Yeah, that room was awesome

Love love love!! This franchise is awesome. Except for the comics that Linkara reviewed. Yiiikes.

Love love love!! This franchise is awesome. Except for the comics that Linkara reviewed. Yiiikes.

Kind of reminded me of Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem I believe it was, where partway through the game it just goes “your memory card has been corrupted, everything is deleted” lol, same wtf? type moment

so…. brrrrrr……..

Oh god, it’s that scene, that scene alone, that made me afraid of looking at mirrors in the dark.

Yeah, forget Bloody Mary, this shit’s it.

Oh wow… I didn’t know you can die in that room.

Silent Hill 2 was my absolute favourite. I never fancied the ocult/church theme at all, i think that the only thing of interest and worth exploring furthermore was the town itself which Silent Hill 2 managed to do perfectly. Homecoming haters, anyone?

I am so glad this scene got some recognition!

Also, you forgot to add that when you try to leave the room through its one door as this is happening, it tells you that the lock is broken and the door won’t open.

Dear god was this scene brilliant. I’m so glad it caught me off guard the way it did, and that I got to experience it in the dark. By far the scariest thing I’ve experienced in a game.

…well, shit, did I call it or what?

Adverts are a bit much…

I don’t mind the adverts, just click it, and hotkey for deleting the popup, then the video loads.

Thanks again spoony, this is my dinner entertainment for tonight, how nice :)

While I agree with everything Spoony mentioned in his little intro to the series, I’d also add a scene from one game that got a lot of bad press but still belongs to this series; Silent Hill 4: The Room.

At one point, I think it was at the hospital, you enter a room where you find Eileen’s giant head, following your every move. I didn’t do much except for looking at you creepily, but that was probably the most tense moment from that game, and what I remember the most from that game.

What I remember from each game:

Silent Hill: Those damn little creatures at the school.

SH2: Pyramid head.

SH3: The mirror room.

SH4: Eileen’s giant head.

Yeah in the most parts im on the same page as you are Spoony, but the one thing that seems to be different between us is that:
Silent Hill 3 and 4 have together build a much bigger scare and i mean not a scare like:”Oh the series is going bad after the 3rd part” or stuff like that.. no its the Scare about the damned, pink, Fluffy TEDDYS!!
and yes i mean that, im scared of silent hill teddys more then Pyramidhead creepd me back then (cause PH is a cool Character)

Oh god, scariest part of that game. Just wandered in there and that to this day that entire part of the game stands out in my mind as far as Silent Hill is concerned. I loved 3 the most because it still managed to blindside me with a “killer app” that I wasn’t expecting to happen, which was with the bleeding walls and organic architecture. And it finally resolved the first game’s plot for the most part, which pleased me, but did so in a way that wasn’t immediately obvious unless you had played the first game, which I had.

Hopefully Shattered Memories will give the series a much-needed shot in the arm, and it’s definitely my most-anticipated game this year.

I loved that room in SH3 :D

YES! That’s the most memorable scene in the game that I remember! That gave me nightmares! I didn’t save for a while and I freaked when I couldn’t leave the room when that creepy shit was happening. After that I think I just left the game and didn’t return to play it for about a year. I needed time to recover from that traumatizing event!

That scene looked great. SH3 is the only SH i haven’t played. Guess I’ll have to check it out. Hope you got more scary games up your sleeve, Spoony.

People don’t seem to like the first one much. Should I skip straight to 2 if I want to start playing SH, or am I going to miss out on too much?

You’re gonna do System Shock 2 too right? Pleeeeeaaaaaase say you will…

BlipTV doesnt load videos again ? Ah, fuck it.

The SHs are the pretty scariest games I know. SH2, the abandoned town where STILL you meet a few strange people. Things appearing and disappearing, even from your inventory so you are ment to question what is real and what isn’t.

Dang, I own a LOT of games, and a lot of underdogs (The Dark Eye anyone?), but right now I can’t remember any other good and scary games though they are here, on my shelf.

Sorry, I guess I would have to have played it. I just don’t find that scene scary

Roman- 2 has very little to do with the first one aside from the town, go ahead and play it.

There really are days where I like 3 more than 2. The best comparison I can give is Exorcist 1 and 3. You see nobody worth their salt will say Exorcist 3 is better than the original, but still… my god is it great. Old ladies on the walls, super scissors, crazy dreams… the blood draining speech… one of the most underrated horror films I’ve ever seen. I loved Silent Hill 3 because, and a lot of people miss this, it’s that same kind of horror from a female perspective. The first one was a fractured child, with fairy tale monsters and what not, the second was very male guilt with sexualized dolls and big phallic knives, basic slasher stuff really intellectualized, but the third, that was soaked in minstrel fluid, in utero horrors of something being inside a young woman. It’s a very unique game in the series, and while I love 2 on so many many levels, 3 comes in a close second in my rankings.

Nice. You’re next pick should be Aliens VS Predator (PC) playing that game as the Marine is one of the scariest experiences I’ve ever had with a game.

Some more good scary games (sans IHNMAAMS, Sanitarium and SH):
FEAR 1 (well yeah, good enough)
AITD 1!
System Shock 2
The Lurking Horror (Infocom)
Cryostasis is good as well

Ah, and since I’m a lefty whimp, I say “Frogger”: poor creature in danger plus the horror of heavy traffic polluting the environment scares the hell out of me. Wait for Frogger 2, with melting icebergs instead of logs!

