History VideoGame / SilentHillDownpour

** The red "Void" which periodically chases Murphy is similar to the Red Light of Death from ''Silent Hill 3'', which stalked Heather through a winding fun house. More so, the chase sequences it instigates are basically lifted from its predecessor, ''[[SilentHillShatteredMemories Shattered Memories]]'', right down to the player being able to throw down obstacles and glance backwards at his pursuer.

During a routine transfer to a new prison, the bus transporting Murphy crashes and leaves him a free man. With a security officer from the transport on his tail, Murphy -- desperate for an escape from his fate on Death Row and a reprieve from the ever-worsening weather -- follows a worn-down road through the woods...and into the world's least desirable holiday destination: the resort town of Silent Hill. Once in town, Murphy's luck changes for the worse: while supernatural monsters assault him at every turn (including two symbolic übermonsters in The Bogeyman and The Wheelman), an otherworldly force threatens to rip his body and soul apart when he stumbles into [[GeniusLoci the Otherworld]]. He also discovers a deeper connection to the security officer trailing him -- a connection that makes both of them the key to each other's ultimate survival.

Like other games in this franchise (specifically ''VideoGame/SilentHill2''), the town of Silent Hill takes on a unique personality that preys upon the inner turmoil of the game's protagonist. This time around, the haunted hellscape becomes washed out in torrential rain, representing the prison showers where Murphy encountered and killed a child molester, and electricity arcs across the landscape whenever Murphy travels into the Otherworld, playing into his fears of execution for his crimes. Murphy also sees a lot of fire during his trips to the Otherworld; given the circumstances, Hell might be preferable to an existence in a living nightmare...

!! ''Silent Hill: Downpour'' contains examples of the following tropes:

* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: The finale [[spoiler:puts Murphy in the shoes of Bogeyman]].

** When you cross the PointOfNoReturn, you lose ''everything''. The gun, the flashlight, the lighter, and any random crap you have in your pockets -- even your clothes -- all disappear. The only thing you get to keep is your journal; you have to re-find everything else.
* BeatStillMyHeart: For the Dead Man's Hand sidequest, you have to retrieve a dead man's still-beating heart that was savagely ripped out of his body. Emphasis on "still-beating", because the quest also employs a HeartBeatSoundtrack to effectively create the most macabre game of Hot & Cold ever.
* BigNo: [[spoiler:Murphy]] has one of these moments in one DownerEnding. Emphasis is made on it by the "no" being repeated five times in increasing volume and frustration to emphasize the failure.
* BigShutUp: Anne Cunningham to Murphy -- "SHUT THE HELL UP!"
* BookEnds: This happens in the "Truth & Justice" ending. [[spoiler:Murphy and Anne, having freed themselves from Silent Hill, end up back at the wreckage of the prison bus. Additionally, the last scene of this ending takes place in Ryall State Prison.]] [[CuttingOffTheBranches According to the "Anne's Story" tie-in comic, this is the canon ending.]]
* BreakableWeapons: Employed reasonably realistically with the different weapons having varying levels of durability that are more or less in line with what you'd expect, like vases and bottles readily shattering, chairs and wooden sticks that'll splinter into smaller and smaller pieces, and sturdier items like hatchets and crowbars. Still, you might expect certain weapons to last much longer than they actually do, like the crowbar; it's not exactly easy to snap a solid metal stick in half.
** Of course, if you wanted to, you could probably [[EpilepticTrees Epileptic-Tree]] some of it away by arguing that the town is purposely playing mind games by making those "sturdy" weapons break unexpectedly easily. [[RealityWarper Reality Warping]] and all that.
** The game kind of plays with it, especially weapons needed to progress (like an axe). You might get to break a plank or two of a boarded up door with a pickaxe before it breaks (which is odd, especially when you just found it), whereas a fire axe is your safest bet on taking it down, without any breakage.

* ButThouMust: [[spoiler:This is justified in-game as part of the strange nature of Silent Hill. The game lampshades it after DJ Ricks reveals he has a boat, but someone stole the keys. Murphy replies that he could just hotwire it, but Ricks says that wouldn't work because the town's strange form of reality has "rules". When DJ breaks them, the town punishes him for it.]]

** A much appreciated aversion: while the stages are more open and sprawling than they've ever been, the amount of broken [[LockedDoor Locked Doors]] you'll encounter can be counted on one hand. Instead, doors that you can't go through are very clearly boarded up entirely; you no longer need to roam around testing every single door to find out which ones are unusable. And of the doors that are locked but ''can'' be opened, most just require you to break the lock with a metal item.

