Silent Hill has become a household name that evokes feelings of dread and tension, over the years there have been four games over the PSOne and PS2, a feature length movie and an interactive graphic novel on the PSP. We now finally have a new and original title on the Sony PSP and it is a true to form new chapter in the Silent Hill universe with all the chills, twists and horrific details we expect and love to experience, albeit slowly and with some dread. Despite some small missteps, Silent Hill Origins is a great game that manages to fully exploit what we expect to see in a Silent Hill game on the PSP's small screen.

Silent Hill Origins centers around a truck driver named Travis who is taking a shortcut by the town of Silent Hill. He narrowly misses hitting a little girl and walks into town to see if he can find her. Travis then stumbles upon a burning building and rushes in to rescue the child he almost hit. After a daring rescue he passes out and wakes up in a hospital, from this point on he is embroiled in all the mysteries that surround the creation of the deadly and changing town.

As Travis explores the town, trying to determine why he is there, we see him delve into his own checkered past in subtle ways; like others in Silent Hill, Travis is not all he appears to be. Travis also differs from other protagonists in the series due to the fact that he actually can handle himself in a fight. His first and last line of defense is a simple yet effective series of punches, but as he explores he can pick up multiple use weapons such as boards, knives and meat hooks (which break after repeated use) as well as large one-shot items like televisions and typewriters. You may wonder how a man with no bags can hold four knives, three sticks, three meat hooks a television and a coat rack, well so did I, but I was grateful to have them as the creatures started appearing. Silent Hill Origins doesn't take it easy on you, there are lots of enemies, they reappear and they can all take you down if they get too close.

While Travis is more capable then others who have stumbled upon the town, the combat is my only major complaint against the game. There is no way to easily dodge the creatures - so if you are being attacked by a group you are generally in a lot of trouble, also the ranged attackers are really tough to evade and generally get hits in no matter what you do. To change up game play, there are periodic quick action encounters that occur when a creature has latched on to you. In order to release yourself you will need to tap a button or follow a button combination on screen, while these quick action events are appreciated, completing them does not actually hurt the enemy and sometimes leaves you vulnerable once they are shaken off. Despite the addition of hand held weapons and of course firearms, that this hero actually knows how to use, combat is unwieldy and is a holdover from the other games in the series. Konami and Climax should take a hint from the amazing Resident Evil 4 and revamp the combat as they did for that title.