Silent Hill's 20th anniversary

[Lacrymas]

So, yeah, Silent Hill 1 was released 20 years ago today. It's pretty good. I don't know what to say that hasn't been already said a bajillion times about this franchise. Developers today can still learn a lot about horror, character building and motivation and plot structure. Maybe they shouldn't have continued the cult business with SH3, but that's neither here nor there.

 

[Ivan]

 

[Big Wrangle]

Honestly, Silent Hill 4 was actually pretty intense despite some of the jank. Yeah there are some departures but you get used to it at this point. It's sad that the series' main artist, Masahiro Ito, never really got another gig after Team Silent was gone. Or at least according to Wikipedia.

 

[Jvegi]

Fake news. Silent Hill 2 came out in 2001.

I've played 2 a bit, before I got distracted. It was good. I'd like to come back.

 

[Lacrymas]

I think it's time to release the Silent Hills (at least up to 4) on GOG.

 

[Punch]

Silent Hill 1 was fucking on point with its nightmare-ish shit, despite being on the aging Playstation. Why hasn't any indie dev tried to replicate it yet?

 

[Zenith]

I'm wrapping up my 1-4 replay at the moment. All four stood up fairly well, as apparently did my opinions on them. Uncontroversial as they may be, here are some short summaries:

SH1: a really strong start for the series, especially sound and high concept stuff. Best otherworld structurally: a spectrum instead of regular+bad world that the series eventually settled in on. Monsters are kinda tame, relatively speaking at least.
SH2: best characters, best "straightforward" story. Great job at taking SH1 elements - fog, reality shifts, monsters etc - and putting them in a different context. Best exploration. Bizarre balance and difficulty curve.
SH3: most polished. Best otherworld visually, best enemies, best balance - just most pleasant to play overall, would recommend as the first one when getting into the series. Slightly too generous on save points. Ridiculous puzzles on Hard.
SH4: best trailers, possibly for anything ever. Sadly, that's about it for the good parts. Plays the worst, looks the worst, sounds the worst. Still captures its own unique weirdness once in a while. Goes to great length to make you feel uneasy, though I bet its gameplay ideas sounded better on paper.

For people who have never played a single one: Silent Hill games can be played in any order without losing much. All but the first one have PC versions, I've been posting notes on ports/emulation (1 2 3 4).

I think it's time to release the Silent Hills (at least up to 4) on GOG.

Not gonna happen, thay had enough legal problems just re-releasing 2 & 3 for consoles, and that was back when Konami still cared just a tiny little bit.

 

[Multidirectional]

SH3: most polished. Best otherworld visually, best enemies, best balance - just most pleasant to play overall, would recommend as the first one when getting into the series.

I've replayed 1-3 last year and cannot disagree enough with this shit. It has the most annoying enemies that also make some really irritating sounds. And it throws waaaay too many of these enemies at you. It is easily the most annoying to play out of first three. 2 felt a lot more polished.
I didn't replay 4 yet because I couldn't set up emulator to run it without visual glitches so my memory of it isn't fresh enough but I wouldn't surprised if I actually find it better than 3 when I do eventually replay.

 

[Zenith]

In 2 you can just run past everything, and when you can't it's either a 1-on-1 fight or it's easy to position yourself so it becomes one. It also showers you with healing items and ammo.
I don't know, SH3 is the only one where I feel under threat, and where firearms aren't just a lazy luxury option. Overall, with 1-3 it mostly evens out for me, but I can see how 3 wouldn't work if you're not into the "survival" part of survival horror.

 

[A horse of course]

RoH has a relatively short tribute article https://www.relyonhorror.com/articles/silent-hill-20th-anniversary-retrospective/

 

[taxalot]

I just remember playing Silent Hill 1 and thinking the puzzle design was absolutely, extremely, fucking retarded. I tend to suffer from hyper anxiety so I started the series being afraid the setting would be too much on my nerves ; it turns out I spent most of my time being afraid of what would be the next retarded puzzle.

 

[A horse of course]

Were SH1 puzzles based on difficulty? I never had any issues but I recall that if you played SH2 on the harder difficulties you were expected to have an in-depth knowledge of Zoroastrianism or something They were sort of like The Secret World puzzles and I think most people looked them up online on Hard.

 

[Multidirectional]

Hard puzzles in SH2 were fine except for the randomly generated numbers written in blood on the wall in hospital. They can be very hard to read and it's possible to become hopelessly stuck on that part. I actually abandoned two playthroughs with Hard puzzles because of it and since then I always choose the Medium setting. Rest of the puzzles were fine from what I recall. SH3 Hard puzzles can go fuck themselves though.

 

[Solid Snail]

There was a franchise here. Now it's gone.

 

[Tehdagah]

The first two games were good and that's it.

 

[Swigen]

Silent Hill is a mastapeece. Scared the shit outta me worse than anything when I was a kid. Played it earlier last year on an emulator and it still scares the shit outta me. It’s a shame Konami is a load of cunts, PT was such a tease.

 

[Roguey]

 

[Wunderbar]

I like all 1-4 equally. 1 is a really strong start, 2 have a great story, 3 is the most scary, 4 is the most weird and unsettling.

 

[sser]

I unironically quite enjoyed the Homecoming entry...

 

[Zenith]

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

I miss Silent Hill. Shame what Konami allowed to happen to the series. Team Silent were fucking legends with Silent Hill 1 - 4. And all though Silent Hill Origins wasn't made by them, it was still a damn fine Silent Hill game. But everything from there on was down hill.

 

[taxalot]

Is Shattered Memories any good ?

 

[Lacrymas]

Neither Origins nor Shattered Memories are that good. There's a lot of praise about SM going around, but I found it a bit tedious and meandering. It's good they tried something new, but it doesn't work as well and it could've been better. Origins is a handheld game with an unnecessary and lore-breaking story. There are good bits in both games, but overall they don't come close to the first ones.

 

[Wunderbar]

Shattered Memories wasn't great, but it felt original and had some interesting ideas.
Origins was just a dumb clone where you kill monsters with a fucking tv set.

 

[rohand]

Really loved the first two, especially the second