Silent Hill (PSX) - Video Game Review
*A friend
of mine recommended I add a spoilers section for reviews for those that have
already appreciated whatever I’m reviewing, as well as for those that are
interested in reading about the subject but don’t actually want to experience
it first-hand. You’ll find the spoilers section at the very bottom of the review.
Lately, I’ve
been really hankering for a good horror fix, however I’d argue that many
modern-day games kind of lack in that department. I’d say a lot of this is due
to a lack of budget (for indie developers) or the dumbing down of big budget
games that favor a lowest common denominator for mass appeal. Don’t get me
wrong, there are still plenty of great games out today, but one need look no
further than Dead Space 3 to see that single player horror titles just aren’t
as profitable as a game that can pack in multiplayer elements with
microtransaction components.
With that being said, I took a trip to the past and thought I’d give a classic another try. Way back in the day, I remember my brother playing Silent Hill and being so scared of it that I couldn’t stick with it past the elementary school section. As I got older, I sort of forgot about the game and lost interest in the other titles as my fondness for survival-horror had yet to be piqued. I’ve always been more of a Resident Evil fan, so I essentially forgot this series existed (as apparently Konami has as well).
1
Where to Find It: I played this game on the PS3 via downloading the PSX port from the PlayStation Store. As far as I’m aware, I don’t believe you can get this game on PC (legally), nor can you play it on modern consoles (PS4/Xbox One).
General
Information
Silent
Hill is a PlayStation One (more commonly known as PSX) survival-horror game
created by Keiichiro Toyama, which was developed and published by Konami.
Unlike its Capcom counterpart, Resident Evil, Silent Hill presents a more
psychological horror theme that thoroughly uses symbolism and religious
influences. The original game started a lengthy franchise that continued well
into the PS3/Xbox 360 era. The series even had a couple of film adaptations,
but has since gone silent as its publisher, Konami, has withdrawn from the
video game business somewhat.
The Story
Silent
Hill centers around Harry Mason, who suffers a car crash upon reaching the
outskirts of a sleepy resort town known as “Silent Hill.” His daughter, Cheryl,
has gone missing from the crash and the town appears deserted and covered in an
unsettling fog. It doesn’t take long before Harry discovers that some dark evil
has infected the town as bizarre creatures roam the alleyways and buildings.
As
mentioned before, Silent Hill is a bit more psychological and obtuse than the
more schlocky Resident Evil series. The game has five endings and I have to
admit that I still am unsure of some parts of the game’s story after beating it
the first time around. There’s a lot of extras to explore if you want to fully
grasp the story. All-in-all, I found it pretty compelling and it made me want
to keep playing to find out what would happen next.
The
Gameplay
As the
game is survival-horror, there are a lot of standard staples in this game like conserving
ammunition, limited health items, and a myriad of fascinating puzzles. The
puzzles are a stellar part of this game and arguably outshine many of Silent
Hill’s peers. I never felt truly stumped on any puzzle, but I spent more than a
few minutes trying to figure out some of them.
Something
I really like about this game is its combat mechanics. As Harry must contend
with the forces of darkness, he has access to an expanding arsenal of weapons that
range from firearms to melee weapons. On Normal Difficulty, I never felt that
there wasn’t enough ammunition, but I would possibly say that the melee weapons
were a bit unbalanced at times. Harry starts out with a knife and quickly gets
a pipe, which are both pretty lame, but when Harry gets the hammer the game got
pretty darn easy and hilarious at the same time. There’s something very comical
about Harry running around with that giant hammer, and this is only funnier
when you begin to ponder where Harry is stashing all of his items and weapons
when he’s not using them. Unlike Resident Evil, there is no item management, so
apparently Mr. Mason has deep pockets.
