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Silent Hill - the psychological ying to Resident Evil’s yang

VGEsoterica

Member
I still remember being a kid in the 90’s and holing up in my room in the dark in front of a 20” CRT and playing Silent Hill on release. I didn’t think it would scare me but...wrong!

Silent Hill always gets talked about in the same conversation as Resident Evil and that def makes sense but for my money they feel like two sides of the same coin; both survival horror but presented in ways that made them almost feel like different genres of games.

Silent Hill is so much more psychological in its story and presentation than RE. Between the visuals, Dutch angled cameras in the game, the deeper more mature story and the lack of campy horror elements they all marry together to make a wholly unique and different feeling game.

but the audio? Holy hell did Team Silent nail the audio. While the graphics may not have aged well the soundtrack and aural cues within the game are still amazing today. It really gets your heart racing and builds the anxiety and tension up while playing; especially when the static on the radio starts to go off!

While I’d love a full remake of Silent Hill like we got with the original RE, I’m happy enough with replaying the original Silent Hill.

If I had to make a statement I’d say Resident Evil is “survival horror” where the original Silent Hill and most of its sequels would be “psychological survival horror”.

Curious what others think? Hopefully those rumors of Sony making a new Silent Hill game for PS5 become true!
 

kittoo

Cretinously credulous
Thanks for posting the video mate. I really liked your evil within video.
I like Resident Evil a lot, but do appreciate the deeper themes of Silent hill. Unfortunately when I started gaming silent hill was past its prime. I really wish a modern remake of Silent hill 2, but looks like konami will remain being a dick.
 

VGEsoterica

Member
Thanks for posting the video mate. I really liked your evil within video.
I like Resident Evil a lot, but do appreciate the deeper themes of Silent hill. Unfortunately when I started gaming silent hill was past its prime. I really wish a modern remake of Silent hill 2, but looks like konami will remain being a dick.

konami is like the Darth Vader of game companies
 

teezzy

Banned
My main gaming/collecting goals of next year is to get my hands on decent copies of the following for PS2:

Silent Hill 2, 3 , and 4
Clock Tower 3
Haunting Ground

I'll spend stupid money too. Would much rather have these than a new console tbh. I'm in no hurry on that front.
 

TeKtheSanE

Member
I also have been playing Silent Hill and Resident Evil since they have existed, and they easily are my top two franchises.

I still have my copies of SH, SH2, SH3, SH4. Have homecoming and downpour too, just not as proud of those ones.

Completely agree with OP though, I would say Silent Hill is much better at making you feel despair and anxiety from it's environment and sound design, whereas Resident Evil still has the despair and anxiety, but I feel resource management in RE is more anxiety inducing compared to Silent Hill's resource management.

Overall two amazing series, can't wait for Biohazard Village.

I only cry a little bit every night that Silent Hills never happened.
 

VGEsoterica

Member
My main gaming/collecting goals of next year is to get my hands on decent copies of the following for PS2:

Silent Hill 2, 3 , and 4
Clock Tower 3
Haunting Ground

I'll spend stupid money too. Would much rather have these than a new console tbh. I'm in no hurry on that front.

I can’t recommend Haunting Ground enough. Worth the cost of entry
 

Soodanim

Member
I was saying the same things yesterday. Resident Evil was survival, but Silent Hill had a creepy atmosphere... and that's before things got weird.
 

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
Subscribed to your channel. I love them but Resident Evil has the advantage of enduring. I would love a more "silent hill" like Resident Evil game. Something a bit slower and atmosphere focused.
 
I picked up the Silent Hill collection for PS3 a couple months back and was planning to give them a go after MGS, but I'm wondering now if I should do the opposite since it's a much shorter road!

In any case, I'll have my PS3 by my PS5 to catch up. Really looking forward to it. The continued enthusiasm for this series over two decades speaks volumes.
 

VGEsoterica

Member
Subscribed to your channel. I love them but Resident Evil has the advantage of enduring. I would love a more "silent hill" like Resident Evil game. Something a bit slower and atmosphere focused.

Konami managed to single handedly ruin an entire franchise with Silent Hill. 1-3 were amazing. 4 was really good. Then it was a downhill slide into obscurity
 

JORMBO

Darkness no more
I just bought a copy of SH2 off Ebay that should be here today or tomorrow. It cost me $100 for a mint PS2 copy. Retro prices have shot up due to COVID.

I didn't game much during the PS2 generation due to being busy with other things, so this will be my first time playing it.
 

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
Konami managed to single handedly ruin an entire franchise with Silent Hill. 1-3 were amazing. 4 was really good. Then it was a downhill slide into obscurity
I honestly forgot about the later games. Homecoming was alright I guess. Never finished it. 2 was perfect and 3 was great.
 

