Overall 9.6 Graphics 8 Sound 9.5 Addictive 8.5 Story 9 Depth 9 Difficulty 8.5
9.5
Silent Hill- The Classic Masterpiece ksb1082
Silent Hill was released by Konami in January of 1999. It released to major critical acclaim and moderate commercial success. However, Silent Hill revitalized the survival horror genre. It would later see many reiterations and re-releases on the Sony Playstation network. The game took a very different take on the genre. Eschewing the typified action oriented B-Movie feel of a Resident Evil. Silent Hill focused more on psychological terror. Harry is not an elite super cop, he is an "everyman." While he is not totally helpless as he can defend himself, the game was designed to discourage combat. The game itself focused on terrifying the player with dark, suffocating images, versus outright violence or gore. It was there but more subdued, instead it tried to get you to focus on the fear of the unknown.
Silent Hill is the story of Harry Mason and his daughter Cheryl. While on a vacation Harry swerves to miss a pedestrian in the middle of the highway and crashes into Silent Hill. When he awakes he finds his daughter is missing. The streets are empty and an oppressive fog covers the town. He begins to run in a desperate attempt to find his daughter and escape. However, he will soon find out about the towns dark past and his own associations, with the evil slowly awakening.
Graphics: Silent Hill met the standards of it's time. It was a good looking game and the limits of the system were hidden by clever use of light mechanics. The game is deliberately designed with a short draw distance. This would usually be the sign of technology not being able to show things in the scope of modern games. Silent Hill uses the limitation as a plot device. You the player can only see so much by design. It helps create an atmosphere of fear and dread. During the day the town is covered in fog, it is oppressive and designed to make the player feel claustrophobic. At night or inside most buildings, there is little to no light. Harry finds a portable pocket light early on and it is his savior. It is the only means of navigating the dark labyrinth Admittedly a lot of the images are blurry, this is a limit of the technology and software. However, there is still a good amount of detail. The environments sent the tone as the light world has the normal mutable details of an average town. And, the dark world is a wretched place of atrophy, it is a void of decay and horrifying emptiness.
Sound: Silent Hills track of songs are memorable but play little throughout the story. Instead you are treated to mostly a deafening silence of an empty world. Instead you hear ambiance. It is used to spectacular effect as sounds clearly meant to unnerve you do so. It can be terrifying as you hear the gurgles, moans, and cries of monsters as you try to hide in the darkness. Otherwise the quiet is only broken by the creak of doors, the crashing of unseen objects and other terrifyingly normal sounds. The game also has the iconic fog horn, it still gives me nightmares when I hear it. It signifies the transition into something terrible and nightmarish. It's antithesis is the pocket radio, as it's white static can only be heard by the player. It is used to identify where enemies are, it also serves as a effective generator of tension.Sound in the game is used for dramatic effect and helps to build the tense and frightening atmosphere. Dialogue is handled decently by the voice acting, but honestly there is very little of it. Harry only interacts with other humans very rarely throughout the game. Other than some minor exposition as Harry thinks out loud you don't hear much. This is a good choice as the best character in the game is the town.
Difficulty: Silent Hill is definitely a challenging game. It certain is in the vein of the survival horror genre but takes it to an extreme. Harry has access to a few melee weapons which are his primary mainstay. He does have access to guns eventually but ammo counts are low by design. The game really stresses the notion that Harry is not a Super Cop/Soldier. He can fight well enough in a tight spot but it is generally not recommended. Instead you must utilize the mechanics to avoid enemies. The flashlight helps you to navigate the pitch black darkness of most areas. However, it also shows enemies right where you are. You have to make tough choices about when to turn off the light and risk complete blindness. Sound is similar, gunfire and running will attract enemies you can move slower to help you avoid them. However, this mechanic is not reliable, more a limit of the technology rather than bad design. Either way you will find yourself having to manage your resources intelligently. Gunfire and your light can draw enemies out, you don't have enough to kill them all but maybe you can use it to your advantage. Unfortunately, like its peers the tank controls do add some degree of unfairness of the game. Movement at times requires precision that just was not delivered. You get used to the controls but they always remind you that they are not great. Be ready to feel moments of frustration as this makes boss battles, which require split-second precision, deadly. I died many times in these places to have to go back to an earlier save that consumed a great deal of time repeating completed areas.
Story: As mentioned before the story is of Harry and his daughter Cheryl seeming to end up in Silent Hill by coincidence. That is not the case. Harry spends much of his time reading in broken excerpts and books about the towns dark past. This is a story of the occult, it is meant to be ambiguous and is told in fragmented entries. You must read; to truly understand the plot. If you don't have the patience to do so, the game is much less meaningful. There are less than 10 human characters in the game. Dialogue is minimal and is cryptic at best. This helps to create a mystique around the town and the situation.It's hard to describe it in any detail without giving away major plot points. But suffice it to say the town is empty for a reason. That reason is twisted and terrible. Among those that remain are factions fighting to take power and cope with the horror that was unleashed in the town.
Depth: At it s heart it is an exploration game. Combined with the horror creates a true depth to the game. You struggle to find your way through labyrinths. You can barely see and the creates an ambiance I have yet to see in other games. There is combat, but it is difficult. You should only really fight when you are backed into a corner and cannot get out. The game wants you to avoid enemies and you must learn how to use the mechanics to your advantage. Buried everywhere are the fragments of information that actually provide in great detail the background of the plot. It is key to understanding the events and becomes just as important to collect as does supplies. The game boasts five different endings. A really good, kind of good, kind of bad, and really bad ending are just the tip of the iceberg. The fifth can only be found in a new game+ and requires exquisite attention to detail to unlock.
Addictiveness: The game is a lot of fun if you are fond of the genre, it's atmospheric and cryptic story are it's greatest assets. The multiple endings require that you trigger certain sequences in the story. They are all similar but unique in their own ways. This adds a great deal of replay-ability. It's also nice that in the new game plus you get access to more resources making some of the tedious navigation unnecessary. A lot of the fun is realizing you missed crucial background that details the locations and characters in the game. Which mean you spend some more time trying to discover the journal entries you missed. Really reading is key and it really fleshes out the story. Nothing ever captures the tension of the first play-through. But, that first time can be terrifying. The violence in most cases is subdued. There is gore and grisly sites to see. But, they are not common and for some that is appreciated. We have a tendency to cater to ultra-violence and that is less scary in most cases.
Overall: Silent Hill is a genre defining game. Honestly few horror titles struggle to match it's quality, save it's even more terrifying sequel. It suffers limitations of it's time, the technology was used to great effect though. The game is varied, deep and challenging. It requires involvement you don't see from a lot of titles these days. There is little exposition, you must read. However, that can be one of the titles nagging problems. At the time you needed to be a literary savant to understand some of the references; there are frequent truly obscure references to authors, books, short stories and more. That is not so much a problem now given the power of a search engine and easy access to the Internet. Something I didn't have access to in my teenage years. Yet if you spend the time to understand the fragmented logs you will find a depth in storytelling rarely seen. The controls are what kept this game from getting a perfect score. Like I said you get used to them; but, they surely with frustrate you many times. That comes with the territory of some classics.
Graphics 9 Sound 10 Addictive 9 Story 10 Depth 10 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 4.2/5
Submitted: 07-15-15
Updated: 07-15-15
Review Replies: 8
8.7
A true scary game hongeee
There is not much to say about this game really because it has many similarities to Resident Evil. The game released at 1999 and the story follows Harry mason in searching for his missing adopted daughter in the mysterious town of Silent Hill. Stumbling upon a cult performing a ritual to revive a deity it worships, and soon discovers his
daughter's true origin. Multiple game endings are possible, depending the actions taken by the player in the game.
Like Resident evil, Silent Hill is a third person view occasional fixed camera angles. Equipped with a flashlight and a radio which warns the player if an enemy nearby. Players not only have access to various firearms but melee weapons too. Ammo and health item is very limited so be careful every move you make in the game. As usual,the game is full of puzzles and traps.
The graphic are average but the idea of the real world and underworld is amazing. When the world is turning everything into ashes and walls become red blood and covered with flesh and pulsating veins,its really scary. The audio and sound is perfectly blended into the game even makes the game unplayable at night. I had to cover myself in a blanket while playing this at night lol.
The only problem is the controls,abit too slow. Its not fluent compare to Resident evil 2,and they should have do better than this considering Silent Hill is come after Resident Evil 2. Luckily,there are not too many monster or boss fight so most of the time you just wandering around looking for clues and items in this foggy town. But still,i dont think you have enough ammo to kill every monster so better not to waste it.
Overall,this is a good game as this is the Konami first survival horror game. (i think) It doesnt matter which one you like, Resident Evil or Silent Hill, i have to say this is one of the game that give you nightmare. Play it if you brave enough and enjoy the game!
Graphics 7 Sound 9 Addictive 8 Story 8 Depth 8 Difficulty 9
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 06-15-16
Review Replies: 1
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