Oh by the way, does anybody know the X days a Y series of Ben Croshaw: http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/5days/
They are pretty good for AGS adventures!

Also, as for game play, Spoony’s dead on about trying to kill everything in 3. I killed damn near EVERYTHING and as a result have never finished off the god at the end because I’m almost out of ammo and I have to go at the SOB with my knife.

Side note, any guides that turn their noses up at the knife, calling it a “pig sticker” should not be listened to. The knife is the best weapon for the first quarter of the game. Once you master the art of circling an enemy and stabbing, most of the one on ones will not land a hit on you. This goes especially for the big fuckers, but watch out as they later on develop a second attack where they twirl their huge arms around. Once this shows up, it’s time to retire the knife at last, but for the early part of the game, you can save a lot of health and ammo by perfecting this.

I don’t understand how that was scary. You just moved around and as if advertising a techdemo of reflections, then it bugged out, nothing happens, nothing happens, you die.

Nevermind, actually. The idea of playing a game like that is pretty scary. zzzzzz.

Hell yeah…the first Silent Hill game is still to this date my favorite Horror game

I like as whell Resident Evil 1 & 2, Fatal Frame and Eternal Darkness

Hell yeah…the first Silent Hill game is still to this date my favorite Horror game

I like as whell Resident Evil 1 & 2, Fatal Frame and Eternal Darkness

Whoa, can someone tell me what you’re supposed to do to get out of that room?

I think FEAR and FEAR 2 do that a bit also, it’s what you can’t fight, can’t shoot, that scares you the most.

It’s soon November, and spoony, you promised us the Pumpkin head game in october…??? btw love the new series your doing

Brendoz, it’s OCTOBER 28TH. He still has three days left of October to churn it out.

I did not find that particularly scary. I dunno, it just… wasn’t scary :/

Silent Hill 2 was probably one of my most favourite games of all time. The rest are easily worth a rent + beat, as they’re all intriguing stories for at least the first time through. Silent Hill 2 I could enjoy again and again :)

I always felt that as a sequel to the original, Silent Hill 2 is an improvement in every way except story-wise. James is pretty much the game equivalent of Ned Flanders and you spend most of the game endlessly running past enemies instead of fighting them, especially in the streets.

Despite the disappointing later levels, SH1 had a knack for making you speculate about what’s going on. The little touches (like the disappearing top floor of the hosptial) go a long way.

This video inspired me to comment here for the first time (long time Spoony fan).

Silent Hill is one of my favorite gaming franchises (Homecoming didn’t do it for me at all, but that’s another conversation). The above video from #3 is great stuff, but my fondest memories are of SH2. Gameplay-wise it had it’s flaws, but that sucker literally made me cry at the end, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Spoiler warning for those who haven’t played it: I got the “In Water” ending where James drowns himself, culminating with the sad voice-over of the letter Mary wrote to him in which she wishes him the best and to “be happy.” That was too much for me.

Love SH. Haven’t seen much of the vid. Noticed that you have an original copy of Sh2. Note that the “greatest hits/director’s cut” version has a few minor bonuses. There’s an extra scenario with Maria, and a few new endings. Just pointing out in case you never knew. :P

Coincidently, I gave a friend of mine who’s new to gaming Sh 1 and 2.

While I think SH2 had a slightly better story, on the whole I believe SH3 to be the best of the series. The whole design of it was far more disturbing and frightening. Many people, like you Spoony, mention how the monsters are much harder in SH3, but I never really noticed that. I’m the kind of guy to take his time to kill everything I come across. I don’t think I’ve ever actually died while playing SH 1, 2, or 3.

Man, I recall that mirror scene with no small amount of fondness.

Personally, for the longest while I never could understand why people found Silent Hill 3 so difficult. I mean, sure, it was more difficult than Silent Hill 2, but it was hardly significantly more so to me. I was so proficient with the steel pipe that I would go around killing literally almost everything except for the pendulums; by the end, I had so much ammo and health drinks that I could have opened a gun shop cum health foods store. However, recently, after four years without picking up the game, I went back to it, and Jesus Almighty, those bastards were handing me my ass. I wish I could know what secret magic I’d tapped into my first play-through, because I can now safely agree with everyone’s assessment of the difficulty.

Yeah that room alone is still in my mind as I play Silent Hill now.

Yes. Silent Hill 2 is the best. When you are in the motel and there are bars blocking a hallway, you go in a room then come back out and Pyramid Head is just standing there on the other side of the bars staring at you, standing perfectly still….creepy.

That’s just one of things about the silent hills series I sorta love. The big head, the wheelchair from Session 9, Pyramid head behind the bars, it’s all one big art gallery of creepyouthefuckout. It’s grotesque and beautiful.

Christ. Silent Hill 1 scared the crap out of me. You mean SH2 and 3 are worse? I’d better play it with my boyfriend or I’ma be screaming my head off.

…’Course, gotta find a copy of 2 and 3 before I can do that. Guess I was lucky they re-released RE1 on Wii otherwise I never woulda played it.

SH3 is the only one I haven’t played yet … and this scene … is … BRILLIANT

Silent Hill 2 was an awesome game, but Silent Hill 3 wins in the terror department marginally, and ONLY BECAUSE OF THAT FUCKING ROOM.

