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Silent Hill series, a review.

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I was constantly running out of shit in RE4. In RE1 I think I lacked good weapons for the Plant 42 fight, but that was it. Everything else was relatively smooth.

RE4 and later REs have a dynamic drop system that intentionally raises or lowers the amount of ammo enemies drop based on how much is in your inventory. This way you *think* you are about to run out of ammo, but when you actually get down to your last few mags you start finding much more. It's like the horror game equivalent of Level Scaling and I really dislike it.

IMO the numbered RE series is basically just a flat downward slope of difficulty. Every new addition tends to add new tricks or crafting or gun upgrading or something that makes the game substantially easier if you use them even moderately well.

I thought RE3 was the hardest RE?

Nah, Remake or Code Veronica I'd say. It's really hard to tell without playing them back to back, and going in with knowledge ahead of time (e.g. to burn corpses in Remake) radically alters the deal.
 
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Ash

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Yeah in RE4 you can spend your time knifing away and suplexing monks to conserve ammo but in reality you can just gun everything down without much trouble. There are still benefits to ammo conservation strategy though as drops that would be ammo instead likely become gold/pesetas, if I am not mistaken.
 
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It's true but I did some tests once and the ammo drops sold for basically the same amount as the pure gold did. Ultimately it's not too important either way, if you buy the maps from the merchant (very cheap, almost always pays off by not missing stuff unless you are referring to an out of game guide to find stuff) and find the big treasures you'll have tons of cash.
 

Karellen

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"Difficulty" is a bit of a tricky term to use when it comes to horror games, especially Resident Evil. The original game has very little in the way of execution challenges - the original release a bit more than the Director's Cut version, because you had to aim yourself. But honestly, I like Resident Evil more with auto-aim, because execution challenges aren't really the point of the game, in my opinion, and anyway the action in those games isn't particularly great, so it's better not to draw attention to it.

The original Resident Evil (especially the Director's Cut) is probably the least forgiving game in the series, though, for a couple of reasons. There's somewhat less ammo in the game than in any of the sequels, but beyond that, because the mansion segment that you start from is fairly open-ended, particularly with Jill, it's entirely possible to get into situations in the eary game where you'll be out of ammo; the last time I replayed it, I remember having to use the bazooka against normal zombies because I went for the western part of the Mansion first. Beyond that, the characters are way more fragile in this game than any game afterwards; Jill dies basically from two zombie bites, and the Hunters have that wonderful decapitation move. Of course, getting hurt is entirely avoidable if you play it safe, but you can only do that if you have the ammo, so you have to find all the hidden caches and know the right route to take, which isn't entirely obvious. If you end up doing riskier things - running past zombies, knifing and so on - the game really puts the hurt on. More than any other game in the series, Resident Evil makes you desperately want to find all the ammo you can and carefully calculate which risks to take to conserve it, which is what makes the game absorbing: it's not difficult, but it really makes you pay attention, if you see what I mean? In the sequels, running past zombies isn't such a big deal, because you can easily weather some damage - in the REmake, you have the defense items just for this purpose, Resident Evil 3 has the dodge maneuver, and in Code: Veronica (which, aside of its unfathomably stupid writing, is a pretty decent Resident Evil game), it takes like three or four zombie bites before you even notice it, and you're swimming in ammo anyway.

But, you know, I don't think that being difficult is inherently desirable for a horror game. The best of the classic survival horror games don't make you feel a challenge, they make you feel anxiety, gloom and the occasional bit of panic, and they achieve this by conditioning you to not want to fight by making combat inherently a drain on resources. The longer the player has successfully avoided death in a dangerous area, the more anxious he gets, because with every battle, his situation progressively gets worse and the further away he is from a dangerous area. A game in which you die a lot and start again from a checkpoint can't achieve that kind of sensation, because every time you die, you'll be back at a safe space, yeah? Resident Evil 4 is an action game, and sure enough, I remember dying a whole bunch of times trying out different strategies and weapons in different parts of the game. I'm pretty sure I died more in the game than I ever did in Silent Hill, or Dark Souls for that matter, but so what? Resident Evil 4 is a funhouse ride, death is not punishing at all, and the way the game showers you in ammo drops basically just teaches you to play with all of your fun toys instead of worrying about conserving stuff; I remember using grenades quite a bit, not because I needed them, but because I could really use the inventory space. An extended trip through the Otherworld in Silent Hill 1 is much less challenging, but it's also much more harrowing for it because you actually care about not dying.
 

