Tomb Raider (2013)

I had fun playing Tomb Raider Anniversary almost a decade ago (where does the time go?), but despite being a remake, it didn't capture the magic of the original game (the one that started it all). And so, when this new-fangled reboot of the series came out a few years ago, I was mildly intrigued, but not so excited about the modern direction in which the series was heading that I had to run out and buy it. But now that my new exercise regime has given me regular time to play console games (and what an excuse - it keeps me in shape!), the likes of which I haven't had since before my college days - since the interactive nature of a video game distracts me from the monotony of walking on a treadmill much more effectively than the passive experience of watching a movie or TV show - I've made a point to play it. And here's what I think of it:

It was a fun game. But it doesn't really feel like a Tomb Raider game. A lot of that can be forgiven by the fact that this is an origin story - Lara Croft's first real adventure, before she became the badass we know her as now - but it doesn't really justify this game not simply being called Shipwreck Survivor (starring a Katniss clone with her signature bow and arrow - although, I have to admit, I may have squealed a little bit towards the end when (spoiler!) Lara dual-wielded pistols for the first time), unless or until there's a sequel (and there better be some pyramids!).

As a reboot of the series, this game feels, environmentally, like the Peru levels of the first game (albeit less cavey and more outdoorsy), with a little bit of Natla's Mines thrown in for good measure. But my biggest complaint is that it's only about 10% Tomb Raider. The only actual tombs in the game are literally optional to explore, and are all very samey vertical chambers with some mildly challenging obstacle to surmount. I swear to god, at one point, Lara actually says "I hate tombs" - unironically!

The rest of the game is about 15% Die Hard with button presses - oh, how I loathe the "quick time event" philosophy of modern gameplay. It's ironic, because in the days of Metal Gear Solid, I lauded this new cinematic approach to video gaming, but it's not much fun when you're basically watching a movie, except that you have to press a particular button at a particular point to get to the next scene (and god forbid you should screw it up, and have to rewind the scene and watch it ten more times before moving on).

The remaining 75% of the game is basically Call of Duty or Counterstrike or whatever war games the kids are playing these days (Borderlands? I dunno). Like I said, it was a fun game, but if I had wanted to play a war game, I would have bought a war game. This game is at its best when the world opens up and actually allows you to explore it (a little bit). The way you can hunt for relics (even if they're mostly not that interesting) and documents and salvage that you can use to upgrade your weapons is great. The sequel should have more of that, and less "kill this army of mercenaries (again)".

I'm happy to say that the level design has improved since Tomb Raider Anniversary, but it still has yet to evoke the sandbox appeal of the original Tomb Raider from 1996, where you could climb on everything, and finding the path from point A to point B was legitimately thrilling, and not an exercise in following visual breadcrumbs (emphasized further by your "survival instincts", however helpful they may be). The fact that you are following a scripted path is disguised a little bit better by the impressive graphics, but the effect on the gameplay is pretty much the same.

There is potential here for another winning entry in the Tomb Raider franchise, but the developers will have to iron out some issues first. They've crafted a moving story about the birth of a young explorer, who finds confidence in herself while unraveling the truth behind a Japanese legend about a Sun Queen who was rumored to have been able to control the weather. But there is room to improve, as I think I would prefer a game with more focus on the gameplay than the cinematics. And those of us who appreciated the fact that Lara Croft was simultaneously a sex symbol and a role model for female empowerment are going to have to get used to a less caricatured and more humanized Lara (nevertheless well cast). For better or worse.

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That's the end of the review. I'm going to finish up with a note on the controversy I remember this game stirring up when it came out. I should probably just let this be, as it's old news by now, but since I never got to have my say...

I remember when this game came out, there was an uproar in the gaming world over a scene where Lara is subjected to "attempted rape". I suspected that it was PC bullshit at the time, and now having played the game, I'm even more confident of that opinion. It's possible that they toned down the scene after the bad publicity, but I can't imagine any reason why it would have been anything like people complained about in the first place. With all the brutal violence that Lara is subjected to in this game (seriously, it's pretty graphic), it's actually offensive that anyone would single out one tiny scene where a shipwrecked savage who is clearly a Bad Guy puts a hand on Lara's thigh in the midst of combat - and that is absolutely as far as it goes. Considering that this is also the scene that immediately develops Lara's motivation for taking her first (of hundreds in this game) human life, feminists should be rallying around this scene, not criticizing it. Of all the things the developers could do to justify their heroine becoming a murderer, they chose (minor) sexual harassment.

And to anyone who thinks it's "insensitive" to put a female character in a video game through this kind of "abuse" - the tagline for this game is "a survivor is born". Tell me why we can create fictional media depicting the birth of a survivor through such natural and man-made hardships as being washed ashore a remote island and having to fend off wild animals and anomalous weather patterns while climbing a mountain (and falling back down the other side), as a literal army of savage, gun-toting mercenaries and supernatural ogres put out all the stops to try to murder and torture said survivor, but we can't depict her being the target of unwanted sexual advances? I'm sorry, but the "Dragon's Triangle" is most decidedly not a "safe space". Tell me that political correctness hasn't gone too far...

The Walking Dead (PS3)

So I had the good fortune to play through The Walking Dead by Telltale Games, which I'm guessing is the first video game based on the acclaimed comic and now television series The Walking Dead. This game is based on the comics, and is not to be confused with the newer game, subtitled Survival Instinct, which features the fan favorite and original characters the Dixon brothers (Daryl and Merle) from the TV series.

The first thing you'll notice if you play this game is that it's not your typical zombie survival horror gaming experience. Unlike Resident Evil, where you go around killing zombies and exploring, picking up health and ammo and the like, this game plays more like an interactive drama (it's even split up into five "episodes"), where you get to make decisions about what to do and what to say, which allegedly changes the course of the story.

This is actually the game's biggest strength. Because in emphasizing the drama, emotional horror, and character dynamics, this game effectively gets at the heart of The Walking Dead series and what sets it apart from the myriad zombie stories that permeate the media. It sets out to ask the question, what would you choose to do when faced with difficult decisions in the zombie apocalypse? What's your plan? Who do you side with in your group? Do you trust strangers? Can you do what it takes to survive?

It's a really fun, really intense, and heartfelt gaming experience, where you have to guide your character, Lee Everett, a convicted murderer (it was a crime of passion) on his way to prison when the zombie apocalypse breaks out, while protecting the little girl Clementine who got separated from her parents, against all odds. As in The Walking Dead comic and television series, you meet new people during your journey for survival, some of them die, and then you meet some more - not all of them worthy of being trusted. And there are characters you'll come to hate, and other characters you'll come to love (all the more sad when it's their time to die).

If I have one main complaint against this game, it's that it doesn't have nearly the replay value you would expect, given its boast that the story adapts to the choices you make. The truth is, there's really only one storyline, and while your choices do affect dialogue and character interactions, and whether or not you survive to make the next decision, the broad strokes of the storyline are all set in stone. It seems the biggest decisions you can make are which characters' lives to save and when, and even then, it's always the secondary characters who have a minimal effect on the thrust of the story.

I realize that creating a game that changes based on the player's decisions is a massive work effort. I honestly do. It's almost like creating multiple games at the same time. And I suppose I'm spoiled by Japanese visual novels - of which Fate/Stay Night is an excellent example - where your decisions can lead to totally different story threads. At the very least, I would have expected The Walking Dead to have more than one ending, depending on your playing personality, but alas, there is not. I just think that maybe the way the creators advertised the effect your decisions have on the story could maybe have been clarified a little, because as it stands, it writes a check it can't deliver.

But this doesn't ruin what the game has going for it, which is a lot. If you treat the decisions not as "how will the story unfold", but "what choices will I make in the zombie apocalypse", it still serves to be a very exciting gaming experience. Will you be honest or lie to your group members? Will you help a stranger in need or leave him to his fate? Where do your loyalties lie? Will you be a friendly person or a dick? Do you follow your moral compass, or are all bets off in this new and terrible world? And I guarantee that many of these decisions will not be easy to make, or to follow through with. Plus, at the end of each episode, you get to measure your choices to select pivotal decisions against everyone else who has played the game, via stats that are compiled online.

In conclusion, The Walking Dead by Telltale Games is a worthy addition to the Walking Dead series, adding a parallel and standalone storyline to the main plot (featuring mostly original characters, but with a couple notable cameos), that successfully captures the mood and gravitas of the series. If you are a fan of The Walking Dead, and appreciate what it does differently from the endless stream of zombie stories coming out these days, or you are in the mood for an intense and horrific drama (there are no happy endings in the zombie apocalypse), then it would be well worth your time to give this game a play through.

Dead Space (PC)

Dead Space is a sci-fi/survival horror third person shooter game. I'd say it's a sort of spiritual successor to Doom (a game with a very similar theme - encountering hellish monsters in space), which I grew up on, but with a third rather than first person perspective. On a cinematic level, it seems to draw inspiration from many classic titles in this genre, such as Alien, John Carpenter's The Thing, and most obviously, Event Horizon. The result is a very effective (that is, scary) survival horror game in space, that also manages to be lots of fun to play. The game is not without flaws (which I'll go into), but except for one spot in particular, they didn't prevent me from enjoying my gaming experience very much.

