Silent Hill: Origins - PSP

The Good: Astounding graphics and audio, neat new fighting system, easy puzzle solving and navigating

The Bad: Sluggish combat, bland story, short, sometimes a bit too easy

The first thing you'll notice about Origins are it's out of this world graphics. With real time lighting, fog effects, and highly detailed textures, you'll wonder if this really is a PSP game. SH improves upon the previous installments by giving us a brand new story, a new fighting system, and ways of exploring. You are Travis Grady who is a trucker and gets stuck in the deadly town of Silent Hill. While you're there you save a girl from a fire and confront a mysterious girl named Alyssa. While the story isn't that great and has a pointless ending you'll be playing for the thrills. Origins is extremely scary especially when played with headphones and in the dark. Instead of switching between worlds at certain points you can do it on the whim by using mirrors. I found this makes puzzle solving a lot easier and you can be more organized and keep track of things easier.

Origins is a lot easier on the puzzle solving and navigating, unlike other SH games, and I completed the whole thing without a FAQ. The combat system is decent with context sensitive button presses and tons of weapons to find. You can use firearms and melee weapons. While the melee weapons do break after a while you can still use your fists. The thing is the combat system is very sluggish and can make fighting so hard. It takes forever for Travis to recover from a hit and by the time you're ready to swing you get hit again. While the system is neat it needs improvement. With all this tied together into a bloody bow you'll love Origins and you'll want to play it again and again.