Jick Magger

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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Bubbles In Memoria
IMO the numbered RE series is basically just a flat downward slope of difficulty. Every new addition tends to add new tricks or crafting or gun upgrading or something that makes the game substantially easier if you use them even moderately well.

I thought RE3 was the hardest RE?
I'd say Nemesis makes it the Resident Evil with the hardest first hour or so, but it's pretty easy once you get inside the police station and start wrapping your head around the bullet crafting/dodging systems. Even then most of that difficulty is optional (Nemesis is a completely optional fight until about midway through the game. You can avoid fighting him a majority of the time just by running away).
 
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Nemesis also drops really nice stuff if you kill him most of the time. So you either save lots of ammo and health by running or gain powerful weapons and stuff by killing him. It's kind of a balancing mechanism to smooth out the difficulty similar to how RE4 adjusts difficulty and drops based on how well you are doing.
 

Malpercio

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I always had tons of ammo and herbs left in RE1 and such, but that's because I'm one of those autistic people that reload if I take a single zombie bite and re-do a whole sequence until I'm perfect.

Makes for very stressful replays, let me tell you.
 
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Barnabas

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Shattered Memories was fuckun trash those idiots Tomm Hulett fuckd up bad. "Run daddy u can't fight them" shut the fuck up
 

Perkel

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Shattered Memories was fuckun trash those idiots Tomm Hulett fuckd up bad. "Run daddy u can't fight them" shut the fuck up

Disagree. SM shouldn't be called SH game but game itself was great. I first played in on PSP then i replayed it on Wii and it is still great game. Though game would be a lot better if they would do those weird fucking chase scenes.

I think this game provides one of the biggest mindblown moments in almost any game and its use of player profiling is top stuf used in game.

I still remember answering some questions and then getting sexy Cybil vs my second playtrough where i did chose differently and i got normal looking policewoman. Same with school part where i though that profiling was about me while in the end it was about other person and answers i made toward myself were pretty fucking poor when you applied them to someone else.

Same with collectibles. At first i though this was some random junk but in my 2nd playtrough i realized they were mementos of that other person life.

Endings also were pretty great.

Despite clear difference in style of game i think name Silent Hill hurt it more than anything. On its own maybe it wouldn't sell a lot but it would be really cheerished game on par with SH 1-3 (as being one of greats of those type of games not necessarily being better).

Overall if you have 10-12 hours and have a Wii or Dolphin emu that can play it (which isn't given as my emu had huge problems with this game) you should play it.

Atmosphere in this game really reminded me of SH1. Just instead of rust dosolate oppressive feeling winter oppressive feeling.

If you want to cound SM as SH then i would say it is best game after first three. If they would do something else instead of those chase scenes then i would even consider it on par with sh3.
 

Perkel

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And yeah SH Book of Garbage is really garbage. I am SH nut and i played watched read everything but book of memories takes the cake in therms of being the biggest sh garbage ever.
 
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Barnabas

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If it wasn't for the chase scenes I would have been okay with sm
 

Perkel

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If it wasn't for the chase scenes I would have been okay with sm

I think they were demanded by publisher and developer didn't actually want them in. I think they were even outsourced.

Now when i think about it... I think Silent Hill 2 also would be fine on its own. Both SH2 and SM don't really have much in common with SH1 and SH3 and its cult stuff.

It is good that Kojima didn't do Silent Hills game. PT was literal antithesis of Silent Hill and i cringe upon thinking about whole game being done like that.
 
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Now when i think about it... I think Silent Hill 2 also would be fine on its own. Both SH2 and SM don't really have much in common with SH1 and SH3 and its cult stuff.

I like to think of SH2 as the PS:T to SH1/3's BG1/2. Similar looking games on the face that are almost a separate genre when you actually play them.
 
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JK, I've only played SH1, and it is very notable for a horror video game. That starting sequence where you explore the back alleys, it goes dark, sirens start to play, everything is bloody and rusted, and the camera fucks with you big time swaying around wildly as you run through the alley is absolutely legendary. Probably the most unsettling playable scene in a game, ever. Shat me up as a kid big time.

Don't be a fag, play SH2 ASAP. Video games don't get much more memorable than this.
 