VGEsoterica

Member
I just bought a copy of SH2 off Ebay that should be here today or tomorrow. It cost me $100 for a mint PS2 copy. Retro prices have shot up due to COVID.

I didn't game much during the PS2 generation due to being busy with other things, so this will be my first time playing it.

prices are wild lately. $25 dollar games are now $100 games and $100 games are $250 plus. If I wasn’t so attached to my collection I’d dump and run lolol
 

MacReady13

Member
I would've been 19 or so years of age when I first got Silent Hill on launch. I remember playing the demo that put you in the school and it was suitably creepy and quite scary.
I was on a bit of a fitness kick then, so I'd go for a 30 minute jog around the block, and that was normally around the evening just as the sun went down. The 1st time I played Silent Hill I decided to go for a run after a gaming session and stuck to the middle of the road away from the trees as I was scared something would jump out at me!
I've never played a game before or since (P.T being the exception) that has fucked with my mind so much. It was such a deep game and really got inside my head. The music and sounds were genius. The story and how your main character interacted within this town was unique, bizarre yet so well done. Everything about this game was the complete opposite of Resident Evil, yet I loved Resident Evil just as much! They just scared me on completely different levels. Resident Evil scared you as you were playing in that moment, whereas, like P.T, Silent Hill scared you not only as you were playing but long after you had turned the game off. It just stuck with you.
I felt like Silent Hill 2 didn't do quite as good a job at scaring me psychologically as the original, even though I consider the 2nd game overall to be the better game. Part 3 took it back slightly more to the original and was a far scarier game.
Overall though, I hold Silent Hill and Resident Evil in extremely high regard and consider them all time classics.
Just wish Konami would make or allow someone else to make a new Silent Hill (let Team Silent do it ffs) and even give Kojima the rights to complete Silent Hills.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
Silent Hill 1,2,3 are all masterpieces. 2 being the biggest standout.

They are perfect examples of technology and art combining to be bigger than the sum of their parts. Everyone who worked on those 3 games was working at artistic peaks that we rarely see today. Akira Yamaoka's musical score along with the rest of Team Silent absolutely nailing art direction and atmosphere. They are damn near perfect horror games. Not perfect games, but some of the best examples in their genre across all generations and platforms.
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
Konami managed to single handedly ruin an entire franchise with Silent Hill. 1-3 were amazing. 4 was really good. Then it was a downhill slide into obscurity
Downpour was a hidden gem mate. Replayed it last year and completely fell in love with it. First few hours are a bit meh but once you reach Silent Hill the game fires from all cylinders. Loved the writing and all the side quests. Such a shame it never got a remaster or at least a port to PC because the framerate on the PS3 wS fukken horrible.
 

MrS

Banned
Silent Hill will always be the scariest game of all time to me. Something about the age I was when I played it, the off-kilter graphics and that terrifying fucking sound design! Silent Hill just hit different
 
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NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Few games left their mark on me like Silent Hill. I was 16 at the time. The game didn’t seem that disturbing at first, but the first night after starting it I went to bed with a deep sense of unease. I ended up leaving a little light on for a couple of nights that week.

The first game was genius. Genius. Terrible graphics, but even those contributed to the sum of the parts. Everything in SH is exactly as it should be. The artstyle of the cutscenes, that perfect intro, the beginning of the game with Harry going down that alley... SH spirals, endlessly and relentlessly, into a nightmare that gets worse and worse all the time. No other game made me so anxious, yet so eager to open that next door and solve the next puzzle.

The pacing is absolutely perfect, the surprises (that fucking locker, the elevator in the hospital) are unforgettable. The plot is amazing, revealing just as much as it leaves to the player’s interpretation. And yep, the audio design is legendary. SH would be a lesser game without its masterful OST and its incredible audio design. I can still hear the sound of those dumb piano keys.

I played SH2 much, much later, and it just didn’t make the same impression to me. SH1 is an unforgettable experience, and to this day I’ve never finished it twice. Somehow, knowing what’s next makes it even more scary to me.
 

VGEsoterica

Member
Silent Hill 1,2,3 are all masterpieces. 2 being the biggest standout.

They are perfect examples of technology and art combining to be bigger than the sum of their parts. Everyone who worked on those 3 games was working at artistic peaks that we rarely see today. Akira Yamaoka's musical score along with the rest of Team Silent absolutely nailing art direction and atmosphere. They are damn near perfect horror games. Not perfect games, but some of the best examples in their genre across all generations and platforms.

that’s why it’s such a bummer the later games were “ok” to “bad. It started out so amazing with a dedicated team that clearly loved the game
 

kittoo

Cretinously credulous
I've picked up Silent Hill Homecoming and Downpour to play next month on my Series X.

