Silent Hill

"Konami has real good taste."

In 1999 Konami released Silent Hill to the US. It was groundbreaking in the genre of survival horror games therefore it demands its own right to be called original.

And to today the Silent Hill series continues to grow(its on its fourth game right now), only with fear growing amongst its fans.

Some of you might know about a certain movie this game makes many references to...

Story:

Heres an intro to the start of the game:

You are Harry Mason and your wife passed away only a few short years ago. All the happiness that is your life is your only daughter, Cheryl, who is only seven years old. You and your daughter Cheryl are on your way to your favorite vacation spot (which is Silent Hill) driving late at night when suddenly a shadowy figure appears in the middle of the road. Harry swerves off the road to avoid hitting what he saw and the car crashes. You wake up after awhile and notice that Cheryl is gone. You run down the street that you are now on and you see a small figure. Its very foggy but you are almost certain its Cheryl. You call out to her but get no response so you follow after her in an alley. You pass through a gate and see some "things" that are very un-settling but disregard them for the sake of catching up to your daughter. As you proceed further down the alley it gets dark. You keep moving on but hit a dead eventually and find something gruesome: a dead body totally disfigured and barb-wired to a fence. Suddenly when you turn around, you are ambushed by some small children like creatures with knives and they knock you out. You wake up later in a cafe and are greeted by a female police officer from the next town over who's name is Cybil Bennett. After some dialogue and pondering about what is wrong with the town as it is eerie and deserted, you assume control of Harry.

Now you set off to find your only daughter in a deserted small town and as you move deeper into the town, you discover things unreal and by the time you realize what is going on... well thats for you to find out.

The story is mind gripping. Is that good? You decide for yourself, I enjoyed the feeling. To really understand what is going on requires that you pay full attention, which I believe is a good thing as this adds to a certain level of realism to the game. A game like this pretty much requires the player to be the character. There are multiple endings, which are of course, triggered by certain actions you take in the game. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, it was suspenseful, shocking and best of all: DISTURBING.

This title can be compared to the Resident Evil games but what separates these two is that Resident Evil is more monsters/conspiracies/outbreaks/epidemics and killing monsters to survive , exploiting the conspirators and alleviating the disease. Silent Hill is about more complex plot twists as far as the story goes, discovering the truth behind something, saving somebody dear to you and surviving a nightmare that has become reality.

Game Play:

This game simply kicks ass, its grotesque beautifully! Exploring always has you edgy. You will develop a paranoia while playing this game (if you do in real life, immediately proceed to the nearest mental clinic). The monsters are gross and the weapons you carry are quite sensible. There is a lot of traveling involved. You are smack in the middle of nowhere in Silent Hill. To make life easier on you, you do get maps. You start out on the streets and there are many places you can go. The environments are particularly well done. Its particular in the fashion of what I like to envision as ones personal Hell on Earth (no, not DooM). The game is literally a living nightmare.

There are puzzles in this game, complex puzzles to be more precise. I was able to solve them without one of the FAQs but it was hard as hell. I thought that these were clever puzzles and I did enjoy solving each one. This is another key element that separates Resident Evil from Silent Hill. If you are not fond of puzzles, consider this game anyway. Besides, you could always get the answers right here on gamefaqs!

In summation: the game play for Silent Hill is absolute in the sense of fear and suspension. You will travel through hell acquiring items ranging from Health drinks to keys and puzzle related items to better weapons and guns and to maybe even a chainsaw! Use your wits, guts and your combat reflexes to survive your worst nightmare.

Graphics:

Judging the graphics of this game comes down in two perspectives: when it first came out and how it looks today. First off, at the initial release of this game, these graphics were in-freaking-sane. Character models are nicely done but the FMVs were not too much to fancy, they were not bad just that other games have been on par if not better. The environmental details are up there too. Enemy detail is crisp and gory. Oh of course, the violent and disturbing images in this game are very cool. The lighting effects in this game has to be the best ever for a PS1 game. Overall I say the graphics are good and in today's perspective, they still rock provided you have true appreciation for retro gaming.

Controls:

The controls are pretty standard in their own right. If you have played Resident Evil games before or anything like it, you should have no problem with using the controls. If not, it takes some time to get used to but trust me that they are proportioned properly to suit the dynamics of the game play. I myself was unfamiliar with the controls at first but its nothing too difficult to master. A little stiff but will do.

Music and Sound:

There are not to many musical tracks to this game, but however many few there are in total, they're good. The intro FMV that is played before the title screen is fantastic. The guitar in it ruled utterly. But sound... the sound will pierce your soul dammit. Sound is what drives this game in the audio department. I am not particularly talking about the sound for your guns or the sounds of swinging a steel pipe at a hell hound but the sounds monsters make and the sounds that play as your music. The sounds that are of the enemies are pretty darn sweet. It will scare the hell out of you if you are caught off guard. The music in this game is composed of a wide variety and series of sounds synthesized together to create a frightening ambiance that will keep you uneasy throughout the game. If only the audio in this game could be presented in Dolby Digital 5.1.

I simply loved how the audio took a major part in creating an intimate feeling of fear.

Overall:

Ten our of ten, Konami's first entry of their Silent Hill series not only noted to me that this company has pretty good taste in what they consider to be good games but also the start of yet another successful franchise continuing to strive for excellence.

I believe that Konami simply did a great job at making this game. The graphics are good, the sound is awesome and the story is significantly compelling. It does not matter who you are or what you like, if you're brave enough to play this game, you'll enjoy it.

And if you can afford to: play it alone in the dark with the volume LOUD. About that movie... it was Jacob's Ladder. Do what you can to watch it, its a very good movie and you'll see why I say Silent Hill has so many references to that movie. Seriously, you'll be surprised.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/27/05, Updated 09/11/06