However, this does not include a viral outbreak that turns people into the walking dead, but a ghost town with many disturbing mysteries and scares. This game will scare you, haunt you, and greatly disturb you that makes you have nightmares while sleeping, now before this is said and done, I'll review this game to help you tame this game to a pulp.
Plot. A man named Harry Mason drives his daughter Cheryl to the town of Silent Hill for a vacation. At the edge of town, he swerves his car to avoid hitting a girl in the road; and as a result, he crashes his car and loses consciousness. Harry wakes up and discovers that his daughter is missing, and heads to the town to find her. However, he learns that it is a ghost and foggy town with snow falling out of season. After being attacked by mysterious creatures in the darkness, he meets Cybil Bennett and others, and decides to find his daughter and learn what went wrong in the town.
There will be times where the place will go dark, and makes it much spookier to get to the next area. In some parts, players will enter alternate dimensions that are actually the same place, but with a much more resemblance to an underworld full of monsters and creatures that are extremely lethal. There are also difficulties to choose in this game. For beginners players can choose Normal, and for those who want a challenge, players choose Hard.
Concept. Players guide Harry Mason throughout the town of Silent Hill. They explore the town which at times the sky will go dark. When dark, more monsters appear and it can be difficult at times. Also players enter alternate monster-filled dimensions, in order to progress to the next areas to find Cheryl. There are multiple endings in this game depending on the player's actions. Which makes it very interesting of course.
Design. Almost the same graphics as Resident Evil, but with a different atmosphere. Some scenarios are CGI sequences such as Harry Mason meeting Cybil, Lisa Garland, and more. However, I truly enjoyed how players would travel from the real world to the underworld, and it was more interesting than a zombie outbreak like in Resident Evil.
Audio. Akira Yamaoka was the game soundtrack's composer, who was invited by the developers to compose after the one who was originally going to do it had left. He did not watch the scenes, but at least he independently composed the music, created the sound effects, and more.
History. Silent Hill became an instant success upon it's release in 1999. The game spawned a sequel on the PlayStation 2 two weeks after 9/11. Two years later, Silent Hill 3 was released and a year later the fourth game was released. The game series had various spinoffs such as Shattered Memories and even a prequel as well. In 2006, a live-action film adaptation was released and directed by Christophe Gans. The Silent Hill film was the second movie based on a game to be successful since Mortal Kombat: The Movie. Even if Harry Mason does not appear in the movie, the movie faithfully follows much of the first and third game, and the actress who played Cybil Bennett (Laurie Holden) did look like the character. Come to think of it in Resident Evil: Afterlife, Wentworth Miller, known for playing as Michael Scofield in Prison Break did look a lot like Chris Redfield.
Rantings. What I hated the most was roaming in the dark because you never know what was around. Flying enemies were a bother as well and some bosses like the Puppet Nurse and Incubus.
Good Aspects. Great gameplay, storyline, music, and depth. This game has high replay value, and can be downloaded on the PlayStation Network if you want to play it on either your PSP or PlayStation 3. Enjoy!
Overall. Silent Hill gets a 9 out of 10.