Silent Hill (PS) (1999)
Developer: Konami

Review by Faididi and Co.

Alone in the Very Scary-Ass Dark

Story: Excellent

Silent Hill appears to be an ordinary town, but deep within its walls and streets lies a literally terrifying world. When Harry Mason, a kindhearted single father, drives there with his young daughter for a vacation, an apparition on the night road causes him to crash, and his daughter is missing when he awakens. Worse yet, the town is now almost empty of people while being filled with nightmarish monsters, and the broken roads that drop off into impossible depths prevent anyone from reaching outside for help.

Drawing on contemporary works of surreal horror, the beautifully subtle story respects the Player's intelligence. Its wealth of details hints at the unholy nature of the town, never crudely stating it, and the elegantly-written poetry makes the puzzles even more enjoyable to solve.

Gameplay: Excellent

Konami's Silent Hill is the kind of action adventure that should've been the sequel to the horror classic, I-Motion's original Alone in the Dark. It draws on Lovecraftian fiction but makes the fundamental upgrade of rendering its 3D environments in real time. This allows for ultra-cinematic camera work that has never been possible before, and it also provides significantly more useful points of view.

Technical edge or not, Silent Hill truly embodies horror as an art. There are no cheap thrills in the game, and fleeing from the monsters is often more favorable than fighting them directly. The puzzles require careful reading and thinking to solve, and the clues are cleverly framed within text that makes numerous references to classical tales and figures, consciously reflecting on Harry's occupation as a writer. (Stephen King has nothing on this guy, lol.)

Adding to the fun of exploring the world of Silent Hill is the exceptional level design. The environments are large yet filled with tiny details, and they're closely modeled after real-world environments (with just a few jammed doors to help keep Harry on track). Roughly two-thirds of the game allow him to wander the streets of the town's residential and shopping districts, searching unlocked homes and stores for supplies. The dungeons are cleverly disguised as important buildings, such as a school, a hospital, and other everyday locales. Then, when the hidden dimension of blood and nightmares comes, it creeps in so quietly that the realization of its arrival jolts the mind.

When our hero needs to get down and dirty against the bad guys, the combat system gives him a challenging but fair fighting chance, too. Like his counterparts in Alone in the Dark, Harry can perform multiple types of attacks with several different hand-to-hand weapons, which range from knives and steel pipes to emergency hammers and axes. The big difference, however, is that Harry can often keep walking while he attacks. This wonderful degree of mobility makes battling the monsters a lot easier than in other horror-themed action adventures, especially when he uses the firearms, which include a pistol, a shotgun, and a rifle.

Last but not least, the item system is surprisingly friendly. The radio handset acquired soon into the game emits static noises whenever monsters lurk nearby, alerting Harry to danger no matter how shadowy his surroundings become. Furthermore, our hero can carry a virtually infinite amount of items, giving Players who love hoarding everything in sight reason to celebrate.

Controls: Excellent

The responsive controls come with extensive customization options. Walking, running, sidestepping, and performing the variable attacks with the weapons while moving are all easy to do.

Graphics: Excellent

Silent Hill doesn't let the hardware limitations of its platform stop it from delivering impressive visuals, be they the smoothly animated characters or the painstakingly detailed environments. The lighting effects are superb, and the game uses them to the fullest to play on fears of the darkness and the unknown.

Audio: Excellent

The audio effects work in perfect unity with the graphics. Although the low-key voice acting may seem strangely dreamlike, the chilling cries and inhuman whispers of the monsters are a completely different matter. The weapon blows thud or crack with forceful impact, the deeply unsettling ambience effects create an atmosphere like nothing else, and the eerie music conjures images of the darkest and most perverse black magic.

Overall: Excellent

A rarified horror action adventure in every sense, Silent Hill establishes an amazing new standard in the genre. Its first-rate level and puzzle designs are brought to life through its immersive real-time 3D environments and camera work, while its smooth combat is paired with its flawless, versatile controls. Its chilling visual and audio effects also terrify the soul, leaving all other horror-themed games before it looking like preschool cartoons by comparison.