Yesterday, 07:28 AM
I'm on my second playthrough of Silent Hill f now. The combat definitely doesn't take away from this being a Silent Hill game and a very good one at that. The melee combat has enough complexity to it to keep it interesting, especially against the bosses and tougher enemies. On Story difficulty, the combat is exactly as hard as it needs to be, much like SH2Make, without being frustrating the way Hard Mode is because the amount of damage enemies do is ridiculous in that mode.
Without spoiling anything, one thing I don't know if I like yet or not is the fact that this is the first Silent Hill game with a set ending, no matter what you do on your first playthrough. The full ending can only really be unlocked after playing through the game three times, which, on the one hand, is excessive. But on the other hand, the game isn't super long, there are some substantial differences in dialogue, notes you find and sequences throughout each playthrough, including sections getting skipped altogether on new plays. Most notably and also another first, each playthrough has a completely unique final boss, with three different final bosses to confront, depending on the ending you get, and the game is kind enough to tell you how to unlock each ending after the first playthrough so there's no guesswork like with certain entries.
I think I would be more immediately on board with this story approach had the current playthrough felt a lot more unique than it does. Supposedly, it deviates more later on, but I wish I felt it more immediately than I do.
Still a great game, and while not as good as SH2Make, for this being the first official original entry in a good hot minute, I think it's a banger of a game, and genuinely unsettling. The monsters are some of the most uncomfortable to fight in ages, and for once, that's not because of clunky mechanics. They're jittery, unpredictable, and so uncanny that I just want them dead anytime they're on screen. The bosses are also really enjoyable and quite challenging, but a lot of them will feel more at home in a Dark Souls game than SH, especially since each one talks and has a personality as opposed to the abstract beasts SH is usually known for. Which isn't a bad thing, but it is different, and some fans of SH can be pretty needlessly unkind to anything being different.
Without spoiling anything, one thing I don't know if I like yet or not is the fact that this is the first Silent Hill game with a set ending, no matter what you do on your first playthrough. The full ending can only really be unlocked after playing through the game three times, which, on the one hand, is excessive. But on the other hand, the game isn't super long, there are some substantial differences in dialogue, notes you find and sequences throughout each playthrough, including sections getting skipped altogether on new plays. Most notably and also another first, each playthrough has a completely unique final boss, with three different final bosses to confront, depending on the ending you get, and the game is kind enough to tell you how to unlock each ending after the first playthrough so there's no guesswork like with certain entries.
I think I would be more immediately on board with this story approach had the current playthrough felt a lot more unique than it does. Supposedly, it deviates more later on, but I wish I felt it more immediately than I do.
Still a great game, and while not as good as SH2Make, for this being the first official original entry in a good hot minute, I think it's a banger of a game, and genuinely unsettling. The monsters are some of the most uncomfortable to fight in ages, and for once, that's not because of clunky mechanics. They're jittery, unpredictable, and so uncanny that I just want them dead anytime they're on screen. The bosses are also really enjoyable and quite challenging, but a lot of them will feel more at home in a Dark Souls game than SH, especially since each one talks and has a personality as opposed to the abstract beasts SH is usually known for. Which isn't a bad thing, but it is different, and some fans of SH can be pretty needlessly unkind to anything being different.
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