In Dead Space, you play as Isaac Clarke, a seeming jack-of-all (or nearly all) trades, who is part of a very small crew sent in to investigate the USG Ishimura, a "planet cracker" (a large starship that mines planets from space) in the midst of a total communications blackout. After your inevitably rocky landing, it quickly becomes clear that some horror without precedent has occurred on this ship, as the crew is mostly dead, the few survivors seem to be insane with terror (or something else), and the ship is crawling with "necromorphs" - a kind of biological alien predator that manifests from corpses. The ship itself is in a state of total disrepair, and so you must embark on a quest to get the ship back in relative working order, while trying to uncover the mystery of just what the hell is going on.

And it has something to do with a "Marker" that was discovered on the planet below, which is probably alien technology, and certainly is the source of the necromorph invasion - but exactly how is a little hard to work out. Many of the crewmembers of the Ishimura were (perhaps not uncoincidentally) members of a fanatic religious cult that views the Marker as some kind of divine idol. Their fervor, which involves an unhealthy fascination with the necromorphs, does nothing to facilitate the needs of those who'd prefer to live - and stay human.

I think Dead Space is fascinating on a number of levels - first, from the horror perspective of exploring a ship crawling with monsters; but also the idea of trying to get this ship back up and running. That task takes you all over the ship, one section at a time. For example, you have to visit the medical bay to recover computer access codes from the body of the captain - who lies in the morgue. Than you have to travel to the engine room to get the ship up and running, after which you have to divert power to asteroid shields so the ship isn't torn to pieces. Then you've gotta head to hydroponics to sort out the problem of alien growths polluting the air. This goes on and on until the ship is almost as good as new (okay, I'm exaggerating), at which point it's inevitable that you're gonna have to find some way to get off of it. It's lots of fun, although from a logical perspective I think it's amazing that a crew of just three (with Isaac clearly doing the majority of the grunt work) could put a ship back together that its own much larger crew couldn't hold together. I mean, it's not like we're not also being ambushed by these necromorphs at every corner! But I guess maybe we have the advantage of not being subject to the sheer confusion of an entire ship under attack and perhaps also in mutiny.

Let's talk a little (or a lot) about gameplay, which is where my main gripes come up - although Dead Space has a lot of clever innovations as well (at least as well as I can tell, given my lack of experience with a lot of modern games of this sort). The primary difficulty I've had with this game is with the interface/motion controls/targeting. I'm willing to chalk it up to my inexperience with third person shooters that use the mouse (I like the simplicity of Doom's keyboard only setup), but I was a lot less confident in moving around, as well as targeting my gun. Of course, that enhances my feeling of vulnerability, but not in a good sort of way. I also felt that the mouse was a little slow or choppy in responding, which further added to my frustrations at trying to stay alive - particularly when the necromorphs swarm and ambush, sometimes causing considerable slowdown. That may be a function of my computer's capabilities, though, as I do not have a computer optimized for gaming.

Ultimately, I've been able to more or less adapt, but every once in a while there'll be a portion where it becomes a frustrating difficulty. That frustration is partly compounded by what is actually one of the cleverest innovations in this game - that the necromorphs, alien organisms that they are, can only really be killed by cutting off their limbs (though I'm still not sure why). So instead of firing into the large mass of flesh that's hurtling toward you, you have to aim for its flailing limbs (although shooting out the legs is a frequently effective strategy) - hard enough when the adrenaline is coursing through your veins, but even harder when your mouse isn't responding as fast as you'd like (and sometimes, when you start impatiently jerking it around, you find yourself spinning 180 degrees, losing track of the monster that's clawing at you, and then by the time you've got the gun trained back on him, you're dead...). I'd also mention the difficulty of opening up your inventory (a painfully slow process when each second could mean your death) to use a med pack to restore health in the middle of a fracas, except that I discovered there's a 'health' button that does that automatically, that I guess I missed the first time I went through the tutorial at the beginning of the game. (facepalm)

I have to take a moment to mention the Asteroid Defense System. About a third of the way through the game, there's a little "mini-game" portion, just before you get the asteroid shield up around the ship, where you have to manually shoot the asteroids hurtling toward the ship from a gun turret for a couple minutes (that feel like eternity). It's like playing Asteroids in 3D, except that it's IMPOSSIBLE! Maybe with a hair-trigger mouse it wouldn't be such a big deal, but with the slow response I had to deal with, it was really, truly, impossible for me to get past that portion of the game. I was honestly this close to just giving up and not finishing the game, but finally I turned in desperation to the control options and upped the mouse sensitivity the highest it would go. It was still kind of jerky, but fast enough that I was at least able to actually beat that portion of the game. But I still have very strong negative feelings toward it, and I was only slightly reassured (during the height of my period of frustration) to read an interview with the game's makers apologizing for that part of the game, and assuring the public that it wouldn't be reprised in the game's sequel.

More on gameplay. I love the stasis module (which freezes/slows things down - good for combat and non-combat situations), and even more, the kinesis module, which allows you to grab things at a distance, draw them toward you, and then shoot them away, if you like. Very cool. The weapons are lots of fun too. I ended up using the first weapon - the Plasma Cutter - well into the game because I was so familiar with it. But once I started picking up less ammo for it, I had to resort to trying some of the other weapons, some that are more useful than others. The Line Gun is currently my favorite. Powerful, with a wide shot - excellent for taking off an approaching necromorph's legs, and if that doesn't do him in, another shot will tear off his arms as he starts crawling toward you. Also great for those little buggers who jump on the walls and have those three tentacles that shoot darts (well, except when they're hanging vertically). I was excited when I picked up the Flamethrower, but I ended up using it very little, since fire just doesn't kill the necromorphs fast enough. The Ripper is really neat - it shoots a spinning razor blade that hangs in the air - but I've had a lot of frustrations trying to handle it appropriately. Love the Contact Beam - not for regular combat, but for taking out those nasty pustules (particularly on the grabby tentacles) in a single hit.

There are a couple of other guns; my only real complaint is that you can only carry four at a time. I guess that means there's some strategy to what guns you're gonna carry, and I think the ammo you pick up depends on what guns you're carrying - so that, I guess, you get ammo for the guns you're actually using. But I like the Doom method of having each gun designated to its own number. It makes getting familiar with the guns much easier as they're always in a particular spot (5 is the rocket launcher, 3 is the shotgun, 7 is the BFG, etc.), rather than being shuffled around the only four carry spots you've got. But oh well. I think it's interesting that each gun has a secondary fire mode, which is fun to discover (some of them I haven't even bothered to learn yet, since I don't want to waste ammo, and the middle of a scuffle isn't always the greatest place to experiment).

Other neat gameplay elements include the Zero-G and vacuum portions (which may or may not occur simultaneously). The Zero-G portions were lots of fun for me. After the first one, I said to myself, that was really cool, I hope there are more like it later in the game. The suit you're wearing has boots that can attach to the floor, so you don't actually go flying through space, but you can jump onto the walls and ceilings, and there are often large, circular rooms designated for Zero-G areas. It's lots of fun. As for the vacuum areas, they're cool, too, although there's an element of impatience involved, as your suit only has so many seconds of oxygen before you need either a refill, or to exit the vacuum. It's like the underwater portions of other games, where you can only hold your breath for so long. I've always hated those portions, because I like to take my time and not feel rushed, and make sure I'm not missing anything. But in this game, it's rarely so bad that you don't have enough time before you exit the vacuum or get to an oxygen refill station, so I'm less scared of those portions. Plus I love that the sound actually mutes in those sections (well, mostly), given that sound does not carry in a vacuum, which is very cool. On that note, I noticed that when monsters attack in those vacuum sections, it's less scary for me, which indicates that a not insignificant portion of their intimidation is a result of the scary sounds they make, as well as the scary music and other effects that usually accompanies their attacks.

Alright, I've almost exhausted what I want to say about this game. One last gameplay element is the bench. In the game there are benches where you can upgrade your weapons and equipment with power nodes that you can collect throughout the game. You can make your weapons faster, stronger, hold more ammo at a time, etc. You can also power up your stasis and kinesis modules (improving range and duration and such), as well as your rig (which is your suit) - you can increase your HP and the amount of oxygen your tank can carry. At first, I didn't like this gameplay element, because it involved making decisions - what to upgrade and how, as the upgrade dynamics are not linear: there are connected dots on a 2D grid, some of which indicate upgrades, others just placeholders, and you can only activate a dot adjacent to one you've previously activated, with only certain dots on the perimeter designated as entry points (sorry if that's not very clear). I just hate the feeling that I might upgrade one thing, and find out that I wasted those nodes because a challenge I face later in the game requires more functionality from one of my other weapons, for example. But I guess that's really just me being overly cautious. Because I've warmed up to the system, and I actually really like it a lot now - it allows a certain customization of gameplay: so that if I like a particular weapon, I can make it really powerful; or I can decide between upgrading a gun's capacity or reload rate in order to have faster or less frequent reloads (an added advantage of the latter is that the more the gun holds, the less inventory slots you'll use up for spare ammo); or if I, for example, have particular trouble on the vacuum portions, I can dedicate my power nodes to upping my oxygen capacity, whereas someone else who has no problem with those areas, but instead has trouble with the challenges that require stasis, can use his power nodes to increase the duration of his stasis!

