A new evil takes residence (Silent Hill (PS))

Member Name: Moominpapa

Product:	Silent Hill (PS)
Date:	19/01/01 (76 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brilliant unique atmosphere

Disadvantages: Its excellence is too subtle for some

Small towns have always been scary places. With no pizza delivery and evidence of a small gene pool, lonely travellers should best pass by. But there is one place even more terrifying than most. A place where everyone’s up to no good – Meadowell. Oh, Silent Hill isn’t too nice either.

From the mysterious opening sequence you manage to glean that you are single parent Harry Mason who has carelessly misplaced his daughter, Cheryl after crashing his jeep. Awaking in the town of Silent Hill, you must guide Harry to find his sprog and, along the way find out why Silent Hill has become such a seething pit of evil.

In much the same way as Resident Evil, you take a third-person view on proceedings, watching Harry scamper through the town trying to solve the Scooby Doo mystery. But rather than Resident Evil’s static angles, the camera free flows as you move, skewing and spiralling with true cinematic flair.

Unfortunately you are not alone in Silent Hill. There happens to be an unhealthy smattering of otherworldly beasts intent on feasting on your flesh. Consequently you have to show your prowess in various self defence techniques such as firearms shooting, iron bar swinging and chainsaw slashing. But this is no gung-ho show, oh no. While the evil critters, given half a chance, are persistent and deadly, they are not the biggest challenge. Silent Hill is puzzle central and will challenge your intellect as well as your hand-to-eye coordination. And if that wasn’t enough, Silent Hill is constantly flipping to its alternate dark side, enveloping your surroundings in gothic gloom, which constantly disorientates you with spatial warps and tricks.

Silent Hill is indeed a challenge, but is it one that you necessarily want to pay for? The main feature that really stands out when you first play is your lack of vision. Silent Hill is cloaked in a snowy fog which just lets you see a few feet in front of you, only to be re
placed by blackness with onset of night. Whether you fall in love with this game or not depends on whether you forgive the game for this aspect and revel in it as a vital part of the game’s make-up. Or perhaps you’ll hate it as a lazy way of hiding a poor graphics engine. Either way the darkness dominates the game generating a very claustrophobic, oppressive ambience, that turns your soul into a dark puddle if you play for too long (seriously).

Overall, playing Silent Hill is a lonely experience. The streets are deserted, the sound effects minimal and the plot twisted. You know what Harry’s motivation is, to get his daughter back, but aren’t told why she drifts away at the start. Unlike Resident Evil where you are a trained ‘agent’, everything’s ambiguous as to why Harry has fallen into this plot, why Silent Hill is so weird and who all the characters are. You are alienated from sources of comfort – sight and knowledge, with only the eerie whistling of your static detecting radio to provide you with any assistance. With Silent Hill, its whole is greater than the sum of its parts. If you break this game into the usual review elements its hard to get enthusiastic. The graphics are very dark, and, while the design is extremely subtle, the shadows obscure it so much that all detail is lost. As for the evil gremlins you find, they don’t have much personality or variety. None are spectacular and they simply slip through the frame at a fair pace going about their malicious business. The bosses are none too impressive either, with some being downright comical. The animation is quite laboured and Harry Mason is not an (all singing) all dancing all leaping Lara Croft. He simply lumbers around the town with his weapons, seems ape-like in his movements and is not blessed with any twisty turny agility. It is, fortunately, these things that make Silent Hill so special. Little touches, such as ghostly babies who squeak
and just room areas, not inflicting any pain at all, and the dumbed-downness of the game make everything so eerie and mightily playable.

From the very moment you fire up the game it oozes class (to borrow a phrase from Fagin a fellow dooyooee, as it’s so appropriate). The opening FMV sets the tone perfectly for the game, sweeping through haunting images, enticing and confusing. The quality of this is maintained throughout the various cut-scenes within the game which slowly draws you into the plot. While the gameplay is clearly derivative of Resident Evil, the detail and subtlety of the puzzles are far superior to any of Capcom’s challenges and will only be mastered by the most patient and persevering gamer.

But what really makes it stand out from the plethora of soulless sequels and driving sims that clutter the market is its unique atmosphere. This is supernatural survival horror. Resident Evil was visceral horror, the Night of the Living Dead, although don’t get me wrong, all the Resident Evil games are fantastic and I prefer them in many ways. Silent Hill is The Shining of gaming horror – paranormal, nonsensical, with a true nightmarish quality. Compared to Resident Evil’s shock quality (which is reasonably large), this is far more scarier and creepy. Consequently, the game doesn’t require spectacular rotting zombies to scare. The ethereal quality of the surroundings means that even the most innocent of environments take on a menacing nature. The developers have clearly read their horror film manuals, turning the establishments of order and safety – the school, the hospital and the police station – into settings of malice.

Those who like their games explosive and bright ‘n’ cheery should look elsewhere. But those who don’t need their games to be sugar coated should surrender to Silent Hill’s all consuming atmosphere. It’s one that will swallow you whole, suck
ing you into a dark, dank clammy world.

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