Silent Hill, while not quite as phenomenal as the second, has taken up most of my gaming time for the past few days. I'm going to post thoughts as I work through it, but I don't think I'm going to write a full-blown review as everyone should already know Silent Hill is cemented as a horror masterpiece.
The game is praised for many aspects, but perhaps the most prominent for me is the atmosphere. I've only ever completed Silent Hill 2 prior to this game, but already the parallels between the two games are evident. Wander a foggy town, complete with disturbing monsters and strangely distant NPCs, in order to uncover a mystery. In the case of Silent Hill, the main character (Harry Mason) must find his daughter, who went missing after a car crash. Sure, the way the fog restricts sight of anything other than a few feet in front of the player is effective at creating tension, but the indoor environments are even more interesting. Without spoiling too much, lets just say that each indoor segment of the game changes tone dramatically at some point. A normally standard elementary school will turn nightmarish, complete with hanging bodies and grotesque child-like enemies. These aspects add to the overlying theme of insanity, which pops up multiple times over the course of both Silent Hill 1 and 2. Perhaps it is to the game's disadvantage that I played the sequel beforehand, but I don't think the scares were made any less effective. Bodies fall out of closets and strange sounds echo from the walls, startling me on a regular basis. Not only do the stellar sound and visual design work wonders to build atmosphere, the tone of the game creates a feeling of helplessness that never lets up. While wandering through the various environments I always felt on edge, even if a lack of health packs and ammo was never a significant concern. In this respect, Silent Hill is fairly generous, as a keen eye for objects in the environment will almost always keep the player alive. But nevertheless, in many situations the best solution is to simply run away, and this lack of combat makes the encounters that much more exciting.
As stated before, the sound design is absolutely stellar, and here's why. Many sounds that occur don't make much contextual sense, but this only reinforces the "insanity" themes. Sometimes all it takes to unsettle a player is a strategically placed child's cry, or perhaps the iconic and brilliant radio, which crackles and screeches when enemies are nearby. By creating this association between noise and danger, the "always on edge" feeling is further reinforced. Of course, the music of the game is also worth noting, as Akira Yamaoka's distrubing soundscapes contribute to the atmosphere considerably. After all, who can deny the genius of the instantly recognizable title theme? Moving on to the visual design, here is another area where Silent Hill excells (although it shows its age at every corner). The school, hospital, and other buildings that populate Silent Hill look fairly standard, but once they've switched to their "nightmare" versions they truly shine. Rusty metal grating makes up the floors of some of these horrific rooms, with blood splatters distributed liberally. While the characters indeed look awful, the player will get used to the game's age after a small amount of playtime. The FMV cutscenes also look dated, but since I have a weakness for this style of CGI, they only made me like the game more. Don't ask me why, I just like the look of them (especially the scene where Harry wakes up in the diner).
Of course everyone is aware of the "tank controls" which are utilized in older survival horror games. Silent Hill controls clumsily, but it's entirely intentional. If the player was given standard 3D movement, escaping would be much easier and a large amount of tension would be lost. It seems strange to compliment what are essentially "bad controls", but in Silent Hill's case, they completely work. Resident Evil 2, a game which I personally hate, is much more heavy on combat so I feel that the controls are a detriment to the experience. But in Silent Hill, since the player is encouraged to avoid combat in many situations, the controls feel entirely at place.
That's all I have to say for now, and since I went so far in depth I may not have any more to say once I've finished the game. I'm also working on Planescape: Torment, so thoughts on that will be put up shortly. If you haven't played Silent Hill, there's no better time after the recent teaser for Silent Hills, PT. If you have a PS4, play that too, it's free.
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