Silent Hill

While having a limited visual field and a soundtrack that seems to comprise of scrap metal clanging together, Silent Hill retains an adoring fan base more than a decade after its release.
Harry Mason and his daughter Cheryl are driving to the resort town of Silent Hill for a vacation. The car swerves and crashes to avoid the phantasm of a girl in the road. Harry later awakens to find Cheryl missing, and himself surrounded by a dense fog. He must venture into the dilapidated Silent Hill and unravel the clues of the mysterious Alessa if he wants any chance of recovering Cheryl.


This game is often accused of trying to compete with Resident Evil, but I don't think the comparison is accurate. They are different games aiming to be very different things. Something is very wrong with Silent Hill. You can't see more than a few feet ahead due to the fog and snow. Some players see this as an attempt to hide the game's graphical inadequacies, but I think it works very well. There is a constant sense of disorientation and it's hard to get your footing. You only discover after getting right up close to something that the road may have caved in, and you have to weave through alleyways and houses you can get into to make your way around the town.

Even in this peaceful state, there is a little more amiss. Strange, unexplainable creatures roam the town, and they seem to take issue with Harry's presence. You'll find a radio which emits static when monsters are nearby, though it often sounds like a shop nearby is being burgled and may as well be turned off most of the time to avoid it irritating you. Darkness falls very suddenly; you'll have a breast pocket torch, but while outside you should turn it off and sneak around.


Silent Hill changes upon the sounding of the notorious air raid sirens. Everything becomes splattered with blood and rust; the school, hospital and streets. The floors decay into mesh that spies down into the depths of blackness, strung-up corpses grace bathroom stalls. Here in this world, everything is much more sinister. The monsters are worse, and much more abundant. The torch only allows you to see a short way, and there are times, such as when trying to avoid the horrifying nurses, that you'll need to turn it off, and then you'll barely be able to see at all.

It's not all gore; there's quite a bit of intelligent puzzle-solving and clue following, which you should find enjoyable. There are some choices to make throughout which will affect the ending you get. Bad, Bad +, Good, Good + or the joke ending. The Good + ending is considered the only canon one.


Us here in Europe got a different version of the game to that released in Japan and America. The "grey children" didn't pass censors and we instead got some sort of creature that seems to be a sloth with genitalia for a face.


In my personal opinion, it's quite hard to die in Silent Hill. The controls are tricky and clumsy, so dodging enemies certainly isn't the easiest thing to do. But if you've been thorough and collected a lot of health drinks, there shouldn't be a time when you actually get finished off. When you're finally confronted with monsters, they are not so terrible. What gets you is the anticipation.


Akira Yamaoka is a genius of a composer, and the game certainly would not have the same effect without his soundtrack.




Silent Hill is an absolute masterpiece of the macabre. The strange occurrences and clanging music will resonate, having you peeking out of your curtains looking for skinless dogs, and cautious whenever WWII sirens are sounded for weather warnings. There's something about Silent Hill, unforgettable, that will always stay with you.


I recommend it, without a doubt.




The dog wasn't too keen on this one, though.