[JemyM]

Silent Hill: Origins
I have played all the games in the Silent Hill series, including "The Orphan" on my mobile phone. I like the series, but the first two were really the best. The third had a bit too much action. The fourth was a great game in it's own, even if it broke off from the formula. Anyway, since Silent Hill really started to become popular, there have been alot of discussion about "is there any rational explanation for all of this?". Different endings offer different theories as explanations of all the weird stuff going on, but adding it all together it's probably best to reach the conclusion that not even the makers have a clue. Still, the SH series consists of great storylines, strong with symbolism and often with a gruesome twist.

Silent Hill: Origins were developed for PSP and was later released for PS2. Personally I have played the PSP version. The Japanese seems to like prequels and this is another one, supposed to take place before the first game and explaining some things about what kind of city Silent Hill actually is. The game do not only tie back to the games before it, but also to the movie.

Having ended it though, I have to say that the game fails to deliver. The greatest problem is that it fails to surprise. There's really nothing new or exciting about it. There are connections to previous games yes, but they are rather weak, and contains nothing that explains or improves those games. The story in Origins is almost a prelude rather than a prequel to Silent Hill 1. The main character, Travis, is the most boring and uninteresting character yet in a SH game as far as I concern. There are no new areas worth mentioning, several of them are reused from older games. In fact, the whole game is like that, recycling the previous games.

Even the gameplay have problems. SH:O have more weapons than ever before, but you will only use a few. Since I ran past most opponents I had a truckload of melee weapons at the end.

All things considered, SH:O is the worst game of the series.