Silent Hill: Where Did It All Go Wrong?

Now Entering Silent Hill

There's no denying the impact the first game had on the horror market, back in 1999. Resident Evil had already released two main entries, with RE2 topping many a chart on release one year prior, whilst Squaresoft had also gone a more action-focused route with Parasite Eve. Barring early genre staples like Alone in the Dark and Clock Tower, that were more puzzle/point-and-click orientated, there was nothing truly dark and unsettling in the 3D realm of gaming.

But then you start Silent Hill, you hear that chilling mandolin arrangement from Akira Yamaoka, you find that eviscerated corpse strung up on a fence and you start to think, "Oh, this is a new kind of terrifying". Harry Mason's frantic search for his daughter in the seemingly desolate town of Silent Hill was a game-changer, eschewing one-man-army macho gameplay for more nuanced, creeping terror that you had limited defence against. The fear wasn't in how many enemies could be fit on screen, but the oppressive terror of the dark and the fog hiding the sneaky blighters until they're on you.

It's funny, really, as the "fog" was something borne of technical limitation, yet went on to be one of the series' greatest strengths (and we'll look at why that backfired later).

A tightly packed story, alluding to but not over-saturating the cult-ish influence on the town and why Mason's daughter was integral, before pulling out the stops for some eldritch deity shenanigans by the end, it was a hit for the survival horror genre. Sure, the voice acting was a bit wooden and the controls a bit clunky, but that's what gave it its "charm", if you will.

The only way that Konami's next offering could go is up.