And that's actually one of the biggest contributions to this game's replay value. I just beat it (finally) the other day, and I wasn't planning to play through it a second time. But you get to keep all your equipment on subsequent playthroughs, along with some extra gifts for beating the game, so the temptation for me to collect more power nodes and make my equipment that much more powerful is strong. There's another thing, though - I still have some questions about some of the details of the plot. There's actually a very interesting plot to this game (even if I think the cult's fanaticism is ridiculous, and no better than the ravings of a lunatic). I've got the basics down from one playthrough of the game, but I'm a little uncertain about the motivations of various characters, and what exactly the truth is about this Marker, because there are some different perspectives on it from different sources, and I'm not a hundred percent sure yet who's right and who's not. So maybe another playthrough will make that a bit clearer for me. I know I'll certainly enjoy it, even as my confidence and familiarity reduces (though definitely not completely) some of the feelings of fear and vulnerability that this game creates.

Which reminds me of one thing I forgot to mention, and that's how much I hated the one necromorph that's effectively immortal, constantly regenerating his limbs. I hate him with a passion. They throw you into a room with this monster, and then the ship locks the doors in quarantine, and you have to fight with this monster until one of your crewmates can override the lock and get the doors open. Trick is, you can't kill the immortal necromorph, you just have to run around, killing all the other necromorphs that break in through the air vents, trying not to let the strongest one catch up to you and tear you a new one. Even more difficult than it sounds, and very frustrating. I'll tell you, it was with great satisfaction that I finally had a chance, considerably later in the game, to effectively incapacitate him.

Resident Evil 2 (Playstation)

All this talk of zombies while watching The Walking Dead gave me a craving for a good old-fashioned zombie shootout. I've been feeling a bit under the weather this week, and there's nothing like sickness to foster a good opportunity while sitting at home in bed to throw in a video game and waste hours of the day away on some interactive entertainment. So I walked over to my shelf and dusted off Resident Evil 2 (being that the emphasis is slightly more on action than suspense compared to the first Resident Evil), one of the great classics of survival horror video gaming.

The first thing that comes to mind when I play a Resident Evil game is to compare it to another beloved horror series - Silent Hill (my personal pick between the two). The games are similar in structure and format, but they have a fundamentally different approach to horror. Being zombie horror, Resident Evil has a more playful aesthetic, whereas Silent Hill is deeply disturbing on a psychological level. Not to say that RE isn't scary, but it's a much better game to play when you just want to have some fun, as opposed to those times when you feel like gazing into the abyss of demonic insanity.

Resident Evil 2 takes place largely in Raccoon City's police department, and the secret underground laboratories located under the sewers. I have to say, it must suck having to trek through the sewers to get to work each day. But I guess when you're developing a top secret bio-organic weapon, you have to go to lengths to keep it under wraps. This game introduces the G-Virus, companion to the original T-Virus that created Tyrant. Where the T-Virus rejuvenates dead tissue, the G-Virus seems to encourage uncontrolled growth and mutation - you'd think that after it keeps coming back bigger and stronger (and uglier) after each time you kill it, you'd get the hint and stop encouraging its growth!

I like the way the two scenarios weave together. I had forgotten, but you can play either scenario with either character (you should have seen my face when I tried to load Claire's data for Scenario B, and it refused, until I finally remembered that the game has two discs, one for each character!). There's just enough variation in locations between the scenarios (front vs. back door to the police station, different paths through the sewers, different areas of the laboratory) to keep it fresh and exciting, with enough overlap to make it feel like just a different side to the same survival experience.

The great thing about Scenario B is that, in addition to the new G-Virus monster, you are stalked throughout the game by a Tyrant in a trench coat. He's not quite a boss, just a big bad that shows up at the most inopportune moments to scare your pants off (or in Claire's case, those hot pink denim cut-offs). The one time (well, twice) he busts through the wall feels like a total slasher moment (like Rob Zombie's ten foot tall Michael Myers), with the invincible killer who just won't die, and keeps coming after you no matter how many times you manage to drop him to the ground. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis takes the Tyrant-stalking idea and builds a whole game around it, but here, it's just part of the overall experience.

...An experience that introduced the legendary Licker - talk about creepy! (The breathing noise they make is positively bone-chilling).



Classic game. Recommended for horror gamers, required playing for zombie aficionados.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (PS2)

Shattered Memories is a different kind of Silent Hill experience. To start with, the only monsters in the game show up during the periodic "nightmare" sequences, and you can't fight them (there isn't a single weapon in the game), you have to run. Those sequences do get your adrenaline pumping, but overall the game is not as scary as previous installments in the series. However, it does have some unique qualities going for it.

When you start the game, you are treated to a "psychology warning", which informs you that the game will psychologically profile you as you play, catering its nightmares to your specific fears and personality flaws. It says that the game plays you, as much as you play it. This is certainly a fascinating (and terrifying) concept. Though I do question just how effective it is in practice.

The structure of the game is such: the backbone of the experience is your visit with a therapist (hence the profiling), who asks you various questions that I presume shape your gaming experience. Between these sections of the game, you have to live through what appear to be memory sequences, punctuated by nightmare scenarios in which the whole town freezes over and gets creepy (and populated by monsters). The memory sequences involve your character, Harry Mason, exploring Silent Hill after a car crash in which you lose track of your 7-year-old daughter, Cheryl.

Of course, there comes a point in every Silent Hill game (and I should really know better by now), when it slowly becomes clear that you didn't just crash your car and lose track of your daughter, but something far more serious is going on, except you're not quite sure what it is until the end. But nobody who finds their way to Silent Hill is innocent. At the risk of spoiling, I'll say that I really enjoyed the twist at the end. I probably should have seen it coming, but I was so distracted by my fear of the game figuring me out, that it caught me by surprise, and I loved it.

One of the unique aspects of this game is the cell phone. Your character, Harry, carries a cell phone on him, which has a number of functions (including allowing you to save your game). Everything you need is on your phone, except the flashlight which is separate. You can save your game, view the map, take pictures of your environment, and call people, or receive calls.

Throughout the game, you'll come across certain areas where an electronic disturbance will alert you to a lingering memory attached to an object. As you approach, you will receive a text or voicemail, seemingly lost in time, and not necessarily addressed to your character, explaining the significance of that object or location. It's like your phone is responding to the ghosts of lost memories. Many of these messages do not seem to be directly related to the plot, except insofar as they relate to the themes of the game and set the mood. Though I've spent a lot of time wondering if they might not carry more significance than that.

There are also certain areas in the game where a different kind of disturbance will indicate an actual ghost that you can only see through your camera phone. The camera is a very interesting addition to the game. When you take a picture, you can choose to save it to your gallery or discard it. I'm not sure if there's any use to saving the pictures you take (and there appears to be a limit on the amount you can save), other than being able to look at a scene later in the game. For example, you could take a picture of a poster with a phone number on it, and then have that phone number later in the game (though I have yet to find an instance where this practice is actually useful).

The phone is another interesting aspect to the game. There are phone numbers all over the town, and you can call each one. So, for example, if you see a phone number scribbled on the stall in the restroom, you can call it and hear the annoyed girl complain about the people always calling her. Some phone calls are more useful than others - a few are essential to the plot - but most of them either provide some information about the town, or help set the mood, like the text messages and voicemails you periodically receive.

One other interactive aspect of the game is that you can control where you look while you're conversing with the various people you encounter throughout the game. I'm not sure what effect staring at a character's boobs instead of her face while she talks to you might have, since I haven't had the nerve to try it, but I know there's at least one place where you can get into big trouble if you don't watch where you're looking.

But all of this helps add to the paranoia of playing - not knowing how the game is monitoring and judging you, and how it might affect play. For example, you could choose to look through somebody's purse while she's in the next room, or leave it alone. When you play video games, you're used to going through people's things and not being penalized for it - in fact, it's often necessary to advance the game. But here, you have to balance your curiosity and the possibility of finding something with the potential penalty the game may charge you with. And you just don't know how it will turn out one way or another.

There are mementos hidden throughout the game, that you can collect. They fit into the theme of "shattered memories", along with the ghost messages, but I'm not sure what direct significance they have. I feel that way about a lot of the game. I suppose it must all go into the psychological profile you get when you finish the game, but I wonder about the specific dynamics. It seems less transparent, and that's unsettling, because I like control. Ha, maybe the game really is profiling me after all! The game does have replay value, what with all the choices you can make, and indeed, the first time I beat it, it directly encouraged me to try again, and to apply all the information I had learned to a second play-through.

Addendum: After playing through the game several more times, two thoughts come to mind. One is that, the way in which the game profiles you and changes accordingly is fascinating, but the system is unsurprisingly limited. Of course, the more choices you have, the more work has to go into the game, but a more freedom-rich environment could create vastly different gaming experiences catered to individual players' personalities (although this game is already something of a nightmare for completionists). Also, the added ways you can interact with the environment almost make the game like one of those old text adventures, except with extremely limited options - limited, in fact, to only those items whose interactions bear specific fruit in the course of the game. Also, keys are, without exception, located in the same room with the locked door, and require very little creativity (if any at all) to find. Although mixing that up would ramp the challenge up considerably, it would be a much more interesting (and thorough) gaming experience to change that up a bit.

The other thing I think of is how much I miss the old Silent Hill experience. This one is certainly a fun and interesting experiment, but it's rather linear, and the lack of combat totally changes the playing dynamic (and, of course, reduces the scare factor considerably). There's no real time spent getting to know each environment, and working out how to go from A to B (usually involving passing between real world and demon world repeatedly), while avoiding and/or fighting demons along the way (and generally getting your pants scared off) - you just kinda plow through each section, completely devoid of threat (excepting the Nightmare sequences, which require even more of a plow-through mentality).

