This review contains spoilers
Review of "Born from a Wish" Sub-Scenario:
A neat addition to the main game, laden with implications about the nature of Maria and the forces that inhabit Silent Hill.
I wonder how somebody would experience this side-story and its place in the larger plot, if on their first playthrough of the main campaign they played up to the part where you meet Maria, saved at the next occasion, and then played this, before returning back to the main game.
I find this version of Maria interesting, because we get a glimpse at her inner workings, in contrast to the main game where she just seems like a manifestation of the town meant to torture James emotionally, and here she seems rather willing to help and with defined agency.
I think it's kinda weird that some of the writing and item descriptions makes it seem like there's another puzzle coming, but then it just ends.
Combat is still clunky (the Meat Cleaver was beyond useless) and I'm still not a fan of the stilted dialogue and voice-acting. I want to see it, like all the artsy-fartsy critics, as an extra layer of uncanniness, but in practice it just sets my teeth on edge and disengages me from the plot events. Like c'mon, guy that plays Ernest, you sound straight out of the English dub of Resident Evil 1.
Oh, but speaking of that, the mansion feels like a loving homage to that especially with that one stair room towards the beginning, and the turning of corners being made quite uncomfortable by the fixed camera, which is also pretty neat.
A neat addition to the main game, laden with implications about the nature of Maria and the forces that inhabit Silent Hill.
I wonder how somebody would experience this side-story and its place in the larger plot, if on their first playthrough of the main campaign they played up to the part where you meet Maria, saved at the next occasion, and then played this, before returning back to the main game.
I find this version of Maria interesting, because we get a glimpse at her inner workings, in contrast to the main game where she just seems like a manifestation of the town meant to torture James emotionally, and here she seems rather willing to help and with defined agency.
I think it's kinda weird that some of the writing and item descriptions makes it seem like there's another puzzle coming, but then it just ends.
Combat is still clunky (the Meat Cleaver was beyond useless) and I'm still not a fan of the stilted dialogue and voice-acting. I want to see it, like all the artsy-fartsy critics, as an extra layer of uncanniness, but in practice it just sets my teeth on edge and disengages me from the plot events. Like c'mon, guy that plays Ernest, you sound straight out of the English dub of Resident Evil 1.
Oh, but speaking of that, the mansion feels like a loving homage to that especially with that one stair room towards the beginning, and the turning of corners being made quite uncomfortable by the fixed camera, which is also pretty neat.