Day 39 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: Silent Hill

I finally picked up a copy of Silent Hill, and about time too considering I've played all of the others (except Book of Memories on PS Vita but who cares about that). 

Silent Hill follows the story of Harry Mason, a writer who takes his 7 year old daughter, Cheryl, to Silent Hill for a holiday. While driving to their destination Harry suddenly loses control of his car and crashes just outside of town. When he regains consciousness his daughter is nowhere to be found, so Harry journey's to the infamous town to find her (I bet he was wishing he went to Blackpool).

I'm about 2 hours into the game and I'm starting to prefer this one over Silent Hill 2. Despite the fact it hasn't aged well graphically, Silent Hill has retained its chilling atmosphere and will certainly have you sleeping with one eye open after a late night gaming session.

Where Resident Evil tried to harness your fear with all-out gore, Silent Hill went for a more unnerving psychological experience thanks to the disturbing creatures and characters that inhabit the world. There's some nice use of Dutch camera angles in Silent Hill (I don't recall them being used in the sequel), following the character and twisting around while not compromising the controls was an impressive feat. A lot of attention went into the sound production as well, the slightest noise in this game can literally have you jump right out of your skin.

Any developer working on the latest installments of Silent Hill should really learn from the series origins. In the likes of Homecoming and Downpour for example, the transition from the real world to other world is a loud obnoxious affair, with lots of special effects and it generally isn't frightening. The first game on the other hand provides a much more subtle transformation and hence much more unnerving as you start to question what's going on.

I'm looking forward to playing through the rest of Silent Hill as I've become a huge fan of the franchise after playing through the rest of series, and it's been fantastic seeing how it all began. Like any series Silent Hill has had its highs, and its lows, but we can always revisit (and in this case discover) the games that made Silent Hill famous and have them terrify us all over again.

Day 17 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: The Silent Hill Collection

Never has a game series been so terrifyingly disturbing, and with 3 games in one box you better make sure you're not wearing your best underwear before you play this.

This collection is comprised of the second, third and fourth games, and while there are some that I prefer over others this is still a great collection.

Silent Hill 2 tells the story of widow James Sutherland who has journeyed to Silent Hill after receiving a letter signed by his deceased wife. The letter beckons him to meet her Silent Hill, the town holding great meaning for the couple, so James wanders over to the cursed town to see what's going on. He arrives to find the town shrouded in fog and seemingly deserted, save for the horrific monsters crawling the streets and stalking your every move. Can James discover the truth before it's too late?

Silent Hill 3 follows the story of Heather, a teenage girl who is being pursued by the cult of Silent Hill. After she finds her father bludgeoned to death by a monster controlled by the cult, Heather goes to Silent Hill to seek revenge. I'll be honest I really didn't enjoy this one, I found Heather to be really annoying and the story was nowhere near as gripping as Silent Hill 2. Some still consider it a great game but I just never saw the appeal.

Silent Hill 4 sees poor Henry Townshend of Room 302 wake up one morning to find the door of his apartment sealed from the inside. As if things couldn't get any worse a huge portal appears in his bathroom wall leading Henry to various locations, and eventually to Silent Hill, where he tries to unravel the mystery of just what on earth is going on. Some feel this is the lower point in series as Silent Hill 4 was never intended to be a main Silent Hill game, and although the gameplay here does deviate from the previous games, the story will keep you playing until the very end.

All-in-all a great collection that every survival-horror fan should own, try it if you dare.