Silent Hill-Revisited
Written: Aug 26 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Unnerving story and atmosphere.
Cons: Voice acting and some control issues.
The Bottom Line: In order to fully appreciate Silent Hill 3, one must play Silent Hill 1. You will be glad you did.
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| psycho_gamer's Full Review: Silent Hill for PlayStation 1 |
Since I am currently playing through the third installment of Konamis masterpiece series, Silent Hill, I got to feeling nostalgic. I am about halfway through Silent Hill 3 and am in sheer awe of its genius. Playing through it though got me to thinking about the game that started it all, started all the horror and intrigue that is Silent Hill. In all honesty, in order to truly understand the story in Silent Hill 3, one really needs to play the original, in this case, that's a good thing.
Back in 1999, the next big thing in gaming was the emergence of the survival horror genre. Capcom revolutionized and some will say created this genre with its Resident Evil series of games. While the world was rife with anticipation for the next game in the Resident Evil series, Konami quietly unleashed upon the world a new brand of survival horror game, complete with visuals and themes never before seen in a video game before it. The results were mixed of course, some said it was just a Resident Evil clone, those were the ones that never played it though. If you played Silent Hill, you knew it was much more than just a rip off of Resident Evil, but rather a whole new breed of game that didn't fit into any of the preconceived notions of what a video game is or can be.
Over the years, while the Resident Evil franchise has gone stale and grown repetitive, Silent Hill continues to gain stride and break new ground with each new game released, and it all started with the first one.
The Story
In Silent Hill, you play as "normal everyday guy" Harry Mason. He is not a ninja, or a Special Ops police office, but just a normal, everyday guy, who is not too good with guns or mortal combat of any kind. Why, he could be you or me, assuming you're not a ninja or a Special Ops police officer.
The nightmare that is Harrys story starts off simply enough, with him and his daughter, Cheryl in a car on a highway on their vacation to a little, out of the way, quiet resort town called Silent Hill. Suddenly, as if from nowhere, a little girl appears on the road, Harry swerves to avoid hitting this girl and ends up flipping his vehicle in a spectacular wreck, sending Harry into unconsciousness. As the world starts to come back into focus for Harry, he realizes that his little girl, Cheryl is missing. She is nowhere to be found. So starts the adventure. Harrys only mission, to find his little girl.
What follows is a surreal story that plays itself out, though somewhat in a confusing matter, beautifully. Convoluted and misleading at times as it may be, it is a tale interwoven with religious and cult themes, death and life, all intertwined into a package like no other game before it.
Game Play
Unlike Resident Evils pre rendered backgrounds, Silent Hill is rendered in real time 3D. What that means is that instead of the static backgrounds and pre set camera angles in Resident Evil, Silent Hill allows you to look around the environment in full 3D. It does employ some preset camera angles to add to the mood though. The end result is more control over what you see and where you are going. Though the visuals may not be as stunning as a pre rendered background may offer, the gain you receive over control of the camera more than makes up for it.
A common theme in survival horror games is the control, mainly being they suck. Moving your character around in Resident Evil games is like playing Combat on the old Atari 2600, like trying to move a tank. Sadly, Silent Hill controls much the same way, though it being rendered in 3D does help a bit with the control, it still can be a pain to get Harry to go exactly where you want him to go.
The controls, unlike Resident Evil are what they call 3D controls, meaning you do gain some continuity, up is generally up and down is generally down, but sometimes Harry wigs out and goes the wrong way. Getting him to go from a full run to a complete stop also takes an unusually long time, he'll tend to continue on for a few seconds even though you released the control stick. These are common problems though with this type of game and do not do much to hinder the experience. A touch awkward at first, but after about a half hour of playing, you will have the controls mastered.
The main difference between Silent Hills game play and that of other survival horror games is the combat. There is of course the prerequisite lack of ammo and health packs as in all survival horror games, but what sets Silent Hill apart is the emphasis that is put on avoiding the enemies at all costs instead of blasting them back to hell. Harry is equipped with a radio. This radio produces white noise or static whenever an enemy is near. This not only adds considerably to the uncomfort factor while playing the game, but also is a good way to locate off screen enemies and avoid them if possible.
Sometimes though, what a child demon spawn from hell needs though is a good killing, and despite Harrys lack of talent with a gun, he can still dispatch of them if forced to. Targeting is done by a simple press of a button and you fire by pressing another button. Pretty good system, though it can get messy when you are being attacked from all sides by multiple enemies, which will happen often. There is a nice selection of weapons available for Harry to kill the Satan spawn with, from a crowbar to a chainsaw to a 9 MM to a shotgun. But beware, ammo is in limited supply and must be reserved for the bosses.
