TKD's Downpour First Impressions.

[Toadkiller Dog]

You guys know who I am, and some of you may know how many games I play. That being, A LOT. In fact so many that I rarely finish any of them. I hate to admit that, but it's true.

That said, not only do I play a lot of games, but I've been playing them for a long time. As such it takes a lot to really excite me now days in gaming. But of course when a new entry in my favorite series is around the corner I get pretty excited.

Well I'm very happy to say that thus far, this time it was worth the hype.

The atmosphere in Downpour is fantastic. I'm not even in Silent Hill yet, and it's awesome. The pacing seems very good so far, I'm finding myself really liking Murphy's character and the environments so far have been awesome. Dreary, depressing and foreboding.

The music, man, I'm SO happy with it. Daniel Licht is phenomenal. This is absolutely the single best replacement Konami could have used for Yamaoka. His work sounds very much like Yamaoka's in fact, but with a hint of his own personal style. It's extremely fitting. Very, very well done. That said, the inclusion of a Korn song in the intro video to the game was a major miss. Luckily it's not played during action scenes in the game. I couldn't deal with it if it was.

I need no has-been nu-metal in my Silent Hill, thanks. The song is miserably out of place, and downright awful in my opinion. Awful to the point that I actually couldn't finish sitting through the whole intro video, had to skip it. Hell, even if it was a band I actually liked it most likely wouldn't fit in this game, and is completely unneeded.

It's ok though, it's minor, and like I said, it's only in the intro so far. Whatever.


Graphically I'm a BIT disappointed. The game looks good, a lot better than Homecoming, but it could look so much better. In the age where games like Battlefield 3, the Uncharted series and Final Fantasy XIII exist, I did expect a bit more. That said though what's here is pretty nice. Some of the textures are just a bit muddy. On one hand it kinda fits with the tone of this series. But on the other it could have just looked so emaculate with a larger budget. I know it's hard to compare this game to the three I mentioned because they had astronomical budgets, but I can only imagine what this would have looked like if it had too.

Combat is clunky. There's no way around that. In this regard it's a step back from Homecoming. This is both a plus and a negative. A plus because this is as close as this series has gotten to the combat of the original games in a while, so there's that. Negative because it's just clunky, and seems to sometimes force combat situations that can't be avoided. I think overall the combat is a good deal like SH4, but with the degrading weapons of Origins.

I'm certainly not a fan of those degrading weapons by the way. It's neat in that it does keep what combat is there intense, because you often find yourself searching for a new weapon while boxing the monsters in the mean time....but it also doesn't help the already clunky combat.

Puzzle wise I've only done two so far, but what I've done felt truly Silent Hill like, and was fun. Can't complain here so far, but it's too early to tell really. Only what I have seen is solid.

Monster design is average, nothing special, which is in itself disappointing. What's here is decent, not super cheesy so far. Just...average. And allow me to touch on the one and only otherworld chase sequence I've done so far. I...actually really enjoyed it. Good essence of suspense, and is overall much more enjoyable than the chase sequences found in Shattered Memories, which I dreaded when playing that. While the one I did did rely some on trial and error, I only died once, and realized my mistake before death, as I was careless.

The one I've tried so far is still FAR less reliant on trial and error than those in Shattered Memories.



Overall, I gotta say now that I felt the need to be overly critical here, for the sake of you guys. But don't mistake this for me having not enjoyed what I've played. Quite the contrary, I've actually really, really enjoyed what I've done so far.

I've still got a long way to go in the game, but what I've played so far delivers. Silent Hill hasn't been this true to form in a while honestly.

[Tabris]

I'm a few hours into the game. Basically everything Toadkiller has said hits the nail on the head for me.

So far the music is wonderful. It's been very Yamaokaish and makes me want to play with headphones.

Graphics could be a tad better. But at the same time it's so very beautiful. I love how the sun filters through the sky. Or the gorgeous sky and waterfalls of Devils Pit. Very honestly, this is what I wanted in Homecoming a little more.

But the framerate does stutter sometimes. It's not THAT bad and it's really not a game killer. Just a minor annoyance sometimes. Maybe it'll be fixed in a patch.

The combat is fucking annoying though. It's a step back from HC for sure. In a way, I like it because Murphey isn't a nut case that mysteriously knows the ways of combat like Alex. But sometimes it feels broken because I swear my weapons are just going through monsters instead of just 'missing'.

I don't mind the weapons breaking though. It hasn't really screwed me over yet. There always seems to be weapons and some weapons definitely respawn themselves.

But because combat is so frustrating I tend to just throw my weapons at monsters right now. Pick it up, throw it again until it dies. Saves a lot of BS and health. Murphey seems to be able to take a lot of damage though.

I do really wish there was an easier way to tell between weapons and actual items in the game though. Like X = weapons O = items or something. Minor problem for me though.

Overall, this game friggin rocks and I'm really loving it. I'm going to take my sweet ass time with it, I don't care if my first playthrough is like 15 hours. I already can't wait to play the parts I have again.

Oh yea, Devil's Pit has the best waterslide and roller coaster evah

[Toadkiller Dog]

I'd like to add to this now that I've gotten further.

While the melee combat is clunky, the gunplay is a lot better than most games in the series, excluding the combat heavy Homecoming. It functions well while still giving you the feeling that Murphy isn't a trained combatant.


The game's atmosphere is fantastic. And it has some truly "OH, SHIT!" scary moments, at least so far for me. The enemy design isn't as bad as I'd initially thought either. They're not great, but they're ok. I've actually began to find the Banshees kinda intimidating and creepy in their awkward, but quick movements.

I've also found ammo is VERY scarce so far, I like that.

And to that effect, this is where having a clunky combat engine works to the game's advantage actually. Fighting is a chore, and you can seriously get worked by a single normal enemy if you're even remotely reckless. As such it makes running into an enemy actually mean something. You don't want to fight, and when you run into more than one enemy, you most likely shouldn't, period. It makes running into even the most mundane enemy mean something, making you seriously weigh your options of fighting or fleeing.


The more I play, the more I've enjoyed. This game is pretty damn good.