the most unsettling game ever to have graced a PS (Silent Hill (PS))

Member Name: trussellp

Product:	Silent Hill (PS)
Date:	01/03/02 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: scary (maybe not sutible for children, graphics, controls

Disadvantages: none

In life, there are a few things we know to be true:

1. If you only watch one episode of the first showing of a new TV series, and then, six months later, tune into the repeat series, you will always see the same episode.

2. The average time between throwing something away and needing it badly is one week.

3. You should never, ever go on holiday to a place called Silent Hill.

Though, through experience, Harry Mason was no doubt up to speed with those first two rules, he’d clearly never taken the time to learn rule number three. Stupid, stupid man.

Separated from his young daughter, Cheryl, following a car crash just outside Silent Hill (a town so great they named it once), Harry must wander round the creepy Midwestern tourist trap and try to track down the missing eight-year-old.

Only trouble is, the thick fog makes it difficult for him to see too far ahead of himself, there doesn’t seem to be anyone else around town and last, but not least, various types of rabid demon-spawn seem intent on ripping off his head and feeding on his brain. Silent Hill may be a holiday resort, but I honestly don’t think Butlins has too much to worry about.



As you might expect, you control Harry, as he sets out to both find his daughter and figure out just what the Hell’s going on in the town of Silent Hill. To do this, you’re going to need all your monster-blasting, puzzle-solving and exploration skills, as you roam from location to location in full 3D third person perspective. It’s Resident Evil, but with the jump-out-of-your-skin frights replaced by worrying feelings of clammy uneasiness.

Because though things do jump out and go “boo!” in Silent Hill, it’s the general feeling of the game that does most of the creeping out. Harry carries a broken radio, which emits static whenever a monster comes near, and when you walk into a darkened basement
with only a flickering torch dimly illuminating a few feet ahead of you and the radio starts to go scatty, it’s time to change that underwear.

Sound, generally, is one of the game’s strong points, with everything from the dripping of blood, to the hollow emptiness of Harry’s footsteps, to the distant screams of the dying sending chill shivers down your back. When the monsters do come, it’s a blessed relief, because although they’re bad, mean and ugly, they’re nothing compared to the stuff your mind has already come up with. You relish the chance just to kill something and maybe, just maybe, make the horror go away.

It doesn’t, though, and straight after the kill, you’re moving again, too terrified to stay in one place too long, in case the radio starts off again and something – anything – comes after you.



The graphics are equally as horrific (I mean that in the best possible way), with smashed wheelchairs lying amidst piles of rubbish by the side of the road, and vomit-inducing piles of rotten, stinking, worm-infested human intestines festering away on… (okay, that’s enough of that – Ed).

What lets the game down slightly is the “oh, is that it?” ending, which leaves you wondering if you’ve missed some major plot point somewhere along the way. The game has at least two endings, with your performance throughout the game determining which one you see, but neither one makes more sense than the other. It’s a bit of an anti-climax for what is undoubtedly the most unsettling game ever to have graced a home console.

Watch out for Silent Hill 2 on the PS2 later this year, where we can only assume, some other blundering fool has completely missed the importance of that all important rule number 3.

Summary: