The History of Silent Hill

Silent Hill, as a series, has done a lot of interesting things over the years. Some of these have worked out better than others, admittedly, but there’s a core of really solid titles in the series that remain worth exploring to this day.

So, in the wake of Konami’s recent Silent Hill presentation, I thought it was high time we looked back over the history of Silent Hill and picked out some of the games that are worth giving a go if you get the opportunity — along with some of the more bizarre creative decisions that have been made along the way.

Silent Hill

Silent Hill

The first Silent Hill released for PlayStation just as the “survival horror” genre, as codifier Resident Evil called it, was getting started. In some respects, it adopted traditional traits of the genre, such as tank controls and fixed camera angles, but it stood out for its use of a fully polygonal environment rather than polygonal characters on pre-rendered or hand-drawn backdrops.

The original Silent Hill was noteworthy for its bleak atmosphere and distinctive presentation. Eschewing a traditional musical score for the most part, the game was largely accompanied by unsettling background noises, and also made really solid use of complete silence at times. The distinction between the fog-shrouded “real world” and the dark, metallic, rusty “Otherworld” was firmly established in this very first installment, also.

The narrative was intriguing — though those who came to the series with Silent Hill 2 will be interested to note that the personal, psychological horror of that game is not present to the same degree at all; rather, the original Silent Hill focuses more on the “cult” angle of the story, and can be seen as a title that sets up why the town is the way it is.

The original Silent Hill is kind of hard to go back to today thanks to its clunky controls and dated visuals — but if you can stomach those things, it’s still worth playing. It’s an atmospheric masterpiece, and a classic of the horror genre.

Play Novel: Silent Hill

Play Novel: Silent Hill

Released exclusively in Japan for Game Boy Advance in 2001, Play Novel: Silent Hill is a visual novel-style adaptation of the first Silent Hill game. It provides players with the opportunity to play as both original protagonist Harry Mason and secondary character Cybil as it retells the story of the first game in text-based format, with choices along the way allowing you to direct the narrative and solve puzzles.

The game’s limited presentation drew harsh criticism, particularly from western critics, so this installment is mostly forgotten today.

Silent Hill 2

Silent Hill 2

If you play one Silent Hill game, play Silent Hill 2. Widely regarded by almost everyone in existence as not only the best Silent Hill game but also one of the best horror games of all time, Silent Hill 2 is an absolute work of genius. It was one of the first games to really show that gaming had the potential to be truly artistic with its storytelling; this was very much an experience that took the idea of “show, don’t tell” to heart, with discussions over interpretations of its imagery still actively running to this day.

Rather than following up the cult-centric narrative of the first game, Silent Hill 2 instead focused on the personal tale of protagonist James Sunderland and his search for his missing and/or dead wife Mary. Along the way, the game deals with matters of guilt, self-loathing, sexuality and all manner of interesting topics, and nothing has quite matched it since.

This is also the game that gave us Pyramid Head, one of the most iconic villains in all of horror gaming — although it’s worth noting that artist Masahiro Ito has been quite unhappy with how the character was used in later games.

Silent Hill 3

Silent Hill 3

Acting as a quasi follow-up to the first Silent Hill, Silent Hill 3 returns to the more “cultic” side of things, following the adventures of Heather Mason as she investigates the truth behind the mysterious town, how her adoptive father Harry was involved with everything, and what the cult is really up to.

Interestingly, Silent Hill 3 was originally planned to be a rail shooter, developed in response to the initially slow response that Silent Hill 2 had in its native Japan. Eventually, this decision was scrapped, though not before a significant amount of development time had been wasted.

Silent Hill 3 isn’t as beloved as Silent Hill 2 is, perhaps because it’s more dependent on familiarity with the series as a whole rather than acting as a complete, self-contained story. It’s still a solid entry in the series, however — and the unlockable extras after you beat it make it well worth playing through multiple times.

