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.

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.

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.

Think you don't find any films or games scary any more? You fancy a scare? If the answer to both of these is yes then you definitely wanna play Silent Hill! Just a piece of advice...

Don't play it alone! The atmosphere in the game, How realistic it is, and whats happening around you all contribute to the best horror game ever, and will probably be the best for a long time to go. The closest i have gotten to being this scared was playing The Suffering on PS2, But that doesn't even touch on the effect this game has on you. You'll be walking along and you'll hear footsteps and nothings there, and it will make you freeze! I've heard many a time that the character you play is not very good at shooting, but thats whats good about it. If you just picked up a gun and aimed at something chances are you wudnt hit it! Also the locations; Hospitals, Schools, Petrol Stations, Apartments, this makes you think its even more real which is the main reason i found it scary. You definitely wont find me in a deserted school any more.

This is my personal equation for the game....

(The Suffering x 100) + The Shining = Silent Hill Seriousely the jumpiness, the atmosphere, the locations all make this the scariest game of our time and even 7 years on, the graphics are still playable... My advice is to play this game with at least 2 other people.

If you do not have the game already you will find its a very hard game to get hold of! My advice is try ebay. I got it on there for £22 yes it maybe 7 years old but for how great this game is its worth every penny! Hope you find my review useful :)

Let me get something straight: I don't get scared easily. I've played the first two Resident Evil games without breaking a sweat, I watch Hellraiser and The Exorcist alone at night and think nothing of it.

Then there was Silent Hill... This game isn't just another random bloody horror game like the RE series, it's genuinely disturbing, and let me tell you, it scared me a lot.

It begins with a typical cliche... Harry Mason is driving down a road at night with his daughter, going to visit this little out-of-the-way resort town, Silent Hill. A girl steps in front of his car, he swerves to avoid her, and ends up crashing. From here on, strange things start to happen... Harry wakes up and finds his daughter missing, and stumbling through the mist, he sees her disappearing down a dark alley... I won't say anymore, I'll let you find out what happens.

Not only is this game very dark and scary, it's disturbing at a psychological level. It doesn't use big monsters to frighten you; after playing for only a few minutes, the slightest rustle can make you flee in terror. The plot isn't thrown in your face like other games, you have to think, and you're never really told what's going on - perhaps Harry is in a coma and dreaming all this, or maybe he died and went to Hell. The air of mystery and suspense keeps you hooked until the end, and it'll keep you coming back for more.

And I'll tell you this: After playing Silent Hill, those old WW2 air-raid sirens will never sound the same again...