Silent Hill (1999) - Horror Videogame Review (Playstation)

You know, I can't actually recall if I have already wrote about this game, or indeed the series, but what the hell, it's my fave survivor horror series, so here it is again; a review of Silent Hill.

While there have been some dubious entries in the Resident Evil series, the Silent Hill series has never been over-saturated (and has also resulted in quite a few ace graphic novels). There has been the weird Japanese Silent Hill visual novel game on the Game Boy Advance, and there is a remake of Silent Hill being made for the Nintendo Wii (Silent Hill: Shattered Memories), but other than that the series has remained quite pure and undiluted. With the exception of Silent Hill: The Arcade light gun that I had fun with, but had shockingly bad dialogue (that was quite fun on my only go of it though!). Anyway I digress...

Silent Hill was originally released for Playstation back in 1999. Many expected it to be a clone of successful survival horror game Resident Evil, but instead it carved it's own niche by focusing on psychological horror, rather than jump scares. The game put you in control of Harry Mason, a man desperately searching for his adopted daughter who has gotten lost in the foggy and strangely deserted town of Silent Hill. Along the way he discovers the twisted secrets of the towns past and how it links to his beloved daughter.

The game is terrifying in a way no survival horror had been up to that point. There was a great feeling of unease throughout the whole game with you never really feeling like you were safe.. The limited view, the static of Harry's radio as enemies approached, the random screams and noises in the background, haunting music, and sheer impending dread resulted in a smorgasbord of horror.

The game world is split into distinct feeling layers. Foggy Silent Hill where despite the horror things seem like they are still in the real world, then the nightmarish steel meshed totally FUBAR distorted Silent Hill that appears to be in Hell. This transforms the already creepy town into an utter terror ride. By the time you return to the foggy version of the town it feels quite like heaven, and never feels as creepy as it once was, this a feeling which sadly has never been successfully replicated in its better looking sequels.

I have felt absolute terror in just two games. Project Zero (also known as Fatal Frame) is terrifying (play it!) The other really scary game I have played is Silent Hill. I still remember the fear I had with this. I still lived with my parents at the time. They had gone away for the weekend, so I had moved my Playstation downstairs to the big family TV rather than the tiny one I had in my bedroom. It was about 01:00, I had the volume turned up really loud, and all the lights off. I had gotten to a hospital in the game in the foggy version of the town. I had explored the fog world version of this location all I could. Returning to an elevator, I noticed there was an additional button which had not been there previously. I pressed it. Upon exciting to this new floor I despaired to discover I was now in the dark nightmare version of the town rather than the relatively safe fog Silent Hill. Then I was assaulted by zombie nurses...I had to turn the frickin' game off! I just couldn't handle it, I was utterly terrified! I won't forget that ever.

The plot for Silent Hill is obscure, and there are lots of alternate endings, the game is really scary. I cannot recommend it enough. I highly doubt the Wii remake (Wii-make?) will be half as good or atmospheric. On a side note the demo for this had you fighting child monsters in the school. By the time the game got released these had been changed into much more monstrous looking beings.

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