** There is a boat anchored next to DJ Ricks's boat; it bears the name [[VideoGame/SilentHill2 "Angela's Fire"]].

* ChekhovsGun: The police badge found by the first set of clothing that Murphy changes into behind the motel. Although Anne seems to understand the significance of it after Murphy encounters her [[spoiler:following the train ride]], it isn't until the very end of the game that is is explained what it means: [[spoiler:a mourning badge worn after the death of a fellow officer, representing the death of Frank Coleridge at Sewell's (or Murphy's) hands.]] The "Truth & Justice" ending has Anne accusingly throwing it at [[spoiler:Sewell]] as she confronts him. [[CuttingOffTheBranches According to the tie-in comic "Anne's Story", this is the canon ending.]]
* ClockTower: ''Downpour'''s version of Silent Hill seems to be prominently sporting one. [[spoiler:After the Centennial Building otherworld, you end up hanging from the clock face.]]
* ClosedCircle: Par for the course in Silent Hill. This time, done in subtle MindScrew and OhCrap type moments: [[spoiler:When fleeing from the Void the first time, if you approach an open space in the wall, it may shut an iron door in front of you, leaving you to pass right by the Void. And when approaching an obstacle, it may melt away in front of you, as if it's letting you go on ahead]].
* ClusterFBomb: Compared to other ''Franchise/SilentHill'' games, there are a lot of curse words uttered. Special mention goes to Sewell - while he doesn't exactly swear every other sentence, he is probably the most foul-mouthed character in the series thus far.
* CreepyDoll: One of the monster varieties in the game, aptly named Dolls. Only these appear to be of the sex doll variety. Based off of Anne's guilt for having an affair.

* [[CatScare Crow Scare]]: Frequently and somewhat [[TVTropesWikiDrinkingGame egregiously]] used in the earlier stages, though they do taper off in favour of other, more unsettling types of horror.
** Makes a return in the Centennial garage, should you choose to [[spoiler:inspect either of the cars]].

* DealWithTheDevil: [[spoiler:Sewell]]'s habit of performing tit-for-tat favors for the prisoners under his watch. Officer Coleridge warns that these "favors" never work out well for the inmates.

* DeathFakedForYou: The ending "Forgiveness" has [[spoiler:Anne declaring to the police that Murphy died to let him escape.]]
* DefiantToTheEnd: [[spoiler:Murphy, in the "Execution" ending.]]

** The light from his torch also becomes clouded with a bloody filter the more damage he's taken.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:DJ Ricks doesn't last long once you finally meet him.]]
* DropTheHammer: The Bogeyman drops a ''very'' big one made from a metal rod with a concrete block at one end. [[spoiler:Then ''you'' get to use it to fight Anne.]]
* EarlyBirdCameo: Of the vocal sort: "Revenge is a long and treacherous road, isn't it, Mr. Pendleton? Where do you suppose it ends?" is heard in the opening. We don't find the voice's face or its significance until fairly late in the game.
** Another vocal one, so subtle most may miss it. Just seconds after the Void's first appearance, a voice says "Murphy... RUN!". In either of the good endings, [[spoiler:Frank Coleridge, who Murphy refused to kill, tells Murphy the EXACT same line (tone and all).]]

* EmpathicShapeshifter: [[spoiler:The Bogeyman changes his appearance underneath the gas mask to match the viewer's idea of evil. In Murphy's case, he sees both Napier and himself. To Anne, she views Murphy as the Bogeyman.]]
* EndlessCorridor: When you first flee from the Void, you go down a short corridor. You approach the corner, then the corridor ''extends forward, doubling in length''. It continues to extend forward as you flee the Void, then just randomly stops. An unusual example in that the corridor BECOMES 'endless' as you go through it, instead of being endless from the start.

* EpiphanicPrison: The most literal example of all the franchise, as prison imagery features heavily. Just like previous installments, the only way for the characters to escape is to deal with their issues.

** The Dolls.

* FlunkyBoss: [[spoiler:The Wheelman]] starts telekinetically opening prison cells to unleash monsters on Murphy halfway through the battle. [[PostFinalBoss Later]], [[spoiler:Anne]] also opens cells to unleash Prisoner Juggernauts during the fight.
* FlushingEdgeInteractivity: There's a lot of toilets you can flush in the game. None of them do anything.

* GeniusLoci: It wouldn't be Silent Hill if the town wasn't actively trying to kill you in some way.
* GetIntoJailFree: [[spoiler:Pulled off by Murphy so he could kill Napier.]]
* GhostlyGoals: The gramophone sidequest, where a family who appears to be stuck in limbo urge you to [[spoiler:burn the picture of the father who murdered them]].

