angrymonkey said:

Finished my playthrough, thought I would bump this. A little bit of promo for a good niche game.

First off, length wise no one could have done more than I did. I looked and read everything and called all the phone numbers. I also walked a lot when I could have run everywhere just cause I thought it enhanced the atmosphere. Also a couple of the early creature runs I had to play for a bit before I got through them - especially the second or third one since it was so long and I had trouble shaking off a creature here and there. It took me about 14 hours. I would think a second playthrough would take me maybe 4. I know a lot of people say its around 6 hours - which is totally doable. I just took it real slow.

There is only one maybe two puzzles that would give anyone any trouble and mostly just for not being observant. The puzzles are not difficult by any stretch. I didn't think they were bad, but they are at most minor hurdles or just quick distractions. Not something to look forward to if you want tough puzzles. They are usually connected to the story or environment except for one I can think of which seemed too much like just an arbitrary puzzle thrown at you that you need to  solve to continue.

The chases were good. They didn't really bother me except for some trouble tossing creatures in one direction - still don't know if that's my fault or not. They are the only source of tension in the game. Once you realize they aren't in the real world, you aren't jumpy or apprehensive. But I wouldn't want creatures breaking through after you into the real world - maybe if they just tried to make the real world scarier or more threatening. They try to do this with messages and things you see, which are effective - I'm not actually sure how they could solve this problem.

Story is very good. Makes me think of the quality of old style adventure games. I tried not to figure out the story too much but I had a couple of ideas which were sort of right and sort of not. I definitely didn't finish it and groan or go - "I knew it!". It's not a long epic story like the longest journey or grim fandango - it's more like a short story. In fact, if anyone would have made a Twilight Zone game, this would have been the perfect one.(thinking of the original b+w shows). Huge reliance on the story and characters, not so much for action or effects. The protagonist is confused and powerless in many of the stories. And endings that made you go  - oh, ok.  I don't want to make out too much out of it like it's some amazing story, or a great twisty turny narrative - but it's good. I think it works and I like that it's understated.

Some critiques about things that should have been done to make it more of a silent hill game seem off the mark to me now that I've finished it. This isn't a game that is trying to be like other silent hills - it has a different tone. Combat and more grotesque horrors would make it more action horror oriented and would I think compromise the feelings of sadness and loss that is in the story. Of course that is looking back - playing it at the time and expecting a silent hill story I can see why people would be frustrated at the way everything unfolds. But looking at it now, I think it works pretty well. This game would probably have been received better critically if it didn't have the silent hill name but I doubt it would have gotten any of the attention. Would have been the cult game that nobody played.

I think the wii controls helped the experience as well. A little bit for immersion and also for injecting a bit of novelty and play in the experience. Otherwise manipulating objects would be more tedious and puzzles even less interesting.

I also liked that there are no standard game elements - no health meters, no med packs, no boss fights, no scrounging through the environment for loot and weapons and not really an inventory either. Again, it's more like the old point and click  games  except those would have you hauling around a lot of shit to solve more complicated puzzles. That's one thing I think they could have done without wrecking the tone, but too much of that and it turns into a puzzle game.

I like the approach they took with this. Fairly gutsy in the economic uncertainty and safe sequel environment we're in now- I don't think it would have flown on the other consoles. I think on the wii they were unsure enough of the audience that it got approved. Plus the recent SH games not doing so well must have contributed. I'd say play it if you can get past any silent hill expectations and don't mind the no combat and are ok with  a creepy mystery/suspense story rather than a full blown freak out horror story. Definitely if you have a love of point and click adventure games.

Sounds like I would be disappointed. Did you play SH1? How is it comparable.

gamingeek said:

Sounds like my kind of game. I take my time with games so I will try this out 3 times with variations to see what's different. It sounds like eternal darkness which was short-ish but I played through multiple times.

But that didn't take much longer considering subsequent play throughs took aobut 1-2 hours.

gamingeek said:

Foolz said:

gamingeek said:

Sounds like my kind of game. I take my time with games so I will try this out 3 times with variations to see what's different. It sounds like eternal darkness which was short-ish but I played through multiple times.

But that didn't take much longer considering subsequent play throughs took aobut 1-2 hours.

WTF?

No.

They did for me. Eternal Darkness was EXTRMELY short when you'd played through it once and knew what to do. (And I didn't skip anything on the subsequent play throughs either.)