Silent Hill

Silent Hill is a cross between King's "The Mist" and Barker's "Hellraiser". And it makes excellent use of both. From the very first moments of the game, you are truly scared. There were so many parts where I was like, "Oh no, I don't want to go out there." There was into the foggy streets, on foot, all alone, and there are monsters out there. EEEEK! I've been into horror my whole life and this game totally freaked me out. I think the Hospital area was one of the scariest. Just wait till you have to go into the hospital basement. And you just know you have to go in the morgue, too. Really scary. This is the best horror game I have ever played. It beats Resident Evil hands down. If you love horror games, this one is the best.

What a kicker of a game, Silent Hill takes ideas from Rosemary's Baby, The Shining, and even a little Jacob's Ladder, and runs with it, making it the most horrifying game ever released, even topping Resident Evil 1. Harry Mason, the main character, decides to take his daughter Cheryl on a vacation. Harry is a writer and has just lost his wife to an unknown disease, and decides to take a break. While driving to Silent Hill, Harry is passed by a motorcycle cop in quite a hurry. The cop looks at him, and zooms off. Harry pays no mind until he sees the motorcycle wrecked a couple miles up the road, he quickly takes his eyes off the road to check out the wreck and spots someone walking across the road. Harry slams on the brakes and ends up wrecking... He wakes up in Silent Hill, his head is bashed a little bit, but other than that he's fine, except for the fact that Cheryl is missing... The game sends you on a hellish mission to find your daughter, with the help of Cybil, the motorcycle cop. Silent Hill turns out to be a nightmare town, full of evil creatures. This game screws with your head as Harry undergoes several sequences that makes it seem like he's trapped in hell. You fight several different creatures during this period like evil devil children and hellhounds. But it's all just a dream... isn't it? The music doesn't make the playing experience any easier on you, evil and ominous industrial music adds to the tension of yours and Harry's quest. Great graphics and great music, and great gameplay. Instead of screwing with your nerves like Resident Evil does, Silent Hill screws up your brain. Is this real? What is that creature? Who do I trust? The only beefs I have with this game is that it's short, and when you find out how to solve every puzzle, you can breeze through the game when you play it a second time. In my opinion, Hollywood should quit trying to come up with the right script for Resident Evil and should put their attention into Silent Hill. It's a much smarter and much more frightening game with a better script and a better plot... what's the main plot? Beats me, there is never an exact plot to begin with...

This was the game that catapulted the genre of psychological horror into the video game medium. And my, oh my, what a beginning. I can't quite give this game a 10 simply because its sequel is THE BEST survival horror game ever made, but this is definitely a near-masterpiece. The fact that they were able to pull a game like this off on the PS1 is nothing short of incredible. The graphics, gameplay, story and character development all stand out; I think what impressive me the most about this game at the time, however, was the actual environment of the town itself. We don't think anything about open areas in games these days but at the time this was really mindblowing.

If you somehow haven't played this game, do not be afraid to jump in due to its age. You'll get used to the graphics in no time at all and will find yourself sucked into the game as if it was brand new.

I'm going to review it on 4 different parts:

Graphics: The graphics are decent. They aren't anything special by any standards, but lighting is impressive for ps1.

Sound: Sound design is excellent, and the music is incredibly scary and intense. Constantly puts you on edge.

Gameplay: It's pretty good. You walk around dimly lit areas and fight off enemies. Very scary and lots of anticipation, since you never know their location, but you know that they are there. Truly amazing.

Innovation: This is one of the scariest and most unique games ever made, and is in the top 10 ps1 games.

The only reason I finished this game the first time is that my girlfriend kept insisting that I play it to entertain her; even with company it was too freaky for me to play for more than about an hour, and alone? Don't even think about it. The creepiness factor of this game is unbelievable: the soundtrack has only moments of music; mostly it's dominated by industrial machinery or natural wind. The monsters are seriously nightmare-based, ranging from tiny knife-wielding mutant children to nurses with parasites clinging to their backs to these horrific gorilla-like things that jump and make a guttural "Unnh" sound. I mean, it's unbelievable.

There's graphic fog all over this game, but it really adds to the atmosphere, and in all fairness, for a six-year-old PSone game it has remarkable rendering and lighting effects, and some good cutscenes. Of course, the reason to play this game is the sheer psychological terror. Somewhere in Japan, somebody said, "Let's make a video game where everything might or might not be real, where the player probably doesn't have the resources to kill all of the enemies, and where the few interactions with other characters are unnerving and leave you feeling even more lonely than before." By the time you reach the "Nowhere" section at the end of the game, I swear you will be going insane.

Suffice to say that the endings are unsatisfying, but nothing could really sum up a game like this. After playing it once or twice for real, do yourself a favor and get the procedure for the "UFO Ending"; it'll help calm your nerves and keep the whole thing in perspective.

Truly a unique game.