So anyway, what I'm getting at is that this is a very unique Silent Hill, recommended for the merits it certainly has, but I'm not about to rate it as one of the best titles in the franchise, nor would I use it as an example of what classic Silent Hill is like - the type of Silent Hill that makes the series the scariest name in horror gaming. (For that, you'll have to look to the first two titles in the series).

Your Personal Nightmare

Note: This review was originally posted on Bridge To Better Days. I am reposting it here for archival purposes. It has been backdated to the date of its original posting.

As promised, here is the follow-up to my previous post on Silent Hill Origins. This post discusses game completion, so if you'd rather discover some of the game's secrets on your own, you might want to skip this entry until after you've played the game.

Let's start by looking at the stats for my second play-through:

Total enemies killed using melee weapons: 188
Total enemies killed using firearms: 1
Total enemies killed using fists: 58
Total items collected: 330
Number of map views: 7
Number of times saved: 13
Distance walked: 21.97
Total game time: 4:26:50
Total flashlight use time: 0:23:48
Number of game completions: 2

Total game time was cut in half from my first time, down to just 4.5 hours. Saves were reduced to almost a third of the previous number - showing my increasing confidence and knowledge of the game. I made a conscious effort not to view the map (although I still instinctively picked the maps up, and doing so results in an automatic view - that counts six (Town, Hospital, Sanitarium, Theater, Motel, Othertown) plus one extra view when I accidentally pressed the wrong button), and to keep my flashlight off as much as possible. You can walk right past most demons with the flashlight off (if the room is dark), and they won't attack you, but of course, it can be hard to see things lying around (and some rooms are just really really dark). I also focused on just using melee weapons/fists (I was kind of undecided/confused about which to choose) - however, that one firearm kill is none other than The Butcher, whom I was too afraid to fight up close, considering his lethal Great Cleaver.

As you may have suspected, all of these special conditions I fulfilled for the express purpose of earning accolades, which I briefly mentioned in the previous post. Extras in Silent Hill Origins are separated individually, such that you can earn them one (or more) at a time, and you get to keep the bounty on successive play-throughs (instead of just the next play-through). Previous Silent Hills gave rewards for high star rankings (abolished in this game), the best reward reserved for the nigh impossible ten star ranking. In Origins, you can work on the different accolades independently, instead of having to satisfy all the right conditions in a single play-through.

For example, there is a Sprinter Accolade, for beating the game in under two hours, and a Daredevil Accolade for beating the game without a single save. Previous games would require a minimum number of saves *and* a low completion time (along with myriad other requirements) for the ten star ranking, but this way, you can play the game through once, focusing on speed, saving as much as you want in order to perfect your timing, and then play it again, taking as much time as you need to beat it, but without saving your progress. Afterwards, you'll have both rewards in the subsequent play-through!

Well, that's exactly what I was planning on doing, but I started my sprinter run and I just thought to myself, "I don't feel particularly threatened", so I just didn't save and made it my daredevil run as well! Here are the stats for that run:

Total enemies killed using melee weapons: 4
Total enemies killed using firearms: 0
Total enemies killed using fists: 23
Total items collected: 88
Number of map views: 21
Number of times saved: 0
Distance walked: 6.66 Km
Total game time: 0:57:52
Total flashlight use time: 0:03:04
Number of game completions: 3

Zero saves, and completion in less than an hour (taking the shortcut joke ending). That 6.66 Km walking distance did not go unnoticed. Flashlight time under 5 minutes(!). Focused on killing with my fists (albeit with the help of the powerful Moon Gauntlets - although you have to be careful to only knock the enemy down and not kill it with the gauntlets so that you can stomp it and get a "fist" kill, since the gauntlets count as a melee weapon).

My overall conclusion for this game in comparison to previous Silent Hills is that it's fairly short (although I remember the original Silent Hill being relatively short as well), and, as much of a sting this is, not quite as scary as the other games. Still scary, just not as. Now let's talk about some of the cooler Extras:

Each accolade earns you an alternate costume, and some of them get you an additional special item. I'd say the majority of the costumes are kind of boring, but there are some cool ones.

Acquiring the "good" ending gets you the Savior Accolade, which comes with a nifty leather outfit, and the previously mentioned Moon Gauntlets, which are quite powerful - I was surprised when the final boss of the game took three whole punches to defeat!

The "bad" ending nets you The Butcher costume, which is pretty cool (bloody clothing), and The Butcher's Great Cleaver.

The UFO Ending (a joke, and a Silent Hill tradition), gets you the Tesla Rifle, which is a gun that shoots lightning. It's not super-powerful, but as it's supposedly powered by moonbeams, it never runs out of energy, and is quite cool to use. The "spacesuit" costume is unremarkable.

The Sprinter Accolade, achieved by beating the game in under two hours, gets you a costume which looks unappealing (sweats), but allows you to run nonstop without running out of breath - thus quite useful for running down those long streets of Silent Hill.

The Stalker Accolade, for playing in the dark with the flashlight off, is perhaps one of the coolest. The costume is a "black ops" uniform, and the accolade also includes a pair of night vision goggles, which are quite useful indoors. Get used to the characteristic green vision, and you'll be able to hunt demons in pitch black, knocking them out before they know what hit them. Particularly good for sneaking past demons without getting attacked, in order to save time and ammo.

The Fireman Accolade is also pretty cool. At the beginning of the game, there's a sequence where you come upon a burning house, and have to save the girl (none other than Alessa) inside. If you do it really quickly, you'll earn the accolade, which gets you a neat fireman costume and a powerful Fire Axe.

Take your choice, do you want to play through Silent Hill as a Fireman, a black ops agent, or a bloodied serial killer? The dog costume (Daredevil Accolade) and the Mexican wrestling outfit (Brawler Accolade) are amusing, but ridiculous. The latter is earned by defeating most enemies with your fists. As alluded to, there are also accolades for defeating most enemies with melee weapons, and with firearms. And there are a couple others.

WARNING: Plot spoilers ahead!

And now let's talk psychology. If you don't want to read major plot spoilers (for this game, as well as Silent Hill 2), then don't read any further. One of the coolest things about Silent Hill is the concept of the town personalizing your inner demons, and manifesting them into a[n apparently] physical form, to h[a]unt you down, until you uncover whatever deep revelation the town intends for you, or come to terms with a certain traumatic event in your past. For example, it is said that Alessa is afraid of dogs, thus explaining the dog monsters in the first (and third) game. Also, the schoolhouse boss in the first game was a monster from a scary story found in the school's library (The Monster Lurks). In Silent Hill 2, James is pursued by the assassin Pyramid Head, which can be said to be a literal embodiment of his [repressed] guilt about putting his wife out of her misery. Similarly, in Silent Hill Origins, it is revealed that Travis Grady may have a split personality - unknown to the side of him that we control in the game - as a result of the trauma of his parent's deaths in childhood, that manifests in the form of a brutal serial killer (The Butcher). Travis' unexpected layover in Silent Hill, in addition to his interactions with Alessa, serve to dredge up the childhood trauma he's repressed, and force him to confront his alter-ego. In a very real sense, it is a healing journey - although success (and survival) is far from guaranteed. This is what I love about Silent Hill.

Two recurring species of nightmare in the Silent Hill games are the demonic nurses, and the "straitjackets". The former represent a not uncommon fear for many people of doctors (and it's no coincidence that much time in Silent Hill is spent in a number of different hospitals). The straitjackets - lumbering figures with limited capabilities for aggression (though that doesn't hamper their intent) - can be said to represent personal feelings of self-imprisonment, and feelings of weakness and inability to cope with one's problems. The enemies that show up in Silent Hill Origins take forms that represent Travis' fears and insecurities, and in some cases Alessa's also. The "carrion" demon - an oversized, disfigured, stumbling half-roadkill beast - represents Travis' guilt over animals killed during his career as a truck driver. The "twoback" beast that stalks the motel mocks Travis' sexual insecurities, which are suggested in dialogue elsewhere. And of course, the malformed figures of Travis' parents, whose deaths traumatized him as a child, constitute two of the bosses/obstacles on Travis' journey of healing.

End spoilers! It is safe to read below:

You have to admire a game that inspires psychoanalysis on this order. But what tickles my inspiration bone, is the idea of personalized nightmares. What if you - yes, you - were to visit Silent Hill? Is there a monster lurking in your subconscious, waiting to be recognized? What kind of nightmares haunt you, and what form would they take as you cautiously, nervously wander the foggy streets of Silent Hill? I ask this question, and I think the answer would be most intriguing, however it's not only an incredibly personal question (and revealing your fears and insecurities always comes with the risk that others could take advantage of that information - then again, all the better for you to confront them, right?), but it's also asking you to shed light on something that may well be hiding in the darkest corridors of your mind; perhaps a place you'd rather not go. But Silent Hill has a way of calling you, of pulling you into a trap which forces you to do just that, if you would survive.

Silent Hill: Origins (PS2)

Note: This review was originally posted on Bridge To Better Days. I am reposting it here for archival purposes. It has been backdated to the date of its original posting.

It's a little bit early yet to be celebrating Halloween (Samhain for my Pagan readers :D), but I recently decided to finally pop in Silent Hill: Origins and give it a playthrough (or two or three). It's officially the fifth game in the franchise, following the spin-off-turned-canon SH4: The Room, and acting as a prequel to the original game. As such, the plot ties into the details of the cult's original experiment which resulted in the transformation of Silent Hill into the nightmare town that it is, and offers a little bit more detail about said cult and said experiment which was mercilessly obscure in the exposition of the first game.

