Silent Hill

With movie companies wanting to turn games into celluloid, why can't they do it for games that deserve such a distinction. Tomb Raider, Super Mario Brothers and what not were horrible. The industry finally got it right when they made Resident Evil. So now its time to give Silent Hill its due.

As for the game, it was one of the few that ever got my heart racing. The music added so much atmosphere to the game, and the never ending stream of bad guys made my skin crawl a few times. When I get the Playstation 2, I'm going to purchase Silent Hill 2. I highly recommend this game, and its best you get yourself the players guide.

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.

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.

Forget "Resident Evil" if you want to play a game with lots of scares. "Silent Hill" is the scariest game you will ever play! It's certainly the scariest one I've played anyway. What makes this game so terrifying is the sense of isolation and pure silence. I remember running in the streets, and the music track was purely the wind blowing. Then, the radio(which detects incoming monsters) emits a shrieking noise, letting you know somewhere near you, is a monster silently stalking you. The game is very atmospheric, with fantastic graphics that make "Resident Evil" crummy by comparison. Some of the camera angles move up in the air and then pan down again as you move, making it feel cinematic and dynamic. That kind of stuff blew me away immediately! I never completed this game, because it was too frightening for me to deal with. With some respects, video games are much more terrifying than films, because you are no longer observing. You become the characters, who are plummeted into a nightmarish hell of fear. Sure "Resident Evil" scared me when I first played it, but not like this! This was just too much! Try it out, but God knows how long you can handle it!

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.