Cenobite's impressions

[Cenobite, that cute pariah]

So, I just completed the game for the first time, getting the "Forgiveness" ending.

In a sentence, I think its a strong entry in the series marred by some technical flaws.


I thought the story was quite good. Murphy Pendleton is a great protagonist, possibly the best the series has ever had. I also quite liked Howard, who I was already familiar with from Past Life, but I was hoping to see a bit more of him. He's a character I wouldn't mind seeing appear in future games.


Monster design was a mixed bag. I thought the Screamer and the Prisoner monsters were fairly unimpressive, though the Juggernaut was better then the Minion. The Weeping Bat and the Wall Corpse were decent, I'd put them at middle ground for the franchise.

However, I really liked the Dolls, the Bogeyman, and especially the Wheelman. I feel that the Bogeyman is a much more successful way of making a "Pyramid Head level" monster then the Butcher was in Origins.

On the technical side of things, in keeping with Silent Hill tradition, combat was pretty bad. I don't usually mind that, but I felt that there was just too much of it. I generally try to avoid fights, but some monster's foot speed (Weeping Bats in particular) made that problematic at times, but in a frustrating way rather then exciting. I was playing on Normal difficulty, but for subsequent playthroughs I'll probably turn it down to easy.

The framerate did chug at times, and to my amusement I actually outran the loading a couple times. I'm hoping this is something that can get patched.


To say that I'm not a fan of Korn would be like saying that the natives of Pompei aren't fans of lava, but to my surprise I thought their song actually kind of worked for the purpose of the attract video. On the other hand, the end credits should have lead off with one of the McGlynn songs.

The music in general was pretty strong. I'm familiar with Daniel Licht from his Hellraiser work, so I knew he'd fit right in. I also enjoyed the use of older songs like Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen.

Aesthetically I really liked pretty much everything. The town looked great, particularly when it was raining. The rain itself was well done. I loved the visuals for the Otherworld, though I wish there were a few more exploration scenes in it. Also: cute easter eggs for longtime fans.

I also really liked the addition of the UV light. Finding hidden clues is always neat, but I really liked how it slowly built up the mystery of the Wheelman. I found tracks all over the place!


I'm sure I'm forgetting things, but right now its 5am and I want to go pass out. More later as I think of it.

[Toadkiller Dog]

I need to get cracking and get back to playing this. The UV light thing with tracking down the Wheelman sounds awesome, even though I don't know what the Wheelman is.

So busy lately...so busy.

[Redemption]

I just finished playing this myself, accidently went back and was able to see 2 other endings, all up i got forgiveness, full circle, and one that doesn't actually seem to be unlocking a achievement. Suspect the endings all branch off from the scale 'puzzle'.

I really liked the Bogeryman and Wheelman designs. Although, Bogeyman was a bit simplistic, he was a intimidating enemy. The rest i didn't care for too much.

I think the support characters were under utilized, and the game felt a bit like it went on a little longer then it should. It sort of lulls you into a false ending, before progressing with the last quarter/stage of the game.

Outside of the technical issues, and they were a lot more noticeable in one stage then they were in others. There was one point where one of Murphy's arms was caught inside his own body, and it wasn't clear if he was aiming the gun or not. after getting smacked around a bit, i realized the gun wasn't even equipped. just in his hand.

I really liked downpour, and i'll be going back into it soon to actually play all the side missions (only completed 4 i think first time). I'm still one of those people that doesn't like Homecoming, but to me, thats really been the only mis-step in series. I'm hoping Vatra get to continue working on the franchise, if they're allowed to, hopefully they can work out the technical issues, and we'll see another interesting story. But hopefully, they make the town look more like the sleepy town that we've known in the past. The place is getting huge.