"Downpour" could've been one of the greatest horrors ever, but its problems demolished its potential.
Concept:
You play as Murphy Pendleton, a prisoner who seems to be quite an outcast for all the right reasons. He's the cliched movie character that you see in prison, but that you feel sympathetic for. The reasons for his presence there is unknown, and remains quite dormant throughout much of the game. But it's "Silent Hill". What would you expect? To understand everything that is going on? Of course not. Anyways, without getting into too much detail, you end up being put on a bus to be transferred to a different prison location (also for unknown reasons). Of course, the bus ride goes bad, it crashes, and you find yourself on the outskirts of the beautiful town of Silent Hill. A couple plot-involving things happen as you make your way to the center of town, but like I said before, I'm not going to get into it. I don't want to ruin any of the game's story for anyone. I think we all know that the story and the feeling of being terrified are what keeps this series from going under. The game basically just involves you trying to make an escape from the hellhole. It turns into quite an adventure, with some extremely crazy plot twists, terrifying moments, and unforgettable enemies. And as the game progresses, you learn more and more about Pendleton and his past. Reasons for his presence in prison, and his background life, become more and more apparent. This was really key in my eyes. The developers did a phenomenal job at the technique of story-telling. It's not easy to do, but they nailed it. Simply put, "Downpour" could be EASILY written into a book. I truly mean that. The story itself is good, but the methods of story-telling is inspirational and one of the game's shining moments.
Graphics and Sound:
I am very disappointed in this department. "Homecoming" may very well actually look BETTER than this game. And I don't mean that in a "for its time" sense. I mean that literally, "Homecoming" had better graphics. Don't get me wrong, "Homecoming" was beautiful, but after four years, a downgrade of any type is unacceptable. In its defense, this game's overall style (which I will discuss in the gameplay section) is significantly more advanced, but it's still far from impressive. Some environments look great and detailed, but others look horrendous, and the character models are almost always ugly and unrealistic. But more than anything, the game's sound makes me angry. The series has always been known for its haunting music, disgusting-sounding enemies, and terrifying sound effects. This time, however, "Silent Hill" shows basically the opposite. There is none of this at all. The special effects have the ability to catch you off guard and frighten you, but only to an extent, and it all becomes very predictable as opposed to how sporadic it is early on. The music is terrible, and completely forgettable. And the monsters either make no sound, or just make you want to take a chainsaw to both sides of your head. It is so terrible, and for a genre like survival/horror where these things are very important (and that's not to mention the fact that this is SILENT HILL), it's surprising and very disappointing.
Gameplay:
This is a hugely important part of "Silent Hill : Downpour", and for very mixed reasons. I will start off with the negatives first. This game is one of the most broken games I have ever had the displeasure of exposing my Xbox to. I mean that wholeheartedly. The game is like one giant bug. It makes huge open world games look flawless in this category. There is a lot of every kind of bug, but the biggest drawback is its frame-rate issues. My mind is boggled as to what the developers were doing for those extra five months that they found they needed to use to delay a game that would turn out broken anyways. The issue lies in the common areas that typically cause it, but more than anything, it's a result of the game's saving system. Every time you walk into a new area, it "auto-saves". But it has nothing to do with the fact that it's a new location or something. You can walk back and forth between locations all day, and it will continue to save. The game saves approximately every 20-30 seconds (seriously), and each time it does so, there is a big frame-rate hiccup. As these saves start to grow in number, the frame-rate issues start to happen just as frequently during gameplay where it's NOT saving. It's absurd. And what is even more amazing is that the game is not actually saving, because when you die, it gives you the option to "load last save". When you do, it typically brings you back 5-10 minutes of gameplay. So the game saves every 20 seconds, yet it isn't actually saving anything. Can someone explain this to me? And if it's a way to track progression and stats, believe me Konami - it's not worth it. Towards the end of the game, I had trouble during this one combat moment where I had to fight off three very powerful enemies. I kept dying, and I FINALLY got it after about a half hour. I then walked around this specific area that I was in, with the frame-rate issues getting worse as it saved, and am then killed. I wasn't too upset though, because I had just beaten the tough enemies, and it's been saving all along. Guess what? It brings me right back to the beginning of the battle. It is sickeningly inexcusable, and just makes no sense to me. It feels, in those regards, like it wasn't even tested. It's a huge problem that may completely hamper the entire experience for some, though the gameplay isn't ALL band. The combat is much more challenging (in a good way) from previous installments, and the game is more of an open-world game than anything. The developers decided to stray away from the linear path that previous games had gone. Instead, this game's giant map encourages you to take your freedom and explore. Along the way of exploration, you can find many side quests and collectibles, all which are extremely addictive and entertaining to take part in. This is a HUGE step in the right direction for the series. It works miracles, and makes a survival horror game addictive. That's nearly impossible to do with a game that is single-player only, but it works. The only issue that arises from this, however, is that you may accidentally run across a story mission. By doing so, you lose focus on all the other entertainment outside of the story. In addition to that, the game's final story mission is also very sudden, and I made the mistake of beginning it WITHOUT REALIZING IT WAS THE END. I ended up getting about 90% with all the side quests I had started. Now, if I want to finish them, I have to restart the game.
Overall Opinion:
Is "Downpour" a good game? Yes. But it lacks so much polish that it really feels broken. The puzzles are well thought out, though not too commonly seen. The game's environment is huge, and allows for a great amount of exploration. And the story is addictive, and beautifully put together. But with the game's broken aspects, along with the overpowering difficulty, it is a game that can sometimes feel like more of a chore to complete rather than a form of entertainment. For what it tries to do right, "Downpour" is incredible. But for its lack of fixing the things that needed fixing, it fails miserably. How you view this game will all come down to how much such apparent issues with the game affect you and your sanity in the world of insanity. For those reasons, I give "Downpour" a good 7/10. Its lack of polish, and overwhelming number of technical issues, can only be made up by its wonderful story and addictive gameplay to a certain degree, unfortunately. Close, but no cigar. Seriously though - very close. Without the glaring issues that are constantly seen throughout the course of the game, this would've been something very special. Instead, going back just to finish the side quests and collect certain items and explore is just not worth dealing with these problems once again.
The Good:
Great story; brilliant open-world ideas; addictive gameplay; improved combat
The Bad:
Countless bugs; very broken; disappointing presentation