First time Silent Hill-er right here, and let me tell you this game is not what i expected it to be, and i mean that in a good and bad way. I want to get this out of the way—this game is CRAZY for ps1. It pulled off a semi-open world with a back-facing, kind-of controllable camera in 1999. Granted with some caveats such as my eleventh worst enemy tank controls, but it didn't dissuade me.
What suprised me the most was just how... not survival it felt?? Like people classify this as "survival-horror", but i think i more accurate description is "ˢᵘʳᵛᶦᵛᵃˡ⁻HORROR". I mean i played it in normal mode, but come on it's called normal for a reason it's meant to be the difficulty the devs intended to reach. Lots of ammo, lots of health items, barely any bosses to dry your inventory, enemies kinda suck... it all felt a little uneventful. That or i'm just a pro like that who knows most likely the latter.
The "HORROR" part, though? They absolutely nailed it. The dead silence that fills the foggy town and the rusted, decayed appearance of the nightmare zones were just pulled off wonderfully. The music and sound design were also top of the line quality. Like i was more scared of the music than the actual enemies. The sound was absolutely what kept me on edge throughout my entire playthrough more than anything.
Silent Hill is all about leaving the protagonist in the dark, not giving clear directions, confusing them... so the designers thought oh hey fuck you the player might as well feel the same. This game DOES NOT hold back and will not give a shit if you stubbed your toe ow. Some people will think "oh but the puzzles aren't hard they're logic based" and it's like yeah but actually no. Some of the puzzles just have misdirection. Like one puzzle near the end has zodiac symbols and numbers. So you think ok in real life they DO have corresponding numbers. But no the numbers relate to how many limbs the symbol has??? The game in general has a high focus on puzzles which i did not expect. I was able to—frustratingly—solve them at least but eh. They're fun but a little too much of the experience for my taste. It kind of defeats the purpose of repeat playthroughs because you'll already know the solutions to puzzles, the combat sucks, and all the scares won't suprise you as much.
Lots of the enjoyment of Silent Hill comes from the inital playthrough where you have NO idea what the hell is going. The game does try to incentivize multiple playthroughs through multiple endings and higher difficulties but maaaan i dunno if it's enough. The first playthrough was AWESOME and kept me engaged till the end but the thought of a replay doesn't sound as enticing as i'm sure the game thought it would be. I feel with stronger core gameplay mechanics I would replay but as it stands, it's a stellar first experience that i'm not sure if I'll revisit.
What suprised me the most was just how... not survival it felt?? Like people classify this as "survival-horror", but i think i more accurate description is "ˢᵘʳᵛᶦᵛᵃˡ⁻HORROR". I mean i played it in normal mode, but come on it's called normal for a reason it's meant to be the difficulty the devs intended to reach. Lots of ammo, lots of health items, barely any bosses to dry your inventory, enemies kinda suck... it all felt a little uneventful. That or i'm just a pro like that who knows most likely the latter.
The "HORROR" part, though? They absolutely nailed it. The dead silence that fills the foggy town and the rusted, decayed appearance of the nightmare zones were just pulled off wonderfully. The music and sound design were also top of the line quality. Like i was more scared of the music than the actual enemies. The sound was absolutely what kept me on edge throughout my entire playthrough more than anything.
Silent Hill is all about leaving the protagonist in the dark, not giving clear directions, confusing them... so the designers thought oh hey fuck you the player might as well feel the same. This game DOES NOT hold back and will not give a shit if you stubbed your toe ow. Some people will think "oh but the puzzles aren't hard they're logic based" and it's like yeah but actually no. Some of the puzzles just have misdirection. Like one puzzle near the end has zodiac symbols and numbers. So you think ok in real life they DO have corresponding numbers. But no the numbers relate to how many limbs the symbol has??? The game in general has a high focus on puzzles which i did not expect. I was able to—frustratingly—solve them at least but eh. They're fun but a little too much of the experience for my taste. It kind of defeats the purpose of repeat playthroughs because you'll already know the solutions to puzzles, the combat sucks, and all the scares won't suprise you as much.
Lots of the enjoyment of Silent Hill comes from the inital playthrough where you have NO idea what the hell is going. The game does try to incentivize multiple playthroughs through multiple endings and higher difficulties but maaaan i dunno if it's enough. The first playthrough was AWESOME and kept me engaged till the end but the thought of a replay doesn't sound as enticing as i'm sure the game thought it would be. I feel with stronger core gameplay mechanics I would replay but as it stands, it's a stellar first experience that i'm not sure if I'll revisit.