Silent Hill: Origins

Overview

Silent Hill: 0rigins was released for PlayStation Portable on November 2007 and for PlayStation 2 on March of 2008. It is a Survival Horror game that puts players in control of Travis Grady, a trucker who somehow gets himself lost in Silent Hill and must find a way to find out what's going on and how to escape the town.

Players will explore various locations of Silent Hill and meet some very strange characters, as well as battle the grotesque creatures that lurk in the streets of the ghost town. Taking place seven years before the original Silent Hill, the game's story uncovers some secrets about the origins of Silent Hill.

Gameplay

Like the other Silent Hill games players control the character in a third-person perspective while exploring different locations in Silent Hill. As with many other survival horror titles, 0rigins' gameplay is a mix of exploration, puzzle solving, and combat. Like Silent Hill 4, players can hold many weapons at once, however they will break after a certain amount of use.

Plot

Travis Grady is a trucker driving his route, as he's done dozens of times before. This time, to keep himself entertained, he decides to take a shortcut through the abandoned town of Silent Hill. After reaching the entrance of the town, Travis sees a little girl in the middle of the street. Startled, Travis stops the vehicle and looks around for her, but she has vanished. He then sees a fire in the distance. It's a house burning down, and somebody is inside, a different little girl.

After saving the little girl, Travis inexplicably passes out and wakes up on a bench in the streets of Silent Hill. Unwisely curious about what happened to the little girls, Travis finds his way to the town's deserted hospital, where events continue to occur around him.

Enemies

Common Enemies

• Faceless Nurse

• Straight-Jacket

• Carrion

• Remnant

• Ariel

• Twoback

• Caliban

Bosses

• Memory of Helen Grady

• Caliban

• The Butcher

• Memory of Richard Grady

• The Demon

Multiple Endings

As is typical for Silent Hill games there exist multiple endings, and 0rigins is no exception. It contains three different endings in all, which is dependant on certain actions taken by the player during the game.

Development

Silent Hill: 0rigins' development was difficult, taking longer than expected to reach completion and changing studios midway. Originally started in Climax Group's LA office, after a year of development the project was moved to Climax Group's Portsmouth studio on account of project turmoil, and Climax LA was shuttered. Despite retaining much of the original content and story created by Climax LA's efforts, no one from Climax LA was credited in the final product.

The first images Konami released for Silent Hill: 0rigins drew mixed reactions, as they presented a game seemingly inspired by Resident Evil 4, with an over-the-shoulder perspective and a cover-based shooting system. Some months later, a new trailer and new screenshots were released depicting what would be the final product to be much more traditionally designed as a Silent Hill game. Later, the game Silent Hill: Homecoming would make good on the early promises of Origins with a revamped combat system.

Soundtrack

The original soundtrack was composed by Akira Yamaoka (with guest vocals by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and lyrics by Joe Romersa).

Tracklist:

1. "Shot Down In Flames" – 3:59 [sung by by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn]
2. "Meltdown" – 3:13
3. "Evil Appetite" – 2:05
4. "Wrong Is Right" – 2:25
5. "Not Tomorrow 3" - 1:42
6. "Monster Daddy" – 2:26
7. "King Of Adiemus" – 2:28
8. "Don't Abuse Me" – 1:39
9. "Underworld 4" – 3:06
10. "Acid Horse" – 2:10
11. "O.R.T." – 4:23 [sung by by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn]
12. "Insecticide" – 2:11
13. "Raw Power" – 1:16
14. "A Million Miles" – 1:31
15. "Battle Drums" – 2:17
16. "The Wicked End" – 2:17
17. "Blow Back" – 3:13 [sung by by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn]
18. "Real Solution" – 2:55
19. "The Healer" – 2:52
20. "Snowblind" – 2:00
21. "Behind the Wall of Sleep" – 2:19
22. "Drowning" – 2:25
23. "Murder Song "S"" – 3:04
24. "Not Tomorrow 4" – 2:15
25. "Theme of Sabre Dance" – 1:33
26. "Hole In The Sky " – 4:10 [sung by by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn]