Silent Hill is a psychological horror game released in 1999 for the original Sony PlayStation (I played the game as a digital download for the PlayStation Vita handheld console). You play as Harry Mason, a father taking his adopted daughter Cheryl for a vacation in the titular town of Silent Hill. However, when Harry’s car crashes after swerving to avoid a ghostly apparition, Harry awakes to find Cheryl missing and a thick blanket of fog and snow covering the town of Silent Hill. The roads out of town have also mysteriously been cut off meaning that there is no identifiable way for Harry to get help. As such he starts his search for Cheryl; he shortly discovered though that the town can shift between this foggy deserted ghost town, to a hellish monster infested nightmare. He soon discovers that Cheryl has a connection to the town, and she is caught up in an attempt by religious fanatics to resurrect a demon from hell. So Harry must save her and stop that from happening at all costs.
Unlike most games at the time, Silent Hill was quite noteworthy for taking its story seriously. Everything you see in Silent Hill, such as the monsters and the hellish architecture, has a deep rooted reason for existing rather than just being things to shoot or some horrifying blood soaked room. This certainly helps the game not feel quite as old as it really is due to everything truly having purpose for being there. On top of this the art style and monster design really made the game stand out amongst its contemporaries, particularly for its gruesome depictions of mutilated bodies, reanimated corpses, and satanic imagery. The game even comes with a warning when you start it up informing players that it’s not going to be a particularly pleasant experience.
Silent Hill is also notable for being an early game to feature open ended gameplay on consoles. There are various ways to tackle some aspects of the game, and side activities to take part in, many of which you will likely miss if you don’t take your time to explore the town. Completing various activities will also result in different endings to the game meaning that replaying it in a different way to before is highly recommended to get the whole story.
Beyond this, many aspects of its design are horrendously dated. So before I start with these criticisms be aware that this was an early 3D horror game so many of the luxuries we take for granted in games today were not possible on older technology.
Unlike most games at the time, Silent Hill was quite noteworthy for taking its story seriously. Everything you see in Silent Hill, such as the monsters and the hellish architecture, has a deep rooted reason for existing rather than just being things to shoot or some horrifying blood soaked room. This certainly helps the game not feel quite as old as it really is due to everything truly having purpose for being there. On top of this the art style and monster design really made the game stand out amongst its contemporaries, particularly for its gruesome depictions of mutilated bodies, reanimated corpses, and satanic imagery. The game even comes with a warning when you start it up informing players that it’s not going to be a particularly pleasant experience.
Silent Hill is also notable for being an early game to feature open ended gameplay on consoles. There are various ways to tackle some aspects of the game, and side activities to take part in, many of which you will likely miss if you don’t take your time to explore the town. Completing various activities will also result in different endings to the game meaning that replaying it in a different way to before is highly recommended to get the whole story.
Beyond this, many aspects of its design are horrendously dated. So before I start with these criticisms be aware that this was an early 3D horror game so many of the luxuries we take for granted in games today were not possible on older technology.
Firstly, whilst the art style is certainly striking the graphical quality is not. Many environments, objects, and characters are flat, pixelated, and lack any detail whatsoever. Compare that to other games of the era and Silent Hill was certainly not a good looking game. This can aid the game at times, particularly in making the environments look grimier or more hellish than they actually are; but largely it does just look low quality.
Secondly, game utilises static camera angles meaning you cannot change where the camera is placed, it will only move in accordance to where you are in the environment. Whilst in some areas the camera has been choreographed to appear more cinematic, and this looks amazing, in many areas it means you can’t see enemies coming or even if there is more to explore in a room you have entered. This problem directly ties into another issue, if you are not extremely thorough with your searching you may miss out on some key items for being able to properly finish the game.
The obtuse game design doesn’t end there as Silent Hill is infamous for its notoriously illogical puzzles, many of which are near impossible to complete on your first time playing without help from a guide. For example a puzzle early in the game sees you having to play a tune on a broken piano that must be deciphered from a riddle, nothing tells you that the piano and riddle are actually related either. Even for the time, these issues were quite big problems, and 21 years later it only makes the game feel ancient and inaccessible to new generations of gamers accustomed to more streamlined gaming experiences.
Secondly, game utilises static camera angles meaning you cannot change where the camera is placed, it will only move in accordance to where you are in the environment. Whilst in some areas the camera has been choreographed to appear more cinematic, and this looks amazing, in many areas it means you can’t see enemies coming or even if there is more to explore in a room you have entered. This problem directly ties into another issue, if you are not extremely thorough with your searching you may miss out on some key items for being able to properly finish the game.
The obtuse game design doesn’t end there as Silent Hill is infamous for its notoriously illogical puzzles, many of which are near impossible to complete on your first time playing without help from a guide. For example a puzzle early in the game sees you having to play a tune on a broken piano that must be deciphered from a riddle, nothing tells you that the piano and riddle are actually related either. Even for the time, these issues were quite big problems, and 21 years later it only makes the game feel ancient and inaccessible to new generations of gamers accustomed to more streamlined gaming experiences.
STORY: 9/10
GAMEPLAY: 9/10
PRESENTATION: 7/10
LIFESPAN: 7/10
SCORE: 8/10
Many gamers may overlook the original Silent Hill due to the staggering improvements that its sequel (Silent Hill 2) made, yet the first title is a massively important game for the horror genre as without it most psychological horror based games may never have seen the light of day.