* GoodAngelBadAngel: Officer Coleridge is the good angel to Murphy, giving him as much respect as his own family and motivating him to apply for parole, while Sewell is Murphy's bad angel, giving him the oppotunity to have revenge on Napier. Officer Coleridge honestly cares about Murphy, but Sewell only wants him to take revenge [[spoiler:so he could use Murphy to get Coleridge for trying to have him charged with corruption.]]
* GroundhogDayLoop: The "Full Circle" ending heavily implies that Howard Blackwood, JP Sater, and Bobby Ricks were all [[HeroOfAnotherStory Heroes of Another Story]] but somehow failed or did something terrible, and became permanent residents of Silent Hill, trapped in their own loop. Said ending results in Murphy having this happen to him -- meaning you'll have to play the game again to see another ending. Something similar happens to Anne in the "Reversal" ending.

* HarbingerOfImpendingDoom[=/=]HellIsThatNoise: It isn't explicitly stated, but the dedications are apparently an indication of monsters. DJ Bobby Ricks receives calls to his radio station[[note]]Implied to be coming from Silent Hill itself[[/note]] asking him to play songs with dedications to Murphy, which he obligingly does. When Murphy hears these dedications, there are seemingly always monsters nearby. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPWfcIVuxJA&t=7m31s When Bobby finally meets Murphy]] and begins to discuss his plans to escape Silent Hill, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPWfcIVuxJA&t=9m45s he gets another call for a dedication... for himself.]] He doesn't react well, and his next line to Murphy is "They're coming."

* {{Hobos}}: Just the one, he provides you access to the subway network in exchange for favours. It's never really explained WHY he's there...

* HumanShield: Well, maybe not ''human'', but the cages you throw in front of The Void to stall it all have some... thing clearly biological and living inside.

** And a most disturbing [[SubvertedTrope subversion]]; Murphy is tasked to find a rhyme that's explicitly stated to repel the Bogeyman, and when said baddie approaches a little kid, Murphy attempts to save him by reciting it by memory. [[spoiler:The Bogeyman snaps his neck before Murphy can finish reciting it]].
* InstitutionalApparel: Murphy's a freshly escaped con and starts out wearing a prisoner's jumpsuit. Later in the game, he can find a different outfit, and another if he does the "Stolen Goods" sidequest.
* InsurmountableWaistHighFence: At times you might see certain spots around town that Murphy probably could feasibly reach without too much effort but are nonetheless off limits to the player. Usually, you can sort of think of it as an unspoken implication that Murphy is automatically filtering out those unremarkable places for the player, although there is an instance where Murphy explicitly looks at a potentially viable pathway that's blocked by a foot-high tree trunk and proclaims he "can't go this way."

* JiveTurkey / LargeHamRadio: DJ Bobby Ricks.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Sewell gets away scot-free in every ending except "Truth & Justice". Conveniently, [[CuttingOffTheBranches according to the tie-in comic "Anne's Story", this is the canon ending.]]]]

* LastMinuteReprieve: It's debatable whether or not wandering into Silent Hill was preferable to the alternative.

* LighterAndSofter: Insane as it may sound about a game which opens with a serial pedophile killer, ''Silent Hill Downpour'' is a game where things are significantly less malevolent. There's less gore, less extreme reactions, and a lot of people seem semi-justified in their actions. [[spoiler:Killing your child's murderer is less severe than your wife, after all.]]

* MinimalistCast: There's less than a dozen characters populating the entire town, present day. All the dozens of houses, hovels, and residential areas are completely abandoned IN THE OTHERWORLD, in the real world the town is still thriving. However, between flashbacks, humanoid monsters, and the various well-fleshed out ghost personalities and backstories, it feels a little less desolate.

* MultipleChoicePast: Your actions determine [[spoiler:whether Murphy killed Coleridge or was framed for it by Sewell. It's very similar to how ''TheSuffering'' let you determine whether Torque was a murderer or framed by your actions.]]
** [[spoiler:They also determine whether or not you killed Napier and, in one ending, it was actually ''Murphy'' who killed Charlie.]]
*** [[spoiler:Which ties nicely into the idea that the town itself is a sentient reality warping entity. If Murphy refuses to learn that violence and vengeance are wrong, then it {{retcon}}s him into being a murderous nutjob.]]
* MultipleEndings: ''Downpour'' continues the tradition.

* MythologyGag: One of the apartments you can enter in Silent Hill is a replica of Henry's apartment in Silent Hill 4.
** In the Centennial building you can find a painting of Alex Shepherd's house.

* NeverGoingBackToPrison: Murphy explicitly says this to Cunningham, and the trauma prison has caused him is visible throughout the game.

