My first impressions of the game are pretty good. It seems very solid and much better overall than Homecoming. Although......I really didn't like the very beginning. No Silent Hill in the past has ever forced you to do such a terrible thing, and I generally stay away from violent games that put you in such a role. I realize several of the past SH protagonists have pretty dark pasts, but the game has never put you in their shoes while they're committing their crimes. I get that this adds to the horror and it truly does make the game more dreadful, but I think I could do without it. I'm pretty confident that there will be a plot twist later that will somehow make it not so bad, like Murphy was being forced to do so by the guards, or something. We'll see.
-The Otherworld (or the one segment I've seen so far) was pretty awesome. Some weird Escher shit that makes you kind of ill if you try and take in your surroundings. It reminds me of Silent Hill 4 in many ways.
-Much like Homecoming, I find the graphics to be hit or miss. You can tell they pull all their punches until the supernatural shit starts going down, although that's not to say there haven't been creepy moments just exploring. There are some cool environmental details, like paintings and dead bodies and the like.
-Navigation is alright. My main complaints are that Murphy tends to get stuck easily on some objects, and that the in-game loading is such that your screen will stop moving, only to jut suddenly to the angle you tried to mash the right stick towards to get the damn camera in motion again. This is REALLY disorienting and I hope installing the game will make it not happen every ten seconds.
-The game's got a couple of problems, but thank god, the music sure isn't one of them. Haven't listened to the Korn theme yet but Daniel Licht fits Silent Hill like a glove.
-The story so far is surprisingly messed up. There is a certain... action (PFG mentions it above) that will likely make you extremely uncomfortable. I am eager to see how this plays out in context of the rest of the game.
-The option to turn off button prompts, pick-up glowing, and tutorials are all very welcome additions. I hope more games do this.
-I'm not a huge fan of the one chase scene I've encountered so far. Not necessarily the concept, but the glowy shit you have to run from. SH3 somehow made this concept FAR more unnerving.
All in all, I'm not going to say it's perfect, but definitely has potential.
Be sure to post your own impressions later, Muchy. I've been wondering how the game would turn out, though I'm still leery about Destructoid's mention of "beat 'em up" portions.
Haven't seen a monster yet, but from what I've read about the combat, if you play this game like a beat-em-up, you're doing it wrong. Much like most survival horror, really.