𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐨𝐧
𝟏𝟖# 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐇𝐢𝐥𝐥
It feels weird finally playing a game that set the foundation for a lot of games I admire.
Silent Hill is a game I really really liked but didn’t really leave as much of an impact on me then I thought it would’ve. I think that might be from the fact that I’ve seen so many games in the past decades do what SH did either better or worse cough cough BlooberTeam cough cough.
Now that’s not to say the game itself is unoriginal because of time because it’s not. For PS1 the visuals still hold up extremely well and almost every location of Silent Hill has this intense foreboding atmosphere that looks so thick and cold, the mere action of just walking down the lone street of Silent Hill left me with such an intense feeling of dread and loneliness I almost felt the urge to turn on music in the background to calm my nerves. Speaking of music, the atmosphere is made ten times more unnerving thanks to the score made by Akira Yamaoka who just…..how do I even describe what the music made me feel? Scared isn’t the term I’d use but I can’t say it made me calm either, the tracks he made leave me with this lingering sense of paranoia; like at any moment something will jump out from the foggy darkness to get me. All the while for the quieter moments to have no music at all, you can hear your own footsteps and your radio occasional stuttering out with garbled static whitenose, which is a warning sign for monsters being nearby but that’s it. Just that dead silence of nothing but your own footsteps and radio, in sometimes pitch black darkness for minutes on end, it’s horrifying, and I love it.
I don’t know if I always expected Silent Hill 1 to have the same kind of psychological horror in the same vein as 2 and 3 but needless to say I was a little disappointed that it didn’t go nearly as in depth into the psychological aspect that I guess I was expecting but that’s not a fault of the game that’s a me thing. There are still small little bits scattered throughout the game that gave me a small taste of what I was expecting from this game but that’s mostly all they are, small bits from a story I honestly didn’t really like. I don’t wanna say I didn’t like the story and character because honestly I don’t hate it. I think Harry Mason is a great protagonist and audience surrogate, I thought Cybil was a great as one of the only level headed people in the town helping Harry keep himself grounded, I thought Kaufmann had that proper amount of untrustworthy slime you’d want from a self-centered sketchy individual like him, and Lisa……well…….I think the less told about her the better. All the characters are memorable and well written, and even if the voice acting is very 5th gen it’d argue it adds more to their characters regardless if it was good or not. Now about that comment I made about not liking the story; well that’s kinda true but also not, I don’t hate the story because honestly besides the aspects I think deflates the narrative I still think the backstory and paranoiac nature of the town and it’s residence draws me in so much more than what's actually going on during the events of the game, and once I got a ferm understand of the events unfolding and why the town was in the state that's it in I lost all interest, it just fell apart like a house of cards. I can’t say what it is without spoiling but if you know me and my distaste in a certain trope that a lot of horror narratives use then you can probably guess what is it, and if you know nothing about me and can’t guess you’ll just have to take me at my word and play the game yourself and form your own opinion.
Even though the game didn’t stick with me as much as other players and the main story left me really disappointed I still think this is a pretty great time and I’d still recommend it, it has it’s fair share of PS1 jank but I think most players will get used to it and once you get past that hurdle your in for one of the most paranoia inducing games in the PS1.
𝟏𝟖# 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐇𝐢𝐥𝐥
It feels weird finally playing a game that set the foundation for a lot of games I admire.
Silent Hill is a game I really really liked but didn’t really leave as much of an impact on me then I thought it would’ve. I think that might be from the fact that I’ve seen so many games in the past decades do what SH did either better or worse cough cough BlooberTeam cough cough.
Now that’s not to say the game itself is unoriginal because of time because it’s not. For PS1 the visuals still hold up extremely well and almost every location of Silent Hill has this intense foreboding atmosphere that looks so thick and cold, the mere action of just walking down the lone street of Silent Hill left me with such an intense feeling of dread and loneliness I almost felt the urge to turn on music in the background to calm my nerves. Speaking of music, the atmosphere is made ten times more unnerving thanks to the score made by Akira Yamaoka who just…..how do I even describe what the music made me feel? Scared isn’t the term I’d use but I can’t say it made me calm either, the tracks he made leave me with this lingering sense of paranoia; like at any moment something will jump out from the foggy darkness to get me. All the while for the quieter moments to have no music at all, you can hear your own footsteps and your radio occasional stuttering out with garbled static whitenose, which is a warning sign for monsters being nearby but that’s it. Just that dead silence of nothing but your own footsteps and radio, in sometimes pitch black darkness for minutes on end, it’s horrifying, and I love it.
I don’t know if I always expected Silent Hill 1 to have the same kind of psychological horror in the same vein as 2 and 3 but needless to say I was a little disappointed that it didn’t go nearly as in depth into the psychological aspect that I guess I was expecting but that’s not a fault of the game that’s a me thing. There are still small little bits scattered throughout the game that gave me a small taste of what I was expecting from this game but that’s mostly all they are, small bits from a story I honestly didn’t really like. I don’t wanna say I didn’t like the story and character because honestly I don’t hate it. I think Harry Mason is a great protagonist and audience surrogate, I thought Cybil was a great as one of the only level headed people in the town helping Harry keep himself grounded, I thought Kaufmann had that proper amount of untrustworthy slime you’d want from a self-centered sketchy individual like him, and Lisa……well…….I think the less told about her the better. All the characters are memorable and well written, and even if the voice acting is very 5th gen it’d argue it adds more to their characters regardless if it was good or not. Now about that comment I made about not liking the story; well that’s kinda true but also not, I don’t hate the story because honestly besides the aspects I think deflates the narrative I still think the backstory and paranoiac nature of the town and it’s residence draws me in so much more than what's actually going on during the events of the game, and once I got a ferm understand of the events unfolding and why the town was in the state that's it in I lost all interest, it just fell apart like a house of cards. I can’t say what it is without spoiling but if you know me and my distaste in a certain trope that a lot of horror narratives use then you can probably guess what is it, and if you know nothing about me and can’t guess you’ll just have to take me at my word and play the game yourself and form your own opinion.
Even though the game didn’t stick with me as much as other players and the main story left me really disappointed I still think this is a pretty great time and I’d still recommend it, it has it’s fair share of PS1 jank but I think most players will get used to it and once you get past that hurdle your in for one of the most paranoia inducing games in the PS1.