Being one of the most popular horror franchises in gaming, it's sensible, if not wise, to make as many Silent Hill games as is demonically possible; this is why I understand why the hell someone would even come up with the idea behind Silent Hill: 0rigins in the first place.

   The legions of rabid fans began to steadily and mournfully walk away from the series somewhere around Silent Hill 3 , mainly because after a masterpiece like Silent Hill 2, anything else was a step back. 2004's Silent Hill 4: The Room helped matters little, and things got hairier than your mom when team SILENT, the series' rightful developing team, disbanded like N*Sync (though I'm still debating which separation marked a darker day for mankind), leaving the series up for grabs.

   We hadn't seen a title in the franchise since 2004, which is long enough to deem the series legally dead. Enter Climax Studios, a developer that's noticeably more American than apple music, country pie and dyslexia, who was burdened with the creation of the fifth official Silent Hill title, targeted to be a prequel to the original game and set seven years before Harry Mason's magical adventure.

   Now, I've been commanding a few battalions of the aforementioned legions of rabid fans (yes, I'm that High Commander McAwesome you've been hearing about), so I have to say that it's a sad day, and possibly a sign of the apocalypse, when I play a Silent Hill title that I don't fall into dangerous love with. So if you're a Silent Hill fan who's sitting on the fence about the new developers, it might be time to take your respective tumble to the either side.

Oh, right, stories like coherency, don't they?

   The fifth victim in the franchise is a lonely truck driving hick called Travis Grady, who, seven years prior to the first game's start, stumbles by a burning house on the outskirts of Silent Hill. Inside, he finds a girl just about ready to be dipped in BBQ sauce. Not particularly shaken by the happenstance, Travis rescues her and, once outside, passes out, only to wake up in the town of Silent Hill.

   Now, we're talking about a series that's well known for two primary things: one, it's scary as hell and, as such, an excellent cure for constipation; two, some of these games have been considered landmarks in medium storytelling. Let's focus on this second aspect for a moment, because it's probably one of the reasons why I started disliking 0rigins.

   From a story perspective, this title has to juggle two balls, which is of course just a metaphor and not a comment on the game's sexuality, since I'm pretty sure it's a girl. These two, ahem, balls, are, respectively, the main story arc of the game, and the fact that this tale forms a prequel to the overall series narrative. Now, in an ideal world where I'm King of all lands and you're all my willing slaves, these two sides of the story would harmoniously co-exist with each other and form a whole that properly compliments the franchise's on-going plot. Alas, you still don't bring me my slippers and thus, in this flawed reality, this story is rather terribly told.

Hero? More like...zero! Oh, I'm priceless.

Is the writer's strike hitting videogames now?

   All the games in the series have had a logical, plot-related explanation for just about everything in them, including the succession of areas, puzzles, monster design, etc. Not so with Origins. What was the relevance of the Altaud Theatre? Why does basically every character except Travis show up for half a second and then disappear? Were we really supposed to be intrigued by Travis' visions of the young girl in a school uniform? Is it true that toilet water flushes to the other side south of the equator?

   There are other issues with the story as well. For instance, the 'cult' jibber jabber had good concepts behind it, but was still terribly executed because of bad pacing - important things happened too fast, irrelevant things were given too much of the spotlight and so on.

   For what it's worth, although I hated most of the story, I did feel that it got exponentially better in the final parts, right after the Motel. There's one really, really cool FMV sequence, followed by a series of revelations that did manage to tie the game with the original in an acceptable fashion, leaving the aftertaste bordering on the sweet side of bittersweet.

   And don't worry, this game does not tie with the movie like some people claimed. It doesn't even try to, praise Jebus. I mean, I love the movie, but that thing's got a whole different universe entirely. Deal with it, fanboys.

There's only room for one of us in this game, gameplay.

   Superficially, the game will make you think good things about it: the graphics are stellar, the environments are purely Silent Hill ,and the gameplay seems perfectly in line with the rest of the franchise. It will even feel like playing the original Silent Hill again for the first time. However, the changes that were made, minor as some of them are, managed to really screw up a lot of the experience.

   For instance, there aren't a lot of survival resources in the environment. You don't run across as many bullets, first aid kits or energy drinks (though I never figured out what the hell the energy drinks did in the first place); you do, however, run across a crapload of all sorts of degrading melee weapons. Yes, Travis can use, and somehow store (where the hell does he keep a drip-stand, up his crap pipe?!) many different melee weapons going from the logical, like axes and sledgehammers, to the whimsical (read: "retarded"), like portable TV sets or toolkits. This adds unnecessary and frustrating sort of difficulty to the gameplay.

   Also, the player is now given control over reality shifts. Every time you see a mirror, you can travel to the alternate version of Silent Hill. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but I kind of liked the idea of the town being out of control. I liked fearing when the place was going to go ape-poo, and trying to anticipate it. Giving me control over these changes removed some of the best moments of tension the series had offered. Sounds tiny but trust me, it's large. Almost as large as my ego.

