Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Silent Hill 1-3



No video game franchise had such an impact on my taste in video games (and my last.fm counter) as the Silent Hill series by Konami.

Foggy alleyways, rust, deformed monsters and a brilliant soundtrack are what define the Silent Hill series by Konami.

I had quite a hard time getting into it though. I had seen the 2006 movie (underrated) on an England vacation before ever picking up one of the games and I instantly fell in love with the atmosphere and especially the music.

I had my expectations, when I picked up Silent Hill 1 for the PS1 a few months later.

First impression? Horrible.

Confusing camera angles, terrible voice acting (in retrospect it had its charm though), ANNOYING enemies (yes, I'm looking at you, flying dinosaurs) and since I played it in 2006, let's say the graphics didn't age too well. Another point that bugged me was the map system. I didn't always get where to go and why some doors wouldn't open. (Someone should have explained me that there's a difference between "locked" and "broken")

I stopped playing after 2 tries.

I occasionally listened to the music and looked up wikia entries on Silent Hill, even though I had never played the games. That's how much of an impact the movie had on me.

It took me about 8 months before I picked up Silent Hill 1 again. This time I knew what to expect and completed the game within 3 or 4 days. This time the camera angles didn't seem so confusing anymore, and the muddy graphics added to the atmosphere.
It was a great experience.

Right after completing Silent Hill 1 I bought Silent Hill 2. I knew people treated this game as the best of all Silent Hill games and so were my expectations.

I got bored pretty quickly (in the first section of the game, the apartments) and I stopped playing AGAIN. I sat down and played Silent Hill 3 before actually playing Silent Hill 2. Worked pretty well since they're non-canon anyway.

I always had to force myself to play the Silent Hill games. I knew I would enjoy them if I only tried, but I always ended up playing something else and just listening to the music.

Well, about the actual gameplay (of the first 3 games, series went down the drain with 4) there isn't much to say.
You enter buildings, door are shut and you try to find keys and special items to solve puzzles. And since this is a survival horror game à la Resident Evil you encounter monsters along your way.

The game itself is pretty linear but the games all offer different endings, depending on your reactions in certain situations. It's pretty subtle though, you probably won't realize that you are in one of those key situations when you play the game.

If you never played a Silent Hill game start with either 1 or 2.

1 and 3 are canon, but if you don't feel like picking up a PS1 game just start with 2 since it's a standalone game. If you plan on picking up Silent Hill 2, don't read up anything about its story online. There's a huge spoiler you don't want to know before playing the game.

94 comments:

  1. Great review, I too got bored in the apartments!
    I have to add the could have increased the scare factor in this version of game :/

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  2. Never touched it.

    You think its okay to start with part 2? You wrote 1 or 2, but im curious how important part 1 is...

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  3. @knowbuddy

    I would go as far as saying SH1 is the best SH out there. The only downside is the technical aspect, but it really is the one game that scared me the most.

    It's not that important though. If you really want to skip SH1 I say go see the 2006 movie (the first half is pretty much a 1:1 adaptation).

    1 and 3 are canon, 2 works on its own.

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  4. I have never played any of them...It's just one of those games on my list that I never really get around to playing but I have heard a lot about.

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  5. First SH game I played was SH4 The Room. :)
    Now thats a weird way of being introduced to the whole series hehe.

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  6. I feel the same, nice review.

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  7. i just seen the movie.. dunno the game

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  8. Great stuff, Silent Hill is a brilliant piece of gaming.

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  9. haha my blog is similar to yours nice
    i have never finished silent hill it got me too depressed and brain F'ed :D

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  10. I have heard a lot about these games, never played any though.

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  11. Never played a SH game, But thinking of buying 1 to 4..

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  12. i wonder if i'll get it... hmmmm

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  13. Never played the games series--only saw the movie. Might give 'em a try though.

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  14. Silent Hill 4 was never meant to be a Silent Hill game, but turned out to be my favorite, it was bold and different to the others in the series.

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  15. love the series and love the blog! keep it up!!

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  16. All I have to say is that I saw my neighbor playing this when i was younger...since then I have never dared to play it... Way too scary..

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  17. My gf likes the movies I think, I never played Silent Hill, but I have played every single Resident Evil that has came out (even have some of the demos) Cool blog tho dude

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  18. Silent Hill... There's a series I won't touch witha ten-foot pole.

    Not because it's "bad", because it's not (the games are very well made), but because I hate horror in general. I can't stand being scared D:

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  19. @NorthernLad

    It's actually not that scary.
    Once you feel comfortable with the combat system you start to enjoy the atmosphere.

    It's actually pretty relaxing.