The game's plot is split between the primary protagonist's own psychological problems, and his incidental encounter and subsequent meetings with Alessa Gillespie, cultleader Dahlia's daughter - the girl whose sacrifice turns hell loose on the tranquil lake resort town, and whose nightmares form the basis of the town's endless terrors ("when do we get to see into your sick little mind?" - be careful what you ask for...). The protagonist, Travis Grady, is a truck driver who happens to be driving by Silent Hill at entirely the wrong time (although you can be sure it's no coincidence). Travis has blocked out a particularly gruesome event in his childhood, involving his parents, which unsurprisingly, the haunted town is insistent upon dredging up for him.

Gameplay-wise, Origins plays much like a traditional Silent Hill game. The part of the town you get to explore is a little section just barely overlapping with that of the first game - with the familiar Alchemilla Hospital making another appearance (along with fan-favorite character Lisa the nurse). Other locations include a suitably creepy sanitarium, a cozy theatre (like for plays, not movies), and a motel.

Two aspects of the game that stand out are the mirrors and the melee weapons. Mirrors serve as the primary transportation module between Silent Hill and the "Otherworld", allowing you to choose when to move between the realms (although it's a pseudo-choice, since you have to go where the game leads you - but at least it gives you the feeling of controlling your passage; although not being in control is scary, knowing that you have to enter the Otherworld and that you have to be the one to take that step - willfully - is scary, too). The infamous siren that I so miss from the first game does return, but only to signal the end of each nightmare portion (after the boss battles, that is), and seems to correspond with Alessa waking up (hence the recession of nightmares); at least I think that's what's going on.

On to the melee weapons. As a truck driver, Travis (apparently) has the strength to grapple with his demons in generally closer quarters than protagonists of the past. Although there are a variety of firearms available for the claustrophobic, the game is littered with all sorts of handheld items that can be used as weapons - from knives, scalpels, and hammers, to wooden planks, typewriters, and even drip stands (those things you find beside hospital beds)! All of these weapons are breakable after a certain amount of use (which usually isn't a whole lot), although the sheer number of them available pretty much ensures you'll never run out. Actually working up the courage to get up close to the demons, to conserve your all-important firearm ammo, is your problem, though :p. Although, some of those items (like the typewriters and portable TVs) can be tossed at the enemy, and actually pack a decent punch. And speaking of punches, you can actually fight the demons barehanded if you've got the guts!

Well, for my first run-through of the game, I did fine. Took me some time to adapt to the fighting, learning the demons' maneuvers, what type of weapons to use against which species of nightmare, and whatnot. I ended up losing a lot of health throughout the game, prompting me to actually get a bit worried in a couple of places. What trouble I had with the regular demons was made up for, I guess, in the boss battles, which turned out to be relatively easy for me. To my surprise, the game apparently doesn't have difficulty levels, so it won't be getting any harder on subsequent run-throughs, as I had initially assumed, though. To my horror, two of the bosses returned later as regular run-of-the-mill demons! (Although, to be fair, the first "boss" was just a regular demon to begin with, if possibly a little stronger than average). The other bosses were pretty creepy, that's for sure. Especially "Daddy"...

Here are my summary stats for my first run-through:

Total enemies killed using melee weapons: 40
Total enemies killed using firearms: 56
Total enemies killed using fists: 83
Total items collected: 353
Number of map views: 486
Number of times saved: 37
Distance walked: 25.34
Total game time: 8:26:25
Total flashlight use time: 4:24:54
Number of game completions: 1

Eight and a half hours to beat it the first time. The "total enemies killed using fists" isn't as impressive as it sounds, when you take into account that only the final blow matters. When you hit a demon a few times, it falls to the ground. You can then "stomp" it to finish it off in a single hit, whether with a bullet, a melee weapon, or your boot (counts as "fists"). If you're too slow, it'll get back up and you'll have to hit it some more to knock it down again. So generally, I like to save ammo by shooting a demon down and then switching to fists to stomp on it.

Total items collected netted me a "Collector's Accolade" - I'm planning on earning some more accolades, then I'll probably come back and post an addendum discussing the "extras". 37 saves - as you can see, particularly the first time through a game, I'm a very cautious player. I'm also a very thorough player, which contributes to the number of items collected. I have to laugh that my highest rating is "number of map views". I'm surprised they even count that (there's an accolade related to it - so that's why). But yes, I check my map obsessive-compulsively. Practically every time I change rooms. And in the brief parts where I don't have a map (or when I enter a new area and before I pick up the map), I get stressed out because I can't visualize the overall architecture of the area I'm exploring. I actually said to myself at one point, "I feel nervous without a map". XD

I'm gonna end this on an interesting note. Origins has it's own Pyramid Head of sorts, in the form of The Butcher. He's basically a less distinctive Pyramid Head (i.e., without the signature pyramid head), who carries a huge butcher knife (though still considerably smaller than PH's Great Knife (though just as deadly)), and is rather more preoccupied with sadistically slicing through the flesh and bone of his victims than raping them (as PH is wont to do). So maybe not quite as distinctive a character as good ol' Pyramid Head, but still pretty intimidating. Although his presence in the game seems more secondary than primary, I understand he has some significance with regard to our protagonist's psychosis, but that's to be explored in the "bad" ending to the game, which I am currently pursuing. Ah, you gotta love Silent Hill, where the "bad" endings are often better than the "good" ones!

Hm, there was another issue I was going to address, but I guess I'll leave you hanging (on the meat hook?) until my followup. :p

Silent Hill 4: The Room (PS2)

Note: This review was originally posted on Bridge To Better Days. I am reposting it here for archival purposes. It has been backdated to the date of its original posting.

Having just beat Silent Hill 4: The Room for the first time, here are my general impressions. It helps to realize that the game was originally intended to be a spinoff of the Silent Hill series. This goes a long way in explaining why, though it definitely feels like a Silent Hill game, it has certain elements that veer from standard expectations of a Silent Hill game.

The game centers around The Room, which you, as Henry Townshend, are stuck in, since the door is chained shut (though from the inside). You travel to various "worlds" through mysterious holes that appear in the apartment, and it isn't clear if these are just dreams or reality or what. Interestingly, there's only one save point in the entire game, and it's in The Room (which despite being the "safe haven", starts to get pretty creepy later in the game as it gets more and more haunted). Since you're frequently coming back to The Room via holes that show up all over the alternate worlds you explore, there's still plenty of chances to save your game. Although, it does get kind of tiresome after awhile to go through the hole and back into the apartment every single time you want to save your game, or shuffle your inventory.

Which brings me to another innovation this game features. You can only carry a certain number of items at one time (ten or so). Everything else has to be stored in a chest in The Room. Early in the game, you get a notice warning you to travel light in that other world, or else you may regret it. Which is true, because you never know when you're gonna pick something new up, and you especially want to have space for the important things. Which means you can only carry so much health and ammo at once. It's not so bad, since there are holes leading back to the apartment pretty much everywhere, but it's still a pain after awhile to go all the way back through the hole every time you need to grab something or put something away.

The plot of the story is totally Silent Hill worthy, about a serial killer named Walter Sullivan who seems to be continuing his killing streak from beyond the grave. One thing I noticed in the game is the lack of boss fights. From what I can recall, there were two battles that could be considered boss fights, and one of them (the one that's not the final boss) was hardly even that. On the one hand, bosses scare the crap out of me, but honestly, the experience suffers a bit from not having them.

The other major difference about this game was the inclusion of ghosts and hauntings. There were still the usual Silent Hill demons roaming around, but this time there was a large emphasis on "ghosts", which, while definitely cool in concept, are incredibly annoying, considering that they can hurt you psychically, just by being close to you, and that they are effectively IMMORTAL! I hate enemies that I can't kill. There are certain items you can use: the Saint Medallions nullify the ghosts' psychic attacks; Holy Candles can be placed to kill off the ghosts (although they sometimes have a tendency to come back); and there are a few Swords of Obedience scattered about that you can use to pin a ghost down indefinitely. And these are all really cool gameplay elements, but the fact that there are only so many of these items, and the medallions break after a certain time of use, means that a lot of the ghosts you just have to run from.

Speaking of items breaking, let's talk about the weapons. This game is shy on the guns (providing only a pistol and revolver), choosing to focus more on the melee weapons, it seems. Some of these can break if used too much. Which, again, is interesting, but makes me hesitant to ever use them. Still, I wasn't too bothered by fighting my way through Hell with a steel pipe, axe, or even the Pickaxe of Despair (very powerful, but slow to use), pulling out the pistol for those hairier situations. Of course, there were always the immortal ghosts to bug me...

Oh yes, there's also the matter of the camera. Inside The Room, the game utilizes a first-person perspective, which just takes a little getting used to. It was pretty jarring at first though. Thankfully, the majority of the game (including the sections with combat), revert to the traditional third-person perspective, although the camera angle and movement (despite the fact that you can force it to just over your shoulder, good for combat) can be frustrating at times.

There are five main worlds throughout the game - subway, forest, building, apartment, and hospital. You actually end up going through each one twice (except hospital), and unfortunately, it gets a little tiresome towards the end. As for the Silent Hill "transformations" we've all become used to, there's much less of it here. You still get the same idea, contrasting The Room with the worlds, and especially in the apartment world, but there's less of a focus on that actual transformation, and going through one place in both worlds and marking the terrifying differences. Also, I found there to be, overall, less darkness in this game. Not to say that the game wasn't terribly creepy, but I think it's a little bit less creepy than the previous SH games, environment-wise.

