Silent Hill

Silent Hill is a major cornerstone for video game horror. It instantly separated itself from genre contemporaries with its heavy focus on psychological storytelling, and a unique "everyman" approach to its characters. Silent Hill was, and still is, terrifying. Its atmosphere is palpable, still rivaling just about every single modern horror game to this day. Getting lost in in the streets of a foggy suburbia, or navigating a shifting metallic hell of blood and rust never failed to get under my skin. But the glue that holds it all together is the horrifying sound design. The infamous "fog" (which originated from technical limitations of render distance on the PS1) quickly became one of the most iconic and recognizable visual motifs in all of contemporary horror. It's legendary stuff. I'm a huge fan of pre-rendered horror backgrounds, but it's very impressive to me that this opted for a full real-time 3D approach. The playable space is shockingly large, offering a ton of exploration opportunities. The map is also super organic, feeling like Harry is actually marking up the map himself. You have to find clues (or even phone books) before getting any sort of "waypoints." It also dynamically marks any points of interest you discover and might need to return to—and which doors are open, jammed, or locked after you interact with them. I love that Harry is just a normal dude, and absolutely sucks at using a gun. He needs to be pretty close to his targets for his shots to land, because most shots of his will miss at any extended range. This also ties into the game's focus on melee weapons, which feels particularly unique for survival horror. The flashlight ties into gameplay as well—as turning it off will allow you greater chances to sneak past enemies undetected, but it will be too dark to see your map, and you'll be unable to search for items. Also, your accuracy will plummet in the dark, so the flashlight needs to be handled thoughtfully. I loved knocking monsters to the ground and stomping on them, and wonder if this directly influenced other horror titles like Dead Space. While unequivocally scarier and more narratively sophisticated than its sister franchise, I can't help but feel that Silent Hill's gameplay falls short of Resident Evil. The combat is less nuanced, and the lack of any real inventory management feels detrimental. Also, as a fan of tank controls, I feel that Resident Evil embraces the limitations of the control scheme and incorporates it into its very own design language—while in Silent Hill it just kinda feels like an impediment. Outside of the very few fixed-angle scenes in the game (which necessitate tank controls), I feel like the controls don't add to the experience—especially if they're just gonna incorporate strafing in anyway. I dunno, it's really not a big deal at all, I just think I've been spoiled with how perfectly it's handled in Resident Evil. Anyway, Silent Hill still feels like an achievement many years ahead of its time, and remains in the pantheon of essential horror.

Also, that bird piano puzzle kicked my BUTT, and every game should have a UFO ending I've just decided.

Postscript: I wanna believe that Harry and Cybil stay together and raise Cheryl 2.0 and live happily ever after 🥺

A psychological horror masterpiece, with eerie, haunting music and a gripping story. I missed out on playing it as a kid, and experiencing it now proves that it still holds up to this day. The best ps1 game in my opinion.

This game has aged like wine. With immaculate graphics that continue to age well, an iconic soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka, and a fascinating psychological horror take on the survival horror formula, put it this way: this game is iconic for a reason, and I've yet to see a Let's Play, as good as the YouTubers are, do it justice. You simply have to experience this game-- despite some jank-- to understand the genuine horror this 25 year old masterpiece still inspires.

A horror classic, which has aged a bit but is definitely still worth playing.

If you're the type of person wanted to get into horror, but hesitant about it due to the fact you're easily scared, I recommend starting with this one.

Silent Hill has an extremely bone chilling atmosphere. There are no jumpscares and no IN YOUR FACE LOUD HORROR moments. You can play from start to finish feeling a little unsettled but not stressed.

I love this game for not falling into the typical horror tropes, rather it's goal being to fuck your mind up by making you feel unsettled the whole way through.

The story is a bit uninteresting and basic, which the sequel does fix. The strength of this game is its atmosphere. Silent Hill is like an even more fucked up Twin Peaks. A setting that is still unique for video games.

This game does fall a little back with some outdated mechanics. But if you can get past that, there is a great survival horror game here.

My favorite classic horror game. This still holds up and is definitely worth playing if you can get a copy.

Would be 10/10 if it came out a generation later. Looking forward to playing SH2.