Silent Hill

Catagory: Horror/Survival

Publisher: Konami
Lper: L0rdVega

My Game Rating: 3.6

Silent Hill is considered one of the scariest video games. After watching it played, I have to agree.

Atmosphere:

In normal Silent Hill, you are surrounded by a thick fog that makes it hard to see much around you. In otherworld, Silent Hill, it is so dark that, at times, even the flashlight can't penetrate it. These visual devices create a sense of isolation and dread as you cannot see what is around you.

Background Music and Sounds:

The background music and sounds also add to the atmosphere. The siren is a wonderful touch-whenever you hear it, you automatically begin to dread what is going to happen. The radio static gives you a heads-up that something wicked is around, causing the gamer to start looking around for whatever the darkness or fog is hiding. The sounds that the enemies make are another sound device used to warn a player they are not alone.

Puzzles and Paths:

This game has numerous locked or jammed door. While this is really frustrating, it does create a direction you must go without coming out and saying "Hey go this way!". Locked doors mean you have to find a key or solve a puzzle; jammed doors limits where you have to explore to find things and also help save time.

C'mon, if you had to explore EVERY room in a place, you would be there forever!

The difficulty level on puzzles can be truly frustrating, depending on which puzzle it is. Most puzzles begin with a riddle posted that you have to read. Other times, you have to find a numeric code or key. The truly evil part is you never know where the items may be.

The most memorable puzzle to me is the school one. You have three separate puzzles you must solve to unlock the door in the courtyard.

Storyline:

Alessa is a young girl with strong psychic powers and who a secret cult in Silent Hill believes will birth their God. Alessa was burned badly when her mom set their house on fire and was admitted into the hospital for care. A magic spell keeps Alessa bound to her body and alive, despite how severe the burns are.

Alessa, using her body, splits her soul into two pieces. This creates a baby, whom Harry and his wife found and raised as their own. They named the baby Cheryl.

Seven years later, Alessa fears her mother and the cult will soon finish their ritual to bring God to life and calls out to her other half to return and help her stop them.

Where the game begins: Harry and Cheryl are on their way to vacation in Silent Hill when they get into a car accident. Harry awakes to find his daughter missing and thus begins a search through Silent Hill to find her.

Along the way, he picks up clues on what is really going on in Silent Hill and the truth of his daughter's birth.

Protagonist:

Harry Mason is an interesting fellow. His love for his daughter drives him through the entire game and gives him the will power to overcome all odds. Being a parent, this gives him big points with me for it makes him a believable character.

His trusting nature towards people he meets in Silent Hill and his calm demeanor towards his atmosphere is commendable. Frankly, I would be freaking out every once in a while if I was him. Plus, I would give the loons in Silent Hill a WIDE berth, say a whole room, while talking to them.

L0rdVega's Contribution:

Vega made my experience with Silent Hill absolutely wonderful.

He does the run blind, meaning he hasn't played it before and knows just as much as we do about the game.

Top 3 reasons I love viewing his videos:

1) His reactions are geniune.
2) His humor helps offset the atmosphere of the game.
3) He gets into the game.