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Developer (Platform): Team Silent (PlayStation 3)
Publisher (Release): Konami (1999)
Length: 6-8 hours
Genres: Horror; Psychological; Survival; Action
❗️Disclaimers❗️:
strong scenes of violence, blood, and gore
moderate warning for psychologically challenging themes
this review contains low-level spoilers
recommendation: must play
👍 Pros 👍
Grounded combat and creative camera angles
Intelligent use of technical limitations to bolster Silent Hill’s iconic aesthetics
Tension and mystery are both rich
👎 Cons 👎
Can be graphically painful
Mixed messaging when it comes to exploration which can potentially push players down a path that causes them to miss the meat of the story
Characters are largely one-dimensional
👀 Synopsis & Trailer 👀
As Harry Mason and his daughter Cheryl make their way to the resort town of Silent Hill for vacation, a mysterious girl causes Harry to crash and awaken alone. As snow drifts down off-season on the eerily empty town, he hunts to find his missing daughter.
Harry, however, isn’t as alone as he initially thinks. Assailed by nightmarish creatures and haunted by the machinations of an ancient cult, Harry descends to hell to rescue his little girl from the clutches of evil itself.
🛎️ Introduction 🛎️
With Resident Evil popularising the survival horror genre in video games a looming shadow, Team Silent deftly weaves a psychological terror dripping in mystery and atmosphere with Silent Hill, merging supernatural Japanese horror with rural American themes to create a distinct and, arguably, timeless style that cuts deep even 25 years later.
🧩 Plots 🧩
Silent Hill tells an understated tale, using a father’s desperate search for his missing daughter to set up the titular town. That town drips, drips, mystery, combining a kaleidoscope of cultural folklores to devastatingly chilling effect. Silent Hill is unique, a living, breathing entity in and of itself that, even after years of neglect, has never lost its allure.
Pixels from the past
That said, our first foray in the series struggles to knit together a cohesive narrative for a variety of reasons. The largest being the nascent medium and technical limitations, but its uniqueness also plays a significant part. The game is full of quirky and delicious details that play with the mind (floor 4 was always there, right? Right?) that it often neglects the more basic means of storytelling (notes and logs being common within the genre of the time).
Factor in some mixed messaging and things get messy. It might be controversial, but Silent Hill struggles to tell a full-feeling story. Its focus on having multiple endings while obscuring/not really showing the player how to achieve those endings is a major con for me.
I don’t like here
I can already hear the uproar: you just need to explore! It promotes replayability! And you’re right, both those things are true, but, being the first in the series, Silent Hill doesn’t know how to properly convey that to the player. For the first section of the game, it teaches the player that exploration is fruitless and dangerous, marking the map in blood-red flourishes to push the player down a set path.
This has the unfortunate consequence of dissuading investigation in the later parts of the game, the parts where investigating holds the most rewards. This eccentric approach has its charm but its eclectic nature can’t hide an unsure guiding hand.
Also I’m salty I got the Bad+ ending…
‘…struggles to tell a full-feeling story.’
🎭 Characters 🎭
Bucking its contemporaries’ use of badass and highly trained protagonists, Silent Hill opts for a more grounded Everyman in Harry Mason, providing the player with a realistic and relatable viewpoint.
Sadly, that’s where my pros for characters end…
How far will a father descend into hell for his daughter?
I can’t judge it too harshly given the time and burgeoning technology, but Silent Hill, across the board, is full of one-dimensional caricatures that scream for some kind of development and personality trait outside of confusion. There are some compelling stories that bubble under the surface, but the game can’t quite capitalise on them to truly impact our cast’s trajectory.
The road to hell is paved with a tapestry of stories
Arguably, Silent Hill introduces its titular town as the primary pro- and ant- agonist. Even amongst its bleak and decrepit infrastructure it shines bright as the most vibrant character the game has to offer. Silent Hill’s mysteries, the horrors that hide in the shadows, trap you in a rust-covered vice and promises to never, ever let you go.
‘…full of one-dimensional caricatures…’
👾 Gameplay and Graphics 👾
As clunky as its third-person action is, Silent Hill hides its limitations well and even has some quality of life upgrades for the genre at that time. Arming Harry Mason with the traditional but simple weapon set of guns, Mason’s status as an Everyman is emphasised by the more scrappy equipment of knives and pipes, providing a visceral quality to combat that really forces the player to consider their approach.
Little touches like the game’s radio being an early warning system for enemies adds tension while a genuine approach to enemy actions gives the limited variety some personality.
Nightmares are given flesh in Silent Hill
Graphically, this blast from the past can be painful, but Silent Hill is so much more than limited polygons. Stylistically timeless, Team Silent’s abilities to adapt technical limitations by hiding the likes of pop-in with the iconic and atmospheric fog that drenches the series is as impressive as it is sad that the team behind it no longer exists (shame, Konami, shame).
Sporting fixed camera angles, Silent Hill takes it a step further, shifting the typically static viewpoints to more organic and eerily cinematic dynamics that instil a deep sense of constantly being watched and followed. In fact, the way this series is able to burrow under the player’s skin and maintain such a potent sense of unease, especially mechanically, has never been reproduced quite so well.
It’s okay to take a break from monster killing…well, running
You won’t always be ill at ease, though, and Silent Hill provides more thoughtful moments when it puts forth its riddle-infused puzzles. From the simple to the cleverly obscure, navigating a path through the town’s nightmarish hellscapes is a creative romp that supports the seemingly nonsensical nature of the environment.
I also want to give a special shoutout to the map mechanics. Yep, you read that right, the map. Silent Hill just nailed it. The way it organically updates as you explore is just about perfect. There is some room for improvement such as item placements and clearer indicators for explorable areas, but for a first go it is spectacular.
‘Stylistically timeless…’
🧠 Final Thoughts 🧠
Silent Hill is as impactful to the survival horror genre as mainstay Resident Evil, and, in many ways, transcends it entirely. Moving from B-movie schlock to serious psychological torment, dynamic camera work and scrappy combat blend into a terrifyingly tense jaunt through the mysterious and atmospherically unrivalled titular town.
Characters need work and some mixed messaging obscures a meatier story that can lead to a confusing finale, but, out of the gate, Team Silent came swinging hard, birthing a style that clashes Japanese and American horror into a satisfying spookfest.
The Phoenix Project 