I'm going to get the collection as well. I know it's got its issues but still going to be great.

People shit on downpour but I really liked it. Something about that Pacific northwest atmosphere gripped me. And it had pretty deep themes too, if you care to look for.
Also, if someone hasn't, dont ignore shattered memories. It is truly one of the best silent hills.
 

Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
They need to bring Silent Hill back in some form. Imagine all that amazing atmosphere in 4K!
 

SuperGooey

Member
The RE games have level design while SH is more like a simulation of a town where you examine every door until you find the right one. When it comes to being overall gameplay, SH never came close to reaching the heights of RE (especially something like REmake), but it succeeds in completely different areas--most notably atmosphere.

I recently played SH1 for the first time, and the terribly unreliable controls and movement stood out. This is ironic to me since it's always the far more reliable movement of RE 1-3 that gets called "bad," but SH gets a free pass. I found this extra frustrating considering how SH1 was essentially a walking simulator, yet the movement wasn't satisfying at all.
 

Ian Henry

Member
When it comes to Survival Horror, RE and SH are neck and neck with each other. It's a shame Silent Hill went the path it did. I still considered SH one of the best due to the trilogy. Can't wait for them to bring it back.
 

VGEsoterica

Member
People shit on downpour but I really liked it. Something about that Pacific northwest atmosphere gripped me. And it had pretty deep themes too, if you care to look for.
Also, if someone hasn't, dont ignore shattered memories. It is truly one of the best silent hills.

I will give it another try. I played it when it came out and it really didn’t do it for me but I probably owe it a second look :)
 

VGEsoterica

Member
One of my favourite series ever. Still cant get over Silent Hills being cancelled.

Konami must have just hated Kojima THAT much sadly.

One day we will get a new game in the franchise. Let’s just hope it’s from someone who can do it justice
 

KOMANI

KOMANI
Konami must have just hated Kojima THAT much sadly.

One day we will get a new game in the franchise. Let’s just hope it’s from someone who can do it justice
hated him that much to ask him to make a SH game?
“In the past I’ve mentioned Silent Hill in interviews, and as a result of that the president of Konami rung me up and said he’d like me to make the next Silent Hill."
 
I've always had a preference for Resident Evil (and Fatal Frame, for that matter). Despite their artistic merits, I've never particularly cared for the way Silent Hill games felt to play. I don't think the games are as well-designed or as well-made as games in those other series. That said, there's really nothing else like Silent Hill 2 from an atmosphere/tonal standpoint; that game has a vibe unlike anything else in gaming.

Anyways, I just played Homecoming and am in the middle of Downpour, and that'll wrap up the mainline games for me. I thought Homecoming was okay, but unremarkable. I wouldn't call it a "bad game" or "shit", as I've heard it described before, but it didn't really do a whole lot on its own to stand out.

I'm really enjoying Downpour despite its rough spots, though. It's probably the best that Silent Hill has been in terms of the "exploring the town" aspect, and the levels themselves are much better designed and much more interesting than those in Homecoming. Homecoming is probably "truer" to the Silent Hill games in terms of its look/atmosphere and still featuring a Yamaoka soundtrack, and Downpour in a lot of ways feels like a budget horror game with the SH name slapped onto it, but I think it's to its benefit that it does its own thing. I'm liking it a lot more than I expected to, especially after a not-so-great opening hour.
 

VGEsoterica

Member
I've always had a preference for Resident Evil (and Fatal Frame, for that matter). Despite their artistic merits, I've never particularly cared for the way Silent Hill games felt to play. I don't think the games are as well-designed or as well-made as games in those other series. That said, there's really nothing else like Silent Hill 2 from an atmosphere/tonal standpoint; that game has a vibe unlike anything else in gaming.

Anyways, I just played Homecoming and am in the middle of Downpour, and that'll wrap up the mainline games for me. I thought Homecoming was okay, but unremarkable. I wouldn't call it a "bad game" or "shit", as I've heard it described before, but it didn't really do a whole lot on its own to stand out.

I'm really enjoying Downpour despite its rough spots, though. It's probably the best that Silent Hill has been in terms of the "exploring the town" aspect, and the levels themselves are much better designed and much more interesting than those in Homecoming. Homecoming is probably "truer" to the Silent Hill games in terms of its look/atmosphere and still featuring a Yamaoka soundtrack, and Downpour in a lot of ways feels like a budget horror game with the SH name slapped onto it, but I think it's to its benefit that it does its own thing. I'm liking it a lot more than I expected to, especially after a not-so-great opening hour.

that’s totally fair. I mean I love RE and always play the games but I like how much harder the Silent Hill games lean on the psychological / horror aspects vs RE’s “medical experiments gone wrong” aspect.

