The game that I am reviewing today is one that I feel is overshadowed by it's very popular and well recognized sequel, it's known as Silent Hill. Silent Hill is a horror/survival game which was developed by a company known as Team Silent, and then published by Konami. This game was originally released for the Playstation back in 1999 in North America, but was also ported to the Playstation 3 around a decade later. (Surprisingly, the game was released in Japan and Europe later on in the year. Considering the company who published the game, you would have thought that it would be the opposite with Japan getting it first, then the US and Europe.)
This game laid down the foundation for what would be one of the best horror/survival series ever made. Yet, no one ever really talks about it. You'll find people gushing over Silent Hill 2 far more often than you'll ever find someone talking about the first Silent Hill. It even gets ignored by the companies that made it in a way, as it wasn't even included in the Silent Hill collection released a few years ago. And, while this game did have it's flaws, I think it is really underappreciated compared to the rest of the series. So, lets take a look back at Konami's first venture into the nightmare filled town of fog.
Silent Hill puts us into the shoes of our main character, Harry Mason. Harry is just a run of the mill father, as average as can be. The game begins by showing us Harry driving his daughter Cheryl to Silent Hill as part of their vacation. At the edge of town, Harry has to swerve the car to avoid hitting a girl standing in the road and ends up crashing his car. He awakes in town and finds that his daughter has gone missing, and sets off to try and find her.
He quickly realizes, however, that Silent Hill is not the town he thought it was. He finds that the town is filled with fog, it's mostly deserted besides the occasional living person, and somehow has snow falling down to the ground when it's out of season. Oh, and lets not forget all of the bizarre monsters and creatures roaming the town. As Harry starts to meet some of the NPC's of the town, he discovers that there is a darkness leaking into the town that is trying to overtake it. This is due to the girl in the road from earlier, who turns out to be a demon. Harry has to find a way to stop her soon, as he's warned that if the demon succeeds then his daughter will die.
After you've been playing your way through the town for an hour or two, you'll find that the game takes on some large changes which make it a more dark and creepy experience overall. So far, you've been searching for Cheryl, fighting off zombiefied dogs and children, mutated bird monsters, and other strange creatures that are typical things we see in survival horror for the most part. We find ourselves making our way to a clock tower located in the center of the school building. After making your way to the top of the tower, you proceed onward to climb down the other side. Only to find that you have ended up exactly where you've started somehow.
But, this time the environment is different. Night has fallen, and a strange giant symbol has etched itself into the ground. You make your way back into the school, only to find that it has all changed as well. Everything is smeared with blood and cloaked bodies are hanging from the walls now. The floor has changed from being wooden to an industrial style mesh. To have this happen all of a sudden was a bit jarring, and made me feel pretty uneasy. What we have encountered is the warped, alternate version of Silent Hill referred to as the Otherworld.
As you play along, you will make your way into the Otherworld quite a bit. I think this really is what helps make Silent Hill into a genuinely creepy, unsettling horror game. The Otherworld is a filthy, rotting world that will work at your nerves at times. I was left wondering which of these Silent Hill's was the real one, or are they both real at the same time? I also started wondering if the NPC's were supposed to be dealing with this nightmare world or maybe it was just affecting Harry only. A lot of questions get brought up thanks to this decaying, twisted world. And, you'll have to do a lot of exploring and backtracking at times through town to figure it all out.
This dark, creeping atmosphere is definitely the driving force in this game. There is a feeling of psychological fear mixed in with fighting off the monsters, which helps keep a level of fear present through your playthrough. Even when working your way through multiple playthroughs to get all of the endings you'll find yourself feeling a bit of anxiousness here and there. It's nice that not everything diminishes right away while playing this, like with other games such as Resident Evil where the driving force there is shocking monster encounters for the most part.
You'll find that the game doesn't do much to help guide you through it either. There is no HUD interface so anytime you need to check your items/equipment and health, you must bring up a separate screen and manually check yourself. And, while you can find maps in the town, there is no main map menu available. You will also have to manually read the maps and figure them out on your own, with the maps only updating once you've either uncovered barricades blocking your way or breaking locks. I personally liked that this game didn't hold your hand very much, as a lot of games these days do. It was a breath of fresh air.
The combat of this game definitely fits with the horror/survival genre of old. As you'll have to be strategic with how you want to act. Often times it's a much wiser decision to just skirt by the enemies instead of actively engaging them, as ammo is quite sparse throughout the game, and Harry isn't that great of a shot anyways. Most of the combat devolves into physically beating the monsters with melee weapons such as a hammer, pipe or axe so you can save all of your ammo for the big boss fights.
A cool element of the combat in this game is the small radio that Harry brings with him, which will start making eerie crackling and static noises as you near monsters in the fog. This can be really nerve wracking, especially when you're playing in a quiet, pitch black room with only a monitor giving you any light. Aiding the creepy sounds is the fact that your environment will be changing as you move around. You might go one way, then when you come back that same way there is a wall all of a sudden. It feels like there's something in the fog watching everything you do, and altering your path to drive you specifically where it wants you. As I mentioned before, this game really does have some excellent atmosphere.
