Silent Hill

Overview

The Silent Hill franchise begun on the PlayStation in 1999, created by Keiichirou Toyama. During the development of the first Silent Hill game, developer Konami was looking to mimic the success that Capcom had gained with the Resident Evil series, which is quite evident in the franchise's first installment, but Silent Hill quickly evolved into something dramatically more emotional and moving.

The series has become well known for its haunting music and gripping stories, and these very factors have set it apart from other horror franchises.

Storytelling

The stories often revolve around the main characters' conflicted emotions of guilt, portrayed as perverse creatures, blood stained walls or horrifying environments, and the torture of the twisted residents of Silent Hill. Silent Hill has always relied heavily on moving storytelling, and the stories told in each game are much more of a core element of the games rather than something hastily added to the graphics and gameplay. Unlike many game franchises, the Silent Hill games rarely make overt connections between its different installments, and there is no obvious overarching story that progresses through the sequels, though a variety of small and large connections can be made between the different games' plots.

Gameplay

Silent Hill has stayed close to the traditional survival horror game make-up which relies heavily on fixed camera angles and engrossing puzzles instead of fast paced combat. Melee combat or pure evasion of enemies have been dominant gameplay mechanics in all of the Silent Hill games, and in combat the available weaponry usually consists of more commonplace items such as baseball bats, golf clubs and metal pipes. As in most survival horror games, strategy, as well as item conservation, play a large role in Silent Hill, and both are concepts which complements the slower ace and thought-provoking storytelling. With the exception of Silent Hill 4: the Room, all of the games take place in the actual town of Silent Hill. The fourth game strayed slightly from the staple gameplay and location of the series in an attempt to innovate the franchise, but there are still strong connections to the eponymous town with in the plot. Early reviews praised the game for its first person elements and haunting settings, but it was eventually seen as a setback for the series when compared to the success of Resident Evil 4.

The fifth game of the franchise, Silent Hill: Homecoming, was developed by the American based team The Collective, that merged into Double Helix Games, instead of the usual Japanese development team Team Silent. Homecoming was an attempt at returning to the original Silent Hill formula, but was at the same time attempting to advance the combat mechanics. This installment also gave the player the opportunity to select responses in conversations during certain encounters in the game.

Game Developers

The first four Silent Hill games were developed by Konami's Team Silent, but after the completion of Silent Hill 4: The Room, the team dissolved and the members moved on to other projects. Akira Yamaoka was the only Team Silent member who continued with the franchise as the series' composer, but in 2009 he left Konami to join Grasshopper Manufacture. In response to the dissolution of Team Silent, Konami announced that they would appoint other companies to develop the succeeding Silent Hill titles, while they remain as publisher for the franchise. This was when Konami stopped numbering the newer games.

Silent Hill: Origins and Shattered Memories were developed by Climax, Silent Hill: Homecoming by Double Helix, and Silent Hill: Downpour by Vatra Games. These new titles were not as well received as their predecessors and they continued to decline in sales and popularity. Many fans criticized these games for not having the same visual style and feel as the first four Silent Hill games.

Film Adaptations

Silent Hill

A movie adaptation of Silent Hill was released in 2006 and had Akira Yamaoka listed as one of the producers. The film incorporated elements from the first three games, but then remained closest to those of the first game. One major change was changing Harry Mason as a parent-figure for a female protagonist named Rose da Silva (played by Radha Mitchell). Christophe Gans, the movie director, stated that he felt that the Mother and Daughter relationship was more compelling than the father/daughter connection of the original game. English actor Sean Bean also stars in the movie.

The film received some praise for its visuals, but generally got mildly positive to bad reviews. In spite of this, it grossed quite well at the US box office, and is arguably considered one of the better examples of a video game film adaptation.

Silent Hill: Revelation 3D

A new Silent Hill movie is scheduled for release at some point during 2012, and it will once again feature both Radha Mitchell and Sean Bean. The game will however follow Heather Mason, who will be portrayed by Adelaide Clemens and will mostly follow the events seen on Silent Hill 3.

Soundtracks

Apart from Silent Hill: Downpour (the upcoming installment in the series), for which the music will be composed by Dan Licht, all the music for all the previous titles in the Silent Hill franchise was composed by Akira Yamaoka, in conjunction with a couple of guest composers and musicians for certain songs. However, while the soundtrack for the first two games was mainly composed of a series of short ambiance tracks and compositions, the remaining titles in the series were given a more thought-out approach, and they bear resemblances to actual movie soundtracks, bringing a more cinematic feel to the narrative of the game. Considering that the film adaptation had no original tracks made for it whatsoever, all of the music in the film was taken directly from the games, this could be seen as a successful attempt.

The music tracks in the first two Silent Hill games were mostly instrumental, but for Silent Hill 3 Akira wanted to incorporate vocals to the soundtrack. He wanted a female vocalist that had a sound comparable to that of Garbage and PJ Harvey. He flew to Los Angeles and auditioned about fifty candidates, until he heard the voice of Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. Mary Elizabeth has since worked with Akira on several other Silent Hill soundtracks, along with lyricist Joe Romersa.

The soundtrack compositions are varied and range from post-industrial to alternative rock, from pop to trip-hop.

SILENT HILL

* only available in special editions

SILENT HILL 2

* only available in special editions

SILENT HILL 3

* only available in special editions

SILENT HILL 4: THE ROOM

Disc ONE

Disc TWO

* This second disc features mostly just in-game dialogue, which is something quite popular in Japan, and a trend that spreads across various game titles, as well as to anime.

SILENT HILL ZERO: ORIGINS

SILENT HILL: HOMECOMING

SILENT HILL: SHATTERED MEMORIES

Trivia

• Silent Hill, the first installment of the franchise, was awarded first place in the GameTrailers "Top 10 Scariest Games" list.