Really RE and Silent Hill are as different as they are similar. Both survival horror but thematically very different
 
I recently played SH1 for the first time, and the terribly unreliable controls and movement stood out. This is ironic to me since it's always the far more reliable movement of RE 1-3 that gets called "bad," but SH gets a free pass. I found this extra frustrating considering how SH1 was essentially a walking simulator, yet the movement wasn't satisfying at all.

I don't think "satisfying" is a word i'd ever describe tank controls, nor in the original Silent Hill or RE 1-3. The distance between that word and the reality of tank controls are the Heavens and Earth. You either get used to them if you think it's worth it, or you don't.

I don't recall well enough how the controls work in the original RE trilogy compared to Silent Hill because it's been over a decade since i touched them, but i do remember the original being not good, and the sequel being better. I also played SH a few years ago for the first time, because i wanted to play the entire trilogy starting with the first one, and i can recollect. I think they're functional because they are designed as they are for the game to be completed. I don't think they're unreliable either, because i could control the character exactly as i wanted him to control after i became familiar with the mechanics. They're ridiculously unfamiliar, but they are functional.

I don't think Silent Hill gets a free pass, everybody knows it's an original Playstation game. And with that knowledge in mind it's reasonable to appreciate that video game based on the system it's on. Otherwise you are setting yourself up for disappointment.

Was it worth the initial hurdle? Absolutely. The original Silent Hill is a remarkably good video game.
 

ISubZBR

Member
SIREN was the true successor to silent hill
Im playing this right now. Liked it, but it feels some thing diferent. Actualy, some things are like silent hill, like clunky controls, but some things are completely different, like stages mechanic and how you have to know the level and this demmands some try... To me, ir feels a little like outlast.

I really liked siren,but for now it is not good as classic silent hill games.


Btw, Western silent hill games sux. Actualy, i liked homecoming and downpour. They are decent games, but terrible silent hill.
Homecoming gameplay is so damn good that you turns near invincible, with dodges and crazy knife

Downpour, in other hand, has só por enemies and combat mechanics is terrible.
 

mansoor1980

Member
Im playing this right now. Liked it, but it feels some thing diferent. Actualy, some things are like silent hill, like clunky controls, but some things are completely different, like stages mechanic and how you have to know the level and this demmands some try... To me, ir feels a little like outlast.

I really liked siren,but for now it is not good as classic silent hill games.


Btw, Western silent hill games sux. Actualy, i liked homecoming and downpour. They are decent games, but terrible silent hill.
Homecoming gameplay is so damn good that you turns near invincible, with dodges and crazy knife

Downpour, in other hand, has só por enemies and combat mechanics is terrible.
to be honest with u controls and combat have always been clunky in the silent hill games too........btw the sequel to siren is also very good.........these games need a remaster or remake
 

PooBone

Member
that’s totally fair. I mean I love RE and always play the games but I like how much harder the Silent Hill games lean on the psychological / horror aspects vs RE’s “medical experiments gone wrong” aspect.

Really RE and Silent Hill are as different as they are similar. Both survival horror but thematically very different
Resident evil was my first and most beloved horror game, but Silent Hill 2 is my most revered and “favorite” horror game ever made. On the whole, I prefer the Silent Hill series, even the bad games have a palpable atmosphere. The bad RE games are, imo, just bad games.
 

Astral Dog

Member
I like how the recent Resident Evil games are a little more balanced on the psychological feel of horror, RE5, 6 and Rev1 were Chris, (even Leon and Jill at times) is a walking COD soldier and everything is big bang kill BoWs, explosions, checkpoint, damned terrorist!

But recently it feels a little more personal and balanced, Rev2 focused on Moira's relationship with her father, Claire's tragic boyfriends (lol) and Alex Wesker using fear itself to achieve inmortality.

RE7 was about a normal family that loved each other being corrupted into complete monsters by bioweapons, but the family theme is there.

RE2 Claire caring about Sherry, common citizens like her and Leon being traped in a nightmare, people abusing power and taking advantage of the chaos

Only REmake3 fails a little and returns to cliche military chatting but VILLAGE looks to be continuing with the fear of the occult and losing one's daughter/wife
 

J-Roderton

Member
After I finish RE7 (which will be my first one in that series,) I'm probably going to run through the original trilogy soon for the first time.

It's kinda making me want to check out the world of Silent Hill as well. I only game on Xbox one. Would the HD collection be the best option for me to play through them? (except for Silent Hill 1 since it's not on the collection.
 
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