* NotQuiteDead: If you go for a PacifistRun and only knock out enemies, there's a slight chance that they will [[ParanoiaFuel get back up again and attack you from behind]].
* NotWhatItLooksLike: As Murphy kneels over the dead body of [[spoiler:the boy The Bogeyman killed mere seconds ago]], a little girl walks in on the scene. Naturally, she peels off as fast as her legs will let her.
** After killing the [[spoiler:Wheelman, Anna comes and reveals that he represented Frank, her father. In fact, the Wheelman is replaced by Frank, who is in the shower where Sewell (or Murphy) killed him. Then the cycle becomes full and she tries to murder you. Afterwards (if you spare her), it is revealed what really happened [[MultipleChoicePast depending on you actions in the game.]]]]
* ObstacleSkiCourse: Well, Obstacle ''Slide'' Course, but there's a few of them in the Otherworld sequences.
* OffingTheOffspring: One of the side quests [[spoiler:involves a missing little girl. Her mother made a route home for her from school by tying ribbons to posts, which she would always follow without hesitation due to her severe autism. You eventually discover that the mother had gotten so sick of living with the girl's condition that she'd deliberately altered the route so she'd walk right off a pier.]]

* OrphanageOfFear: A letter you find in the Monastery written by a child states that they're being "[[FunetikAksent hert]]" and the medicine they're given "makes them feel sick all the time". The letter comes with an angry note writtten by a supervisor, demanding that every sent letter must be screened and censored by her from now on. In other notes written by her she refers to the children [[EvilMatriarch with nothing but disgust]].
* PacifistRun: You can go through the entire game without killing any enemies, though you'll still have to knock a few down to proceed. There's even an achievement/trophy for doing so.

* PreOrderBonus: Different retailers are offering different weapons for pre-ordering the game, which can then be accessed by inputting a code (included on your receipt for the game) into one of the lockers around town. [[spoiler:Naturally, all of the codes were up on the internet before the game had been out even one day.]] Using a code opens all the lockers, though, so you can only have one set of bonus weapons each time you play through the game.

* ProperlyParanoid: A sidequest tasks you to clear a haunting by arranging a room till it matches its MirrorUniverse counterpart. But if you fail to do it in the proper order, a monster only visible in said mirror will spawn. When you complete it, you will find a psychiatrist's case file on the previous owner of the house, driven totally mad by having to do the same routine of rearranging the room every day, "[[YouHaveToBelieveMe or else the monsters in the mirror will hurt me!]]". [[spoiler:Then you turn around and there's a shadow (texture) of a swinging hanged woman on the wall ''[[NothingIsScarier and there's no body hanging from the ceiling.]]'']]

* SceneryPorn: Surprisingly for a [[SceneryGorn Silent]] [[OminousFog Hill]] game, The Devil's Pit in particular feature many meticulously rendered mountain-scenes. And not just them either: the entire game has a LOT of little details in its environments, including but not limited to the SceneryGorn elements. Hell, there's even a lot of detail in the areas where Murphy can't afford to stop and take a good look around (ie being chased by The Void in the Otherworld)

** The reward for completing the Cinema Verite side-quest is the [[Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun Golden Gun]] from the ''Film/JamesBond'' movies. The caption even says "Just like in the movies."

* TownWithADarkSecret: Guess. [[spoiler:However, this is the second game to suggest that the town itself is sentient, the first being ''SilentHill2''. The town seems to capture people, putting them through tests to determine if they are worthy of redemption -- if they succeed, they achieve some sort of closure, but if they fail, they die. When DJ Ricks tells Murphy about his boat and its missing keys, Murphy replies that he will hot-wire it; DJ Ricks responds that it wouldn't work and explicitly says that the town has some weird form of reality and that it has rules that must be followed. The town then demonstrates what happens when you try to break them, by sending a group of screamers to grab Anne and DJ Ricks but leaving Murphy unharmed.]]
* TranquilFury: Murphy, when he's [[spoiler:beating Napier to a bloody pulp]].
* TrappedInTVLand: The Cutting Room Floor sidequest.

** You can ignore Anne or try to save her when she's about to fall down the hole;
** You can console or taunt JP when he's about to jump;

** Upon finding a dead body with the heart torn out, Murphy somehow decides he'd better go searching for the heart in the creepy underground labyrinth so he can jam it back into the body.

** Despite running around the whole town grabbing all kinds of loose items, at one point Murphy finds a stash of stolen goods and decides that he's supposed to return these particular items to their rightful owners.

** In most ''Silent Hill'' games, leaving the monsters alive will only give them the chance to get back up and kill you. You typically need to search the area for clues that you killed them in those games. In this game, the decision to kill or spare the monsters will affect the ending; to get the best ending, you must let non-repenting monsters live. This isn't like Napier; this is legit self-defense, and sparing them suddenly matters.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:The game doesn't mention DJ Bobby Ricks after the attack at the radio station.]]

* ZeroEffortBoss: [[spoiler:The final boss fight, in which you face Anne as the Bogeyman. You ''can'' die, but you basically have to intentionally stand there and let Anne ScratchDamage you to death.]]

* PapaWolf: [[spoiler:Murphy Pendleton]].

* PaterFamilicide: The [[spoiler:gramophone]] sidequest.