Son of a- Does anyone not get chills seeing that scene? Show me someone that doesn’t have their heart race or their sound turned down while watching this, and I’ll show you someone who is a robot.

Silent Hill 2 was an awesome game, but Silent Hill 3 wins in the terror department marginally, and ONLY BECAUSE OF THAT FUCKING ROOM.

Son of a- Does anyone not get chills seeing that scene? Show me someone that doesn’t have their heart race or their sound turned down while watching this, and I’ll show you someone who is a robot.

Was anyone else scared when Kefka ended the world? If I hadn’t played pre-existing save files when I had been renting FF6, I would’ve thought that there was a good ending that I had missed, and that the whole event could’ve been avoided. I thought it was scary that a villian actually got his way, and he was trounced only AFTER he had gotten what he set out for.

Oh shit, that was pretty fucking creepy and awesome. I completely gave up on SH2 because it creeped me out too much, never even tried SH3…but I may have to grow some balls and try them both.

“Beware you are about to enter the world of pumpkinheaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!”

Come on spoony, release that shit!

True scare story I had with SH4 : The room.

This is …by a huge mile… the creepiest thing ever that happened in a videogame, and rightfully so because I’m not sure anyone else experienced this.

First, I should mention I had this on the PC (pretty rare copy actually, at least in Europe). I fully enjoyed the SH4 experience, and I really liked to loiter around the “room” in between levels. I loved how small things kept changing in the room as you progressed through the story, not to mention it creeped the fuck out of me. I should also mention that the pink bunny plushies in Eileen’s room creeped the fuck out of me (especially when they stared at you).
The thing I enjoyed the most was looking out the window, trying to spot something new or if the neighbours were doing something weird (yes, i have a peeping tom issue) or even clues, like the phone number on the building across the street.

The creepy thing happened while i was looking out the window, about halfway through the game (ghost weren’t manifesting in the apartment yet) : I was panning the view left and right, looking for clues and whatnot, then sudddenly… out of fucking NOWHERE, a pink creepy-ass bunny fell right in front of the window for like a second, freezing in mid-air with its creepy demon eyes staring into my soul…. and then the game crashed and went back to windows. I literally stood there motionless for what seemed like an hour with my mouth wide open and my heart beating out of my chest.

The bunny … thing, was fully textured, it didn’t glitch or anything. It fell from somewhere above the apartment, passing in front of the window as it fell. It was rendered behind the window and didn’t feel like a glitch, except for the crashing back to windows part…
I tried to do a research on the web, to see if anybody else experienced this, but nobody seems to have witnessed this… glitch from hell? Developper cruel joke? I may never know, but it sure scarred me for life and made for the creepiest gaming experience of my life.
Maybe someone here experienced this? I would really like to know…

watching this scene made me scared of your reflection, I was thinking when he turned around “don’t do that your turning your back to the enemy!!”

The whole Silent Hill series is very bone chilling. The hell world is so nerve racking, you get paranoid and feel like that world is going to swallow you up.

I love Silent Hill. A lot.

It sounds pitiful but this franchise has become part of my whole identity. It’s part of who I am and I cherish its psychedelic creepiness and serious WTF moments. Despite it’s flaws, like any game series, I still consider it perfection.

Heh. It’s funny that room with the mirror. I never went inside it when I was playing Silent Hill 3 and I beat the game. I didn’t even know there was such a room in the game untill much later.

A thousand times yes! That scene had me literally panicking years ago when I first played it. SH 2 and 3 are amazing.

I’m not really into the Survival/Horror genre. The Thing on PS2 kind of destroyed me (played it years before you reviewed it, probably why that is still my favourite review…Fuse Box Agony). But Silent Hill was always an exception, I love those games, and that scene in III is a classic. I do play that game in the dark.

During that SH3 scene I kept hearing thumping around behind me, and I nearly pissed myself. I thought I was alone, but apparently my roommate is still here!

My favorite Silent Hill game is the third one, simply because it was technically and creatively a step up from its predecessor. Spoony complained about the difficulty and the only way that can be frustrating is that if you choose the medium to the hardest difficulty. You have to know a lot of trivia and deep logic to be able to solve these puzzles. I gotta hand it to spoony he’s hardcore to be able to finish the game in the most punishing difficulty settings.

Good call Spoony! Silent Hill is one of my favourite gaming franchises, and Silent Hill 2 is also my favourite of the series. It was actually Silent Hill 4 that first got me interested in the franchise, and while I know a lot of people don’t care for that one I consider it be a largely under rated game in its own right.

Can’t wait to see what is next.

Indeed! In general, the Silent Hill series is one of the best horror games, IMO… except for the recent SH games like Homecoming. I still feel skeptic about that game…

I’m actually planning to play SH3 for the whole Halloween season. I already started last Sunday and I only played around the introduction part of game then I stop for a while (x_x) the game still gave me a hell outta of a scare (x_x)

Not one mention of everybody’s favorite mannequin rapist, Pyramid Head? He signifies the unstopable unkillable evil of SH2.

I actually didn’t hate SH4, until the second half. Even then as the house got darker it was interesting (loved the nod to The Tenant) but the recycling of the dream worlds was too annoying and the sudden shift and degree of difficulty, as if I was cursing along on ‘hurt me plenty’ and then half-way through got jumped to NIGHTMARE… all that was a bit much. Several other quirks about it got to me, but for the most part the first half was a weaker addition, but still a strong one (especially for a chapter that wasn’t initially to be a Silent Hill game).

