Silent Hill

"Didn't age well."

I began the Silent Hill series pretty late. By the time I bought SH2, SH4 was probably already getting press. As you might have guessed, SH2 was my first in the series. I had taken a small interest in the Survival/Horror genre with Resident Evil, but it failed to keep me captivated. Then along came Siren, which I played on a demo, which sparked my interest again. It had the surreal feeling that you can probably only find in Japanese horror, and I liked it. So I went to the store to buy it and very close to it was SH2. I bought them both. Needless to say, I played SH more than I did Siren and I now own all SH's released in America.

After SH2 was complete, I was in awe and had already bought SH1 and SH3 in the meantime. I basically popped in SH1 a few hours after completing SH2. I was almost eager to see how the game started. SH began very promising. The beginning to this game is probably one of the most memorable experiences I've had playing this genre, but I can't really say the rest of the game kept me equally as captivated.

Vague Story minor spoilers past third paragraph

Probably one of the biggest problems with SH is its story. The premise is that you, Harry Mason, are taking your daughter to your favorite vacation resort, Silent Hill. A figure appears in the road and you swerve and crash. You end up in the town, which is unusually foggy, chasing what appears to be your daughter running away from you into the fog. Chilling indeed. At this point, the game is at its best and continues to get better.

However, as the plot progresses, the plot becomes less and less about Harry (although at the same time it has everything to do with him) and more about the town that has engulfed him, and eventually explains why these demons are attacking him.

Perhaps it's the fact that SH2's story had everything to do with the main character while SH's deals more with the town itself, but this still fails to explain why I was mostly uninterested with the story when in fact SH's story is extremely interesting when analyzed. I believe the problem was in execution. You can have an extremely interesting story but when you try to present it visually it might not turn out how you wanted it to. I like to use The Matrix as an analogy. Some might disagree, but I believe the original Matrix was an extremely entertaining action flick that made you question you very existence in one of the coolest ways I've ever heard of. However, the problem with The Matrix's sequels is that it tried to get too philosophic on a fanbase that largely loved the movie because it was a mindless action flick. The problem was execution. You had a winning idea that was marred by the execution of the story.

So how does this apply to SH? The problem is that the story starts off making you believe that you should care about the main character and what is happening to him. However, once you complete the game, the main character hasn't really changed at all. He was just some guy who ended up saving the world. The bulk of the story comes in play when we learn about the town. We find out that the whole story revolves around Harry's daughter, not him. The funny thing is, you never get to know his daughter but only the story behind her. You begin to understand who she is and why the town is like it is through cutscenes that, for the most part, don't make a whole lot of sense until the very end, and by then you're thinking "what the hell?!" I'd easily say that the bulk of the story is thrown at you in the last hour or two of gameplay, everything before that was just a hint at what was to come.

This game did not have the surprise factor or emotional factor that SH2 has. Overall, it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Like most SH games, this one leaves some parts up to your imagination, which is a good thing, but the problem in this case is that it seems like too much of the story is left to our imagination. Simply put, the story was vague. By the end of the game you understood the basic plot but even then it was not really explained to you. I had many moments where I wanted to hear what a character said earlier in the game again so that I could make better sense of the story. This kind of story telling, honestly, pisses me off. This is a game that is better played twice, but even then I don't think the story is worth it.

I heard the Devil calling my name...

Like in all SH games, the sound effects and music are top notch. Unfortunately, for this particular SH game, the soundtrack isn't as enjoyable. Yes, I do own the OST for this game. What little music there is on the CD is great, however most of it is just ambiance and loud noises. So naturally, the music score for this game is great when there is music, but there just isn't a lot of it. For a Survival/Horror game, this is ok, as most of the focus should be on the sound effects and not the music. This game does that very well. My only problems are with the enemy sound effects. Many times they sound ridiculous, sometimes even resorting to what sounds like a cricket or a mouse or something. They all sound a bit campy to me and is incredibly overshadowed by the great ambient noises. It's like mixing crap with genius.

...but when I met the Devil I laughed

I'll cut to the chase. SH's graphics did not stand the test of time. For the time the game was released, I'm sure they were probably some of the scarriest stuff out there; afterall, Resident Evil was really the only big the out at the time and it when for more flashy visuals rather than atmospheric. That's what the SH series is all about, atmosphere, and, granted, for a game of SH's age, it did that pretty well.

I will admit, the environments are pretty darn good. Chain link fences paving your way into darkness, bloody hospital rooms, brooding corpses hanging on the way, this game has all the makings of a great horror game. So what's the problem? The problem are the animations and character/enemy models.

The first thing you'll notice is how stupid Harry looks like when he runs. Can this guy bend his back at all? Obviously not, because he looks like he's running with a back brace on. However, you do have to give props to the people who noticed that people actually look in the direction that they are turning. Hey, at least they got one thing right. The animation on the enemies is equally bad. They feel just as stiff. When you combine this with the fact that the models look horrible, you prett much forget about all the blood on the walls and start to laugh at the stupid monster you're supposed to be scared of. "Oh come on, it's a PS1 game." Exactly. This game fails to stand the test of time. There was only one enemy that was freaky to me in this game, all the rest almost gave me a chuckle and/or weren't scary at all.

It's also probably worth it to mention the game's fog. It's basically a signature thing for the SH series. In this game it's obviously used to cover up the pop-up but I think we should give the SH team props for having a clever and effective way to cover up ugliness.

Controls like a...Survival/Horror game

SH doesn't really break the mold. The controls are stiff and are almost identical to RE's. The only difference that's really worth noting is that the camera is a bit more reliable and is actually controllable when compared to RE's. Perhaps because of the camera, it's much easier to dodge enemies than it is in the old RE's.

How it plays

Like most pure Survival/Horror games, you run through buildings trying to unlock doors and solve puzzles. SH's puzzles are usually pretty interesting, but in this one there just didn't seem like there were many of them. There certainly were some awesome puzzles but a lot of them felt pretty basic rather than abstract puzzles such as the piano puzzle, which you'll experience very early in the game. Once you've completed one building (or indoor area) you have to romp around the town's streets as you get, at many times, blindly attacked from demons on the street. I personally find these sequences annoying at best, aggravating at worse.

Combat is pretty basic. The game auto-aims for you and you simply shoot. Another signature to SH is that melee weapons are actually useful and fun to use. Pretty much the only fun combat wise comes from the melee weapons, but you'll be using guns most of the time. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of guns and they're pretty basic.

Of course you get your common healing items and boss battles. I can't say the boss battles were very satisfying in this game, again, because of the enemy models. For the most part they were just glorified enemies that took forever to kill.

What else?

Another of SH's signatures are multiple endings. This game has a handful of endings, but there aren't very many of them. You will also get some extra weapons and items for beating the game. While these may be fun for hardcore fans, they probably aren't satisfying for those that aren't. The only thing I can suggest playing the game again for is understanding the story better.

The final verdict

Overall, SH was a good installment for its time. It opened up the genre to deeper depths. Unfortunately, in terms of Survival/Horror games, the only thing that would keep today's gamer interested with it is the story, and unfortunately the story is very lacking, in my opinion. I feel good for having completed the first mark in the series, but I can't say I had a lot of fun doing it. For the most part, it was a mediocre experience. Only pick this game up if you're interested in learning more about the Silent Hill storyline, otherwise pass it up and begin the series with Silent Hill 2.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 05/31/05