* PointOfNoReturn: DJ Ricks' boat. When you enter it, Silent Hill and all its sidequests and items are all LostForever until you start over.

* OhCrap: Three in the span of one minute: When Murphy turns on the gas on a kitchen stove, it sparks and catches fire, and he reacts with "Oh shit!". And when he pulls the fire alarm, the world around him distorts into the Otherworld ("What the hell IS this!?"). And when the room is filling up with water, he notices it approaching an open breaker box...

''Silent Hill: Downpour'', the eighth game in Konami's ''SilentHill'' franchise, follows the story of prison inmate Murphy Pendleton and his visit to the best vacation town that Satan ever built.

Like other games in this franchise (specifically ''SilentHill2''), the town of Silent Hill takes on a unique personality that preys upon the inner turmoil of the game's protagonist. This time around, the haunted hellscape becomes washed out in torrential rain, representing the prison showers where Murphy encountered and killed a child molester, and electricity arcs across the landscape whenever Murphy travels into the Otherworld, playing into his fears of execution for his crimes. Murphy also sees a lot of fire during his trips to the Otherworld; given the circumstances, Hell might be preferable to an existence in a living nightmare...

** The music tracks [[VideoGame/SilentHill1 "Silent Hill"]], [[VideoGame/SilentHill2 "Magdalene"]], [[VideoGame/SilentHill2 "Love Psalm"]], and [[VideoGame/SilentHill3 "Please Love Me...Once More"]] can be heard playing on radios at certain points in the game.

* ChaseScene: Every time the Void, a black and red distortion of reality similar to a black hole, appears. There's no option for Murphy except to run from it as quickly as possible.

* ClusterFBomb: Compared to other ''SilentHill'' games, there are a lot of curse words uttered. Special mention goes to Sewell - while he doesn't exactly swear every other sentence, he is probably the most foul-mouthed character in the series thus far.

* {{Expy}}: DJ Ricks might as well work in [[SpecOpsTheLine Dubai]].

* GlasgowGrin: All the non-boss enemies except for Dolls have their mouths mutilated in some fashion.

* HarbingerOfImpendingDoom / HellIsThatNoise: It isn't explicitly stated, but the dedications are apparently an indication of monsters. DJ Bobby Ricks receives calls to his radio station[[note]]Implied to be coming from Silent Hill itself[[/note]] asking him to play songs with dedications to Murphy, which he obligingly does. When Murphy hears these dedications, there are seemingly always monsters nearby. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPWfcIVuxJA#t=7m31s When Bobby finally meets Murphy]] and begins to discuss his plans to escape Silent Hill, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPWfcIVuxJA#t=9m45s he gets another call for a dedication... for himself.]] He doesn't react well, and his next line to Murphy is "They're coming."

* JumpScare: It's ''SilentHill'', so of course there are quite a few.

*** [[spoiler:Which ties nicely into the idea that the town itself is a sentient reality warping entity. If Murphy refuses to learn that violence and vengeance are wrong, then it {{RetCon}}s him into being a murdering nutjob.]]

* MurderousMannequin: Played with in the Devil's Pit mines. At one point, Murphy comes across three eerie-looking miner mannequins, one of which suddenly falls over ([[NightmareFuel and even changes position]]) should he get too close. Later, not long into the train ride, many more of these mannequins can be seen -- then the lights flicker, and the mannequins not only change position, ''they get closer to Murphy''. And they only get closer with ''every'' light flicker, until they're right inside the train, staring right into Murphy's face. [[spoiler:Then the lights flicker again and they're back in their starting positions as if nothing had happened.]]

* PrisonRiot: Overlook Penitentiary was a site of a riot. It is suggested that it was instigated by [[spoiler:Geroge Sewell in order to cover up the planned murder of Frank Coleridge by Murphy Pendleton.]]

* {{Revenge}}: This is a major theme in the game.

** The bus crash and Murphy's subsequential escape is more than a passing nod to ''Film/TheFugitive''.

** One area of the town is named [[{{Literature/Misery}} Chastain]] Heights.
** Murphy's name is a reference to ''OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'' - the protagonist's last name is [=McMurphy=] and the mental institution in which the novel is set is in Pendleton, Oregon.

* ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight: For a game that actively deals with the death of children, naming the recurring baddie "The Bogeyman" was [[MeaningfulName probably not an accident]].

* VulnerableConvoy: The prison bus transporting Murphy Pendleton and other inmates from Ryall State Penitentiary to Wayside Maximum Security Prison takes a tumble ''and rolls off the road'' into woodland. Murphy wakes up and escapes the wreckage on foot, eventually arriving in Silent Hill.

