Zero Punctuation: Silent Hill: Downpour

Bobic

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Nov 10, 2009
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Well, signs of improvement are always good, by this rate we should be playing the best Silent hill ever with Silent Hill 18.

As an aside, what's so difficult about navigating sonic in 3D? I played the adventure games when they came out, when I was like 10. Are you really saying you can be outgamed by a ten year old just getting into gaming? That's quite embarrassing Yahtzee.
 

Slothboy

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Mar 26, 2008
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Yahtzee, have you ever played the Fatal Frame series? I can't speak to any after the first one because it scared me so badly that I quit playing. I'm curious what your take is on it, maybe for the Extra Punctuation for this weeks video. It's an old game but it really nails the survival horror concept to me. You have a reason to press on, you have an intense feeling of vulnerability, and you are forced to take a good hard look at the horrors that are pursuing you in order to defeat them. Literally.

As far as your Context/Challenge/Gratification concept goes I think it really nails all three, and the reason I didn't finish it wasn't because of a failing on those points, it was because I was too much of a pussy. I respect that a game forced me to that point because I have not found any movie to be particularly scary since I stopped being 12 years old.
 

Balkan

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Sep 5, 2011
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ForgottenPr0digy said:
yeah the monster designs in this game sucks

homecoming had better monster designs and no one but me liked that game
I liked that game too , and no it didn`t had good monster disigns , because almost every monster was ripped from the pevious games (only the banana moster was new , and cool ) .
 

Lunar Templar

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Sep 20, 2009
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it just me or he sound slightly depressed about marking it down? cause it kinda dose

but it's good to hear they are at least taking step in the right direction.

>.> ahh.... map drawing ....

graph paper strewn about the floor, marking out rooms, and where items where as i went .... Metriod was such an adventure that first time
 

Balkan

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Distorted Stu said:
It's weird im watching "two best friends" play through this and their views are the exact oppisit.
Well IGN said quite the opposite of what yahtzee said
YH- good combat and real survival
IGN-bad and reppetitive combat
YH- not scary
IGN - Real terror .
Ive never seen so mixed opinions about a game .Every other reviewer hates what the other loves .Strange
 

MB202

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Sep 14, 2008
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So... Will he review Kid Icarus: Uprising or Xenoblade Chronicles? I'd like to see either of those.
 

Belbe

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Oct 12, 2009
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I think those Extra Credits folks that used to be here made a good point, with that horrors are a dying breed because of the improving graphics. Also, get SH back into Japanese hands.
 
Sep 24, 2008
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Balkan said:
Distorted Stu said:
It's weird im watching "two best friends" play through this and their views are the exact oppisit.
Well IGN said quite the opposite of what yahtzee said
YH- good combat and real survival
IGN-bad and reppetitive combat
YH- not scary
IGN - Real terror .
Ive never seen so mixed opinions about a game .Every other reviewer hates what the other loves .Strange
If I remember correctly, Yahtzee said that the combat was good because it fit the world better than commando Homecoming. It was clunky, I think he used the word sticky, and you could run from it.

The problem is, IGN doesn't get that you were never supposed to feel like combat was your real option in silent hill. They are abominations from hell, not the Putty Patrol from Power Rangers.
 

Gavitron

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Nov 17, 2010
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The "professional" reviewers were mostly unkind to this game (looking at you IGN), but the average user score for SH:DP is actually around 8 out of 10. Personally I'd give it 7.5/10. Definitely worth playing if you're a fan, but don't expect it to change your life or anything. And yes, the monsters were mostly too generic, although the atmosphere was quite well done. I didn't mind the combat and didn't notice much loading (360 version) even though everyone seems to harp on about these issues.
 

Kanjidude

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Sep 23, 2009
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That was by far the best episode in a long time! Far from yawning out some jokes over some game he didn't care for at all, it's clear that this time Yahtzee really DOES care, and it shows. Good critique and good tempo.
 