Final game stats seem a little lighter (meaning that there's less of 'em that seem to count) than in previous SH games. My first time through, play time clocked in at just over 11 hours, with 62 saves (I've always been a heavy saver), and 633 kills (which I have reason to believe is a high number). I got the "bad" ending out of four possible. I want to try for the others, but the experience has left me a bit drained and I'm not sure I have the energy for it. My rank was a mediocre 5.5 stars.

At any rate, it was an enjoyable game. Creepy, too - definitely. Deviations from the expected formula may water down the Silent Hill experience slightly, but it's still generally a Silent Hill experience, and the innovations, for better or worse, were certainly interesting to try out. And you can't miss the storyline if you're a Silent Hill fan.

Silent Hill 3

Note: This review was originally posted on Myspace. I am reposting it here for archival purposes. It has been backdated to the date of its original posting.

A teenage girl's day at the mall turns into the worst nightmare imaginable. First, while snoozing in a café (Happy Burger), Heather has a horrific dream about a hellish amusement park. Then, a suspicious detective starts stalking her, mentioning her past. Demons show up, and after running into a strange woman named Claudia, who babbles on about gods and paradise, and Heather's true self, the mall is plunged into a nightmarish darkness. If that weren't enough to ruin your day, the subway has also been infested with demons, and the train leaves Heather off at an unknown, locked station, forcing her to travel through some underground passages and an office building before making it back home...

PLOT SPOILERS

...only to find out that her dad has been murdered. Then, on the way to Silent Hill, to put things right, the truth is revealed. Heather is the reincarnation of Alessa, the girl from the first Silent Hill whose purpose was to birth a god. She is the baby that Harry Mason was given in the game's ending. Harry took her away from that hellish town, but seventeen years later, cultmember Claudia Wolf is anxious to bring her back and commence the ceremonies. So Claudia enlists the help of a detective named Douglas, who only gets caught in the middle of things. Douglas is responsible for reuniting Claudia with Heather, thereby initiating the whole fiasco, but he was just Claudia's pawn, and ends up being Heather's only real friend in the ensuing battle for all mankind. The fourth character in the story is an independent cultmember named Vincent, who seems to have his own disagreements with Claudia's methods.

END PLOT SPOILERS

SH3 is a bit of a mix between old and new, conjuring up the memories of the previous SH games while creating new memories to add to the legacy. Among the locations, the Brookhaven Mental Hospital, a classic from SH2, is revisited here, as well as the Lakeside Amusement Park, which is explored much more in depth than it was in the first game. However, at least half the game occurs nowhere near the town of Silent Hill - a first for the franchise. (Rest assured, even the non-Silent Hill locations are sufficiently nightmarish). This unfortunately denies us, as players, the pleasure of getting to excitedly explore new outdoor areas of our favorite ex-resort town. Another byproduct of this situation is that much of the game feels a bit more linear than in the past, going directly from one area to the next (why does the church have a door leading to a tunnel that directly connects to the amusement park?), instead of being able to carouse about the town looking for open buildings. While this is a decided disadvantage, the linear aspect of the first part of the game is actually a nice experience, since the plot at that point is that you're trying to get home from the mall. You start the game with your house key, and you just know that your travels are eventually gonna lead you there. From the mall to the subway, through the sewers, and out through an office building next to your apartment, your journey leads you back home. But even after you get to Silent Hill and finally get to move about the streets, the options are depressingly limited.

Brand new locations include the mall (nice choice), subway station, an office building (nice chance for a variety of decor, from a dance studio, to life insurance, to auto parts, and more), and appropriately, a church. The Silent Hill atmosphere is fully intact in this game, from the graphics, to the music and sound effects, and the moments of sheer terror we Silent Hill fans have come to expect. One thing I sincerely missed, though, was the sirens that mark the transformation from Silent Hill to Silent Hell, if you will. Those sirens are iconic, and I really missed them. Instead, we occasionally get this creature allegedly named Valtiel, who looks like Pyramid Head without the characteristic pyramid helmet, climbing on walls, turning a valve. I'm not entirely sure what purpose Valtiel served, but he was never used for more than effect. That is, he never attacks you, and isn't even directly referenced by the game. So he freaked me out at first, but after realizing that he's harmless, I didn't mind him so much. He's certainly no Pyramid Head.

New techniques: Silent Hill 3 offered two new gameplay additions. One is the block (at least I don't think it was featured in the earlier titles). I didn't use it a whole lot (run seems to be a more effective option), but it was useful against the Memory of Alessa boss. The other new addition is the beef jerky. A rather clever idea. You can pick up beef jerky throughout the game, and place it on the floor to distract some of the demons. I suspect it only works on the more animalistic and lower to the ground enemies. Truth is, I didn't really use it that much. It did come in handy during my play-through when I made a point not to kill any enemies (except for bosses). The jerky was essential in at least one of the hallways in the Nightmare Hospital, to distract those annoying lizard things that love to get Heather on the floor...I think they're called Slurpers. A pleasant image, indeed.

Speaking of monsters, the monsters were pretty good in this game. The first ones were generically creepy (the fishy ones), and the tall lumbering things with huge arms were rather intimidating. The dogs were cool, with gruesomely split heads (I can't imagine how they're still able to bite and howl...) - annoyingly fast, though. The wasps pretty much freaked me out for quite awhile, before I got the nerve to actually kill one. The fact that they can fly - meaning they can move across pits, coming from directions you wouldn't expect to be attacked from - doesn't help. Nor does the freaky grating sound they make with their blade-things. The ambling, lizard-like, floor-crawlers were equally disturbing and frustrating, particularly when they attack in numbers. Getting pushed flat onto the ground in the middle of an ambush is not pleasant. The fatsos were interesting. I believe they're officially referred to as "Insane Cancers". The way they lie on the floor, seemingly lifeless until you approach, is unnerving, even when you know what's going to happen. They take a lot of pain, although I worked out a way of killing them with consecutive thrusts from the katana (my favorite weapon), which saves ammo and damage - it's somewhat less effective on harder action levels, though. I think the only monster I'm leaving out is the type that shows up in the church and looks like the roof boss. I guess they're your typical late-game addition to the bestiary - formidable and feisty.

One aspect of the game that was a little iffy was the voice-acting. All the parts reek of over-acting, in that cheesy game-dialogue sort of way. At least it's not like I play Silent Hill for the FMVs. The game held a certain bland sense of humour, which in some cases I enjoyed. But ending the game with the line, "don'tcha think blondes have more fun?" ...this is Silent Hill, I remind you. I have to say I preferred the alternate ending (possessed). It was definitely more of a "Silent Hill ending", even if it was less believable. Vincent actually made one joke in the game that I wish was true. He's talking to Heather about all the killing she's done, suggesting that she's enjoyed it. Heather asks if he's talking about the monsters, to which Vincent replies, "they looked like monsters to you?" That could have led the game into a psychological direction akin to the second game, but alas, it was only a joke. In the game's defense, the in-game text used to describe items you come across really captured Heather's personality, I think.

Extras (this section obviously contains spoilers about the different kind of extras you can unlock in the game)

I was pleased with the extras in SH3. As for the extra weapons, you can unlock a beam saber, a flamethrower, and the Unlimited SMG (Sub-Machine Gun). Of the three, the Unlimited SMG is probably the least cool, but actually the most useful. It stops enemies in their tracks pretty well, and makes the bosses considerably easier. I feel like I didn't really give the flamethrower a fair chance, but although it's really cool, I didn't find it to be particularly useful. It's just too slow and too weak, and the range is rather pathetic. Considering that my favorite weapon was the katana, the beam saber was a dream come true. Basically it's a green lightsaber. It still has the shortcomings of the katana - short range, not so hot in an ambush - and though I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be stronger than the katana, it does require a couple seconds to activate each time you use it. Though there is a trick to get it open on the fly.

The other significant extra feature in SH3 is alternate costumes. After beating the game, you unlock an option on the title screen which lets you type in passwords to acquire new costumes for Heather to wear in-game (including FMVs!). Those passwords can be found in a number of ways. A handful of costumes are "Silent Hill 3 Originals", and their passwords are uncovered by beating the game under certain conditions (like killing no enemies, or achieving a 10 star ranking, etc.), or otherwise found within the game, or given in the official strategy guide. There's also a wide range of promotional costumes for various video game magazines, websites, and such, who gave out their passwords in their own medium, though all of those have since been conveniently compiled for the SH3 costume collector.

I automatically love it when a game featuring a female protagonist offers an option for alternate costumes (TR outfit modding anyone?), but I was disappointed that the vast majority of the costumes were simply color/pattern variations of the jeans/sleeveless shirt outfit. Though the jeans/shirt outfit was a considerable change from the standard gore-tex jacket/miniskirt/boots outfit. Still, despite the monotony of outfits, SH3 redeems itself with the Transformation costume. You aren't gonna believe this.

