Opinions on the Silent Hill seriees

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I think the Silent Hill series is one of the best survival horror franchises in the gaming industry. What are your opinions on the SH series and which one is your favourite?

My favourites are 2,4 and Downpour (I can't pick which one is the best though)

The only Silent Hill game I've played is Homecoming. It's pretty cool so far. I have a fascination with mental institutions so Homecoming suits my interest.

Never played it but seems interesting.
Might pick up HD collection and the original.

I watched an LP of that one. This bit always cracks me up. [30 seconds].
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME0DwH9WohI#t=6m50s

For me Silent Hill was the best survival horror series ever. The first 3 are some of my favorite games ever and though I never got far into 4 I will give it credit for having genuiely cool stuff in it and the ghosts are all pretty cool.

Beyond that the series is dead, as is survival horror as a whole. I loved Resident Evil 4 as a game and it even had its tense moments but its clear the developers want to go for some kind of co-op Gears of War style zombie killathon experience. I pirated Homecoming with the intent on buying it if I enjoyed it but I got to the first boss, said "f**k this" and promptly deleted it. I never played the psp game but watched an LP and thought the game's only redeeming value was its music. Downpour looked dumb and the guy working on it seemed like a douche who over reacted to people being mean on twitter and the ultimate irony is that his game was underwhelming as hell. I'm afraid there will never be a competent Silent Hill game ever again unless the old (Japanese) team came together. Needless to say that is never going to happen ever so instead we get Hostel/Saw style games with tons of gore and "deep" plotlines and a phoned in song by Mary Elizabeth "Moaning Banshee" McGlyn who has the nerve to act like she knows jack about what made the old games good.

Don't even get me started on that stupid dungeon crawler, I officially "unliked" the Silent Hill facebook page after seeing screenshots.


So yeah, rest in peace Silent Hill. You were great but like many things you too were ruined because this current generation of video games is sorely lacking. I have to say the only game that has come close to the old Silent Hill's atmosphere for me would probably be Demon and Dark Souls. Siren is good but hard as hell.

I think that "real" horror is actually a niche market, and the actionifying of the genre is just developers reacting to this fact. At the end of the day, people might say that they want to be terrified out of their minds, but do they really? When a game is really truly scary, it feels more like an ordeal than a pastime. That's not to say that there is no value in such a game, but such a game is usually not "fun".

You can see the same thing in the genre of horror movies. At some point, directors realised that what people really want is silly schlock with clearly signposted "scary moments".

Holy crud that IS funny!

He's pretty great, one of my favorites. This is just some of his earlier work too.

He specializes in LPs of horror games, I can PM you links to few other highlights if you want.,

Oh that is true and that time before it was considered the golden age of horror movies. I really think the original Scream (Which isn't a bad movie) was the turning point for horror into what it is now.

The original Silent Hill only felt like an ordeal to me because I would get so scared I dreaded playing it just because I would get so unnerved (back in 99). People felt that way about the other 2 games, though I didn't think 2 was as frightful as one. The parts of 2 where I felt sick were probably when Pyramid Head chases you in Brookhaven, my mom was watching me and I knew what was coming and kept telling her about how interesting this Pyramid man was and I was like "alright..this guide says he's gonna chase us-- AAAAAAAA s**t s**t s**t". The toluca prison got some good scream scares out of me too. Even if the game wasn't as blood curdling as 1 it had a great atmosphere that really weighed down on you in a unique way I've yet to see a game replicate. The music, noise and ambiance were contributing factors and there was a creepy layer of subtlety too.

3 really cranked it up but sometimes playing it really did become an ordeal in a bad way. The nightmare hospital gave me a headache because of the flashing colors and sounds and the nurses were a pain. It was still a great game with lots of spooky, cool moments that don't have exposition or reasoning yet just creep you out. Like early on in the mall you go into this restaurant and there's a dead dog on a serving plate and howls fill the room suddenly. The part with the red light in the fun house scared me a lot too, was genuinely scary and I died a lot to it as well. No explanation either.

There's also a lot contained in the random notes you find laying around, especially in 2. Like the stuff about Walter Sulivan in 2. The cult was ambiguous and just a device to carry the story, not a center of the plot.


So yes, I will agree survival horror is a niche, a nearly dead one.

I would have to disagree because Downpour was a great return to the classic SH formula. Great atmosphere, creepy sounds and vast town to explore plus the game adds new things that were never done in the series like side quests.

I commend Vatra for trying new things. But I didn't find the game to be as good as the old ones. I wondered if I was looking through rose tinted glasses but I do play the old ones occasionally and have played all the SH games that have come out so far.

NZ pretty much has the same viewpoint as I do on the series. There was a time in gaming the developers had a bigger say in the actual development process than suits, managers, producers, and $$$. During this time we had a golden age of gaming - The 90's to early 00's. The Silent Hill series game into the fray at the peak of this era, and its continuation unfortunately saw it go with trends rather than against the grain. Every horror game now is becoming a FPS, just like every horror movie is becoming a popcorn flick for minors. Horror is definitely a niche market, but what people seem to forget is there are so many people on the earth a real horror game would still sell 500,000-2million copies. If they adapted their development budget this wouldn't be a problem!

For anyone saying SH is scary: would you be able to play it while smoking cannabis?

I really don't see how that makes much of an impact during play. The people that say it does are fakers :p

Dude I played frickin Persona 3:Fes was I was high and that scared the s**t out of me. When you're high everything is the funniest or scariest thing ever.


It varies with people and the type you smoke and how much. Honestly if you smoked certain strains of weed you would probably Lambchop scary so its sort of moot point. If I played SH2 while buzzed I would probably laugh at more things than be scared, honestly. The only game that truly scared me was SH1, the other 2 were just very atmospheric, special games.

If you really want a traumatizing Silent Hill experience take a tab of acid while playing. And no I've never done this or am condoning drugs.

I've only played number 2, but I can safely say, one of the best games I've ever played in my entire life. I do have 3 and 4 though, will play them, eventually.

3 is really good. At the very least it has the coolest otherworld effects and the monsters are harder/more aggressive than 2. 4 is an acquired taste, some love it, some hate it, everyone agrees its a bit weird.