* WeirdnessCensor: The game toys with this notion. The Postman seems oblivious to the strange occurrences of the town and continues his route unabated. [[spoiler:It helps that he's a manifestation of the town and has been present since before 1867.]] DJ Ricks has been continuing his job as a Disc Jockey despite the town being in near ruins. (This only applies in the Otherworld, as the real world is fine and functional.) [[spoiler:Ricks is actually aware of the monsters, but plays along with the act out of fear. He says that the town has "rules" and tries to contact Murphy several times to help him escape, but the efforts later backfire.]]

* YouKilledMyFather: [[spoiler:Anne Cunningham chases after Murphy for this reason; whether he did it or not depends on which ending you get.]]

----

* WrittenSoundEffect: In the Otherworld Monastery, there is a prison hallway made entirely out of cardboard that contains a life-sized string-puppet version of The Bogeyman, LittleBigPlanet-style. A little cardboard SpeechBubble with the appropriate sound-effect written on it appears whenever it swings its hammer.

* HopelessBossFight: Like in ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'', [[spoiler:inverted in that ''you'' get to be the final, all-but-invincible boss. You ''can'' die, but you basically have to intentionally stand there and let Anne ScratchDamage you to death.]]

'''''Silent Hill: Downpour''''', the eighth game in Konami's ''SilentHill'' franchise, follows the story of prison inmate Murphy Pendleton and his visit to the best vacation town that Satan ever built.

* ContinuitySnarl: One can say that this entire game is a huge Snarl of Continuity within itself, for example...
** The endings all contradict each other heavily and the plot details that lead up to the ending you get.
** There are cutscenes in the game that don't make sense if the ending you get contracts them (such as Murphy not being guilty of anything in two endings, save for grand theft auto).
** The rules of the town changing based on interpretation that are vaguely presented to you (WordOfGod, or the three creative minds of Downpour each saying that the town has a purpose and or reason on why it does what it does, but all of the ideas from the "Gods" behind the game don't meld together, and of course contradict each other and the game).
** Written details in the games called "mysteries" that vaguely hint to certain detailed aspects in the game that is never outright told, but also go against each other.
** And this is not getting to the other snarls it creates with the rest of the series, which I'll detail one big one now!
*** The game implies that the entire town is purgatory (or may not even be real), and never explains why or how, yet in the original SH trilogy (you know, ''SilentHill1'', ''SilentHill2'' and ''SilentHill3'') the reasoning of how and why the town was the way it is was properly explained as the towns natural spiritual powers having been corrupted by the Cult's perversion of its powers by trying to birth a demon god using the powers of a physic girl, all of which is real and happened.

Like other games in this franchise, the town of Silent Hill takes on a unique personality that preys upon the inner turmoil of the game's protagonist. This time around, the haunted hellscape becomes washed out in torrential rain, representing the prison showers where Murphy encountered and killed a child molester, and electricity arcs across the landscape whenever Murphy travels into the Otherworld, playing into his fears of execution for his crimes. Murphy also sees a lot of fire during his trips to the Otherworld; given the circumstances, Hell might be preferable to an existence in a living nightmare...

** And this is not getting to the other snarls it creates with the rest of the series.

* LighterAndSofter: Insane as it may sound about a game which opens with a serial pedophile killer, SilentHillDownpour is a game where things are significantly less malevolent. There's less gore, less extreme reactions, and a lot of people seem semi-justified in their actions. [[spoiler:Killing your child's murderer is less severe than your wife, after all.]]

'''''Silent Hill: Downpour''''', the eighth game in Konami's ''SilentHill'' franchise, follows the story of prison convict Murphy Pendleton and his visit to the best vacation town Hell ever conceived.

During a routine transfer to a new prison, the bus transporting Murphy crashes and leaves him a free man. With a security officer from the transport on his tail, Murphy - desperate for an escape route and an escape from ever-worsening weather - follows a worn-down road through the woods and into the world's least desirable holiday destination ever: SilentHill.

Once he arrives, Murphy's luck changes for the worse: as supernatural monsters begin to assault him at every turn (including two symbolic ubermonsters in The Bogeyman and The Wheelman), an otherworldly force threatens to rip his body and soul apart when he stumbles into [[GeniusLoci the Otherworld]]. He also discovers that he has more of a connection to the security officer trailing him than he ever knew - and that they each hold the key to the other's survival.

Like other games in this franchise, the town of Silent Hill takes on a unique personality that preys upon Murphy's inner turmoil. This time around, Silent Hill becomes washed out in torrential rain - representing the prison showers where Murphy encountered a child molester, and the murder of his son - and electricity (Murphy's fear of execution for his crimes) arcs across the landscape whenever Murphy travels into the Otherworld. Murphy also sees a lot of fire during his trips to the Otherworld, as always symbolic of Hell.

!!Tropes specific to this game:

* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Frank was reduced to a vegetative state after his beating at the hands of Sewell (or Murphy, depending on the ending).]]

