What is it?

The eighth installment in Konami’s long-running survival-horror franchise. You play as the troubled Murphy Pendleton, a prisoner who ends up stuck in the town of Silent Hill after his transport takes a spill.

Why is it cool?

While rival Capcom appears to be leading its survival-horror series down the more action-intense path with Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, Konami is choosing to stick to its slower-paced guns (and metal pipes). In Silent Hill: Downpour, players make their way through the spooky town equipped with weapons that will break over time. While playing the E3 demo, I destroyed my pipe while fighting a pair of nasty creatures who ambushed me, and I was reduced to using my fists…at least until the beasts killed me.

Downpour also supports 3D TVs, which adds a nice extra little touch of immersion to the gloomy visuals. Plus, I hear 90’s nu-metal band Korn is recording the theme song…though I’m not exactly sure how cool that is.

The moments I had to open each door manually…

…Were pretty unnerving. For most games, you simply press a button to open a door and it swings wide open. In this title, opening doors requires using the control stick to push. Sure, nothing jumped out at me during my time with the demo, but you can almost guarantee that Konami will have a moment in this game where you carelessly waltz into a room and something scary as shit happens. As always, anticipating that moment is the worst part.  

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