Ash

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Multidirectional I took your advice and began playing SH2. I'm at the Silent Hill Historical Society which I'm guessing something like 60% of the way through the game. To be honest I'm struggling to appreciate it, and like some others ITT I think Silent Hill 1 is notably better than 2 (so far at least).

Reasons (some already mentioned by others in this thread):

-The Otherworld is toned down big time. I barely noticed I was even in the Otherworld at the hospital. Sad. It was the most memorable thing about SH1 and I had been anticipating entering that nightmarish realm of my childhood once more.
-Resource management/distribution. Currently I have 6 health bottles, 7 medkits, 4 ampules, 100 shotgun ammo and 40 handgun ammo? Are you shitting me? I haven't even been playing optimally either. Didn't even realise you could kick enemies who were down for an easy kill for quite some time.
-The enemies (so far) are all slow, similar to one another and just not really a threat. What happened to flying demons and rabid hellhounds?
-The soundtrack is a bit underwhelming. It's nice during story segments, but ambient exploration and otherworld music? Has nothing on the pants-shitting original, and isn't very memorable at all.
-Because of all the above reasons, it's somewhat less scary than the original, in addition to things like less challenging, less intriguing, less intense then cathartic.
-Hospital again? Really?
-The apartments don't really serve any greater purpose other than to gate off the player (as another codexer mentioned). In the original you go to the school to find your daughter. Big investment there. The apartments you are there...because.
-Little to no gameplay innovation over the original.

That said, it still gets plenty right. It still is Silent Hill. The graphics are nice. Voice acting an improvement on the original's (main issue with the original's was the five second long pauses between each and every sentence). And the controls are probably slightly better than the original. Overall, in all the things that matter it feels like I'm playing Silent Hill 1 Alpha or something though.

Why do some people ITT think it's better than the original? Explanation pls?
 
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Ash

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? Original is by far scarier. Many of the reasons why given above, and near everyone ITT admitting as much including those who favour SH2 overall.

Perhaps you had a moment of confusion there?
 

Deflowerer

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Yeah, I think in terms of overall design SH1 is a better game. SH2 is mostly preferred for its different atmosphere and admittedly great story (something all these walking sim faggotries of nowadays could only dream of trying to surpass).

Unfortunately, most fans and especially the Western developers have a pretty bad understanding of why SH2 is good as it is, and that's why every subsequent Western developed SH game has been trying to ape the SH2 plot elements so hard.

If you liked SH1, I think SH3 would suit your fancy more. SH4 is also great for being a very different and unconventional entry. After that though once the Western studios take over, it takes a massive nosedive.
 

Perkel

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Which is pretty hilarious by itself.

All of devs want to make SH sequel but everytime studio takes it to production line they give interview etc that outright point out that they don't even get story right let alone key points why game like SH2 is so good, let alone any of them playing SH1.

Multidirectional I took your advice and began playing SH2. I'm at the Silent Hill Historical Society which I'm guessing something like 60% of the way through the game.

Everything before Historical Society is setup to things that will happen there and after it. Keep playing it will be worth it.

Also the things you mentioned. There are reasons for almost all of them. Keep playing it.
 

Ash

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Everything before Historical Society is setup to things that will happen there and after it. Keep playing it will be worth it.

Also the things you mentioned. There are reasons for almost all of them. Keep playing it.

K. Was considering dropping it but I'll keep on truckin'. I assume it will be plot reasons which probably won't win me over on the whole, yet even with Silent Hill's general mediocre gameplay it's still way better an experience than your typical modern trash.
 

Ash

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Silent Hill 1 is not scary look at it

Meh. Looks pretty good for a 90s PS1 game that is fully 3D, no pre-rendered backgrounds.

latest
 

Perkel

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Be sure to watch it after finishing SH2, it was delivered with game on US release i believe as well as Europe (came with game box in my case). It is amazing just how many of SH2 weird choices etc. is actually planned by devs and not some luck or coincidence.

 
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Silent Hill 1 is not scary look at it

Meh. Looks pretty good for a 90s PS1 game that is fully 3D, no pre-rendered backgrounds.

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SH1 really looks amazing. Almost PS2-level. Very few PS1 games went for a realistic look and managed to pull it off. Resident Evil was 2/3rds prerendered stuff and yet neither the prerendered nor the 3D parts look noticeably better than SH's full 3D.
 

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