Scared in the airport

So I had to fly back to Pennsylvania on Monday to attend my grandmother's funeral. Despite the fact that I was not particularly fond of the woman, it was still a very trying two days, not helped by the fact that my flight back to North Carolina was delayed two hours by very heavy fog at the Philadelphia airport.

I got to the airport around 7, but as the fog stayed stubbornly in place, my flight got pushed further and further back. (It eventually took off a little after midnight.) I had, it seemed, plenty of time to kill, so I figured I'd put some time in with Silent Hill Origins on my PSP. I had to review it, but I've been a fan of the SH series since day one, so this wasn't exactly going to be hard work.

I'd seen clips of the game, and even played it a tiny bit at E3, but what I had yet to really determine was whether or not the series' trademark creepiness would really come through on the small screen. What made the original Silent Hill such a landmark game was its ability to scare the crap out of you through hint and suggestion. A shadow in the fog, the sound of breaking glass in a nearby room. Silent Hill was brilliant at creating an atmosphere of dread that seeped slowly through your skin until you were a hair's breadth away from running away in sheer terror.

I figured it would be pretty tough to pull that off when I could see my lap around the edges of the screen, but my plane was nowhere near ready to take off, so I plugged in my headphones and fired up the PSP.

As the name implies, the game takes place before the events of the original Silent Hill. If you saw the movie, you'll recognize many of the names and events, as they covered much of the same ground. Origins is classic Silent Hill, with the same hideous monsters, staticy radio, and gruesome discoveries. There's even a young Pyramidhead.

At this point I feel I must point out that the Philadelphia Airport was nearly deserted. There were perhaps 30 people in all of E Terminal, and that's including the staff. The world outside the huge plate glass windows was lost in the swirling fog, the sodium arc lights carving out the tiniest of oases in the mist.

It was fucking creepy, is what I'm saying.

This is not, I have since learned, the best environment in which to play a survival horror game. Or perhaps it's exactly the environment in which to play survival horror. I suppose it depends on your point of view. Suffice to say, I moved from my seat in the chairs to a spot up against the wall, so that I could see whatever might be coming my way. Then I took out one of my ear buds, so that I'd have a better chance of hearing whatever might be coming my way. Then I said to hell with it and turned the damn game off and read a gossip magazine instead. Granted, news about Cameron Diaz and Lindsey Lohan is a different kind of scary, but it creeped me out far less.