Silent Hill 4: The Room

Silent Hill 4

Silent Hill 4: The Room marked the end of an era, as it was the last game worked on by original developer Team Silent. Following the model of Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 4: The Room eschewed the ongoing “cult” narrative in favour of something more self-contained — and indeed, the game didn’t actually involve the town of Silent Hill itself at all.

Silent Hill 4: The Room was noteworthy for its combination of gameplay styles. While trapped in his apartment, you controlled protagonist Henry from a first-person perspective, with things becoming increasingly horrifying as the game proceeded. During sequences where Henry was able to escape into various other worlds, however, things unfolded in a more traditionally “Silent Hill” third-person style.

Silent Hill 4: The Room was a little divisive on its release due to its deviation from the traditional format of the series, but it has settled into being quite a fondly regarded entry in the series since that time. It’s also one of the most readily accessible entries in the series today, thanks to a PC rerelease on GOG.com.

Silent Hill: The Arcade

Silent Hill eventually got its rail-shooter adaptation with this 2007 arcade game. It follows the story of protagonists Eric and Tina, who are investigating the former’s nightmares about a young girl and a steamship. Gameplay is in the House of the Dead style, with one or two players blasting away at enemies and attempting to save their friends — the more people you save, the better an ending you get.

Unsurprisingly, as such a wild departure from the series’ trademark psychological horror, Silent Hill: The Arcade was not particularly well-received, and as such tends not to get talked about all that much these days.

Silent Hill: Origins

Silent Hill Origins

Developed by British company Climax Studios (who had previously brought us Xbox action RPG Sudeki), Silent Hill: Origins began life on PSP and was subsequently ported to PS2. It acts as a prequel to the first game in the series, following a character named Travis Grady as he looks for information about a girl he rescued from a fire.

Interestingly, although Silent Hill: Origins followed the aesthetic, gameplay and narrative templates of the earlier Silent Hill games quite closely, it’s nowhere near as fondly regarded as the first four games in the series. It received good reviews at the time of release, but remains largely forgotten today. You can also expect to pay through the nose for it today, particularly in its PS2 incarnation.

Silent Hill: Orphan

Silent Hill Orphan

One of several mobile games in the series, Silent Hill: Orphan was developed by Swedish studio Gamefederation Studio. Eschewing the usual survival horror gameplay of the series — likely due to the limitations of mobile phone tech and Java applications at the time — Orphan instead unfolds as a first-person point-and-click adventure.

Narratively, the game follows several characters from an orphanage in Silent Hill who survived a massacre from thirty years ago. The game tackles some surprisingly heavy themes along the way and was clearly a rather ambitious title for mobile phones of the era — which makes it a bit of a shame that there’s no easy way to try it out for ourselves today.

Silent Hill: The Escape

Silent Hill The Escape

Another mobile game in the series, Silent Hill: The Escape is a first-person shooter that makes use of gestural controls to move the character around, and tap controls to shoot enemies.

Given that the game allows you to not only play as a human, but also an alien and a Shiba Inu named Mira, it’s fair to say that this game doesn’t take itself entirely seriously, nor is it particularly fondly regarded. It’s also no longer available anywhere to play, but you’re not really missing much.

Silent Hill: Homecoming

Silent Hill Homecoming

Released in 2008 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC, Silent Hill: Homecoming was developed by American studio Double Helix. It followed the story of former soldier Alex Shepherd as he returned to his home town of Shepherd’s Glen only to discover that his brother is missing, the town is in a right old state and there’s a cult causing problems.

The game was noteworthy for specifically drawing some inspiration from the movie — particularly the “ripping” effect that marked the transition from the real world to the Otherworld; prior games had simply faded out, often with the sound of an air-raid siren.

The game drew some criticism for feeling a bit too “American” at times — although Silent Hill had always been set in American locales up until this point, the early installments in particular had felt like they were quite obviously looking through a Japanese lens. Specifically, some critics felt like the American approach to horror was a little too “in your face” and action-based for a series like Silent Hill, which had previously prided itself on a certain degree of subtlety.