Silent Hills gameplay is also unique in that it preys on the players emotions and imagination. Harry is limited in what he can see by where his flashlight shines and must move cautiously throughout the game in order to avoid a certain death. The unnerving sound in the game, the groans and squeaks, all play on the gamers psychology and are quite unnerving. Instead of the big zombie popping out of the closet scare every so often in Resident Evil, Silent Hill makes you feel uneasy the whole time while playing it and doesn't really offer up a "big scare".
During your stay at Silent Hill, your main tasks as far as game play is concerned it to unlock doors. You unlock doors by solving puzzles and finding items. You are aided in your quest by an excellent map system that not only details where you are, but which direction you're facing and little notes Harry will write down about clues he has found. The puzzle quality in the game is fantastic, they are all, for the most part, logical puzzles that are not too difficult to find the answer to if you think a little.
Graphics
Many complain that the graphics in Silent Hill are grainy and of poor quality. Well, while true they are grainy, they are grainy for a purpose you see. It is the unique feel that is Silent Hill, like watching an old grainy horror movie. It's unsettling to say the least and adds greatly to the effect.
It's no secret, Silent Hill employs massive use of fog. The use of fog in Silent Hill is two fold. One reason is story driven and one is technologically driven. First, the story reason. Silent Hill is a seaside resort town, so naturally there will be some fog, but the amount of fog in Silent Hill is massive and is mainly there for atmospheric reasons. It limits the players ability to see more than a few feet in front of them while outside in the daylight and adds to the suspense of not knowing what is ahead of you or even where you are.
The second reason the fog is there is due to the limitations of the Playstation, fog is the easiest way to cover up ugliness, or draw distance and clipping. Though this may be a secondary consideration by the developers to employ the use of fog, it certainly made building the outdoor levels of the game much simpler.
All of the levels do look good though, for a Playstation game. The town of Silent Hill looks old and creepy with decaying buildings and the like. The indoor levels are also well done with a good variety of different locals you can visit. But all that goes to hell, literally. See, not to give away too much, but throughout the course of the game, Silent Hill will literally go to hell. The interiors will all mutate into a deformed and mangled version of their real world counterpart, complete with blood everywhere, corpses hanging from the rafters and unholy enemies. If Harry is outside when this happens, the game world goes pitch black.
The character model for Harry is decent, not much detail, but this is a Playstation 1 game afterall. The animation of him running looks a little jerky nowadays and even did back then when the game was first released. All the enemies however are brilliant. From psychotic bloody nurses with knives in the hospital level to a weird demon childlike form with knives in the Elementary School level, the variety and uniqueness of the enemies are like nothing else. The bosses are also as equally disturbing and grotesque.
The lighting is also brilliant in Silent Hill. Harry is equipped with a pocket flashlight and most of the time is limited to what he can see by that. For a Playstation game, the lighting effects are used well and add so much to the atmosphere of decay in the game world.
The Sound
The sound in Silent Hill was revolutionary for it's time. It employed a simulated 3D sound which in turn appeared to create sound all around you, despite the quality of your sound system. This is a nice feature if you don't have a sound system, but is even nicer if you do. The white noise from your radio whenever an enemy is around will emanate from wherever that enemy is. If it is behind you, the sound will come from your rear speakers and so on. The end effect is a brilliant new way to locate enemies using audio instead of visual clues.
A lot of the feel of Silent Hill is created through the music, which is both beautiful and amazingly unnerving at the same time. Whenever the action heats up and enemies start appearing, the music will hit a booming crescendo, when it is just you alone, it will be dead quite. This adds to the psychology of the game and cranks the tension level up about 20 notches.
The story is progressed through both CG cut scenes and in game cut scenes. The CG cut scenes sadly contain no voice work while cut scenes requiring voice work are generated using the in game engine. Typically, the voice acting in Silent Hill is cheesy and not very good at all. It's amazing just how much better the voice acting has gotten in games nowadays, but even for back then, it's pretty bad.
Bonuses
There are multiple endings to the game and all conclude the story radically different, making you want to see each one. There is one "true ending" which even that one doesn't make a whole lot of sense (until now, with the release of Silent Hill 3)
Aside from the multiple endings, there are other powerful weapons you can get once you beat the game and play through it again.
Overall
Silent Hill stands the test of time and is still one of the best games for the Playstation. It touched on themes and gave us disturbing visuals like no other game before it. It's game play is simple, yet addictive and the story is to die for, and after it's all said and done, Silent Hill has proven itself to be much more than a Resident Evil clone.
9.5/10
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
psycho_gamer
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Member: Steve Grove
Location: Eugene, OR
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 10 members
About Me:
You blew it (not in the good way neither)
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