Silent Hill: Origins

Silent Hill: Origins
PAL region box art depicting character Lisa Garland
Developer(s)	Climax Studios
Publisher(s)	Konami Digital Entertainment
Director(s)	Mark Simmons
Producer(s)	William Oertel
Designer(s)	Sam Barlow
Writer(s)	Sam Barlow
Composer(s)	Akira Yamaoka
Series	Silent Hill
Platform(s)	PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2
Release date(s)	PlayStation Portable NA November 6, 2007 EU November 16, 2007 AUS November 29, 2007 JP December 6, 2007[1] PlayStation 2 NA March 4, 2008 EU May 16, 2008 AUS May 23, 2008
Genre(s)	Survival horror
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	BBFC: 15 ESRB: Mature OFLC: MA15+ PEGI: 18+
Media/distribution	Optical disc

Silent Hill: Origins (also stylized Silent Hill: Ørigins), known as Silent Hill Zero in Japan, is a survival horror video game for the PlayStation Portable and the fifth installment in the Silent Hill series,^[2] for which it serves as a prequel.^[3] Published by Konami Digital Entertainment and developed by Climax Studios, the game was released in November 2007,^[1] with a port to the PlayStation 2 released in March 2008.

Set in the series' eponymous fictional American town, Origins follows Travis Grady as he searches for clues about a girl whom he rescued from a fire, in two alternate dimensions. During this quest, he becomes aware of facts about his childhood that he was previously unaware of, eventually stumbling upon the town's religious cult conducting a ritual to revive a deity it worships.

Origins' PSP release received positive reviews, mostly, but was generally received well, with reviewers complimenting gameplay mechanics and good graphics for the handheld console, while most complaints concerned the length of the game and overly-strict adherence to the series' past formula by Climax. The PS2 port received slightly lower aggregate scores, owing to lower-than-average quality graphics for the console, and some camera and control issues.

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Combat 2 Plot 3 Development 3.1 Audio 4 Reception 5 References 6 External links

Gameplay

The objective of Silent Hill: Origins is to guide main protagonist and player character Travis Grady through the monster-filled alternate dimensions as he searches for clues about the girl and ultimately his own past. Following the gameplay formula of previous Silent Hill games, Origins primarily revolves around combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving.^[4] In keeping with the general gameplay of the series, he carries a flashlight and tilts his head in the direction of a nearby usable item.^[2] The game utilizes a third-person perspective with alternating camera angles; however, rather than an option to move the camera around, the player can press a button to pan it behind Travis.^[2] To check the status of Travis's health, the player must open up the inventory, since the game does not feature heads-up display.^[5] However, when Travis's health is critical, the edges of the screen throb red and his heartbeat is heard.^[5] Through the use of mirrors found throughout the town, he can enter and exit the "Other World",^[3][4] a dilapidated version of the town obscured by darkness, at will. Often, actions performed in one dimension will affect the other.^[5] Completion of the game results in unlocking special items or alternative outfits for Travis to wear, depending on various accomplishments.^[4]

Combat

Travis will find a range of weapons throughout the town: firearms, melee weapons, and one-shot items usable in close combat, with the latter two being breakable.^[2][3] If no other weapons are immediately available, Travis can use his fists.^[2] A new feature allows the player to quickly switch Travis' equipped weapon with the use of the D-pad.^[5] Origins also introduces the "grapple" system, a quick time event during which a monster grabs Travis, and certain button combinations are presented to the player to execute, in order for Travis to escape.^[2][3] If the player performs a successful grapple, they can avoid deal of damage to Travis.^[3] Travis carries a portable radio with him which alerts the player to the presence of nearby monsters by emitting static.^[5]

Plot

Travis drives past Silent Hill as a shortcut.^[2][6] At its outskirts, he swerves the vehicle to avoid hitting a girl in the road; she runs away and Travis follows her,^[7] concerned about her condition. Having lost track of her and entered Silent Hill, he spots a burning house and, upon seeing a woman next to it flee, hears a scream from it and enters it to save the occupant; he rescues a charred girl and collapses outside the house, regaining consciousness later elsewhere in the town.^[8]

Still concerned about her, he enters Silent Hill's Alchemilla Hospital, finding it almost deserted; he meets physician Michael Kaufmann, who claims none has been hospitalized there recently.^[9] Travis eventually enters the Other World;^[10] after collecting an unknown object, he exits the dimension. He then meets nurse Lisa Garland, who states that the girl, Alessa Gillespie, died^[11] and that Kaufmann is waiting for her in Silent Hill's Cedar Grove Sanitarium; there, Travis meets the woman he saw at the fire site, Dahlia Gillespie, who reveals that the burned house was hers and Alessa was her daughter, before leaving.^[12] He discovers that his deceased mother, Helen, was an inmate at Cedar Grove and had attempted to kill both him and herself during his childhood, after becoming angry with his father, Richard; he collects another unknown object in the Other World, before exiting it.

