Review: Silent Hill

In 1999 the survival horror genre of video games was just starting to get its footing in the marketplace. Carried by Capcom's popular Resident Evil franchise, the market quickly opened up a nice big slot for games that were designed to scare the hell out of you. Konami decided to jump into the fray with their first attempt at a game in this fledgling genre - Silent Hill. Attempting to differentiate itself a bit from the Resident Evil series, Konami employed a much more cerebral type of horror in Silent Hill. Where Resident Evil would have zombies bursting through doors, Silent Hill would have shadows of enemies and "did I just see that" moments; where Resident Evil would have lots of firepower with characters trained in combat, Silent Hill would have underpowered, normal characters with very little in the way of weapons. Clearly Konami was doing everything they could to distinguish Silent Hill from the competition, but was it successful?

Story
As I mentioned before, the story in Silent Hill is by far the game's greatest asset. It deals with horror and scares in my favorite way - the horror of the mind. Movies like the Shining, Jacob's Ladder and the more recent 1408 use these same types of scares. To get an idea of what it's like to play Silent Hill, watch the scene from the Shining where Jack is in the bar talking to Lloyd. The camera cuts back and you see Jack sitting at the bar by himself, but to him, the liquor in his cup, the man behind the bar and people around him are as real as the stool he's sitting on.

Silent Hill focuses on Harry Mason's search for his daughter, Cheryl. He and Cheryl are on their way to take some time off in Silent Hill when they get in an accident. Harry wakes up behind the wheel and finds his daughter missing. This is Harry's motivation to continue through the horrors awaiting him in the accursed town. As if through an IV drip, you slowly learn little details about the town and the 3 or 4 actual people you meet, but many of the stories conflict with each other - leaving you to wonder "Is what I'm seeing real?"

The locales you visit, including the town itself, shift from a fairly creepy, fog laden environment to a hellish, pitch black nightmare. After every "nightmare" sequence, Harry suddenly wakes up and you're left scratching your head as to what is reality and what is in his imagination. From a design perspective, this works so well. You are controlling Harry and seeing everything he's seeing so you begin to wonder yourself about the things you see on the screen. Are they real? Are you imagining things? And in the end, many details are left hanging, leaving it open to interpretation - which is an excellent tactic when you have a story such as this. For me, one of the true marks of any good piece of horror media is this - are you still scared after you're done watching, reading, playing? With Silent Hill, the answer is a resounding yes.

 "MOMMY!! Can we go to the...um...nevermind..."

One of the other things that the developers did so tactfully was to make the town itself feel alive, as if it was a character in and of itself. Similar to LOST when the characters would refer to "The Island" as if it was someone they knew, characters in this game refer to "The Town" in the same way, but unlike The Island, the town of Silent Hill actually feels alive as you play through it. There was a specific scene toward the end of the game where you're in the "nightmare" version of a theme park. The ground is made of rusted chain link fence, walls are made of flesh, there is a siren blaring in the distance, and then right in front of you is a perfectly clean and operating merry go round. It stands in such sharp contrast to the rest of your environment that you feel like the town is actually taunting you - trying to make you feel like you're slowly losing your mind.

Gameplay
Ninety-five percent of the time, if a game isn't fun to play, it doesn't matter how great anything else is, the game is a lost cause. Silent Hill is not fun to play, but in this rare case, it actually adds to the overall experience.

Pitting someone against the horrors of their mind, is something no protagonist is prepared for - especially a single father who's never fired a gun in his life. Harry frequently misses shots, he swings melee weapons like his eight-year old daughter, and he can sustain very few hits before succumbing to death's sweet release. From the players perspective, this can be INCREDIBLY frustrating, but from the perspective of the overall experience, it fits in perfect harmony with the other elements of the game. You'll quickly learn to favor flight over fight when you starting burning through ammo and health packs. And when you know you're underpowered, it adds a whole extra layer of stress when you turn each corner - as opposed to having a flame thrower and mowing down rows of zombies. That's not scary. It's awesome, but it's not scary.

While some of these clumsy fighting mechanics were clearly intentional, there are others that were unintentional and ended up taking away from the experience.

1. The camera. In maybe the only instance where Silent Hill following the blueprint from Resident Evil, the designers implemented fixed camera angles to allow for "classicly creepy shots". Most times you are able to swing the camera behind Harry, but other than that you have very little control over it. This can get really annoying when you're being attacked by multiple enemies and you can't see any of them. 
2. 2D, or "tank" walking controls. I lied, this is something else they took from Resident Evil. If you're unfamiliar with this type of control set up, it means that pressing up on the d-pad is the only way to make your character walk forward. So if you're used to modern controls where if you want to make your character walk toward you, you would press down, or make him run to the right, pressing right - forget all of that before playing this game. Pressing and holding right on the d-pad will only make Harry spin in a circle - so if you want to make him walk right, you first have to hold right until he's in the direction you want him to face, and then press up to send him on his way. It's not so bad once you get used to it, but it can get really tiresome in tight corners where you have to be precise about where you're walking. 

 Chilton Memorial Hospital: Providing the most terrifying care anyone could ask for.

Outside of the combat there are puzzles. Some of them fall back on the "find strangely shaped key for strangely shaped hole" mechanic, but some are actual noodle scratchers. You're often given very cryptic clues and left to yourself to figure it out. Things like colors, astrological signs, music, and time all call on the players knowledge of things outside of the game. I often had to do a Google search on certain things, or I found myself with a pen and paper jotting down potential solutions to puzzles. The game certainly assumes it's audience is educated when it comes to puzzles and definitely doesn't pander to the masses. They respect your intelligence and let you figure it out on your own without spoon feeding you answers like so many other games.


Stuff I Liked: 

• The story is pitch perfect and the way the environment plays so nicely with it just makes for a much more enjoyable game. 
• The horror! THE HORROR! Seriously, once you get away from the worst voice acting this side of the Mississippi, this game will terrify you, even with it's dated visuals. 
• The puzzles are fantastic. When you figure them out you actually feel smart. 

Stuff I Hated: 

• Clumsy controls can be frustrating at times. 
• One playthrough is relatively short at six hours, but there is incentive to play it again. 
• Just in case you didn't believe me about the voice acting:

In the end, the game is fantastic. The voice acting is just part of the legend of Silent Hill, and if they did an actual HD remake, I don't know if it would be the same without the campiness. In a way, the awkward voice talent kind of added to the suspense. As if these people aren't reacting to the events in a realistic way, almost like lobotomy patients working through a mystery. Likely that was not the intention, but like I said - all part of the legend.

I would definitely recommend this game to a friend. It's available on the PlayStation Network for download, so if you don't have it - pick it up.

Review in Ten Words or Less: 
Solid experience. Scary as hell. Frustrating controls.