Catsimboy: Pyramid Head’s great knife might induce FF7&8 trauma for Spoony. I think he also wanted to avoid the obvious since he know we all love SH2. I get the impression that he’s cranking these out while working on Pumpkin Head.

Oh, shit. That was hair-raising.

See, this is the kind of scare I like. I hate the ‘scares’ in BioShock, for example, where it’s all about things jumping out of the shadows at you. This is the kind of scare that is freaking sweet. Not knowing what’s going on, should you do anything, CAN you do anything, and all the while there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING jumping out at you.

And yet, ironically, as much as I love watching Let’s Plays of this, I can never bring myself to put the game in myself. Call me a coward, but I just can’t bring myself to do it.

The mirror scene is supposed to show Heather’s fear of seeing her own reflection. In the beginning of the game, Heather has all of the mirrors covered and she even comments about how she doesn’t like them.

SH3 didn’t have any open areas (like the streets of SH) you could explore for items like you could in the first 2.

I had just bought Silent Hill 2 the other day, I was very excited because it’s a pretty hard game to find nowadays. So I plug it in and start playing it. I leave the bathroom, descend the stairs, and the game is stuck in an unending load screen.

Luckily, I bought it used, so I can get my money back, but I’m still pissed off about it.

This reminds me of two things in the Silent Hill series before
SH1 – At the beginning when you have to die (technically pass out) to continue
SH2 – The bug room which is a very close quarters room where nothing happens when you go in until you pick up an item you need to continue. I can’t remember if you can get out of SH3 room, I think it’s actually a trap. SH2 you just had to enter a code on a keypad but whenever something starts hurting you out of no where like in SH2 and SH3 it just scares you.

While I do like SH2 more than SH3 both are part of the holy triforce of Silent Hill including SH1. Homecoming was slightly better than 4 and Origins was a much better than 4 or Homecoming but just did not have as much to it as the first three and it felt like a PSP game even on the PS2 (because it was). SH1 is just a little better than SH3 in my opinion because the enemies are just scarier in grainy graphics of the PS1 than higher graphics of the PS2 and it had a little more wow factor to it if you played it first. I like traps and all the SH have them but SH3 probably had the ones that hit the hardest like this and the train.

I would reccomend the Penumbra series. They are quite frankly the most scary games I believe to be ever released on the PC. If it’s one thing it certainly nails, it’s defiantly the scary atmosphere. Especially in Overture.

The correct order would go like this: Overture > Black plague > Requiem

I’ve only ever played SH4. I’m also worried that all of you people are saying that it wasn’t the best…because parts of it made me wet myself. EVIL BABIES growing OUT of the FREAKIN’ WALL was probably the creepiest thing I’ve seen, even if they were easily vanquished by lighting a candle. The “unkillable” ghosts that followed you around were an obvious rip off of Resident Evil 3′s Nemesis, but they were also creepy as hell. I thought SH4 was awesome and if what you are all saying is true, I should probably to check out the others.

Also Spoony, my personal #1 scariest moment in Video Gaming was in Thief 3. I think “The Cradle” was voted the scariest game level by a few different sources. There are some YouTube video tours. Check it out. =)

I loved that scare. The one that also really got me was when the head of the mannequin bust falls off, off-screen, and you hear the little scream. That got me really good.

My favorite Silent Hill continues to be the very first one on the Playstation. In fact I just beat it again not too long ago after downloading it on the PSN and while the graphics are very aged and the voice acting is a bit dodgy the overall atmosphere is still just as creepy as it was when I was in my late teens playing it. I think it had me at earliest scene where you chase Cheryl into the alley and the further you go the more twisted it becomes. Those parts where you enter the hell version of Silent Hill just stick with me.

That is probably also why I prefer 3 over 2. It brought back the hell version of Silent Hill that 2 didn’t really have. Now don’t get me wrong 2 is a great game and probably has the best plot of the series but it didn’t have the hell version of Silent Hill.

It’s a shame there isn’t more love for the first Silent Hill. After playing SH, SH2/3 strangely don’t seem quite as scary to me as perhaps they would be if I played them first, but there’s something about the very primal fears in SH that are great.

SH really had all the things that freaked me out as a child in it: the abandoned school and those nightmarish children-creatures, the puppet nurses (far scarier than the sexy nurses, to me at least), the radio crackling of impending doom, the damn fog everywhere. That part earlier in the game where the camera starts to go haywire was very frightening.

While SH2/3 were great, it’s easy to forget that SH was a great game in itself. While it didn’t quite have the depths of psychological analysis of 2/3, and it was more simple a story, I still think it a worthy start to the series.

Whole thing about silent hill is that it’s got great storytelling. Admittedly I feel homecoming could have been done much better I still found it enjoyable and not a movie based crap fest. As far as silent hill goes I liked how silent hill 2 had creatures specifically based off of the main characters psyche. 3 tossed that out the window by revisiting the samael resurrection. Still cool but not as original. The series, hell even the movie if you judge it as an original piece and forget the games exist, was actually very well done and captures the town well. All in all the series is very creepy with it’s atmosphere and mature story lines. I have high hopes for silent hill: shattered memories.

