For whatever reason, it feels like the current console generation has been unkind to the survival horror genre. What developer has the knack for creating that deep sense of dread and powerlessness, while still delivering a memorable gameplay experience? I'm not talking about half-measures, either—those games that were pretty scary but had terrible combat, or had a cool mechanic here and there but figured horror meant endless gore.

Have any designers remembered what William Castle knew so well, that all you need is a house, a sound, and some commitment and you'd have the audience in the palm of your hand? And that's what the Silent Hill games are, after all: elaborate haunted houses where the things you imagine—what's around the corner, what will I do, what's next—are worse that anything the game can realize.

Unfortunately, Silent Hill: Downpour goes for the Haunted Mansion-meets-Saw approach, and there's no mystery, nothing left to the imagination, and buckets of blood for their own sake. Oh, and it doesn't play very well, either.
Read More...

Tags konami, PS3, silent hill: downpour, vatra games, Xbox 360