** When you cross the PointOfNoReturn, you lose ''everything''. Gun, flashlight, lighter, and any random crap you have in your pockets, even your clothes. The only thing you do keep is your journal, you have to re-find everything else.
* BeatStillMyHeart: The Dead Man's Hand sidequest, in which you have to retrieve a dead man's still-beating heart that was savagely ripped out of his body. Emphasis on "still-beating", because the quest also employs...
** HeartBeatSoundtrack, effectively turning it into the most macabre game of Hot & Cold ever.

* BigShutUp: Anne Cunningham to Murphy. "SHUT THE HELL UP!"
* BookEnds: The "Truth & Justice" ending. [[spoiler:Murphy and Anne, having been freed from Silent Hill's influence, end up transported back to the wreckage of the prison bus. Additionally, the last scene of this ending takes place in Ryall State Prison.]] [[CuttingOffTheBranches According to the tie-in comic "Anne's Story", this is the canon ending.]]

* ButThouMust: [[spoiler:Justified in-game due to the strange nature of Silent Hill. This is lampshaded after DJ Ricks reveals he has a boat but someone stole the keys, Murphy replies that he will just hot-wire it. DJ Ricks says that it wouldn't work and that the town has some strange form of reality, and that it has rules. When DJ breaks them, he is overwhelmed by screamers.]]

** [[spoiler:Pyramid Head]] as well as [[spoiler:two Bubble Head Nurses]] make a cameo in the joke ending. [[spoiler:Heather Mason, James and Mary Sunderland, and Laura]] make an appearance as well.

** Quite early in the game, you will find that [[OnceAnEpisode ever-present wheelchair tipped on the side with its wheels still spinning]]. [[spoiler:Turns out it's somewhat of a subversion, as it's actually {{Foreshadowing}} this time around...]]
** A much appreciated aversion; while the stages are more open and sprawling than they've ever been, the amount of broken [[LockedDoor Locked Doors]] you'll encounter can be counted on one hand. Instead, doors that you can't go through are very clearly boarded up entirely, i.e. you no longer need to roam around testing every single door to find out which ones are unusable. And among the doors that are locked but ''can'' be opened, most just require you to break the lock with a metal item.

** There is a second boat anchored next to DJ Ricks' one, with the name [[VideoGame/SilentHill2 Angela's Fire]].

** Devil's Pit was run by the ''[[VideoGame/SilentHill1 Gillespie]]'' Coal and Iron Company.

** After finding an urn full of someone's ashes, along with a photograph of a spot in town, Murphy speculates that the place was meaningful to the couple who lived there and decides he should take the ashes and scatter them at that spot.
** Despite he himself running around the whole town grabbing all kinds of loose items, at one point he finds a stash of stolen goods and decides that he's supposed to return these particular items to their rightful owners.
** After encountering some police cars inexplicably being driven around by monsters, Murphy decides to try to get rid of those cars by seeking out the police dispatcher and calling all the cars back. While it does makes logical sense on some level, it's still a rather strange solution to think up given the mysterious, supernatural context of the game.
** For the endings: sparing the monsters. In most every Silent Hill game, leaving the monsters alive will only give them the chance to get up and kill you. You sort of need to search the area for clues so you killed them in those games. In this game, it affects the ending. So, in order to get the best ending, you have to let non-repenting monsters live. This isn't like Napier, this is legit self-defense and sparing them suddenly matters.
* VulnerableConvoy: The prison bus transporting protagonist Murphy Pendleton and other inmates from Ryall State Penitentiary to Wayside Maximum Security Prison takes a tumble ''and rolls off the road'' into woodland. Murphy wakes up and escapes the wreckage on foot, eventually arriving in Silent Hill.

* WeirdnessCensor: Played with, The Postman is seemingly oblivious to the strange occurrences of the town and continues his route, [[spoiler:because he is a manifestation of the town and has been present since before 1867.]] DJ Ricks has been continuing his job as a Disc Jockey despite the town being in near ruins. (Note: just in the otherworld, the real world is fine and functional.) [[spoiler:DJ Ricks, however, is actually very aware of the monsters, but is playing along out of fear. He states it as "This town has rules." He tries to contact Murphy several times to help him escape, but it backfires.]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:No mention of DJ Bobby Ricks is made after the attack at the radio station.]]
** [[spoiler:But you can hear some rather monstrous radio broadcasts while travelling the Otherworld that imply it didn't go well.]]
*** [[spoiler:If you use your UV light on the ground, it's implied that he was taken to the Otherworld, with blood marks on the ground towards the mirror in the separate room on the same floor.]]