To Catsimboy, actually pyramid head represented James, a kind of alter ego, did you notice that in SH 2 all the monsters were extremely feminine (with the noticeable exception of pyramid head) this was meant to symbolize Jame’s frustrated libido and pyramid head, the entire game is drenched in symbolism which is why i love it so, its the one game i know that can tell an amazing story without using words

Thank you Reven Wolfe. I loved the symbolism of SH2. It bugs me how so many seem to have missed what Pyramid Head represented. Not only that but that the movie and Homecoming just threw him in there because he looked “cool” or something when taken into context he was completely out of place in those settings.

I remember getting SH2 as a gift, and not playing it for a long time since I thought it was a continuation of the story from SH1, which I never had a chance to play.

After a while I decided I need to check it out.. and boy was I amazed. The game was bloody terrific. Scary, atmospheric, a good story.. Btw I actually thought that James’ wife was probably starring in SH1 and the ending for me came completely out of left field. Great, great game. My only irk was that I replayed it three times, and each time got the same ending (the damn uplifting one) even though I tried out various different things.

Anyways, after SH2 the third part was kind of a letdown, since that one apparently WAS continuing the story of SH1 (which, again, I didn’t play) and the whole cult thing was waay more mundane horror schtick as opposed to psychological introvert horror of the second one. As for SH4.. I remember I hated it, and I don’t even know exactly why. I think that the entire concept, while sounding good on paper, pretty much failed in execution and as I remember there was a significant emphasis on combat with an upgraded fighting system, which was completely un-Silent Hill to me.

I was most probably spoiled by getting to play the best part of the series as the first.

They should definately have this scene in the next Silent Hill movie (If they ever make it)

Not to mention you play a 16yr old girl who’s never fired a gun before in her life.

I have to say, I don’t know why everyone seems to love the second one so much but each to there own. I loved the first and the third the best. Also, I seem to recall in this room you have to get out of there before the blood gets into your character. I also seem to recall it effects what ending you get.

The thing that freaked me out the most in the Silent Hill games is that damn air-raid siren.

I love the Silent Hill series and especially Silent Hill 2 although I think the scariest game of the franchise is Silent Hill 1. Please do a short review of Condemned which in my opinion is one of the scariest f**** games ever made.

I never understood why people had a hard time with SH3. I found the melee combat in that game to be really easy. Strike, strike, block. That’s all you ever have to do, and the katana makes short work of most enemies.

In “3″, the enemies are harder, but you’ve got one thing over most other Silent Hill heroes: the block. It’s a bit clunky, but if you press “Run” while having your weapon ready, you enter “Block” stance for about one second, and you can block about 95% of all melee strikes, even with the little knife, tazer, or… the handgun. That made it possible for me to clear it on normal while killing everything. After that, I cleared it on hard, but I had lightsabers and infinite uzis and stuff so it doesn’t count, really.

For me the best part of “3″ was the first half, really. The whole “quest for home” felt like it was really deep and original, while the second half picked up the cult stuff again, seemed to be there primarily to please the fans, not to mention the whole “Free roaming” town is copypasted right out of “2″, with all the “dead end items” taken out. I also would have preferred to run the whole way to the amusement park, not breaking the real time continuity, but since the map was lifted from “2″, where there was a big hole at that place, it cuts right to the park after you’ve trekked on that big road/bridge for a few seconds.
To me they could have extended the way back home, making you go through more of all sorts of twisted buildings and transport systems, teasing you constantly with the fact that home is really just on the other side of that little fence or police tape, include all the awesome bits like the mirror room and Leon in that part instead, and include the final confrontations once you do get home. I’ll admit that it would probably erase the detective guy from the story though, and his parts were great.

Other than that, I’m still halfway (at least I think) through Homecoming, having put it down temporarily due to a bit of fanboy disappointment. See, when I walked out of Silent Hill the Movie, I thought it was okay on its own, definitely top tier of the video game movies, and that I could continue to live happily because all the creative licenses it took with the original material could be explained away with a simple “It’s in its own continuity, and won’t affect the games.”. When I played Homecoming, I first thought lifting the nurses from the movie was okay, since they move in nice, fresh patterns and are generally fun to look at, plus they pose a real challenge here until you get used to the controls. I even thought the whole “town’s under attack by monsters” part was interesting, and that the fact that people here clearly see them and get attacked by them, just like you, was a new direction to explore for the series, giving it a more “standard horror” feel. And then the miner guys from the movie attacked. And then someone says that a lady cop (Cybil) once went to Silent Hill, but never mentions Harry, and I’m like “NOOOOOOOOO! HARRRYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!! I LOVED YOUUUUU!!!!!!”, then I wait for the first opportunity to save after that, and I turn off my PS3, fanboyfrustrated at all the horrible implications of this. I liked Harry. I remember picking “1″ somewhere in 2005, and loving the fact that for once, it was a dad who cared about his kid, and had lifelike reactions to the overpowering supernatural circumstances that tormented him.

Just for this I’m thankful for Shattered Memory. It will try hard, and hopefully succeed in rejuvenating the series, but whether it fails or wins, it will reinforce Harry’s role in the game timeline. And I’ll Wii it.

“That made it possible for me to clear it on normal while killing everything.”
*Except the god damned pendulums. I still run away from those annoying cheapsters.

I believe that the Thief franchise could also be thrown into this series of Horror games. Thief has had some genuinely scary moment and not even at shock horrors or atmospheric tension. Just the fact that you are a lowly thief who ends up having to sometimes fight guards that in any other game would be cannon fodder for a main character. Hiding in dark shadows hoping that they will pass by without noticing you, and then you get to the more conventional atmospheric scares and you get one really frightening game.