And, that's just for the normal Silent Hill. The Otherworld levels will leave you with an anxiety ridden feeling sinking it's way into your stomach every time you hear that air raid siren starting to go off. An extremely important part of traversing and fighting here involves using your flashlight, as it is really essential to be able to get around in the darkness filled world. It even affects the ability of reading the maps in the game, which is a cool component in my opinion. The combat is still the same here, but enemies spawn in greater numbers and you're bound to have a few close calls.
There are some things which can be criticized however with this game. One is that figuring out how to activate each of the endings isn't easy by any means, unless you're relying on a walkthrough guide online. For example, one ending depends on if you find a bottle or not in a certain characters apartment building. Things like that tend to be a bit frustrating, as you'll have to really scrutinize your conversations, text crawls, and environments to make sure you're not missing anything. And, even then it wouldn't hurt to check a few more times.
Another thing which could have been better was the graphics. Even for it's time, they weren't really considered the best of the best. They took a different approach from the Resident Evil series, having a more free moving camera and a 3D world, instead of the sometimes frustrating fixed camera angles and pre-rendered backdrops. The cutscenes however are quite good for their time, and even hold up pretty okay in this day and age. However, these aren't used very often, mainly only to introduce characters of the game.
I also think maybe part of the reason why this game is overshadowed by Silent Hill 2 are the enemy designs. Most of the enemy designs (Not counting the bosses) are somewhat generic and don't feel all that memorable afterwards. Where as Silent Hill 2 had the contortionist nurses and Pyramid Head, this game has zombiefied dogs, mutant birds and giant insects. Now, although I think this could be improved upon, I do think the atmosphere of the game makes up for the basic enemy design, and is what should be focused on over enemy design.
Even with those criticisms, which are easily forgivable in my opinion, this game is still an excellent entry in horror/survival history. So long as you can look past the dated graphics, and don't have a phobia of feeling alone since the town feels desolate and empty most of the time, then I feel like you'll definitely like this game. I feel that it's a shame that this game has gone into obscurity in a way, even when it's spawned so many sequel games and even a prequel game if I remember correctly.
For fans of the later entries in the series, or for fans of survival horror in general, I would recommend checking this game out if you get the chance. It's not perfect, but it is a dark, tension filled game with a good narrative and plenty of replaybility thanks to the fact that there's 5 different endings which you can get.
Thanks for checking out my review! Hope it's helped you garner some interest in trying out this game, or at least entertained you in some way!
Nice review dude. I think my main criticism has to be the tank controls. I know they have a purpose, and Silent Hill is my favorite game series, but I'm so glad you have an option to change them in later games.
I've got a short indie horror game, that is heavily inspired by Silent Hill. If you're interested in reviewing it, I can get you a code.
Amazing game, scared the shit out of me as a kid.
Nice review! I've been a big fan of silent hill and I've play all the games so this makes me feel nostalgic. Upvoted
Thank you! Yeah, I've always been more into Resident Evil, but the Silent Hill series holds a place in my heart as well :) I'm planning on trying to play through some older horror games for next month and doing a lot of classic game reviews on that type of stuff since Halloween is coming up!
Great review, thanks for the walk trough memory lane. Reminded me of playing the game with a couple of friends back in college. The game was not about the graphics but the fear it instilled when walking down a corridor or entering the elevator.
Ahh! Silent Hill! This game scared the shit out of me as a kid and really kept me on edge. Made me think . . . differently. The story and atmosphere is so fucking bizarre and rattling. I was just playing the P.T. demo again last week so I could have something to be mad about. I'm never gonna forgive them for killing that project . . .
Yeah, the atmosphere and crazy psychological aspect of the Silent Hill series is fucking great. I have so many memories of being freaked the hell out burned in my mind from playing the first few games, lol.
Yeah, I didn't wanna mention that in my review anywhere, but I am also still pretty mad about that. Sooo, much potential for an absolutely amazing horror game wasted. Instead, we're going to get some weird open world action game with Norman Reedus making goofy ass faces, lol.
Excellent review for one of the creepiest games ever. I did not own a PlayStation, i remember going to a friend's house and playing Silent Hill for hours. The one thing that scared the shit out of me was the SIREN blasting suddenly game me the most horrifying moment.
There is a movie which is awesome too.
Thank you! Yeah, the air raid siren to this day will make my skin feel like it's crawling a bit, haha.
I think I always get the left overs, when did you say silent hill 1 was produced 😱.
The original Silent Hill was published in January of 1999.
I think this was the first video game I played through enough times to get every possible ending. I tried with Chrono Trigger but there's just way too many endings.
@deadspace got you a $7.97 @minnowbooster upgoat, nice! (Image: pixabay.com)
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This post has received a 1.88 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @deadspace.
@deadspace Well done for sticking at it! Love it. Followed..
Oh man when the phone with the cut chord rings I lose my dinner everytime.