2With that
being said, the enemies all felt intimidating, and their overall threat-level
was likely increased by the fact that Harry’s movement is restricted to tank
controls. I always felt pretty safe in enclosed areas where I could whack
something with my giant hammer with ease, but the tension went up drastically
when I was in the streets of Silent Hill as all sorts of enemies come out of
the fog to murder you. I was glad that Harry is quick enough to outrun most
enemies, but I wonder if this makes certain parts of the game too easy as I
spent most of my time outside running away from everything.
Audio/Visual
Obviously
this is a PSX game, so your mileage may vary when it comes to graphics.
Overall, I think the game still looks great despite its age as Harry animates
pretty well and the enemy designs are all incredibly original and creepy. There
are some enemies in the game that don’t even attack Harry, but simply run
around as semi-transparent ghosts making squeaking noises.
The audio
in Silent Hill is fantastic for the most part. Harry can use a radio to signal
to him when an enemy is nearby, and it’s incredibly helpful in the outdoor
segments as the fog hides many monsters until they’re practically on top of
you. The radio’s ringing, mixed with the solitary foot steps of Harry in a dark
hallway keeps the tension going. The background music is also an excellent
addition as it amplifies that creep factor with an incredibly original score.
Something worth
mentioning is the game’s voice acting. The PSX was pretty well-known for its
awful voice acting for the few games that actually featured it, but I don’t
necessarily say that Silent Hill’s is all that bad. The writing can be pretty
stilted, and you can tell that Konami was still trying to figure out how to
properly sound-mix actual dialogue as there’s a noticeable amount of time
between bits of dialogue. Thankfully, Silent Hill is not a dialogue-heavy game
(unlike a certain other Konami-owned franchise), so I think it’s fine.
A last big
mention is the game’s use of fog and darkness. As mentioned earlier, Silent
Hill is engulfed in a strange fog, and there are many points in the game where
the fog is replaced by sheer darkness. I think the use of both elements was an
outstanding way for the developers to compensate for the PSX’s poor draw-distance.
Not only does the game keep you on edge by obscuring exactly where enemies and
structures are, but I think this helped reduce load times (which the game
barely has any).
Replayability
As
mentioned before, the game has five different endings and there is a ton of
replayability that you simply will not experience in the first go-around. If
you only visit the locations that are marked on your map, you’ll miss out on a
bunch, so the game actively encourages experimenting and exploring Silent Hill.
Something neat that the game points out is the total number of items you missed
picking up in your playthrough when you finish the game. You are immediately
invited to restart the game upon beating it the first time, and the game
rewards those that really take their time.
The Best
of the Best: Harry beating knife-wielding child-zombies with a giant hammer in
a spooky school.
The Worst
of the Worst: Harry’s inability to take notes. He clearly knows how to write as
he’ll mark his map up all day with red ink, but the man clearly has no interest
in keeping copies of important documents he finds during his travels. This made
some puzzles annoying unless I decided to make a note of what he found myself.
Calhooey Score: 8/10 - great
Would I Recommend?
Absolutely!
This game still holds up today and is worth digging out an old console to play
it. It’s been nearly 22 years since the game came out and I felt just as invested
as I would have in a modern-day horror title (if not more-so). I would say that
the only people that would possibly dislike this game would be those that can’t
stand older graphics and those that aren’t comfortable with survival-horror.
Even to those naysayers, I would still recommend at least checking the game out
on YouTube as it’s a true classic.
-------------------------------------------------Spoiler
Comments-----------------------------------------------------
Full
disclosure: I got the bad ending in this game, so that certainly explains why I
did not understand some parts of the game’s story. I really liked Dahlia Gillespie’s
ability to trick Harry into essentially helping her accomplish her goals,
although I thought it was funny that Harry would be down with listening to a
creepy old lady in the first place. When she got her comeuppance in the end by
being struck by lightning, I nearly fell out of my chair laughing.
----------------------------------------------------References--------------------------------------------------
(2) Puppet Nurse. (n.d.). Harry using the hammer gif. Retrieved from: https://silenthill.fandom.com/wiki/Puppet_Nurse.
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