Harry Mason is taking his daughter on vacation. Little does he know this will turn out to be a holiday from hell. And I'm not talking dodgy food, builders outside the apartment and Germans nicking the sun loungers at half six in the morning.....
Harry and Cheryl are off to Silent Hill for their holidays and while Cheryl sleeps in the back seat, Harry is passed in his car by a smart looking female motorcycle cop. A little later he passes what looks like the same bike dumped on the hard shoulder with no one in sight. Suddenly there is someone in front of the car... Harry is going to hit them... Quickly he turns the steering wheel in panic but loses control of the car and then loses conciousness. He wakes later in a gully with a couple of cuts and bruises and a stonking headache and turns to see how his daughter is. She's gone. The seatbealt is undone and she is nowhere to be seen. It seems unusually cold all of a sudden and snow starts to fall. Where could Cheryl be? Harry sees lights of a nearby town and heads toward it to see if he can get someone to help him find his daughter........Silent Hill is the latest in the Horror game category and if you compare the Resident Evil series to the George Romero 'Zombies' films then Silent Hill must come under the Stephen King label because this is one spooky, weird and twisted mutha of a game. You start the game in the streets of the town where it is snowing and extremely foggy. Wait a minute. Is that Cheryl you can see. Quick follow her down that spooky looking alley. Next minute you know you're coming round again in the local diner and that good looking copper from earlier is at your side. She gives you a gun and tells you to stay put until she returns. What's going on?..... Are you dreaming?......Where are you? Now I know if that was me I would stay put and cower under the cheeseburger counter but Harry has to find his daughter and off he goes again into the snow and fog...
You play the part of Harry in his quest to find his missing daughter and boy are there some strange goings on in this town. I bet inhabitants from Silent Hill go to Racoon City for their holiday and find it relaxing and tranquil. Without giving too much away all in Silent Hill is not what it seems and there are some strange people and creatures lurking in the shadows. There is a big similarity to Resident Evil in the way that the game is played with respects to finding keys to open doors and objects to fulfill certain tasks but Harry Mason isn't the macho Chris Redfield or athletic Jill Valentine. Harry is just a normal guy who has lost his daughter and will do anything to get her back. Ammo and wepaons can be obtained on your way round but fighting is not always the best option. Puzzles vary in difficulty and some tasks are completed using the strangest objects. Notes scrawled in blood are scattered about giving clues. There are several big areas including the school and the hospital to explore and these are interlinked by the demon infested streets and alleyways. Now if you are still with me and want to know more about the game then read on. If you are spooked by what I've said then play something jolly and funny like Resident Evil.
Silent Hill utilises a third person perspective view and all the characters and backgrounds are polygon rendered as opposed to the fixed backrounds and camera angles of the Resident Evil series. Scary camera angles are still used in parts but you have the ability to look around using one one the shoulder buttons. The graphics probably look less impressive because of the full 3d rendereing but you feel more submersed in the action as you can peek round corners etc. The backgrounds again are less detailed but are still good enough to do a job. When in the streets you are submerged by a mega fog which causes real poor visibility therefore you don't see what is attacking you or where it is coming from until the last second. Scary! The fog also cures the problem of pop-up and enables the game to run quickly and smoothly. When you are in buildings it always seems to be dark (as it always does in horror films).
Silent Hill comes with a good horror movie score which drifts in and out of the game but as with most games and movies of this genre the scariest sound is silence. The spot effects and dialogue are also done well.
I really don't know what possesses me to buy these sort of games as they always freak me out as I get so involved in the storylines. I was the same with the Resident Evil series. I got spooked and freaked out playing them but always seemed to be obsessed with what would happen next until they were finished. It is the same with Silent Hill. Being a particularly linear type of game Konami have added five different endings to enhance replay value. Resident Evil 1 & 2 relied heavily on shock factor to provide the thrills. Silent Hill is pure twisted horror. Imagine Nightmare on Elm Street crossed with Hellraiser and directed by Stephen King. This is Silent Hill. I am now starting to realize why I have such weird dreams. I thought it was just because I liked a cheese sandwich before bed....