Proverbial Jon

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Nov 10, 2009
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Gorilla Gunk said:
Proverbial Jon said:
I think that's the problem right there. You're not supposed to "like" them, you're supposed to be reviled by them, horrified and disgusted. Like Yahtzee said, they're just dudes. Ain't nothing scary about dudes, even if their eyes have been forced open or they scream at you. Frankly the screaming female ones are ridiculous and they make me laugh a bit. Always brightens my day when they come shambling over!
The "You're not suppose to "like" them" argument just doesn't make sense to me. I've quite liked past SH enemies. I don't really see he problem with Downpour's enemies being human-looking. Previous SH games had the nurses which were just, um, nurses with fucked up faces, and Pyramid Head is just a dude with, well, a pyramid on his head, not to mention the ghosts in SH4: The Room.
I was never a fan of the ghosts from SH4, for mostly the same reason. I mean something as literal as a ghost in something as creative as a Silent Hill game always jarred with me somewhat.

Silent Hill 3 had the best designs for monsters and there was nothing human about them but I never really found them all that scary...

The nurses specifically were a manifestation of James' sexual frustration so they had to be sexy to a point so keeping a certain amount of their humanity is understandable. Plus there's something rather terrifying about a nurse who wants to hurt you with a steel pipe. I can't even begin to explain why PH works even though he's just a dude with a pyramid, like you say!

I think you might have a point here, the more I think about it the more I see the human creatures are the more effective. However it doesn't change the fact that I don't find Downpour's enemies scary. Perhaps it's the way they have been used. In SH2 the manequins would just stand in the dark until you approached with the light, the straightjacket things would kind of convulse towards you or slither across the floor and the nurses sort of limped awkwardly and sometimes took pot shots at you with a revolver. The abstract daddy would try to eat your face etc...

Downpour just tends to chuck a load of enemies at you and they all kind of rush you, flailing blindly. With the exception of the weeping bat, that guy's just a jerk. I guess they need just enough hamanity for us to be able to relate and just enough mutilation to keep up the WTF factor.
 

Jonsbax

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May 4, 2010
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I agree that Downpour could have been scarier, but it still had at least a very strong atmosphere and as far as I'm concerned the story was awesome, though I've only got one ending at this point. I'd easily put this game right up there with Silent Hill 2 and 3 if it wasn't for the framerate lag and glitches. I wonder if Yahtzee didn't have any of that in his copy?

To any fan of Silent Hill, I heavily recommend checking this one out at some point, at least if you find out that there's been a patch.
 

xPixelatedx

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Jan 19, 2011
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The monsters are actually just guys...!? Wow, that kills the sale and the rental right there for me. One day I would like to know why western developers have no imagination.
 

Cekil1

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Aug 22, 2008
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Dastardly said:
I'm glad to hear about a game moving in the right direction on the survival part of survival horror. I'd argue it's the more important element of the two, really. If you're not fighting to survive, you're not going to be scared by much of anything, but when your survival is at stake, nearly anything can become scary...

Just tired of Monster Hunting Games masquerading as "survival horror."
You're right, Resident evil 4 DID ruin the rest of the series.

Fan anger aside, I was really looking forward to Downpour, but if it's not scary there's no point in spending the money or time.
 

MichaelMaverick

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Jan 28, 2009
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Contradiction #1763:

You complain that an inherent plot point in Downpour changing based on your actions cheapens the experience. How is it then different from your Heavy Rain review, where you argued that the big revelation should've been different each time? Could you maybe clarify once and for all what form of story-telling you incline to?
 

Strife2GFAQs

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Apr 13, 2009
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Heavy Rain had a murder mystery. The game could have had multiple paths to decide who the culprit was. I think Silent Hill has the "dark past" problem marked down first, then builds enemies, rooms, and plot around that. For example, what would be point of "big titty zombie nurses" if the guy's problem revolved around vehicular homicide? I guess they at least didn't pull the DE: HR "Endingtron 5000" BS. That would be awful.

He's not going to review Xenoblade. No way in hell. He's has an admitted disdain for current JRPGs, and he chewed his own face off after FFXIII.