CLASSIC GAMING
Silent Hill
Developer:  Team SILENT/Konami
Publisher:  Konami
Year:  1999
Genre:  Horror
System:  Playstation


There are some places in the world that are just not blessed with a lot of luck in terms of the number of oddities or events that occur.  Humanity, for its entire history, have always had belief of every shape of deity and size of grandeur from Atheism to Zoroastrianism.  Some beliefs do pretty well, have a good foundation of followers who never really harm other people.  Other religions become more darker, dark enough to infect an entire region with evil, like a nauseating unnatural mist.  There is one town in videogaming history that has become infamous for its tainted history, almost respected, admired and even feared among gamers.


Story - The story of Silent Hill (and the series itself essentially) begins with a writer named Harry Mason.  A man who lives with his adopted daughter Cheryl (found abandoned beside a road) with his wife until she died a few years ago, now living alone as a good father to her.  One day at the age of 7, Cheryl insists her father to take her to the town of Silent Hill, a small resort town in the northern region of the USA.  Aside from a police officer passing them by and later seeing her bike abandoned on the road, nothing terribly unusual happens.  Until a strange blue-dressed teenage girl steps in front of the car and forces Harry to swerve off the highway and into the outer suburbs of Silent Hill.
On awakening, Harry finds his daughter missing, so he heads into the town and manages to catch a glimpse of her among the chokingly dense fog, before the world he once saw begins to slowly become more and more frighteningly surreal and disturbing with each step he takes.

The game's story, while not easy to figure out, is actually the most understandable story of the series itself.  The journey of Harry Mason takes him on a discovery through an unknown town that shifts from a purgatorial place to a nightmarish hell of macabre ramifications, soon finding monsters and clues of a darkened ritual that make his search for Cheryl all the more frantic and desperate to resolve.


Graphics - In the end of the 20th century, graphics are not the most sharpest quality of games such as these, being in all honesty somewhat blocky yet the game runs smoothly enough without becoming jerky in its frame rate.  The designs of the levels are equally realistic and/or horrifyingly imaginative, adding a great feel to them in their darkened halls and open foggy streets.  The fog is equally impressive in allowing you to only see some pieces of what's around you, making the open spaces just as scary as the dark corridors by that all-encompassing claustrophobia the game forever makes you feel.
Not only that, but you also have a flashlight at one point in the game, and the fact you can turn it on or off to illuminate dark areas (it's off automatically in bright places) is a good graphical input in letting the room be lit up like a flashlight would.  But of course it would be no contender for its sequel, yet it is actually because of the game's limited graphics that Silent Hill becomes even more disturbing, by its unclear murkiness and blocky awkward shaping, it's almost surreal and it merely adds to the anxiety one will be experiencing in their visit to the town.


Gameplay - The gameplay is consciously linear, but subconsciously less so.  Harry is a normal guy with a health stat (shown in your inventory of his face and a pulsing background ranging from healthy green to dying red) and a not-so-good functionality with weapons.  You of course must survive the monsters of the town with weapons ranging from kitchen knifes to hunting rifles, the guns being pretty variable in accuracy since Harry doesn't have any weapons training.  Ammunition is different for each weapon and found scattered throughout the game, so there are times when you should decide on whether it's best to shoot, whack or run from your enemy.  Melee weapons are a good way for saving ammo, especially those of a long reach like hammers or pipes.  Your health, if in need, can be restored by the use of medical kits and health drinks, which are also scattered throughout the town.  Enemies also react to sound and sight, so your flashlight while helpful will also attract enemies towards you.


In the game, you also have a broken radio, the most mysterious item in the series' history.  In every game, the radio emits static whenever enemies are nearby, warning you when they are in the area, adding even more of a claustrophobic fear into the player as they walk along a narrow corridor of darkness, the radio whining and crackling louder, and louder, and louder.
Another thing of the game is that it's not all shooting enemies.  There are puzzles in the game concocted for Harry to solve, some of them themed along a more obscure line of thought than others which offer an additional difficulty level.  The puzzles essentially make up half of the game, and they range from numerical combinations to references of famous literature.


Music/Sound - Akira Yamaoka, the musician and one of the producers of Silent Hill, has become famous for his distinct style of music, which have enchanted and haunted many who hear his work.  The music in the game is eerie, to sum it up in one word.  It is eerie yet also softening, like the touch of a ghostly child's hand on your arm, with either a simple saddening piano melody, to a despairingly warped synthesiser piece.  The game's music is really what makes the atmosphere of Silent Hill itself.  Without the music, Silent Hill might as well not have monsters in it.
Sound is also important in the game, the mysterious sounds adding more fear into your unseen enemies.  From the whining static of the radio to the mysterious flapping of wings in the distance, it is a game largely ruled in terms of atmosphere by what you hear.

Silent Hill has become a memorable place in videogame history, standing out as one of the most frightening and empathic series ever made, with compelling use of sound and masterful graphics and one of the most tightly bound confusing stories ever created.  A part of you wishes to explore it, but you're too afraid to step into the fog.  The town is a siren, alluring yet frightening.

Fun and Innovation - 5
Replayability - 4
Gameplay - 4
Presentation - 5

I loved this game and the ones that followed. Even if the graphics were a bit blocky , and the controls frustrating a times. It was still pretty creepy to play it. Nothing like playing it at night, all the lights off.

Thanks a lot man!

Compared to the several other game-based films before it (Resident Evil, Alone in The Dark, Super Mario Bros), Silent Hill is the best game-based film ever.
Atmosphere couldn't be better, huge marks on cinematography from me, and using music from the game itself.  See...the director actually had the brilliant idea of getting the ORIGINAL PRODUCERS OF THE GAME into the project.  OF COURSE, IT'S SO FUCKING OBVIOUS!!!!

Anyways, I liked the acting, graphics were a blast....my only real niggling doubt was Sean Bean's character...it was superfluous, no real point to him.
Other than that, it's one of my all time fave films, if only because it actually got near doing it RIGHT.
Hear that Herr Boll?  That's clapping from the fans.  Something you are unfamiliar with.