Travis continues to find clues that lead him first to Silent Hill's Artaud Theater and Riverside Motel,^[13] collecting an unknown object from each. The girl continues to appear in the mirrors he encounters, but is unable to get answers from her before he wakes back in Alchemilla, where he locates another unknown object; he assembles all the collected unknown objects, forming the Flauros, a device which works to increase Alessa's power and free her from Dahlia's spell.^[14] Finding a map, he heads to the cult's ritual grounds, and sees cult figures, including Kaufmann, surrounding the burned body of Alessa. Kaufmann incapacitates Travis, who is transported into a dream-like state to fight a monster; he defeats it, and seals it back up using the Flauros.^[15]

Three endings are available. The "Good" ending sees the Flauros manifest a baby that contains half of Alessa's soul and Travis returning to his truck as Alessa carries the baby out of town. Through the radio, the player hears that Harry Mason and his wife find and adopt the baby, naming her Cheryl, and then that Dahlia and Kaufmann plan to cast a spell to draw the other half of Alessa's soul back to the town.^[16] The "Bad" endings sees Travis awaken in a room tied to a table, and injected with a substance. He has a series of visions, in which he killed a woman he mistook for his mother, his father, and a hotel receptionist. His form is briefly replaced by a monster resembling the Butcher. Travis is left on the table.^[17] The joke ending sees Travis leave with an extraterrestrial and a dog via a UFO.^[18]

Development

Prior to the release of the first film adaptation of the series, there was speculation that Konami was planning to release a remake of the first installment in the series^[19][20] with Rose Da Silva in place of the original game's player character Harry Mason. This speculation was fueled by an interview with the film's director, Christophe Gans, and a leaked list of Konami release dates which included a Silent Hill: Original Sin for the PSP.^[19] Origins producer William Oretel later confirmed that the idea of a remake of the first game had been considered by Konami, but rejected.^[21][22]

Origins was first announced at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2006; the press release detailed basic plot and gameplay information, and also announced that the game would not be produced by Konami's Team Silent, who had developed all the previous installments, but by Climax Studios instead.^[23] The game's storyline was written by Sam Barlow^[24] who consulted Team Silent to keep the title a canonical entry in the series,^[25] while the soundtrack was composed by Akira Yamaoka.^[21][23] The first previews of the game featured a radical departure from the original gameplay format with the inclusion of a Resident Evil 4-style camera angle.^[26][27] Travis would have access to six weapons, three of which were melee weapons and three of which were firearms, including a pistol, a revolver and a shotgun.^[26][27] There were also plans to introduce a laser-sight for Travis's pistol and a new "Barricade" system which would allow the player to block access to areas from monsters with improvized objects.^[26][28] At this time, the game was expected to be released in late 2006.^[29]

In October 2006, Climax's United States-based team working on Origins was sacked, with rumors circulating that the game production was becoming a disaster through mismanagement and "unrealistic deadlines", and that the final version of the game was expected to have only "three to four hours of gameplay."^[30][31] Production of the game was subsequently moved to another studio in the United Kingdom, in order to ensure the final product would be "a tighter, more focused game that will provide fans with the experience they want... a Silent Hill experience"; the release date was also pushed forward.^[32] Later previews of the game showed that the game had changed significantly, and contained gameplay more in line with that found in the previous titles in the series, scrapping the Resident Evil 4 camera angle.^[31][33] The changes were well-received by observers.^[33][34]

On August 19, 2007, a demo of the game was leaked to internet download sites; Climax promptly denied they were the source of the leaked content.^[35] The game was released in November 2007 in North America and Europe, with a Japanese and Australian release in December.^[1] The Japanese release carried the alternate title Silent Hill Zero.^[1] In early December 2007, Kotaku reported that Origins was likely to be ported by Climax to the PlayStation 2, so that a wider audience would be able to play the game, and that the port would be released in March 2008.^[36] In early January 2008, online retailer Amazon.com began taking pre-orders for a PS2 port of Origins, although Konami and Climax had yet to make an official confirmation of the project at that time.^[37] Finally, on January 22, 2008, Konami officially confirmed that a PS2 port was in development.^[38] Origins for the PS2 was released in North America on March 5, 2008, while the European release followed on May 15, 2008.

Audio

The Silent Hill Zero Original Soundtracks was composed by Akira Yamaoka and released in Japan on January 25, 2008 by Konami Music Entertainment, Inc.^[39] The soundtrack was packaged with a special six-page comic designed by Masahiro Ito and a portable music player pouch with the game's Japanese title logo.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	78.10% (PSP)[40] 72.41% (PS2)[41]
Metacritic	78/100 (PSP)[42] 70/100 (PS2)[43]
Review scores
Publication	Score
GamePro	4.5/5[44]
GameSpot	6.5/10[3]
GameSpy	4/5[45]
IGN	8.0[2]
Play Magazine	87/100[46]

Most reviews for Silent Hill: Origins were positive; its original release on the PSP received a Metacritic aggregate score of 78 out of 100 and a Game Rankings aggregate of 78.10%,^[40][42] while the later PS2 release received lower scores of 70 out of 100 and 72.41%, respectively.^[41][43]

Most negative criticism stemmed from the mostly "strict adherence" to the series formula;^[46] the opening comment of GameSpot's review remarked that "this old fog needs to learn some new tricks", and further detailed that the game provided "an entirely conventional adventure that relies on eight-year-old franchise hallmarks at the expense of anything truly new".^[3] Some camera issues were noted,^[2][44] especially in tight corridors.^[45]

The PS2 port's graphics were met with disappointment by reviewers, who considered it visually inferior to the previous PS2 Silent Hill titles.^[47][48] IGN also took issue with the port's lack of manual camera control.^[48]

References

External links

• Official website
• Silent Hill: Origins at the Internet Movie Database
• Silent Hill: Origins at MobyGames

Silent Hill Installments Canonical Silent Hill • 2 • 3 • 4 • Origins • Homecoming • Downpour Non-canonical Shattered Memories • Book of Memories Other related video games Arcade • Orphan • The Escape Media Print publications Comics Films Silent Hill • Revelation 3D Fictional elements Characters (Silent Hill 2) • Pyramid Head Related companies Developers Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo (Team Silent) • Creature Labs • Climax Studios • Double Helix Games • Vatra Games • WayForward Technologies Publishers Konami • Konami Digital Entertainment Related people Keiichiro Toyama • Hiroyuki Owaku • Masahiro Ito • Akira Yamaoka • Mary Elizabeth McGlynn Book:Silent Hill series • Category:Silent Hill • Portal:Video games