Silent Hill: 0rigins
Description official descriptions
Silent Hill: 0rigins is a prequel to the Silent Hill series set in the 1970s. You play as trucker Travis Grady, who attempts to take a shortcut through Silent Hill late one night when running behind on his rounds.
As in the previous Silent Hill games, you move back and forth between nightmare and real versions of the town, here crawling through mirrors to get between. He must gather items used to solve puzzles and open up new areas. Monsters of various types provide obstacles and, in series tradition, are mostly disturbingly twisted versions of humanity.
Travis can fight with his bare fists or use melee weapons. Unlike previous games in the series, melee weapons break after a time. There are also one-shot items that can be thrown and several guns. Combat is performed through lock-on. There is no HUD, but the edge of the screen turns red when Travis is near death.
Spellings
- Silent Hill: Origins - Alternate spelling
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Credits (PSP version)
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 74% (based on 50 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 50 ratings with 1 reviews)
Short, sweet but lacking the impact of the rest of the series.
The Good
Silent Hill origins is the first Silent Hill to be released on the PSP (not the first on a handheld that honor goes to Play Novel for the GBA) and Climax graphics did a fairly good job adapting the game for the weaker hardware.
Melee fighting has been overhauled including breakable weapons and the ability to use just about anything you can pick up as a weapon. Enemies and boss characters are balanced well and the sick, glistening sheen exhibited by all of them is commendable. Ambient sound effects and a masterful score by Akira Yamaoka will once again make you pee your pants and cry your eyes out at the same time.
The story is fairly typical however seeing the revelations about Travis' childhood including the physical abuse from his Mother and the suicide of his father are harrowing and depressing, just like a Silent Hill storyline should be.
An achievement system has also been added to the game, rewarding you for meeting certain conditions during play with weapons or costumes available on an additional play through.
The Bad
Silent Hill Origins is incredibly short.
The size of the town proper has been reduced; you can only explore one district. In addition to that the reduced graphical grunt of the PSP reduces the shock factor of some of the scenes. Speaking of shock, there is little present in Origins and although some set pieces are astoundingly inventive (like the Stage) most are simply recycled or bland.
The Bottom Line
A short, formulaic Silent Hill experience which is nothing new or refreshing but a welcome addition to the franchise with a competent story, pretty good acting and a fantastic soundtrack.
PSP · by AxelStone (34) · 2009
Trivia
Development history
This game was originally started by The Climax Group's (now closed) Los Angeles office, Climax LA. Erik Gloersen was running that section at the time. Phil DeLuca was producing. Anders Granlund was lead programmer. Tim Trzepacz worked as a contract programmer. There were two other programmers on the team, which still left it horribly understaffed.
The project was originally being coded using an original engine that Granlund had written, and which was being shared with a UK team working on a version of Bethesda Softworks' The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for PSP. About three months were spent building new systems for this engine, when the decision was made to scrap it and go with RenderWare instead, starting over with a code base that was inherited from the Ghost Rider project.
There were certainly some problems moving forward from there. For example, the AI and pathfinding on Ghost Rider were written by people who were no longer working at Climax group, which slowed things down tremendously.
Work on that continued for nearly six months when management changed at the US office. After a period of upheaval, the entire Climax USA operation was closed and the project was moved to the UK. It is unknown if any of the original project's code was used in the new version, but none of the programmers from the US office were credited in the final release.
The game was eventually completed by Climax Solent.
Information also contributed by Tim Trzepacz
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Ace of Sevens.
PlayStation 2 added by Kabushi.
Additional contributors: Sciere, Alaka.
Game added November 25, 2007. Last modified September 8, 2024.