I am a huge fan of the Silent Hill series and I have played almost all of the games available. I have my favorites and my not so favorites. One in particular I found to be the second best in the series, yet not many fans would agree. I’m talking about the eighth game, Downpour.

I was waiting years for this story line to be used. It was once rumored that this particular story line was supposed to be the second game. For whatever reason it was not used till much later. Needless to say when Downpour was given a release date and I was quick to preorder.

After what felt like forever and a day, I finally got the game! Firing up my trusty PS3 I anxiously waited for the game to download and update. Silent Hill Downpour started and I was back in my old stomping grounds. Only it wasn’t, I had to run through a awkward kill scene, bus crash, mountainous terrain, cliffs, and random roadside buildings. I was chomping at the bit, where the hell was Silent Hill?

After a few intense moments with the road side buildings I came across a resort. Watched a man commit suicide and rode a ski lift towards the town. Finally I arrived at my old stomping…..no it was different. It looked and felt like a new town altogether! My inner fanboy raged! I skulked around this unSilent Hill town. That was till I encountered my first enemy known as a Siren. Then the constant rain that soaked everything. The music that accompanied the rain that gradually intensified with the storm.

I found myself starting to appreciate the new take on my old favorite. The use of random items as weapons; glass bottles, bats, crowbars, and shovels. A new element was added too that really added more interesting lure to the town. NPC’s that made you delve deeper into the towns dark secrets. I was soon in love with this game, I played everyday and night between work.

In this quaint little town I battled screeching sirens, crazed jackals, laughing ghosts, and massive hulking pale creatures. The latter I avoided for the most part due to my weapons constantly breaking under stress. Everything was going fine, I had a few scares and very intense battles. That was until I started entering places.

I crawled through a open basement window and came across a locked room with a disembodied crying woman. I couldn’t get into that room till much later in the game. When I finally did enter the pitch black room I found a mannequin and the crying stopped! What a relief….now it was laughing hysterically and attacking me with no way to defend myself. I swung my weapon recklessly with all abandon till I struck something. The laughing was interrupted, I found my target! It was the mannequin….what the hell??

It got even worse when I found the orphanage and dead people kept appearing and disappearing depending where I stood. Then I came across an auditorium where I had to set the stage lighting. A child’s play about Hansel and Gretel. Aww how cute till the entire place became the real thing. Tight wooded paths that were riddled with my favorite pale monsters! Oh and then I had to make my way to the witch’s house, hell no! Honestly, it’s this part that is keeping me from replaying to get more endings!

Now the main story line was a little bit confusing. You really don’t get it until right before the final boss battle. That’s where you see the protagonist for who he really was as a person. I don’t want to say too much just that I wasn’t disappointed! I will say though that for a game that was released late in the PS3 consoles life it did have one annoying quirk. The load times during certain places in the game was terrible.  It never kept me from continuing, but i will say it was very annoying and frustrating! Overall, I loved this game and still enjoy playing it over again.