Beat the game twice, and you get the Transformation costume. Equip it in-game, and you will be treated to a hokey transformation animation showing Heather morphing into magical girl Princess Heart. No joke. Then you get to traipse through the darkest, dankest corridors of hell-on-earth as a justice-fighting, love-redeeming magical girl (mahou shoujo)! And that's not all! There's actually a fourth extra weapon you can unlock, called the Heather Beam, which uses up stamina to shoot energy balls and sprites from Heather's eyes. Use it with the Transformation costume equipped, and it becomes the much stronger Sexy Beam! You can even shoot beams from your eyes like Superman! And here's the best part - go on a rampage, killing demons with the Sexy Beam, and you can get the "Revenge" ending. Like the UFO ending in Silent Hill, and the Dog ending in Silent Hill 2, the Revenge ending is a rather bizarre joke ending which showcases the creator's unexplainable sense of humour...

Conclusion

Silent Hill 3 lives up to the Silent Hill name, and if you enjoyed the first two games, I can't imagine you not enjoying this one. Still, I'd like to see the outdoor portion of the game series not vanish altogether. I've heard that Silent Hill 4 is even more of a departure from the traditional formula, but I have confidence that it'll work out well. I can't wait to play it. I'm really grateful for the Silent Hill franchise - I have not before or since played a video game that is quite as scary. Realms of the Haunting is a close second, but where RotH's horror leans toward a mythical bent, Silent Hill is just pure hell. As an adult who no longer fears the dark (in general), Silent Hill freaks me out much more consistently than any of the horror movies I love to watch. I simultaneously look forward to, and dread, my next foray into the world of Silent Hill...

Endgame Stats

Tomb Raider Chronicles

Note: This review was originally posted on Myspace. I am reposting it here for archival purposes. It has been backdated to the date of its original posting.

"Lara Croft
Once And Future Adventurer"

My issues with this game are: a) it has the same downfalls as The Last Revelation (particularly in forced perspectives and cinematic reveals); b) the level-loading times are patience-testingly long; c) which is compounded by the fact that for some reason when you die, it automatically loads the title screen instead of assuming you want to load a game, so that when you die, you have to go through two painful loading screens instead of just one; and d) the final level has way too many annoying bugs...

If you can get past all of that, it's actually a pretty fun game. Clearly a lot shorter, and not quite so epic as LastRev, since the different episodes are unrelated, but fun. Plus, you get back that location variety as well as alternate outfits that were missing from LastRev. Winter Camo for the Russian levels, Young Lara for the Halloween episode, and a shiny Catsuit for the industrial levels (and, of course, the classic outfit for the Roman levels).

The setup of the plot is actually pretty neat. Lara is missing and presumed dead after the raid of LastRev, and some of her closest friends gather together after the dedication of her memorial in order to tell stories of some of her more secretive past adventures. First you get to run through the streets of Rome, and eventually the Colloseum, searching for the Philosopher's Stone. Then you get to infiltrate a Russian submarine to recover the Spear of Destiny from some undersea wreckage. Then you have a rather unique Halloween episode, where young Lara follows a priest onto a haunted island. Finally, you get to sneak into Von Croy Industries, Mission:Impossible style, to steal the Iris back from some androids (that's right).

Overall, the levels and locations felt sort of like an amalgam of previous tomb raiding memories and experiences, doing justice to the 'Chronicles' title, as well as adding some new features and experiences. New moves include tight-rope walking, parallel bar swinging, and limited hand-to-hand combat techniques. I'll say a few words about the individual locations (this section may contain some spoilers):

Rome (The Streets of Rome/Trajan Markets/The Colloseum)

These levels kind of felt like a dry Venice (TR2), with a little bit of the original greco-roman levels from the first game thrown in. The Colloseum was pretty cool. This time around, you got to fight gladiators as well as lions. You didn't get to explore the Colloseum proper, though, so it's not like you can even compare it to the first game's Coliseum. It was definitely interesting to see Pierre and Larson (from the first game) back, and as funny and stereotypical as ever. Larson being the dumb cowboy, and Pierre being the snooty Frenchman. Nothing too serious, but a generally good time. Pierre's downfall was pretty ruthless, though, but very clever (with a few puns of its own), and true to Lara's original badass image (as opposed to CD's modern 'delicate' Lara). Helmet Head was freaking annoying to kill.

Pierre: You were kicked in the head by a horse, oui? So the brain doesn't work correctly?
Larson: How'd you know about that?

Pierre: Come, let us get off this roof, and I will buy you a milkshake.

Russia (The Base/The Submarine/Deepsea Dive/Sinking Submarine)

Imagine TR2's Offshore Rig set in TR3's Antarctica, with a tiny bit of TR2's Maria Doria levels thrown in on the side, and that's what the Russian levels are like. The Russian Admiral actually turns out to be a pretty sympathizable character. Exploring the submarine was pretty fun. The Deepsea Dive portion was disappointingly short, though. The Sinking Submarine was also fun to explore.

Black Isle (Gallows Tree/Labyrinth/Old Mill)

This little episode was surprisingly original, and interesting. First of all, it's the first set of full levels with young Lara, unlike the Training levels in LastRev. Second, because Lara is young, you have no weapons, so you have to think of other ways to avoid enemies. Third, the whole thing was like a Halloween theme park, with all kinds of classic baddies haunting around, from werewolves to will o' the wisps to skeletons to deranged forest spirits to a [literally] heartless talking hanged man to an apparition of death to a seahag to a headed horseman/perturbed demon... Really neat levels.

Von Croy Industries (13th Floor/Escape with the Iris/Red Alert!)

Beside the annoying bugs in the final level, these levels are mostly fun. Some stealth stuff, partly reminiscent of TR3's Nevada levels, as well as a setting reminiscent of the City portion of TR3's London levels. Crawling through vents and sneaking around is fun, though this isn't quite Metal Gear Solid, and the stealth tactics aren't quite as reliable. The guy talkin' to Lara on the headset, telling her about the layout of the building and et cetera, is extremely annoying though. He tries to be all hip and cool and everything, and he just comes off as being obnoxiously annoying. And you can even tell in the tone of Lara's voice that she thinks the same way. Eventually, you start wishing he would just shut up and let you figure things out for yourself, for what it's worth.

Conclusion

As for the "tombiness" of Tomb Raider Chronicles - very low. But by this point, you kind of start taking for granted that Lara rarely raids tombs these days, and just accept it for what it is. For that reason, this game could never compare to the original, and it doesn't quite have the legendary levels that two and three boast. Still, for a light-hearted (despite the gloomy nature of the storyline - mourning Lara's death) adventure through some vaguely familiar, and some newer, areas, this game delivers an enjoyable distraction from your own boring life (at least until the bugs get you).

Endgame Stats:

Time Taken - 7:27:43
Distance Travelled - 34646m
Ammo Used - 2683
Health Packs Used - 42
Secrets Found - 28/36
Saves - 330

Tomb Raider - The Last Revelation

Note: This review was originally posted on Myspace. I am reposting it here for archival purposes. It has been backdated to the date of its original posting.

Background:

The fourth installment in the hit series starring Lara Croft. Now this is interesting, because this is where I lost contact with the Tomb Raider series originally. I played the first three games when they came out, but then I sort of got distracted away from the series, and ignored it until just a month or so ago, when they remade the first game (Tomb Raider Anniversary). Since it was a remake of the incredible original, I couldn't pass it up, plus I figured it would be a good way to reintroduce myself to the series with something familiar, while meeting the modern Tomb Raider engine at the same time.

As it was, after playing Anniversary, my interest in the series was rekindled, and I played through the three games I own. Then I bought the next two games, and I'm playing through the fourth one now, for the first time ever. This game was supposed to be a return to the tombs, after the city-like, industrial, and open-jungle levels of the second and third games in the series. Last Revelation was also originally supposed to be the final Tomb Raider game, as Lara Croft supposedly dies at the end. It's also considered the last of the classic titles, as the fifth game was a half-assed cash cow (I hear), and the sixth game took some huge risks and failed miserably (I also hear). Then Core was replaced by Crystal Dynamics, and we get the modern Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider Legend, with an all-new game engine. That's the history of it anyway...

Pros:

Nonlinearity - You can pass freely between levels, and in some cases, you have to in order to collect items and open gates to move on to yet more levels.

Poison Effect - The screen dilates and contracts on the vertical and horizontal axes, really screwing up your perception of direction and distance - impressive and effective.

Laser Sight - You can combine the laser sight to select guns in your inventory (why not all of them?), adding a new element to combat by allowing you to target a specific spot rather than just pointing your guns and shooting.

Shimmy Around Corners - This is a useful addition that seems like it should have been implemented awhile ago. Now, when you're hanging from ledges or climbing on ladders (or ladder-like surfaces), you can actually maneuver around corners without having to be on foot (as there is often not a floor to stand on in those situations).

Torches - Being able to pick up and light torches in this game was a really cool addition. It was also a nice alternative to lighting flares, as the torches lasted pretty much indefinitely (unless you drop it in some water). It would have been nice if you could use them as a weapon, though. It just seems like it would be natural to kill a mummy by lighting it on fire with a torch. But alas, I had no such luck.

Cons:

Loading Times - I can understand the loading screen when you pass between levels, but stepping into a room within a level and having the screen freeze for five seconds before continuing really interrupts the game flow.

Forced Perspective - In some areas of the game, the camera changes from its usual spot behind Lara in order to accentuate a certain aspect of a room or focus on something within the room. This is useful and at times essential to the gameplay, but in the earlier Tomb Raiders, you have the option of hitting the Look button to move the camera back to its default position behind Lara. For some reason, in this game, you can't shake the camera out of its predefined position in these specific areas, leading to some really disorienting and frustrating sections where you can't choose where to look.

Cinematic Reveal - Every time you throw a switch, or sometimes just when you enter a particularly special room, a cinematic follows where it shows you a door opening or it shows off the room or something to that effect. In previous games, when this happens, you're still in control of Lara, and you can hit the Look button or pull out your guns in order to kill the cinematic and force the camera back to Lara. In this game, you just have to sit there and watch the cinematic, even if you've seen it already. Plus, there are a lot more cinematics in the game, reminding me of Elysia's comment on TRA, how every little thing has to be handed to you in a cinematic, instead of allowing you to discover it yourself. Honestly, I thought a lot of the disappointing changes in TRA were the result of CD's handling of the series (CD replaced Core after the sixth game), but now I'm starting to wonder if the disappointment of TRA stems from CD trying to replicate the disappointing aspects of later TR's and apply them to the pure and unfettered original game...

Locust Swarms - The piranha in TR3 were annoying, but you could stay out of the water. The scarab swarms in this game are annoying, but at least you can escape them by getting high off the ground. But the locust swarms cannot be evaded. When they come, all you can do is try to outrun them, as they peel away your health, until they run away. All I want is some way to evade them. Like if lighting a flare (glo-stick) would make them stay away, or if you could kill them somehow. I just don't like hearing that locust swarm moving in and knowing there's absolutely nothing I can do but suck it up and prepare a medikit.

Lack of Alternate Outfits - Okay, it's not a fundamental part of the gameplay, and even the fantastic original game stuck with one outfit for the whole journey, but after the exciting alternate outfits in the second and third games, it's a little disappointing not to see some new ones in this game.

Lack of Croft Manor - I can forgive this game because they have a rather original training level, where Lara is 16 years old and being instructed in the ways of tomb raiding by her mentor, but I still can't help feeling nostalgic for the old Croft Manor.

City Levels - A return to the tombs, indeed. The bright, sandy Alexandria areas were interesting and fun to play, but the dark Cairo levels started to bore me. It was interesting that they kind of went for almost a horror vibe, but it just wasn't right for a Tomb Raider game. The alien scares of the Antarctica levels in TR3 were effective, but this was a little...blah. Plus, I've never been hugely fond of vehicles in Tomb Raider, but they've been an integral part since the second game. I'd just rather explore at a slow pace on foot than zoom by a bunch of areas with my foot on the pedal.

Inventory - I really don't understand why they got rid of the three-tiered circular ring-style inventory of the previous games. It was unique and one of Tomb Raider's trademarks. In this game, you just get a regular line of items that you can scroll through left or right. And there's only one tier. It was really nice having weapons/health/flares on one level, special items (keys, etc.) on another level, and system controls (sound, video settings, load game, save game, etc.) on yet another level. In this game, everything is confined to a single level, and when you get a lot of items, it's annoying having to scroll them all back and forth like crazy, mainly to go from using medikits to saving games, to choosing ammo types for weapons, to looking at what special items you carry, etc. It's maddening. And the options and exit game commands weren't even in the inventory. You have to press 'p' (for pause) to get to them. I went halfway through the game before I figured out how to exit to title! And the bloated inventory is particularly annoying because halfway through the game, you pick up 5 special items that you just hang onto for the rest of the game. I just really don't see the justification for getting rid of the ring-style inventory...

Endgame Stats:

Time Taken - 17:32:03
Distance Travelled - 97975m
Ammo Used - 10144
Health Packs Used - 63
Secrets Found - 53/70
Saves - 754

Level Impressions:

(This section contains spoilers!).

Cambodia (Angkor Wat/Race For The Iris)

This was a nice training/beginning to the game. You get to control Lara at age 16 as she is shown the tomb raiding ropes by her mentor Werner Von Croy. The race is a lot of fun because you can try to beat Werner to the Iris, but you have to be good!

Valley of the Kings (Tomb of Seth/Burial Chambers/Valley of the Kings/KV5)

These levels were pretty cool. Kind of half tomb-y, half desert-y. A good introduction to the mood/setting of the game. The sphinx in Tomb of Seth and the rotating room in Burial Chambers were particularly cool. The vehicle section in the last two levels of this group had me feeling so-so, though, since I'm not a huge fan of vehicles in Tomb Raider.

Karnak (Temple of Karnak/Great Hypostle Hall/Sacred Lake/Tomb of Semerkhet/Guardian of Semerkhet)

These levels were fairly good. They were definitely reminiscent of the Egyptian levels in the first Tomb Raider game, particularly the Khamoon levels. Of course, they weren't quite as wonderfully architecturally designed, unfortunately. The game of Senet in the Tomb of Semerkhet was pretty fun (after I remembered to read the tablet stating the rules...). I like how you have to go through a bunch of extra chambers to beat the level if you lose the game. The Guardian of Semerkhet was creepy (until you saw he was just an ornamented live bull), and added a new aspect to the gameplay, as you had to use him to grant access to certain areas.

Desert (Desert Railroad)

This was a really fun level. It takes place on a moving train in the middle of the desert. I saw the cutscene leading into this level, and I was saying to myself, I really hope I get to play on the train! And I did! It definitely reminded me of Indiana Jones, in whichever movie it is where they're fighting on the train. I just wish there had been more to the level.

Alexandria (Alexandria/Coastal Ruins/Catacombs/Temple of Poseidon/Lost Library/Hall of Demetrius/Pharos, Temple of Isis/Cleopatra's Palaces)

This was probably my second favorite location in this game. The earlier sections are very sandy and desert-y, but the later underground levels are very tomb-y and actually somewhat reminiscent of the greco-roman levels from the first Tomb Raider game (a Temple of Poseidon, in Egypt?). The nonlinearity played a huge part in this location, as most of the levels were connected in various ways to each other. The Catacombs were pretty good. Not quite what I was expecting, but effective nonetheless. They were more vertical than horizontal, but that added to the feeling of "going deeper". The Lost Library had some pretty frustrating puzzles, which is probably a good thing. Pharos, Temple of Isis was probably the second biggest 'woah' moment for me in the game. I was a little confused about where to go from the Coastal Ruins. I knew I was missing something in the Catacombs, but I found an underwater passage in Coastal Ruins that led to this huge underwater cavern with the entrance to some giant underwater palace. I was totally impressed. And the hammerhead shark was a nice addition. I was just like, woah! And the best part was that I didn't even think I was supposed to be there, so it felt more like a discovery than just moving onto the next area. You know what I mean? Cleopatra's Palaces returned to that very sandy Egypt feel, but the beautiful plants scattered about also made me think of the gardens of Palace Midas from the first Tomb Raider game. All in all a pleasant level to explore.

Cairo (City of the Dead/Chambers of Tulun/Citadel Gate/Trenches/Street Bazaar/Citadel)

These were without a doubt my least favorite levels of the game. Dark, city levels. Kind of like the London levels of TR3 in atmosphere, but nowhere near as intricate or interesting to explore. Plus, they were all part-vehicle levels. The turret guns were annoying. Somebody could have told me that shooting them in just the right spot causes them to explode. The locust swarms were annoying. The giant dragon was pretty creepy, but kind of unexplained? I just really lost my patience with these levels, and was really anxious to get them behind me.

Giza (Sphinx Complex/Underneath the Sphinx/Menkaure's Pyramid/Inside Menkaure's Pyramid/The Mastabas/Great Pyramid/Khufu's Queens Pyramids/Inside the Great Pyramid/Temple of Horus)

I'd have to say this was probably my favorite location in this game. Which is good, because you want the game to end on a good note, right? The sphinx was cool, but it was the pyramids that really grabbed my attention. I had so much fun climbing up the side of Menkaure's Pyramid, and then when I saw the many-times-larger Great Pyramid, I was awe-struck! That was my biggest 'woah' moment from the game. Less of a wow!, and more of a wo-o-o-ow. Inside the pyramids was pretty good, though I feel like the tunnels and chambers could have been better if they were a little more claustrophobic. The lightning/thunder effects on the outside were cool. The giant scorpions were awesome, and creepy. Temple of Horus, being the final level, was slightly disappointing. Basically a single puzzle repeated a few times, then the boss chamber, which wasn't the most impressive boss chamber in a Tomb Raider game. There were some traps on the way out, but considering that this is The Great Pyramid, it still doesn't hold a candle to The Great Pyramid of the first Tomb Raider. And then the ending is, well, depressingly arbitrary. I can't believe that after all that happened, Werner is suddenly a good guy again, and I can't believe that after coming all that way, Lara can't make the last few steps out of the pyramid before it collapses. ::shrugs::

Overall Impressions:

This was overall an enjoyable game. There were some new additions that added to the Tomb Raider legacy, but I feel like there were many more new additions that pushed Tomb Raider away from the classic feel and more towards the modern feel. I still haven't played the other later TR games, but I really get the impression that CD used some of the less enjoyable ideas from this game when making Tomb Raider Anniversary, instead of sticking to what made the first game what it was. The levels themselves were pretty good, but already give off a slight feeling of in-intricacy. The nonlinear fashion of some of the level sets was really cool, but it felt like they used that as an excuse to make each level itself less intricate. Some of the levels were actually pretty small, serving as just a few traps or puzzles connecting this area and the next.

Final verdict: I just can't rate this game as highly as the first three in the series. It definitely had its moments, which will not soon be forgotten, but a pervading sense of deterioration is already palpable, and knowing the extent to which modern Tomb Raider has gone, I can't help but let that put a little poison into the experience. Still, it was mostly a fun game to play.