Silent Hill 0: Origins
Since Silent Hill: Origins was actually released first, I was going to post this before Silent Hill 5, but I just really had Homecoming in mind, so I figured I'd let it out first. Released a year or so before Silent Hill 5 and about a year or so after the move adaptation was released; Silent Hill Origins takes place before the events of first game, making it a prequel of sorts. One of the only two directly linked stories, Origins tells the tale of a trucker Travis Grady as he stumbles into the very beginnings of the terrifying town's creation. Released on the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable, Origins, like Homecoming, was also developed by an American company instead of Konami; in this case Climax Studios. Still, not unlike Homecoming, Climax was watched over tightly to ensure Origins stuck tight to the Silent Hill formula and as usual, included a fantastic new soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka.
Silent Hill Origins starts out as you first encounter a house fire in the small town of Silent Hill. You run inside and discover a horribly burnt child. The girl is of course, Cheryl (Alessa) from Silent Hill 1 and 3. You pass out after retrieving the girl from the burning wreck and wake up in a hospital. You then spend the rest of the game traversing Silent Hill looking for this girl and digging up her history; how the town burned her to produce a pure hate so they could use her to birth a God. Eventually, you fight you way through and retrieve the girl's pure soul as a newly born child. One whom you rescue from the town and place under adoption at what point it is presumed that Harry Mason, the protagonist from Silent Hill 1, then takes in as his own.
For a portable system, this game looked pretty great. With the PSP pumping out a similar amount of horsepower as the original PlayStation, only with a lot less graphical glitches and issues, Origins looked as if it at least matched what we've seen on the PS2 graphically. For the most part.
Creature designs were pretty neat. Unique from the rest of the series, which is always an important factor, but some of them did seem to fall flat. Of all the games, this one seems to be lacking in comparison, with the exception of Shattered Memories, also on the PSP. In an attempt to show that this game was an prequel, Climax tried to explain each of the creatures' origin as the town engulfed the residents. Best example is how there exists The Butcher which looks enough like the Pyramid Head demon to bridge the concept that it was a man who worked at a butcher shop; wielding an oversized cleaver and a mask that is clearly on it's way to growing into a larger pyramid shape. At first I thought this was really clever and an interesting take on the whole Pyramid Head demon mythology. But then I realized how much it takes away from the immensity of that demon's weight on the series and kind of treads on the mythology put forward by the original writings and even the mythological comic included in the Silent Hill Zero soundtrack CD.
Still, Silent Hill: Origins was a strong original title that may not have the strength of the primary series but is great on it's own. It stayed pretty much inline with a lot of the Silent Hill formula and luckily dodged some of the combat heavy ideals that were originally put forward in the initial build. More than anything though, Silent Hill: Origins contains what I feel is one of the best soundtracks created in the series to date. Akira Yamaoka produced some top-notch tracks that feel new and original and yet on par with the rest of the series. Even if you've never played this game, or don't plan to, if you liked the rest of the soundtracks, be sure to get a hold of this one.
Since Silent Hill: Origins was actually released first, I was going to post this before Silent Hill 5, but I just really had Homecoming in mind, so I figured I'd let it out first. Released a year or so before Silent Hill 5 and about a year or so after the move adaptation was released; Silent Hill Origins takes place before the events of first game, making it a prequel of sorts. One of the only two directly linked stories, Origins tells the tale of a trucker Travis Grady as he stumbles into the very beginnings of the terrifying town's creation. Released on the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable, Origins, like Homecoming, was also developed by an American company instead of Konami; in this case Climax Studios. Still, not unlike Homecoming, Climax was watched over tightly to ensure Origins stuck tight to the Silent Hill formula and as usual, included a fantastic new soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka. Silent Hill Origins starts out as you first encounter a house fire in the small town of Silent Hill. You run inside and discover a horribly burnt child. The girl is of course, Cheryl (Alessa) from Silent Hill 1 and 3. You pass out after retrieving the girl from the burning wreck and wake up in a hospital. You then spend the rest of the game traversing Silent Hill looking for this girl and digging up her history; how the town burned her to produce a pure hate so they could use her to birth a God. Eventually, you fight you way through and retrieve the girl's pure soul as a newly born child. One whom you rescue from the town and place under adoption at what point it is presumed that Harry Mason, the protagonist from Silent Hill 1, then takes in as his own. For a portable system, this game looked pretty great. With the PSP pumping out a similar amount of horsepower as the original PlayStation, only with a lot less graphical glitches and issues, Origins looked as if it at least matched what we've seen on the PS2 graphically. For the most part.
Creature designs were pretty neat. Unique from the rest of the series, which is always an important factor, but some of them did seem to fall flat. Of all the games, this one seems to be lacking in comparison, with the exception of Shattered Memories, also on the PSP. In an attempt to show that this game was an prequel, Climax tried to explain each of the creatures' origin as the town engulfed the residents. Best example is how there exists The Butcher which looks enough like the Pyramid Head demon to bridge the concept that it was a man who worked at a butcher shop; wielding an oversized cleaver and a mask that is clearly on it's way to growing into a larger pyramid shape. At first I thought this was really clever and an interesting take on the whole Pyramid Head demon mythology. But then I realized how much it takes away from the immensity of that demon's weight on the series and kind of treads on the mythology put forward by the original writings and even the mythological comic included in the Silent Hill Zero soundtrack CD.Still, Silent Hill: Origins was a strong original title that may not have the strength of the primary series but is great on it's own. It stayed pretty much inline with a lot of the Silent Hill formula and luckily dodged some of the combat heavy ideals that were originally put forward in the initial build. More than anything though, Silent Hill: Origins contains what I feel is one of the best soundtracks created in the series to date. Akira Yamaoka produced some top-notch tracks that feel new and original and yet on par with the rest of the series. Even if you've never played this game, or don't plan to, if you liked the rest of the soundtracks, be sure to get a hold of this one.
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