* WrittenSoundEffect: A truly bizarre example. In the Monastery Otherworld, there is a prison-hallway made entirely out of cardboard that contains a life-sized string-puppet version of the Bogeyman, LittleBigPlanet-style. A little cardboard SpeechBubble with the appropriate sound-effect written on it appears whenever it swings its hammer.
* YouKilledMyFather: [[spoiler:The whole reason Anne Cunningham chases after Murphy. Whether he did it or not depends on the ending you get.]]

[[caption-width-right:254:Enter the town's latest [[IncrediblyLamePun prisoner]]...]]

* BookEnds: The "Truth & Justice" ending. [[spoiler:Murphy and Anne, having been freed from Silent Hill's influence, end up transported back to the wreckage of the prison bus. Additionally, the last scene of this ending takes place in Ryall State Prison.]]

* ChekhovsGun: The police badge found by the first set of clothing that Murphy changes into behind the motel. Although Anne seems to understand the significance of it after Murphy encounters her [[spoiler:following the train ride]], it isn't until the very end of the game that is is explained what it means: [[spoiler:a mourning badge worn after the death of a fellow officer, representing the death of Frank Coleridge at Sewell's (or Murphy's) hands.]] The "Truth & Justice" ending has Anne accusingly throwing it at [[spoiler:Sewell]] as she confronts him.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Sewell gets away scot-free in every ending except "Truth & Justice".]]

** One area of the town is named [[{{Misery}} Chastain]] Heights.

* CreepyDoll: One of the monster varieties in the game, aptly named Dolls. Only these appear to be of the sex doll variety.

** The red "Void" which periodically chases Murphy is similar to the [[FanNickname Red Light of Death]] from ''Silent Hill 3'', which stalked Heather through a winding fun house. More so, the chase sequences it instigates are basically lifted from its predecessor, ''[[SilentHillShatteredMemories Shattered Memories]]'', right down to the player being able to throw down obstacles and glance backwards at his pursuer.

** The game kind of plays with it, especially weapons needed to progress (like an axe). You might get to break a plank or two of a boarded up door with a pickaxe before it breaks (which is odd, especially when you just found it), whereas an fire axe is your safest bet on taking it down, without any breakage.

* ButThouMust: [[spoiler:Justified in game due to the strange nature of Silent Hill. This is lampshaded after DJ Ricks reveals he has a boat but someone stole the keys, Murphy replies that he will just hot-wire it. DJ Ricks says that it wouldn't work and that the town has some strange form of reality, and that it has rules. When DJ breaks them, he is overwhelmed by screamers.]]

** [[spoiler:Pyramid Head]] as well as [[spoiler:two Bubble Head Nurses]] makes a cameo in the joke ending. [[spoiler:Heather Mason, James and Mary Sunderland, and Laura]] make an appearance as well.

** Quite early in the game, you will find that [[OnceAnEpisode ever-present wheelchair tipped on the side with its wheels still spinning]]. [[spoiler:Turns out it's somewhat of a subversion, as it's actually {{Foreshadowing}}...]]
** A much appreciated aversion; While the stages are more open and sprawling than they've ever been, the amount of broken [[LockedDoor Locked Doors]] you'll encounter can be counted on one hand. Instead, doors that you can't go through are very clearly boarded up entirely, i.e. you no longer need to roam around testing every single door to find out which ones are unusable. And among the doors that are locked but ''can'' be opened, most just require you to break the lock with a metal item.

* InfantImmortality: ''Downpour'' turns [[AvertedTrope dancing on this tropes' grave]] into a sport. In fact, [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse with one]] [[DeadToBeginWith possible exception]], ''every'' kid either shown or referred to in-game ends up dead before the end, making it somewhat of a [[CentralTheme running theme]]. Examples include:

* InsurmountableWaistHighFence: At times you might see certain spots around town that Murphy probably could feasibly reach without too much effort but are nonetheless off limits to the player. Usually you can sort of think of it as an unspoken implication that Murphy is automatically filtering out those unremarkable places for the player, although there is an instance where Murphy explicitly looks at a potentially viable pathway that's blocked by a foot-high tree trunk and proclaims he "can't go this way."

* LetsPlay: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5ofoIeb8wI From]] ''WebVideo/TwoBestFriendsPlay''.

Like other games in this franchise, the town of Silent Hill takes on a unique personality that preys upon Murphy's inner turmoil. This time around, Silent Hill becomes washed out in torrential rain (representing [[spoiler:the prison showers where Murphy killed a child molester... [[MultipleEndings maybe]]]]), and electricity (Murphy's fear of execution for his crimes) arcs across the landscape whenever Murphy travels into the Otherworld. Murphy also sees a lot of fire during his trips to the Otherworld, which likely represents his fear of Hell.

** Quite early in the game, you will find that ever-present wheelchair tipped on the side with its wheels still spinning. [[spoiler:Turns out it's somewhat of a subversion, as it's actually {{Foreshadowing}}...]]