General Information Platform: Playstation 1 (I played it on Duckstation with my USB third party Playstation 3 controller) Release Date: January 31, 1999 Players: One Rating: Mature Average Time To Beat: 7 hours casual, 14 completionist Date I Completed It: August 7th, 2023 Score Graphics: 4/5 Gameplay: a very mixed 4/5 (you get used to it) Sound: 4/5 Plot: 2/5
Overall Score: 14/20
Keep in mind before you read that I don't usually play this genre of game. This is my first time actually trying to complete something like this. I don't even play first person shooters. Just getting that out there.
Ok, so don't let my 70% rating deter you, I actually did enjoy this game. And let me break down exactly what I did and did not like.
Overall, I think this game is best played with someone else with you. I played with J and Ciel over the course of two days. Realistically, you only need a few sessions to get through this, you could easily do it in a weekend. This was the optimal way to expierence it, as a "sleepover game", because it's most fun when you are trying to unravel the mystery together, hearing each others reactions, etc. I don't even feel like you need to have an IRL friend, just convince someone to watch you play via Discord and stay up late binging it or something if you decide to go for it.
The Opening Cinematic
When you first start this game up, be prepared for a surprise. And no, I don't mean the monsters or the absolute state of Silent Hill. The controls are tank controls, moving our protagionist Harry Mason (the way I shouted when his last name was revealed as Mason in the opening cinematic) becomes a feat in and of itself. I can't tell you how many times I died to the extremely basic winged creature, called an Air Screamer, inside the diner (which you learn is as basic an enemy as they come).
Mr. Mason does a uncharacteristically cute bunny hop binky whenever you try to move him backwards. You know, in the way you would think to move any other character in another Playstation game. Harry is just so excited to be here. In Silent Hill.
Cheryl?!!???? CHERYL????
I won't lie, I was ready to throw in the towel then and there. But, Ciel and J were watching me, and I didn't want to be emasculated by my inability to move our little Mason in a straight line. I figured out the controls and escaped the diner. The game is designed pretty well as it leads you out into the rolling fog to perform the arduous task of walking in many straight lines across the map of Silent Hill, backtracking across streets... this sounds annoying but at the beginning of the game (more on that later) it isn't annoying at all. You're sweating trying to get him to just move the direction you would like him to.
Harry has arrived at Silent Hill for a 'vacation'. His daughter, Cheryl wanted to go very badly! However, upon arrival, Harry gets into a car accident. When he comes to, Cheryl is missing... and so is everyone else in town.
The game is unintentionally funny from the vocal delivery of many of Mr. Mason's lines, he's lost his seven year old daughter and he is in what I would assume is most peoples most nightmarish scenario and he is as cool as a cucumber. Saying stuff like "nothing unusual", my dude, the table is covered in blood and there are literal vampire potbelly goblins attacking you.
Nothing out of the ordinary for this Cool Dad.
At the diner, you pick up a radio. This radio makes certain noises to warn you, the player, about which enemies are nearby. This is a really cool feature that the game doesn't outright explain to you, but you learn. The sound design of the game is minimalistic in a way that adds to the thrill of it. I thought a lot of the sounds of the creatures were great but there is very little in terms of actual music. Some parts are... totally silent. It works, but it does leave something to be desired in certain high tension areas.
You heal by drinking the limited health drinks you find on the ground (Harry makes a lot of irresponsible choices and this is arguably the least irresponsible of them). You have the choice between melee weapons (unlimited use but hard to wield) or guns. However, guns require ammo. If you can't find enough or use too many bullets, you won't be able to use your weapon. And you'll probably really need to...
On the hunt for Cheryl, Harry ventures deeper and deeper into Silent Hill, becoming part of its very strange workings...
Spoiler Warning!
The game really starts when you make your way to the school. By this point, you feel like an absolute mastermind because you've finally managed to get Harry to move how you want him to. You also should be adept at handling Air Screamers. This is why I rate the controls so high despite the difficulty curve because the entire time you play Silent Hill you are rewarded by figuring it out. And this is probably the most fun part... It makes you want to replay because you know you could do it in half the time the second time around.
Wow, that's crazy, a giant hole in the road exactly where it would make most sense to travel if I followed the map!
All around Silent Hill there are giant sinkholes and large cliffs in the middle of the road. Exactly in the places you would like to go. Get ready to consult the map. A lot. Sometimes the game is fair to you and offers you a little challenge that makes logical sense. Other times... well... in 1999, I'm not sure how you were supposed to figure it out. Or now for that matter. Artifical padding I guess. I can imagine it would make schoolyard discussion of this game very exciting, at least.
Inside the school, you learn that the game is more like an old point and click adventure than anything else. You solve puzzles, move around locked and unlocked doors. FIND THE MAP OF EVERY LEVEL OR YOU WILL SPEND WAY TOO MUCH TIME BEING LOST. There are a lot of places that look identical when you don't know the layout of the area like the back of your hand from playing the game more than once. That's really it. There's enemies but you don't really *have* to kill them all of the time. In fact, the game encourages you to be careful about choosing when to fight and when not to. You only have a small amount of resources, after all. I, however, would kill basically everything because I didn't like the noises.... LOL.
I think the most pleasant parts were the still parts where you are solving a puzzle. You get the space to really think about it. Enemies don't respawn so you can use them as markers to figure out if you were in a location before or if it is new. Sometimes new enemies will spawn if a door is now unlocked. So just follow them and you'll get where you're meant to go. It's nice because when you are solving a longer puzzle, you aren't worrying about being jump-scared or something. In fact, I can't remember there being any "jump scares" in this game. It didn't feel cheap in that sense at all. Solving the puzzles take a little bit of time but are very rewarding to figure out yourself. Pretend it is 1999 and try to do it. If it takes longer than 30 minutes for you to get it, then look it up.
In Silent Hill, Harry is teleported from reality into something beyond it. The "Otherworld" or Nightmare world. The structure of everything changes around him. Enemies become stronger. He falls in and out of this world or dream back and forth as the game progresses. I like to imagine it as a kind of spiritual, mental thing because Harry often is not that disturbed by being there and seems kind of asleep, behaviorwise. Typically, you are told to travel to a new location. You spend an ungodly amount of time walking the roads. You arrive, walk around a few floors and solve a few puzzles. Then it is the Nightmare version of the dungeon. You complete a few floors and a few puzzles. You beat a boss. You are back in the Normal world. You get tasked with traveling to a new location. Rinse and repeat.
I think that the Nightmare world is cool but I kind of wish it was implemented a little differently. Assets are copy and pasted so you see things like dude in a gimp suit hung on the wall a lot. It loses the effect is has when I see it everywhere. I didn't realize until the end of the game that the Air Screamer is unique from the Night Flutter.
This one's name is Colin : )
In Silent Hill, everyone is missing but there are a handful of characters you can interact with. They are very interesting but sadly the story is very cryptic on purpose. It's confusing until you beat it a second time. Or until you know all the endings... and a lot isn't fully developed. But I mean, I can't really knock it. It's a Playstation game and there is a lot here for the time frame in which it was released. I just feel like if it had a little more time or better organization to it, it could've been a lot more.
When you die, the game is nice to you and often puts you at the boss fight itself or sometimes in the same room or hallway. Very forgiving in that sense. I appreciated it.
I felt even though there were a lot of reused assets that the game overall had a lot of style to it. I'm very fond of the look of Playstation games. An effort was made here. It had a really good atmosphere. Everything is illuminated by Harry's flashlight. You have to turn around slowly (tank controls contributing to most of the drama) to take in your surroundings. You can turn your flashlight off for better aim with GUN. But then... it's scarier... hehehe....
ok now get ready for.... my biggest gripes
TL;DR: The Plot.
1. The game is very pseudointellectual. It's trying realllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy hard to be SO DEEP and SO EPIC and because it is trying SO hard to impress you it kind of backfires. I think you need to be 12 to really enjoy it in a WOW SO AWESOME how could they EVEN do That kind of way. Not gonna go into exactly *why* here but if you play you'll get it. It's just making stuff up but in a way that is really annoying and insensitive. I will say though that I genuinely appreciated that they just made up demons and sigils instead of using real ones. It's a pet peeve when people add crap like that to their media and don't understand anything about it/mishandle it. That stuff is not a joke or something to fool around with!!!
2. Mister Harry Mason is an absolute asshole. He has one job. Protect women. He is so bad at it, it hurts. He is really cruel or uncaring or just like... unfeeling. Depends on your point of view. I dunno. Also the game kind of plays like "all the girls are in love with You.... The NUmber One Handsome Man" but he really doesn't deserve it. Harry is like a plank of wood. I wish he was hot. It would be more entertaining.
Harry is also holding like 12 weapons and never gives one to the ladies he meets. He leaves them to hang out with the demon nurses or whatever. He takes all the bullets up off the floor for himself. Why wouldn't you team up how could you just leave her there? If you want to find your daughter for reals wouldn't being part of a crew make more sense? Anxiety inducing but in a way that is NOT FUN!!! ANxiety inducing.... of RAGE!
3. Harry is an asshole for no reason. The entire time I was playing the game I kept rationalizing that Harry would have some kind of plot reason why he didn't care or why he was mean to people. But no. He's just like. Dumb. That's it. No big plot reason. I think it could have been anyone really. You get to the end and you're like. Oh, this game wasn't even about him. And like yeah, it wasn't. But then why was he so.... hard to like?? If there was no reason. I don't know. This game is designed with men in mind and men like to play videogames with cardboard main characters that don't threaten them and that they can pretend to be. Lol.
4. I'm sad about Alessa............................... Alessa.............................................. I love you and I'm sorry cos that is really fucked up. I wouldn't abandon you. I'm different.
5. Also sad about Lisa Garland.... : ( She deserved better, especially since she actually took care of someone evil, unlike Harry... who just is doing whatever he is told to do or whatever makes the most sense for his own self preservation.
Conclusion
I actually really enjoyed the experience this game offered. I would recommend it to people as a sleepover or party game but I don't think you should go in expecting the world of it or anything. I think that the small time commitment of 6-8 hours really add to my recommendation, if it were longer I don't think I'd be confident saying it was worth a whirl.
Even though I can see how Silent Hill has gone on to influence not just the genre of survival horror but gaming in general as well, I genuinely do not understand the level of hype towards it. Like I said, I think this game was fun and it certainly has replay value, even after you've unlocked all the endings. Which is more than I can say for the majority of games that have come out since.
Yet, there are numerous games on the Playstation that are more thought provoking or engaging, in my opinion. I kind of wanted it to be "scarier" and I think that the way that everyone talks about how CLASSIC and LEGENDARY Silent Hill is really set my expectations way too high. I think I'd love this game a lot more if I went in totally blind, not even knowing what Silent Hill was.
At the risk of sounding very contradictory, I don't disagree that this game is classic and legendary... I just think that you need to understand that it is the core gameplay mechanics that are classic and legendary. The way that you control Harry, the game flow, the resource management, the fighting, etc. You will be thinking of how it felt to take out Incubus for a long time, but not the plot and circumstances of how it exists.
I guess I just value story and characters a lot more than anything else : )
But these are my reviews... sooooo... I make the rules... and no one can stop me!!!! Mwaahahhahahhahhahahaha!!!
