There's something timeless about Silent Hill. I don't exactly believe that games "age", per se, but even then it finds itself born in the perfect moment of time, late enough in the PS1's life to be a perfection of the style that would be left by the wayside with the advent of the 6th generation. I made the choice to start the series with Silent Hill 2, last year, and while that is still very much my favorite of the two, there is something about the first game even it does not replicate, this hyper-detailed and yet unreal look into a nightmare world that is so much like our own and all the more unsettling for it.
I don't actually care too much for this game's story, despite its neater bits. Perhaps this is because of my love for the sequel's plot, and while that isn't a fair comparison given this is the earlier game, it was one I was inevitably going to draw up. Harry's story is surprisingly straight-forward, basically just a hero's journey to save his daughter. Throughout it he meets a few characters, with some hiding things from him and some just being victims of the town just like he is. He has no inherent reason to be here, the entity of Silent Hill as a sort of conscious Saw trap nightmare does not exist yet, to him it's just a cosmic horror he must brave through. This doesn't make it a bad story, and again there's some great moments, but I do also feel like you don't get a complete enough picture without getting a "+" ending, which I did not (I actually figured out how to do it, but using the item didn't register so I thought I must have been wrong, and locked myself out of them). Leaving bits of story ambiguous unless the player looks for them is good and admirable, but leaving important developments out... not so much, given the story is pretty lackluster without. It also does suffer from PS1 voice acting, which while occasionally funny does make it hard to take certain scenes seriously.
There's a second, greater story going on in Silent Hill, though. One told not through words and cutscenes but wordless horror and atmosphere, from enemy designs and soundtrack and skewed camera angles. I'm repeating myself but this game's sheer capacity to evoke emotions in the player is second to none - usually, it's unease or downright horror, but it takes it easy on you a lot of the time too. There's moments that are quiet or only slightly unsettling, and moments that are somber or beautiful. After the big first dungeon of the game, which is absolutely terrifying, it does sort of settle down and stop firing on all cylinders, maybe even just because the player has acquired better weaponry and more experience, and is therefore less likely to feel as unsafe. Still it's never quite out of tricks, and there's some really mean scares in there.
There are some bits that while not necessarily bad per se are pretty funny to look back at, considering what the series (well, the next few games) would become. The first boss looks absolutely terrifying, but the ones after it are... a big worm and a big moth, which is very un-Silent Hill-y. There's two levels where you just run through sewers and fight weirdo dinosaurs and bugs. Besides being kind of annoying those completely lose the "psychological" half of the horror and end up feeling pretty boring as a result. I also really don't like how easy it is to miss the rifle and make the rest of the game much harder on yourself. Still the good more than outweighs the bad, and it's generally incredible just how well they nailed what made their game unique on the first try.
I don't actually care too much for this game's story, despite its neater bits. Perhaps this is because of my love for the sequel's plot, and while that isn't a fair comparison given this is the earlier game, it was one I was inevitably going to draw up. Harry's story is surprisingly straight-forward, basically just a hero's journey to save his daughter. Throughout it he meets a few characters, with some hiding things from him and some just being victims of the town just like he is. He has no inherent reason to be here, the entity of Silent Hill as a sort of conscious Saw trap nightmare does not exist yet, to him it's just a cosmic horror he must brave through. This doesn't make it a bad story, and again there's some great moments, but I do also feel like you don't get a complete enough picture without getting a "+" ending, which I did not (I actually figured out how to do it, but using the item didn't register so I thought I must have been wrong, and locked myself out of them). Leaving bits of story ambiguous unless the player looks for them is good and admirable, but leaving important developments out... not so much, given the story is pretty lackluster without. It also does suffer from PS1 voice acting, which while occasionally funny does make it hard to take certain scenes seriously.
There's a second, greater story going on in Silent Hill, though. One told not through words and cutscenes but wordless horror and atmosphere, from enemy designs and soundtrack and skewed camera angles. I'm repeating myself but this game's sheer capacity to evoke emotions in the player is second to none - usually, it's unease or downright horror, but it takes it easy on you a lot of the time too. There's moments that are quiet or only slightly unsettling, and moments that are somber or beautiful. After the big first dungeon of the game, which is absolutely terrifying, it does sort of settle down and stop firing on all cylinders, maybe even just because the player has acquired better weaponry and more experience, and is therefore less likely to feel as unsafe. Still it's never quite out of tricks, and there's some really mean scares in there.
There are some bits that while not necessarily bad per se are pretty funny to look back at, considering what the series (well, the next few games) would become. The first boss looks absolutely terrifying, but the ones after it are... a big worm and a big moth, which is very un-Silent Hill-y. There's two levels where you just run through sewers and fight weirdo dinosaurs and bugs. Besides being kind of annoying those completely lose the "psychological" half of the horror and end up feeling pretty boring as a result. I also really don't like how easy it is to miss the rifle and make the rest of the game much harder on yourself. Still the good more than outweighs the bad, and it's generally incredible just how well they nailed what made their game unique on the first try.