It’s not a bad game, however — though whether it’s a good Silent Hill game is perhaps up for debate.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

Silent Hill Shattered Memories

Another Climax Studios jam, 2009’s Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is, for many, a highlight of the series’ later era. Acting as a parallel universe reimagining of the first game, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories was noteworthy for completely eliminating combat for the experience, instead replacing it with “chase” sequences.

One of the most interesting things about Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is that the game is framed as a first-person psychotherapy session in which “you” are responding to various stimuli, which in turn affect the third-person sequences where you play as Harry Mason. In turn, certain actions you take as Harry can affect the psychological sequences in return.

Originally released for Wii (and subsequently ported to PS2 and PSP), Silent Hill: Shattered Memories made very effective use of the Wii Remote, not only as a flashlight to point at the screen, but also as a “phone” — when Harry’s phone would ring, you would hold the Wii Remote up to your ear and listen to the call through the controller’s built-in speaker.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories represented a fascinating potential new direction for the series, but despite reasonably solid commercial performance and a good critical response, it was to be one of the last vaguely traditional Silent Hill titles to be released.

Silent Hill: Downpour

Silent Hill: Downpour

2012 saw the release of Silent Hill: Downpour by Vatra Games, a Czech developer who had previously only had the curious PS3 and Xbox 360 Rush’n Attack reboot Ex-Patriot to their names. The game follows escaped convict Murphy Pendleton as he explores Silent Hill.

The game was noteworthy for the amount of exploration and environmental interaction it allowed. It was specifically intended to be designed in the mould of Silent Hill 2: acting as a standalone story in which a seemingly ordinary character was drawn into the strange world of Silent Hill — though in the case of Downpour, Murphy’s status as an escaped convict was deliberately intended to engender a feeling of discomfort in the player.

Although another entry in the series that isn’t particularly fondly remembered today, Silent Hill: Downpour received praise for its story and atmosphere on its original release. It did, however, receive criticism for its combat mechanics and its overall technical performance. It was regarded as a fairly strong entry in the post-Team Silent era of the series, but doesn’t get brought up particularly often by longstanding fans of the series today.

Silent Hill: Book of Memories

Silent Hill Book of Memories

The last game to actually bear the Silent Hill name for quite some time, Silent Hill: Book of Memories was a 2012 release for PlayStation Vita, developed by WayForward. Despite the name, Silent Hill: Book of Memories pretty much completely abandons all of the gameplay traditions of the series in favour of being an isometric action RPG; Konami intended the game to be geared towards short multiplayer sessions, which is something they were also experimenting with in the Castlevania series around the same time with Harmony of Despair.

Taken on its own merits, Silent Hill: Book of Memories is a reasonably solid game, but it’s very hard to see it as a “true” Silent Hill title. It is, however, one of the better Vita-exclusive titles out there, so it’s worth seeking out for that reason if nothing else.

P.T.

Finally, the last we saw of the Silent Hill series prior to the recent presentation was P.T., the Playable Teaser from 7780s Studio, a pseudonym for Kojima Productions and its collaboration with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro.

P.T., which unfolded as a deeply unsettling and beautifully presented first-person horror game, drew widespread praise for being an effective experience in its own right as well as a successful tease for the “Silent Hills” project. So fondly regarded was it, that even when Silent Hills itself was cancelled, fans were angry at Konami for removing P.T. from the PlayStation Store and making it impossible to reinstall. In fact, so hell-bent are Konami on people not playing P.T. that they’ve specifically made it impossible to transfer the game from PS4 to PS5.

Despite being a short horror experience that drew near-universal acclaim — as well as demonstrating a real hunger for new Silent Hill games — P.T. remains a bittersweet memory for many gamers. For a lot of people, it marked the beginning of the end for Konami; a sign that this was a company who no longer had any idea what to do with any of their classic properties, and a company completely out of touch with its core audience.

Still, if you get the chance to play P.T., take it — it may be a teaser for a game that will never happen, but it’s still worth experiencing in its own right.

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Pete Davison
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