I actually kinda don’t like the sequels that much, mainly because the first game displayed and wrapped up the plot quite well, and the sequels just shat on that and added on other elements and story elaborations that weren’t wrapped up as well if at all and didn’t really “click”. It’s not that I don’t like them or find that they’re not frightening (I’m one of the psychos who actually liked 4, even though it wasn’t even a SH originally), just that the general storyline of Silent Hill and the cult doesn’t work for me.

Sadly the first game hasn’t aged well AT ALL, and since the Wii remake is changing pretty much everything and the series in general might end up going the way Resident Evil did it doesn’t look like people will really get the chance to understand the first game.

Am I the only who thinks homecoming wasn’t that bad I mean sure it wasn’t perfect but I found it was a pretty good attempt on the western developers part, it had a good story that’s worthy of being part of the franchise and if you remove Pyramidhead, The nurses and those order dipshits which are really the only thing people complain about and when you really think about aren’t that big a deal to begin with considering most people don’t scan for symbolism when playing a game, so if somebody played 2 and then played homecoming they’d really just see pyramidhead as a familiar face, and as a silent hill fan it does bug me a little but not to the point where I pretend like it doesn’t exist and i think its a significant step up from 4 (aside from the room itself those parts were so fuckin kickass m/).

I still have all of these up to 4 (I have homecoming to but that one doesnt count and isnt as good to me). I still play all of em from time to time. Gotta love silent hill!

Man, fuck Silent Hill 2, James is a little pussy. Everything James couldn’t do, Harry could. Silent Hill 1 is the best game in the series, Silent Hill 3 was dece, but Silent Hill 4 was, along with Silent Hill 1, was the only actually scary game in the series. I just really Goddamn hated James, he was a terrible character if you ask me.

Is there one person that actually liked sh5?
I got so bored of playing I just gave up.

Awesome. I really liked the plot and atmosphere of SH2. I really liked 3 and 4 as well, regardless of what other people think. Also the fact that the games have multiple endings (not sure about SH4, only beat it once) is a nice touch.

Whenever there’s a game or movie when someone blindly jumps down a dark hole, I can’t help but think about James Sunderland :P lol

The bit in Silent Hill 3 that got me was the mannequin room. If you played the game, you know this one.
A room full of incomplete or damaged mannequins sitting on shelves, arranged around a single perfect mannequin? That’s pretty scary. Then you turn to leave, and… well. It seems mannequins can feel jealousy.

Ah, yes: the cleaning room of Silent Hill 3. I remember the first time I played through this game I had pretty much lost a few days worth of sleep, and not just because of all the disturbing things took place in there. In EXTRA HARD mode: after getting off the subway train when you go down some of the hallways in the next area the walls will transform into that organic looking mess, your life will continue to drain to the point of near death while you’re around these halls, and there are a ton of pendulums that are around that you have to try get past WHILE YOU’RE DYING! This game had the best scare moments in the horror game genre that I have played, so far.

Wait WHAT?! You could get hurt, and actually killed in that room?! I didnt know that could happen. I got the first version of the game, the european version, was it changed from the european version or something? Because I don’t recall getting hurt or killed in that room. Though it did scare the crap outta me.

I played through all of the ‘console’ Silent Hill games and I’d have to say that Silent Hill 4: The Room was the scariest. Between the apartment haunts, the wheelchair ghosts and the ‘ring’ style ghosts that follow you from area to area, this game keeps you on your toes and your stomach in your throat. I actually had to take a break from playing it, it got so intense.

Don’t get me wrong, Silent Hill 2 is the best story wise and Silent Hill 1 was probably the best overall (starting it off with the trademark ‘eerie’ setting) but Silent Hill 4 was pretty darned freaky.

:)

Damn, I thought it’s in my head but it’s just a game… yeah, just a game!
You are right, Spoony One. I never thought you would like Silent Hill. We are playing in the same sandbox now)

I couldn’t be arsed finishing SH2, because I found it just so tortuous to play. Half an hour of running through fog with nothing to do? Then a bajillion hours in that impossible-to-navigate town searching for key X to fit in lock Y.

SH2 bored me to tears. It is the Final Fantasy VII of the Silent Hill series, I reckon. Everyone loves it, but it really wasn’t all that in my opinion.

Ah, nothing beats playing the Silent Hill series alone and in the dark. I also think SH2 is the best in the series, followed by SH3. I loved SH1 in its day, but it has really aged. Hopefully they don’t botch the remake. I’m about to get into Homecoming. Tried SH4 and didn’t really like it. The controls were horrible, even by SH standards.

I have never played Silent Hill and don’t have any plans of doing so in the future, but I am having the weirdest feeling of deja vu after watching that clip. My dad had this PC game from the mid 90′s, where you go into this haunted house to invesigate something. I only saw him play it a few times, but when he did, his character had a sort of video-walky talky that showed scenes of rooms filling up with blood and furniture levitating in the air when there was no one around. I wish I had the name of the game, but I don’t remember it. Then again, he also worked for a company that produced PC games, so probably he was test driving something that never went to market.

Anyone know the name this game?

