I played them all this year for the first time, so no nostalgia involved: Silent Hill, the first, is one of the best games ever made. Even today it remains spooky for a fresh player: the industrial soundscape, the lo-fi blur and animations, the camera angles, the masterful use of darkness, the perpetual sense of threat... a masterpiece, it is still one of the scariest games available. As soon as I finished I started playing it all over again, twice it happened; I couldn't get the game out of my head for weeks, that weird witchcraft story and the compelling allure of that unnatural fog... I even dreamt of it. Pushing ahead into the darkness of Silent Hill with an attentive ear to the radio static is an experience like no other game offers. Writing about it is rather hard, it truly is one of those works that elevate videogames offering something truly unique and worthy that no other medium can.
Then I moved onto the second, which was an utter disappointment -visually it is great, but from a gameplay perspective it failed miserably to replicate the sense of dread of the first due to the excessive visibility and the jarring close combat (managed to be much worse than the original, having to hit the attack button til the fingers go numb). In terms of enemy design while artistically remarkable the new challenges were much less lethal, including the famous pyramid head which I don't get why is he supposed to be that spooky since I could easily complete the game without getting hit by him til the end -he is a no threat. In fact, most of the game is absurdly easy with the exception of some trap-rooms in the hospital (completely optional), so that's a serious design issue if you intend to spook the player.
As for the celebrated script sins: annoying main character (there can be no tension if I don't care about whether my character dies), boring development (most of the time I was wondering what the heck was James attempting to do), predictable outcome to the main story and over-reliance on cutscenes. I still remember that bloody elevator trip that has you locked for about five minutes listening to the radio: developers, will you just let me play the game? I must say the story of Eddie was interesting, but it ended up in one of the most stupid boss fights I have ever suffered, while Angela climbing up the burning stairs is as poetical as you want it to be but given the nuisance that character was it felt like a relief. The little girl was the most remarkable secondary character but James' reactions to her playful attitude are so miswritten that her appearances only made the script more jarring.
The story of the first was written like shit, yes, but it was obscure (happily thanks to that very writing incompetence) and thus enticing, stimulating, while the plot of the second is overexposed -there's no mystery left by the time you reach the needlessly long, dull letter by Mary that feels like some Hollywood romantic drama shit, the same ideas are repeated again and again and again during that excruciating reading. No wonder James made up Maria, what an insipid woman. Then again, why was I supposed to care about James and Mary? Completely forgettable characters were not because James manages to come across as dangerously retarded as the game progresses.
They managed to make Maria quite attractive, some puzzles are cool and the environments look great, but overall it really falls beneath the perfection of the original in all regards. I reckon what the developers really had in mind with this one was a walking simulator avant la lettre but producers forced them to stuff it with Silent Hill commonplaces.
The third was a decent ending to the saga, though. While it wasn't as successful as the original in building that tension it still avoided many of the mistakes of the second, bringing back threatening enemies and nauseating, new-fleshy landscapes. However, in spite of Heather being the best written character in the saga once again the game fails at explaining too much so that what was mysterious in the first now sounds really silly, complete animu gibberish (the scene inside the car while travelling to Silent Hill, when Heather recounts the events of the first game in a straightforward manner, is embarrassing as it made me realize how stupid the plot is), but besides that it was neat how it tied with the original forgetting the misstep of the sequel. The combat was satisfying and the scenarios were very nice (i.e. unsettling), particularly the otherwordly office, plus it managed to revisit the hospital yet again and made it feel scarier than the second time. Correct entry worth the Silent Hill name, though I was disappointed I couldn't save Claudia. The series could perfectly have ended here.
The fourth I couldn't even finish although I appreciated the premise: it looks like shit, goes overboard with the action and the new control scheme is hellish.
All in all, Silent Hill 1> any.
