I was checking out the official SH Downpour thread on GAF and there´s a poster that gave some very good impressions about the game.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=465352&page=5

Mind you I'm not done with the game yet, I only just entered the Centennial Building. Some things I say might change here. I'm not going into story that much either since A.) I think Silent Hill games are the type of games that are really hard to judge the story before you complete it, and B.) Don't want spoilers to spread like wildfire.

The first thing I want to say is that the people who made the game have obviously done their homework. This game is very much set in their own own version of Silent Hill, which has a different look and feel to the other Silent Hill games, but they've put in some very small details and obviously put a lot of work to make this feel like a Silent Hill game. In some ways I actually say this is almost like an anti-thesis to Homecoming, because it's almost like everything that Homecoming did badly this game does quite well. The biggest examples I can give are atmosphere and puzzles. You sort of get the feel that they sat down and thought to themselves, "Alright, what about horror games aren't prevalent anymore and how can we try and modernize it for this game?" I have this feeling that those who like old-school horror games are going to love this game, because it does feel like an old-school horror game. You've got more puzzles than I've seen in a horror game in some time, you've got clunky combat and controls that are a bit stiff, you've got exploration and a focus on atmosphere... There are a few good scares in the game but I will say so far at least their a bit sparse, but I'm not too bothered by that so far. The most "New Age" feeling things is the cinematic-aimed stuff from the game, which includes both story points and set-pieces. 

Graphics are fine but it shows that this studio likely lacks a little experience since the whole style is kind of weird... But arguably it works for the game. You know how some people say part of what makes the old Silent Hill games scary is to sometimes make it hard to tell what you're looking at? That basically applies here sometimes. The game doesn't look bad but it's not exactly a graphical behemoth either, and there's this kind of... Murky look to everything, which I think might be a combination of the art style, color scheme, and how everything just sort of is... If that makes sense. There's some slow down I notice when running in big open spaces (IE the explorable town of Silent Hill) but slow-down I find to be almost non-existent in closed-off areas, buildings, and the like. Music is fantastic in my opinion and really fits this off-beat feeling the game has, though the voice acting is very hit and miss. Lots of the people you talk to and such sound very lifeless. I almost think this was some sort of intentional thing since it almost makes the whole thing feel kind of like a trance and it makes it almost feel like Murphy is in some sort of weird dream. 

The monsters are not very varied in the game so far, but some of them are interesting. I don't think everyone is going to like them though as they look very different from your typical Silent Hill monsters. All of them I've encountered so far look like humans except with mutilated bodies, deformed limbs/features, and other oddities. The most interesting enemy I think I've encountered is this one female enemy that just has gaping black holes for a mouth and face that almost looks like a hooker. She's slow and pretty easy if you don't get close to her, but she has the ability to split into several shadows and move very fast, though the shadows themselves are much weaker individually in terms of health and damage. However, with the old-school horror approach I feel like the focus here isn't combat and those that come to this game for that will be disappointed. I believe some will like and some will dislike that design decision.

Back to my original point, it feels like the developers have done their homework. This game is it's own entry, but it's evident that they've taken a look at all of the other games to see what worked or might be interesting to implement here, which will lead to fans to recognize elements from the game. You've got these chase-sequences that feel like their advanced versions of the Silent Hill: Shattered Memories chase scenes. You don't really fight monsters as much in these scenes than the town, maybe? Usually there will be some twisted force and messed-up dream logic you have to figure out to continue, and often you'll be running from your life from some force that you can't kill. However, I find the chasing mechanics work much better than the combat mechanics anyway so I'm not all that bothered by it. Then you've got moments that feel like it's from Silent Hill 4, where everything is all weirdly surreal You've got some strong symbolism vibes and "You're facing the town, not the cult," sort of things in the style of Silent Hill 2... And so on, and so on. 

I will say that I think this game is better than Homecoming definitely so far. It just feels better designed and there's a lot more into it. That said, I don't think everyone is going to like it. This old-school approach will please some, but I can see some people thinking this game feels dated and to be honest, at this point I have no idea how people are generally going to compare this to the classics. I am enjoying myself personally, but then I have to note that I'm a person who really enjoys having a good balance between older and newer games in his gaming diet and I am thrilled to have a new horror game that feels like it's stylized like an old horror game, just with some more modern stuff about it. But I can see some people not liking this approach. This might not be the best example, but I think it's going to have a very NieR or Binary Domain or, hell, even Silent Hill 4 the Room reception. I think it's going to be a very splitting game that some will absolutely love due to it's offbeat old-school feel and charms and the things the game does right are things that games these days simply don't do that often, but then some will dislike the game because of it's imperfections, it's sometimes sloppy feeling in places. I guess this game has more charm than substance sometimes, but then I would argue the series has always been kind of like that anyway.