What is there to say that hasn’t already been said? Lays the foundation for one of the most nuanced, horrific, beautiful and misunderstood gaming franchises to ever exist and it does so gracefully. Maybe it’s a bias for the series and having played this many times as a kid but it still holds up for me today. I just replayed it and even the controls aren’t as obnoxious as it’s contemporaries. It’s also convoluted in all the right ways. Reading every scrap of paper you find to color in the backstory and make sense of why the town of Silent Hill is the way it is or why you are finding you and your daughter in this horrific situation is a part of what makes this game something you think about long after you’ve saved and turned off your console. The “video games aren’t art” argument is tired and we all know it’s dumb but to this day when I hear someone utter that phrase or I read it online I think of Silent Hill and how much more thoughtfully put together it is than 90% of the other games out there. 90% of tv and film too. This original Team Silent series is something special. They only got better. Until they didn’t (still love you, SH4)

the level design is so fucking fantastic like it is legitimately so tight and amazing idk what else to say about it. the tension, the atmosphere, the b movie but entertaining dialogue and story make for a hell of an experience. the puzzles were also amazing, literally could complete pretty much all of them with enough thought and only had to google a puzzle ONCE. my friend told me that the game was so cryptic and confusing that its frustrating but it was cryptic and confusing in a way where i loved solving the puzzles in a mysterious mansion because the atmosphere compelled me and i felt so smart for solving the puzzles