Silent Hill
Silent Hill came out shortly after Resident Evil popularized the survival horror genre, while the gameplay was similar to RE the game differentiated itself in many ways that really caused the series to stand on it’s own instead of just being labeled as a Resident Evil rip-off.
The big things that Silent Hill did different was to focus more on melee combat rather than gunplay, and to focus on psychological horror instead of cheap scare tactics.
For Resident Evil the main horror came from suddenly being attacked when you didn’t expect it, or trying to survive when you were low on resources. Silent Hill takes a more subtle approach to horror, by throwing you alone into a strange environment where creepy monsters are lurking around and where you have no idea what’s going on.
The game stars Harry Mason, who is on vacation with his young daughter Cheryl. A car accident ends with Harry waking up in the town of Silent Hill with his daughter missing from the car. Harry follows a series of drawings left by his daughter through Silent Hill while he uncovers a mystery involving surrounding a local cult. All roads out of town seem to have caved in, and a dense fog covers the area. Along the way Harry meets several local residents. A cop named Cybil Bennett who comes from the nearby town of Brahams, doctor Kaufmann, a nurse named Lisa, and a woman named Dahlia Gillespie.
While Harry is in Silent Hill the town switches back and fourth between normal Silent Hill and “Otherworld”. Otherworld is a dark, rusty metallic, version of Silent Hill.
Silent Hill sacrificed graphics for a more cinematic feel. The environments are not pre-rendered and are all created with the game engine. This means they don’t look as nice as something Resident Evil, but it gave the game designers ALOT more control. Particularly with the camera. The camera moves all about during tense sequences and creates an some very memorable sequences. So memorable in fact, that the opening walk down the alleyway was recreated shot for shot in the Silent Hill movie. The biggest downside to this is that the graphics don’t scale well at all. Playing this game on a HDTV, and with the ps3 enhancement settings turned on all the textures seem to have a weird cross hatch effect over them. You’ll get used to it, but it’s easily noticed.
The game flow typically works with Harry being lead to a location in town (School, Hospital, Etc) where he’ll explore until he finds a trigger than changes the town to Otherworld. Then explore again and defeat the boss in order to progress through the game. Along the way he’ll discover hints, and clues as to what’s going on in this strange town.
Harry is armed early on with a flashlight and radio. The flashlight is great for dark areas, but attracts enemies. The radio makes static noises when enemies are around so it’s easy to know when you’re about to be attacked. You’ll also find all kinds of melee weapons like a knife, pipe, axe, etc and while you’ll rely heavily on your pistol early on you’ll eventually end up mostly using melee weapons and conserving ammo for bosses. Aside from the pistol you also get a shotgun and rfile. An additional infinite ammo gun is unlocked if you get the secret ending.
Another handy feature is the auto map, which constantly keeps track of which areas you’ve been though, and which doors you haven’t tried to open yet. It makes life way easier in these large buildings with tons of rooms.
The game has 4 endings plus a secret joke ending, and two different bosses depending on which ending you’ll receive. The game itself is about 5-6 hours long for your first time through, and there is a TON of optional areas in it. These areas provide Harry with additional items and can provide a lot more information for the back story of the game.
The beauty of the story is that it isn’t spoon fed to the player. Only the bare minimum is provided, but there’s a ton of clues around to help you piece together what’s going in. In that respect, it really helps you identify with Harry.
Silent Hill was a great game, and while it’s often compared to Resident Evil, it’s actually a very different game. The atmosphere created in this game, and carried through the rest of the series is unique and worth experiencing.
If you like horror games, and don’t mind the dated tank controls of this title, I highly recommend it. Especially since you can now pick it up on the PSN for $5.99!
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