Silent Hill

"Resident Evil is NOT a child's game, but neither is this"

Most people just love to compare Resident Evil and Silent Hill as to which one is the best because they are both games that live inside the survival horror genre. People of course will deny that very fact but it is very obvious indeed Basically what it all comes down to though is that you cannot compare the two in that sense, as they are two very different types of games, which is the only thing that can be compared in a valid way. Resident Evil concentrates more on action and surprises that make you jump, all while having a direct storyline. Silent Hill on the other hand, concentrates more on solving puzzles and gruesome, rotting imagery, while having a storyline that branches off into many different directions. I myself prefer the Resident Evil games over the Silent Hill ones, that is not to say that Silent Hill is on a lower level, because it most certainly is not. Silent Hill has evolved for the better since this first installment, but with this game alone Silent Hill got off to a great start.

Storyline 10/10 - The storyline here does seem direct on a first impression, but those who play the game a bit further will find out that things are way more complicated than believed. The "direct" storyline is this: Harry Mason and his daughter Cheryl decide to go on a vacation to a quaint little town known as Silent Hill. Silent Hill has been an attraction for many tourists, with its intriguing history and even the amusement park. But while driving to the town, Harry Mason sees a person walking on the street leading towards the town, so he swerves to avoid her and crashes. When he wakes up, he discovers that Cheryl is gone, so he walks out of his jeep and heads for Silent Hill. Along the way he sees a figure standing in the snow, and it looks like Cheryl. He starts running towards her but she runs away from him and heads into an alley. Harry follows her...he will soon wish that he didn't.
Silent Hill does not hit you with full-on explanations, in fact it does its best to confuse you and it does it very well. So what you think is, mostly likely isn't. There is something else behind it, but it will take you longer than expected to find almost everything out.

Graphics 10/10 - I do realize that some people will criticize the graphics because they seem too dark and sketchy. But you have to realize that this was a game for Playstation, and the developers did the best they could. What they did actually works great for this type of game, as Silent Hill IS a cryptic game and the darkness itself makes sense. When you are outside, there is a lot of fog, but that is on purpose. It is there so that you cannot exactly see what is behind you or in front of you right away, which adds to the creepiness. The darker parts of the game do seem a little "sketchy" but combined with the decaying matter and blood on the walls, the "sketchiness" strangely fits in with the macabre environment. The in-game cinemas and especially the FMV's are presented in a superb manner as far as the graphics are concerned. When an FMV starts, the characters look very realistic and it is a nice little change of pace from the in-game graphics. The only little gripe I have is that with some environments, they are a bit on the boring side. Like when you first walk into the school, it seems a little boring to me, everything seems a little flat. But its all the same with the environments that are not dark and gory at first, as shown when the school actually turns into that type of environment, then everything looks better. As for the characters and enemies, they look sketchy too but it doesn't really matter too much especially in the dark environments.

Control 9/10 - All the other Silent Hill games basically have the main problem with the control. Oddly enough though, it's not the control itself exactly, its the camera. The developers said that they made the camera different so that it would add to the factor of scariness. While I see the reasoning in that, it is still kind of bothersome. For example, when you are walking through a certain environment, sometimes the camera swivels around to either the side or front of Harry. While this is great when a monster is behind you, it is a pain when a monster is sneaking up in front of you. Fortunately one push of a certain button and the camera will immediately swivel back to the back of your Harry but I kind of wish you didn't have to do that.

Sound 10/10 - Without the sound and overall music score, this game would not be half as creepy as it is. While walking down a hall, you can hear faint bangs and crashes in the background coming from places or persons unknown. If you knock on a bathroom stall you can hear someone crying but no one is there, and the monsters produce their own kinds of grunts, squeaks, and groans of sorts that will scare you to no end. The music at some points does have regular creeped-out music but at most points the music is more like an industrial crashing rhythm or more of something like that, or a droning kind of instrument that fades in and out. Both the music and the sound alone bring the whole Silent Hill feel to another level never experienced before.

Execution 8/10 - Unfortunately, this is where the game falls a little bit short and it's mainly because of the dialogue. When the characters speak, it is not very believable and they all sound like they learned English right from a cereal box. Also when the captions are turned on, the captions do not always carry the feel of whatever the character is saying. For example, at one point Harry says something calmly yet there is a exclamation point at the end of the caption's sentence. While I do believe the dialogue itself makes the game more confusing than planned, and while that might make the game even more desirable to play, it still could have used more a lot more work.

Replayability 10/10 - There are a few secret items and endings that you can obtain after doing certain things within the game, prolonging the entertainment value. Such new items are a chainsaw, a jackhammer, and even a gun that resembles the laser gun for the Playstation, and it has infinite ammo too. There is more than one ending in the game, and also one that is kind of hilarious and really has nothing to do with Silent Hill at all. Not only that but while you are playing the game, you may notice some things you didn't pay attention to before. You may hear some new sounds you didn't notice before, or you may read a new memo you didn't pick up previously. Either that, or you may see some writing on the wall or a rotting body hanging on a grate, anything is possible. Trust me, you will not notice everything this game offers the first time you play it.

From this first game all the way to Silent Hill 3 and beyond, Silent Hill has proved itself to be worthy of the survival horror genre. I do advise however, that you do not let your kids watch this game. Be a responsible parent, there are too few of them out there that when their kid does something wrong they blame it on video games and become losers that do nothing but scapegoat. Do not be one of those "parents" be an actual parent. Not only that but your kid will most likely get nightmares too, you have been warned. I have built my Silent Hill collection and I have all three, and I am glad to own them all. You will be too, I promise, unless you are a gamer with horrible taste in video games. So if you don't have this Silent Hill game or any of the other ones, stop reading this and get them all a.s.a.p.!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/02/04