I dipped in and out of my other half's game so my frustrations with the controls and general half baked polish of the game were limited but I genuinely enjoyed the variety o the various ideas and gameplay switch ups they threw in there.
 
I loved the story revelations a lot more than many of the SH games. I found some of the things you learn near the end to be pretty damned compelling and the storytelling was incredibly competent, WAY more than Homecoming's plot without question.

I would say that 2, 3, and 4 had the better story but Downpour's story IMO crushed Homecoming, Origins, and SM save for SM's ending.
 

John Harker

Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
I loved the story revelations a lot more than many of the SH games. I found some of the things you learn near the end to be pretty damned compelling and the storytelling was incredibly competent, WAY more than Homecoming's plot without question.

I would say that 2, 3, and 4 had the better story but Downpour's story IMO crushed Homecoming, Origins, and SM save for SM's ending.

I just don't recall feeling so... Floundering, I suppose, in a SH game for so long. Why did I even go into SH after the crash to begin with? To steal a car? Murphy was taking about escaping SH before I even got into it. If he was just looking to steal a car, why not take one from the diner or whatever? Then i get here, and I aimlessly wander around for awhile, hopin to stumble on side quests - which is weird, because why should I bother to do any of these when I'm here to hot wire a car and bolt from the law? I know that's weird but SH has always been this very narrative driven experience for me and I'm just not feeling it. If I didn't turn on all these radios, would I even know to head to the radio station? Most of the notes I find lying around are about police reports but I'm just not getting any hints at a big picture.

Don't get me wrong, I know there is one, it's just odd that it's such a slow build up since clearly, we aren't playing this for the combat. There's no suspense the first what, 5 hours? and the opening was so good too. Bummer.

I just got to the DJ, so hoping when I play tonight the ride starts full force or I may just crack open back log and come back to it later
 

Majmun

Member
Just entered Silent Hill.

The enemy designs has been atrocious so far. The monsters roaming Silent Hill are just so badly designed ugh.

And is it just me, or are the enemies hard to avoid or hard to escape from? The older SH games had slower enemies. I LIKED THAT BETTER

But definitely going to finish the game, being a SH fan and all.
 

Cudder

Member
Just entered Silent Hill.

The enemy designs has been atrocious so far. The monsters roaming Silent Hill are just so badly designed ugh.

And is it just me, or are the enemies hard to avoid or hard to escape from? The older SH games had slower enemies. I LIKED THAT BETTER

But definitely going to finish the game, being a SH fan and all.

It's pretty easy to outrun enemies while outside, since you run at fucking warpspeed when one comes close to you. Inside is a different story.

Still no news on the patch, I take it?

Guess not, pretty despicable how the patch is taking this long AFTER they announced one was coming.
 

John Harker

Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
Guess not, pretty despicable how the patch is taking this long AFTER they announced one was coming.

Well, take in mind: Homecoming is/was the best-selling SH in forever, and they never even patched in inverted controls

Single worst aspect of the game
 

Combichristoffersen

Combovers don't work when there is no hair
Has HD collection even been patched? The uproar over that seemed to overshadow any performance issues with Downpour.

They released that one patch that apparently did exactly nothing. Other than that.. no. They promised a new patch for the HD collection when they confirmed that a Downpour patch would be coming.
 

Combichristoffersen

Combovers don't work when there is no hair
So for a Silent Hill fan like me ( whoa actually liked Homecoming and Silent Hill 4) is it a good buy?

I like what I've played of it (far moreso than Homecoming which I utterly hate and despise), and the only major complaints I've seen leveled against it is a) the wildly uneven framerate and b) the uninspired enemy design. So sure, if you liked SH4 and Homecoming, go for Downpour too.
 

SadAli

Neo Member
I believe there's three sets of lockers in the game so you can try them all out if you want.

Personally I liked the Rifle and Golf Club code:
911977
 
Game seriously has my second favorite story in the series. Shattered Memories had a great twist, but it didn't make the actual whole of the story any better IMO.

Upon finishing the game I kind of felt that there wasn't a twist and that it played out very modestly - but the more I think about it, the more I see how genius it was that Murphy was in Silent Hill primarily because of feeling guilt over Anne's father. The story makes you think its so obvious that it has everything to do with his son's death or the guy that you murder in the shower, when it was actually for several different reasons this time. I really liked that. However, when you find out about Anne's father and you see that the final boss is Anne's father, it feels like that's the central point of this particular trip to the town. I also liked how it justified the various sightings of the guy in the wheelchair - how it kept seemingly following Murphy like a ghost, which is something that felt so random at first, but by god it was actually plot related and creepy at the same time. Bravo there.

I liked how there was just more to it, how it started with his son's death which led to him killing Napier which led to Sewell realizing that he could use Murphy like a pawn considering how much of a loose canon that he is, which ultimately led to Anne's father being caught up in it and reduced to a vegetative state. Murphy agreeing to meet Sewell and agreeing to kill someone backfired pretty hard, lol

It really came together in a great way and tied up so many things in a coherent and respectably well written way which is something that I cannot say about most games outside of this series.
 
Picked this up at BestBuy for $20, and I've instantly been captivated by it. I played for a good 2 or 3 hours and got through Devil's Pit Gas Station, and I just rode the gondola to Silent Hill. The enemy I ran into so far wasn't creative, but it feels like Silent Hill again.
 

RedAssedApe

Banned
Picked this up at BestBuy for $20, and I've instantly been captivated by it. I played for a good 2 or 3 hours and got through Devil's Pit Gas Station, and I just rode the gondola to Silent Hill. The enemy I ran into so far wasn't creative, but it feels like Silent Hill again.

Glad to hear more positive feedback. I bought it during the BB deal as well but have not opened it yet. Sort of want to hold off until they release whatever performance patch they announced a few weeks ago.
 
Top Bottom