SH1 is the only game that as ever legitmately frightened me. Sure, with the ResEvil series you get startled alot (they’re masters of the “BOO!”) but SH is genuinely SCARY. It’s true to the psychological roots of fear not simply built on a flight/fight response but rather anticipatory fear of what MIGHT happen. So what part scared me exactly? The school. Not the mutant kids with the knives but the ghost kids, the shadows that couldn’t actually hurt you but they were just sorta THERE (the better to freak you the fuck out! Worked too). And that scene when the phone rings… OMG! I actually sat for about a minute trying to decide whether or not I actually wanted to answer it!

THAT’S when you know you’re good and scared, when you’re actually afraid to keep playing.

I also just remembered that the entire haunted house in the amusement park freaked me out, from the silly intro with the dummies and shadows, to the ceiling of spikes, to the absolutely terrifying red light that chases you at the end. What the hell is that red light, and why does it follow you? No one knows, but if it hits you, you’re dead.

The Silent Hill series’s story really pulls me in. I and III are related, which interests me a lot, and II’s story is very sad. I love the hidden meaning in every Silent Hill game. I can’t play the games though, because I’d likely shit myself and sleep with my lights on afterwards. It’s fun to analyze from afar though.

Thank you for giving props to Silent HIll 3. I’m tired of all these reviewers talking like the Silent Hill franchise consists soley of Silent Hill 2.

I actually never got to play Silent Hill 3. Played 1, 2 an 4 an tried the one’s after that but never finished them cause I couldn’t get into them anymore. My favorite is number 2 and I think it might in fact be because the difficulty is more balanced an you can fight your way through it if you want. But even being able to fight through it doesn’t make it any less freaky. All the early Silent Hill’s had those WTF moments like that reflection scare your talking about where the first time your playing through you just don’t know what will happen an its scary. Like in 2 the very first section there are no enemies at all but you don’t know that an the sounds of dogs barking nearby makes you think your about to get mauled by dogs but nothing ever appears.

My favorite scare would have to be in i think Silent Hill 4. The scene where the main character (I forget his name) is wandering around a creepy hospital, I think looking for a girl that has some relevance to the plot. Eventually you stumble upon a very long hallway with something like 20 doors in it. In one of the doors is just an empty room, but the camera is at kind of a weird bird’s eye view. As you walk forwards, deeper into the room, the camera pans up to a wall witch is actually an enormous face of a woman, with the most angry, deranged, about-to-fucking-kill-you look I have ever seen in my life.
Probably the most startling image that I remember from all of the Silent Hill series, or any game for that matter.

My scariest moment in Silent Hill (and I mean Scare, not massively disturbing… just a big WHOA OMG! AHHH MY HEART) was in Silent Hill 4, Hospital, when you enter that room and if you move one tenth of an inch forward, the camera changes to a giant face of the girl covering the screen with white eyes staring at you as you move. Eyes always scared me, giant eyes to be precise like Evil Eyes in EverQuest and generally just stuff staring at you in an awkward or evil way.

The cutscene in Silent Hill 1 with the nurse asking you to help her while blood’s dripping from the top of her head all across her face was pretty badass too.

Wow, wasn’t expecting to see a reference to that scene on SH 3. That part freaked me out as well. Never had a spook like that since then unfortunately.

Is it weird that I just order all 3 of the PS2 Silent Hill games, almost entirely because of all the recent reviews I’ve been seeing. I certainly feel weird.

I thought 3 was way easier than 2, but harder than 4. 4 is my fave for a very lame reason. I’m AWFUL at these games! Like, just awful, but with the help of some faqs, I was able to beat 2 and 3. 4 I beat on my own. When you’re not looking at a godamn faq every ten seconds, it’s easier to get sucked into the game world, and just enjoy the experience. So, sadly, in that sense, 4 is the best imo cuz it was so flipping easy, I didn’t need to distract myself from the game itself.

I’ve got to say. Three was my favorite, mainly because it was a sequel of sorts to one. Two, I couldn’t ever get into for some reason. But one day, I tried my best and I finally beat it. Yeah, it was pretty good, but I still like 3. Plus, a certain room with mannequins scared me shit less. I don’t know why it was that room that scare me most. But it could be because, I was exploring around, playing the game in the darkness, and there was no music in that room. In my opinion, no music can raise more tension than music. But Clock Tower fans already know much of that. ; )

Really silent hill 2 was your favorite, sorry I have to go with the playstation original with the crappy voice overs, simply becuase it was the base for all of the other games, it still scares the fudge out of me, I mean the fog, eerie music, even had ghosts. SH2 has a great plot that easily twists into like 6 different endings, besides the pyramid head it’s not any scarier. SH4 would be my second fav. it had innovation, at first the appartment room is a safe haven but when the monsters start creeping out of ur walls there is no escape. only prob I have with that is why the heck do you have to go through every level twice! ridiculous. SH2/SH3 are tied for third in my perspective, although I think that SH2 has the most realistic perspective, being able to walk around town like the original, yet better graphics than the original. shame on 3 and 4 for taking that away.

Oh just remembered, the bathroom scenes when you knock on a stall door, no one answers the main character says hmm no one’s in there or something, just as you leave you hear a huge thunk! prison level in SH2, and I wanna say it’s also in SH3. These little scares are varied throughout the franchise!

I secrelty wish I wasn’t such a chillypants and actually got the backbone to watch or play horror stuff.
Horror games seem to have some of most immersive storylines, so few game genres come up with proper stories nowdays. And then there’s the athmosphere… If my stomach just could handle it.
Another thing is, like with that mirror creep there left me wondering is that a passable event or some no-win gimmic? If it was the last, after first death I’d probably be kicking the controller to smithereens.

