Silent Hill is the most ambitious survival horror series in video games -- one that (ideally) tosses aside its previous characters and repurposes a sleepy tourist town into a home for scattered souls and psychological terrors. This philosophy of starting anew each time is one of the signature elements that define the series, while other factors have contributed to making the horror more psychological. Rather than play on with the same terrifying creatures and gimmicks, the best Silent Hill games go one step further by attempting to challenge the player's understanding of reality, often presenting emotionally weary characters who slowly unravel a looming, and sometimes personal, mystery. While Silent Hill Downpour gets a lot of this right, it also stretches that last aspect a little too far.


Downpour is the eighth Silent Hill game and the third created outside Konami. Of course, the Silent Hill series has never thrived on consistency, but this approach both helps and hurts the latest entry. Developer Vatra takes impressive steps to help revive the series after the abysmal Homecoming, but Downpour gets tied down by lackluster combat and inconsistent plot progression and, in the end, struggles to define itself.

The story follows Murphy Pendelton, a prison inmate who starts the game with a sequence that could be interpreted as either revenge fantasy or reality. Which of the two is anyone's guess, and this trend of ambiguity consistently presents problems within Downpour's story. Narrative gaps cause you to question everything that's happening, all the way to the stumbling (and bumbling) finale, which narrowly avoids falling flat on its face by presenting multiple endings. These different outcomes each bring some level of closure to the final act, but too many questions go completely ignored or unanswered. What really happened to Murphy's child? Who is the deadly gas mask man -- a character that borrows heavily from Silent Hill 2's Pyramid Head -- and why does it stalk Murphy throughout this adventure? What is the mysterious void that chases him through the town?

Sadly, this unreliable storytelling is one of Downpour's glaring liabilities, and none of it is ever pieced together. At one point, evidence suggests that Murphy was up for parole during his time in prison, and you'll find a letter that could prove that, but then you'll find another letter that contradicts your previous discovery. Which one is real? I honestly don't know. These disparate fragments of evidence feel so disconnected at times that it becomes counter-intuitive to pick up anything for fear of getting bogged down by more details. While it's true that toying with the audience can sometimes craft a more memorable story, it never really pay offs for Downpour.

Narrative issues aside, the latest Silent Hill does some things very right, especially for a series born within the humble halls of the survival horror genre -- a genre filled with jump scares and occasional brushes with terror. Few games successfully display a talent for pushing people's buttons quite like Silent Hill, and this disturbing knack is something the developers at Vatra clearly understand. Genuinely disturbing moments present themselves, and the techniques utilized to craft these moments borrow from some of the best horror found in other mediums. Hallways twist and stretch while you run from deadly manifestations, and a genuine sense of tension and intrigue holds the whole experience together despite the ham-fisted story. But sadly some of that tension is replaced by frustration when you experience Downpour's combat system and all its flaws.

Combat has never been a staple of the Silent Hill series -- and some people are okay with that -- but combat in Downpour is a repetitive exercise in patience that unfolds via a messy recycled pattern. Almost every enemy fights in the exact same way: As the player you attack until the enemy blocks, then you block the next two or three hits, then you resume attacking. Weapons in Downpour also degrade with use, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but doesn't help make combat any more accessible. Camera issues, inconsistent weapon range, and jerky animations make combat look as sloppy as it plays, and that's a shame since combat comprises nearly half of what you'll do in Downpour.

The lame combat serves as the ultimate detractor in Downpour, often rendering exploration for hidden side quests and other discoveries unremarkable since you'll have to fight any creatures you'll find along the way. And if it starts to rain, the number of enemies increase, which makes combat even more undesirable. You can take shelter if you're brave enough to run out and explore the dark corners of Silent hill, but for a game that has so many interesting subplots, it'll be hard to justify looking around for very long when combat presents itself through a boring fencing match.

By presenting a setting and story shrouded in a thick fog, the side quests quickly became my favorite part of Downpour, giving me incentive to explore and discover events outside of Murphy's convoluted story. One memorable side quest had me reassembling a small record player in order to witness the evil events that took place at a residence and then help set things right. Another involved similar circumstances with a thief and stolen property that needed to be returned to its owners. These side stories present unique opportunities to do more within the confines of a Silent Hill game and flesh out the town itself.

Whether it be the convoluted and twisted tale of a fanatical cult in the first game or the mature themes of assisted suicide, rape, and incest in its 2001 PlayStation 2 followup, Silent Hill titles go for more than mere cheap scares. Downpour continues that legacy to a degree. But Vatra also maintains the horrible, repetitive combat of prior games while introducing unreliable storytelling that feels counterproductive to what they were building in the first place. These problems hold back great ideas like the new side quest system, and the questions left unanswered don't help soothe those issues either. But there are still reasons to experience Silent Hill if you can cope with these issues. Downpour's faithful homages to previous entries, its puzzles, and the genuine terror it produces can rekindle the dormant flame in a fan's heart.