Brings back the emphasis om "Survival". Best and most incredible story in the entire Silent Hill Saga.
Beautiful look, edge, and feel.-
Endless thrills-
Best and most intriguing story line ever in the Silent Hill saga as well as the most credible-
Replay value is high.
The Bad-
Often will experience a sudden drop in frame rate.-
Open world will some times leave you lost as to what to do next.-
Silent Hill Downpour is in my opinion the best the Konami has created. Here I will tell you why.
First of all one of the biggest improvements are the story and voice acting. In previous Silent Hill games you often can't help but laugh and make fun of a good bit of the dialogue. I'm not saying that the previous Silent Hill stories were in any way bad. Many were quite amazing. But the acting and bad wording would often detract from the plot. In Downpour the acting and script have you begging for more at the end of each cut scene. Note the longest cinematic like in any game is the opening scene. So don't think that your going to be spending a long amount of time watching people talk and less time killing monsters because your not.
Another big plus to the game would have to be the large emphasis on survival in a slightly different way that the Silent Hill 2 did it, but just as good. In the last few Silent Hill Games it started to become to much action oriented. Especially Homecoming were you a ex-marine. I often found myself stuck in a action/shooter mind set and lost the suspense and the thrills. In Downpour you are always scrambling to find a new weapon once your current one has broken. You can virtually use anything to fight from a chair to a crowbar. You will come across a few guns in the game, but ammo is very scarce which is more realistic than coming across ridiculously powerful types of ammo in someones apartment.
You'll find a variety of new demonic monsters awaiting to rip you apart once you set foot in Silent Hill. Before you get there even. Although I would have expected a little more variety in the newest installment of the Silent hill saga, but they each have their own preference of tactics that make each one terrifying in their own way. One disappointment I had with one of the more terrifying and stronger monsters is that he will seldom follow you into another room. This often then leaves you running to these "safe zones" when confronted and ends up leaving you not as terrified of these brutes as you could be. Although just about all other monsters won't hesitate to give chase to you. It's easy to lose them while running on the streets, but when in the confines of the indoors you will often have to be very quick to get away from one of your pursuers.
The sound track is varied and helps with the story telling along with the horrifying and disturbing sound effects. There is an infinite amount of sound effects that will have you looking over your shoulder. Which you can literally do now in Downpour. You can also throw what ever weapon you holding at a distant enemy if it's nearly broken or you need to make a quick get away.
Along with the incredible main plot you will be following you also have a fair amount of side quests. These often will greatly increase what you'll get out of the story as well as influence the ending. In one you come across a bird trapped in a cage. When you release it you will have a quick look at a flash back of you protagonist's past. Each time you find a bird you get a little more of the flash back. Some of the quests aren't as interesting, but will often pull you in like this one.