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  20. The 1st Silent Hill scared the crap out of me.

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  21. 1st Silent Hill was awesome. Next two one were only great :)

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  22. @Jörsender

    I like both series.

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  23. I've only played the PSP one, but I have silent hill 3.

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  24. They're surely the best of the series.

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  25. Nice review, I can only agree with you here.

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  26. and I have good memories of Silent Hill

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  27. Everyone I know says Silent Hill is absolute genius. I should play it some day...

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  28. Always heard great things about this series back in the day, stuck with RE, though

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  29. Sometimes it's hard to get over graphics, funny that in retrospect they used to be amazing.

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  30. I've gotta get out my old SNES and fire this up. Thanks. Following.

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  31. when i see these posts i often ask myself
    "why the hell did i throw out my SNES?"

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  32. @Lisa
    @goddammit

    You make me sad :(

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  33. I stopped at the apartments too. I was so annoyed there were no maps or anything to help me, so after some hours I went down to the save place and found a map on the wall... I got so mad I just quit and haven't picked it up since

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  34. I've played the Silent Hill 1 Remake on Xbox Original and I liked it a lot!

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  35. Aw, too bad about the game. The movie was pretty scary

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  36. Silent Hill 1 for the ps1.. man those were some great times :D

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  37. I actually haven't played them yet so I will consider it

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  38. Im looking forward for Silent Hill 4!

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  39. I like horror games, the Silent hill franchise is one of my favorite :)

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  40. First game scared the shit out of me!

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  41. I totally agreewith this...

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  42. Love this game series, one of my favourite

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  43. Really enjoy SH, one of the best series

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  44. I dont really like these scary games :/

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  45. nice review keep the good work up

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  46. Silent Hill 2 is probably, by far, the best incarnation of the Silent Hill series. Pacing, dramatic tension, character depth? All excellent.

    That being said, I was like, 8 when Silent Hill 1 came out. It scared the everliving crap out of me. I refused to play it.

    Either way, good stuff, man.

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  47. I only started playing the new silent hills like SH 3 or 4. Those were pretty wicked. :)

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  48. Those games were scary as hell.

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  49. they were super scary! i never got into them tho, i was too afraid

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  50. Great games, they creeped me out!

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  51. SH2 is one of my favorite games. My neighbor and I used to stay up all night playing through it (and later other terrifying things like Fatal Frame). Good times.

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  52. I played it ages ago when i was young and i must say i did poo my pants, loved that game.

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  53. silent hill scares the sh* out of me...

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  54. After playing the first Silent Hill, few games scare me any more.

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  55. nice review ive never played the game. I have seen the movie and i did like it.

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  56. i played the first one and it put me off for the rest of the series

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  57. One of the only SNES titles I haven't played.

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  58. I have to be honest and say that I prefer the resident evil games. Probably because I only picked up the SH games on a later age.
    You do have a nice blog, i'm going to follow you from now on.

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  59. I still remember playing Silent Hill 1 as a kid...Man was that a bad mistake

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  60. This is a total nostalgia blog, I never tried this game though

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  61. never played silent hill, but sounds interesting. im going to have to google some silent hill music, you make it sound pretty good

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  62. Who are these people saying 2 over 1? Where do they live? 1 was THE only one.
    OK, I liked 4, but I don't think that made any splashes.

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  63. Nice blog man, i bought 1 a couple of months back and i haven't touched it since because of the camera angles. Was it worth putting up with? Hit me up.

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  64. thanks for the info about the spoiler! i was gonna try to look up the story before trying it out but now im just gonna jump right into the game.

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  65. If they took out the monsters I'd love this game as well.

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  66. "First impression? Horrible. "
    it was the same for me..... heh.

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  67. Will there be a new post soon?

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  68. never really got into silent hill but great review man.

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  69. I love the Silent Hill series! I have 1-3, & wish I had a system to play the newer (decent) games. I'm not sure I'll ever give 4 a try, because I only see it selling for stupidly high prices.

    I checked out your lastFM - I listen to Silent Hill 2 & 3's soundtracks a lot too.

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  70. Forever a Silent Hill 2; will never forget walking down the foggy path to the graveyard at the very beginning.

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  71. nice to read. good job. +follow

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  72. great stuff mmmm

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  73. Hey, I think you'll remember me, I used to run a World of Warcraft guide-ish blog.
    I deleted that blog and made a new,improved one! Go check it out, theres a little bit of old content on there at the moment, more will come soon I promise ;)
    I figured I'd let you know.

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  74. What's up, just wanted to mention, I loved this article. It was practical. Keep on posting!

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