Watched a 40 minute preview of Silent Hill Downpour. From the forty minutes I saw, I have discerned this:

Similarities to other games: Seems to draw from The Hole and Origins (one weapon, weapon deterioration) Homecoming (smoother style, uncomplicated controls, enemy “dance pattern” of dodge and counter) and Shattered Memories (chase scenes and the ability to look over your shoulder, better acting, more items to seek out and look at) more than from the earlier games. (Enemies dissolve and do not leave behind blood, voice acting is better, camera follows the character rather than being stuck in a specific place no ghosts that follow you from area to area endlessly ffffffffffffffffffffff.)

Pros and their respective cons.

Pro: Environmental realism! Objects and surroundings are very often intractable and detailed. There is always something interesting to look at, including disturbing paintings or even simplistic things like beer cans. It give the illusion of being more sandbox-ish as you have a lot to explore and a lot to analyze.
Con: Possible Shattered Memories-esque chase scenes that prevent you from remaining in an area as monsters chase you down very quickly. Often the detail to items seems somewhat excessive, as if to try to drive home the point the game is meant to be scary. A game needs to be able to frighten without adding excessive extras to build itself up.

Pro: You cannot choose when to “go to” the other world like in Origin when you touched a mirror. It is similar to both the film and to Homecoming in that the other world peels back the surroundings to reveal a larger, more frightening world of rust, grime and industrial sounds. A new feature that seems intriguing to me is the “world stretching” and “endless staircase” scenario. I do not know if they occur anywhere else in the game, but running to the end of a hallway and then having the hallway suddenly and continually get longer and longer, or tricking you into a panicked run up a flight of stairs, really seems to work well. The idea that you are being chased by an instant-kill scenario, only to eventually calm down enough to realize you cannot go up and thus must brave going back down to where you think the threat lurks, only to end up in a new area is very distressing.
Con: As beautiful as the water is, the cooling effect it has on the tough, gritty, steam-filled other world is a bad one. It takes the fear of the “choking” feeling away, thus forcing the game to, again, rely on the monsters to keep you panicked. If the OTHER WORLD doesn’t instil PANIC in you? You know there is a mistake.**** (****This is, however, only the beginning of the game. I have yet to see if this will improve or not later on.)

Pro: Imaginative monsters that seem to have much more to do with the main character’s story than the surrounding town’s. Monsters are tougher to defeat, making combat more difficult but more rewarding.
Con: Monsters move very quickly and seem to be unavoidable, meaning the idea of avoiding killing (a staple of earlier games) has once again been ignored in favour of a more L4D approach, with monsters keeping you on high alert as opposed to a slow, rising horror. Monsters seem almost too tough, putting more of an emphasis on fighting and finding weapons to keep yourself safe than to explore the story. It is also difficult to tell if a monster is actually down as finishing blows seem too similar to regular attacks****. (****This is only from what I have observed in a preview. The players themselves may have simply been unfamiliar with finishing blows)

Pro: Environmental stress. The environments are frightening with only the usage of music, sound and shadows. This is especially true after the first few monster encounters. There seems to be no distinction between “safe rooms” and “hostile areas” as sometimes a monster will walk up behind the main character even though the area seemed safe.
Con: At times there is a touch of a “giveaway” that something bad is going to happen. While this can be effective in building up a slow burn to fear and paranoia, the “bad” events tend to happen much too soon after the initial hint that something may happen, thus being the equivalent of the “jaws theme” build up. You know when the shark is going to strike just by listening to the song, even if the song temporarily makes you upset/fearful.

Pro: Weapon realism! A weapon deteriorates and eventually breaks. The ability to hold a weapon is limited to one or two at a time. Imaginative usage of “weaponry” includes chairs which breakdown not all at one, but bit by bit until you are left with a chair-leg! Also, the ability to throw away broken weapons is an option, no longer cluttering up your inventory.
Con: Weapons are not placed in the inventory at all but in hands. Due to high enemy speed, sometimes using weapons becomes cumbersome, taking away from the fear and adding more to frustration.

Pro: A subway system to get you across the EXPANSIVE map of Silent Hill is handy considering it would be very cumbersome to have to trek for hours of game-play, possibly wasting health items in the process.
Con: Exploration and enjoyment of the dreary world was always something I enjoyed about Silent Hill (even if I despised having to avoid dogs, patient demons, pterodactyls, carrion, etc…) Knowing the world is now actually “too big” to explore seems a touch disheartening. I worry that another reason for the subway is because the outside will be more or less littered with “chase” monsters that you cannot avoid.**** (****This is speculation on my part and is to be taken with a grain of salt. I know “fast monsters” do appear in this game and that it seems to put an emphasis on killing the monsters than from avoiding them. I will say this, however, you are essentially forced to avoid monsters during chase scenes. Whether or not this counts as “player-choice monster avoidance” or not remains to be seen.)

Pro: The inventory for items no longer pauses the game! This adds stress to the player who wants to pause in order to “heal up” or even to temporarily take a break from feeling afraid.
Con: This is a bad choice, in my opinion, as the “g-force effect” (as I call it) is being interrupted. G-forces in high amounts on such things as roller-coasters can not only pose a threat to the very mechanics that run them, but to the health of those on the ride. Roller-coaster designers know that while long periods of extended g-forces can cause adrenaline rushes due to panic, disorientation and “the rush” many thrill-seekers want, there must be “rest points” to interrupt the flow, less it become too overwhelming and thus a failure. Downpour’s “g-force effect” is becoming interrupted by keeping the action seemingly on all the time, thus making it difficult for a player to collect themself should they need to stop for a moment to think. Some would say this is a good thing, others will agree with me that it can be more confusing and frustrating than frightening. Needing to use a health item on your character while also needing to fight can make maneuvering through the inventory too much of a hassle, thus meaning healing during a fight will probably be something you want to avoid. The idea that you cannot stop to heal your character and instead face having to start over simply because you couldn’t reach your health item seems more frustrating to me than useful, as even experienced players sometimes need to pause to heal.**** (****I do not know if the “pause” screen and the “inventory bar” are separate at this time. I don’t recall seeing the game paused save after the character dies.

Pro: Auto-save!
Con: No save spots? (I haven’t seen any as of yet.) This would actually give me more of a sense of relief knowing I didn’t have to backtrack or press on to find the symbol on the wall to save. Others may disagree. This is only my opinion.

That’s all I’ve gathered so far. Feel free to let me know your thoughts! I’ve included the link to the forty minute preview.

( For around eight more minutes of game-play with different players, please follow this link: http://youtu.be/Qtp9VXwkKY8 )