Welcome to Silent Hill, the home of physical realism.

   The weapon degradation is very frustrating, but not as frustrating as the fact that this time, our hero suffers from exertion. Maybe the man's a heavy smoker, but Travis gets tired and panting after what seems like a grand total of four steps. Try running from monsters with that physical condition. Go join a Pilates class, you lamer. Yes, I said "lamer". Try breathing heavily through THAT one.

   While the game is definitely not difficult by regular standards, it's simply awkward trying to beat a boss when all you have to fight with is a screwdriver of questionable durability. I actually beat the final boss by punching him. Call me Evander Tyson. Yep, you can actually punch the fleshy beasts. The punching takes away from the atmosphere and adds a touch of humor, because it looks quite funny.

   Which gets us to the main point: this game isn't scary. There's all kinds of cheap scares here and there, but the atmosphere never really manages to create the tension you'd expect. There was one scary bit with a doll early on, and a couple of really disturbing sort of moments, but that's about all.

It's an exploration of darkness, guys, give it a break.

   The game is nice enough to suggest that you should play it with the lights off and headphones on in case you have the common sense of a fish that's friendly to cats. Still, even with these suggestions, the game never manages to really create the atmosphere the series is well known for, and relies upon. I'm no console elitist, but in my humble opinion this has much to do with the fact that I'm playing the goddamn thing on a five inch screen. Yes, it is true that I've never been able to really get into handheld games unless the objective is to arrange colorful blocks while I wait for the bus to arrive. But when I want the game to really pull me into its world, its story and its characters, I sure as hell want to play it on a behemoth TV with a gargantuan sound system (or as close to that as I can afford) to really immerse myself.

   Instead, what's left is only a marginally engrossing experience that uses the controls the PSP offers, that being a familiar set of buttons plus the thumb-pad, also known as the worst idea since croc shoes (the things are nasty, so stop wearing them!). Controlling Travis using the slippery thumb-pad is like trying to teach a legless dog to do the Charleston (although I did manage that once; god, I miss Baxter!) except this is far more frustrating and far less rewarding.

   At the very least Climax stuck to the familiar in terms of pacing the game the way you'd expect. A cool setup, and then a series of secluded locations in town, all of which end with a boss fight, with drawn-out town exploration between them. What else could they really have done, though? I love Silent Hill 4: The Room because of how it took the series in a different direction, but that didn't sit very well with the defensive fanbase. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, I guess.

There's still good fun to be had in Silent Hill.

   Having focused so much on the negatives through the length of this review, I want to take some time to emphasize the positives. The graphics are really, really good. The in-game visuals are vivid and the art direction is crisp, sporting the same environs the series fans have grown to love. And with Akira Yamaoka back in the recording room for the series (thank god because I can't imagine anyone else doing it), the game sports yet another beautiful soundtrack. This one is a more piano inclined score with more vocal tracks than any other Silent Hill. Now I'm sure I'm not the only one who's giddy over Mary E. McGlynn's gorgeous voice, and thankfully, you'll listen to her a lot in this game. The first song is one of the best the series has had to offer, and is the reason why the very first moment of gameplay might well be the best in the game. Pure cinematic awesomeness.

   Another thing that continually caught my attention in a very positive way was the puzzles. With the exception of Silent Hill 4: The Room , this series has thrived with complex and intelligent brain teasers. I'm glad to report that Silent Hill: 0rigins sports some of the most creative and intriguing puzzles the series has seen, without them being ridiculously difficult like the stuff in "Hard Puzzle" mode in SH 2 and 3. With the exception of the "calendar" puzzle, which was just ridiculously designed, these will make you think for a while and feel good afterward. What's more, their difficulty escalates consistently with every one, so you can anticipate their twisted mechanics.

Will you visit the town again?

   Replayability was clearly taken into account when developing the game, as we're treated with some of the usual fare in the series replay value. There are three different endings to find (including the UFO! It's back, guys!), an overall ranking when the game is finished, lots and lots of unlockables, and a nifty new system called Accolades, which is basically Silent Hill's answer to XBL-style boy scout medals. Depending on how you played, in the end you'll be awarded with a different set of these small emblems. For instance, if you walk more than X miles, you're awarded the "Explorer" accolade. There are somewhere around fifteen of them, unlocked as achievements. Gotta catch 'em all!

One final thought. Well, several.

   When it comes to survival horror games you can still do much, much worse than Silent Hill 0rigins, but by no stretch of the imagination is this a worthy entry to the series. If you're the sort of person (also known as a Resident Evil fan) who doesn't give a crap about plotting or character depth and just wants an engaging survival horror experience, you'll have fun with this game because, again, you can do a lot worse. Fans of the franchise, however, should approach it carefully, and take into consideration the fact that most of the original developing team is gone and we'll just have to adapt to the inevitable changes. I'm willing to, I love this franchise that much, and refuse to proclaim it dead just yet. Just please, keep the series away from handhelds, it will never flourish there.

       ... Leon Sakau