Silent Hill is one of those series I don't know if I could make it through. I'm really only a fan of horror games where you can fight back against the terrible shit that's happening to you. Games like Bioshock or Dead Space where you're an effective combatant and you can take on the monsters are fine by me, because when I get really scared, my first line of emotional defense is to subvert the fear into anger and use the anger to attack whatever's scaring me. But when I can't do that, the anger fizzles and then there's just fear.

Silent Hill seems legitimately scary, not like Resident Evil, where it's just frustrating because your character is such a crappy fighter, but rather because horrifying shit happens, and there's not a thing you can do about it except maybe try to run for your life. And I think that sense of powerlessness is what scares me the most.

Silent Hill 3 is my favourite part of the series. Yes… the story is not as original as Silent Hill 2, it's not as special, but it is just the most fun to play. It is also the easiest to tell discuss, because it has a lot of “horror moments” you can point out without spoiling much. Plus zombie dogs and demolished malls with escalators leading nowhere where a recurring nightmare theme for me at the time the game came out.

I just wonder about the problems with the combat. In the last chapter there are a few rooms you should just dash through, but usually I got along pretty well relying on melee weapons – steelpipe, katana and of course the beam saber. And I'm not a videogame ace, I had real problems finishing SH-Homecoming, even with running away from monsters. To be honest, I tried the PC version recently just to see the game in EXXTREME resolution and it was much less intuitive to control than on the PS2.

The only games even scarier in the same console generation were the Fatal Frame / Project Zero games. I only got myself to finish Fatal Frame 2 because I promised on a forum to rip the soundtrack.

I played Silent Hill 1 after this game, I even bought an old memory card just because I craved for more Silent Hill material. Although I had problems with the ancient “tank” control scheme it was extremely fun to play. Somehow it is a timeless experience. It also had the best puzzle design of all Silent Hill games so far.

Is there a little love for 0rigins in these boards? When you ignore the tie-ins with Silent Hill 1 it is a very fine, although conservative, Silent Hill game.

Replied under the wrong post.

Is it possible you could explain why? I thought the movie was perfectly fine.

I usually don't play horror games cause I'm easily startled, but it could actually be some fun exposure. I might pick up Silent Hill 2 or somethin.

How to kill enemies in Silent Hill 3:

Sexy Beam and Lightsaber

I didn’t like 3 much at all, I think I got as far as the fun-fair and lost interest. 2 is still one of my favourite games of all time.

The thing about Silent Hill 3 is you can actually change the control type. You can set the controls to be just like the first 2 games. If you check out the options you’ll find that the controls are set to a 3D type, you can change that to 2D and its MUCH easier and more fluent. Go do that and give it another try, I did and it was much more enjoyable.

The thing about Silent Hill 3 is you can actually change the control type. You can set the controls to be just like the first 2 games. If you check out the options you’ll find that the controls are set to a 3D type, you can change that to 2D and its MUCH easier and more fluent. Go do that and give it another try, I did and it was much more enjoyable.
Silent Hill 3 was my first Silent Hill game and the only one I currently own and have ever played. I plan to buy the rest eventually. I loved it. Try playing with the 2D control type. And I found the extra unlockables to be a lot of fun! (:

I gree with you, this game is really good and that theme song will be with me forever.

I liked the idea of exploring Silent Hill in the first game, that one perhaps gave me the biggest feeling of being lost in the town and how the town itself was kind of your enemy. I also liked the third game because the storyline made the most sense to me out of all the games, even if it did become more linear and the enemy got a pretty obvious human face.

I’m always kind of surprised by people who say they liked Silent Hill 2. Maybe I just didn’t pay enough attention, maybe I’m the only human being who isn’t suffering from psychotic sexual frustration, but I didn’t get it at all. I get that there’s a woman trying to replace the main character’s dead wife. I get that everyone in town save for the little girl seems to have been brought to Silent Hill because they’re from tortured backgrounds and have either snapped or are on the verge of it. I just don’t get how one man’s penis issues can make for a scary psycological experience. Sexual and child abuse are one thing, but when you kill your wife because she’s got cancer and won’t bonk you, you’ve got a Slaaneshi level of self-control that seems hard to believe. If they game had suggested that James had been having an affair while his wife was dying, I’d understand him a little more – I’m not saying I’d accept what he was doing, but it wouldn’t seem so hypothetical, I guess.

Still a great series with some of the most memorable creatures and visuals.

I agree.

I literally had nightmares about that SH3 scene. The only thing bad about the SH series to me is that my friends refuse to experience it. I’ve told them countless stories of scene’s that literally burn into your brain of how unnerving and creepy they are, but they utterly refuse to play the game for more than 20 minutes cause they “get lost”… I try and tell them to use the map as much as possible, cause it is easy to get lost in Silent Hill, that’s kind of the point… But damn them.. Damn them and their awful AWFUL sense of direction… They’re missing out.. Hopefully they’ll give it a fair shot when the HD Collection comes about (with the achievements they so love).

When i first played Silent Hill at a friends, well his brother was playing it and i was 7 at the time. it scared the ever living shit out of me! i still play them and silent hill 2 is still scary just due to pyramid head alone! my god the rape scene they had for it!