Like the genius I am, I decided to wait until summer to start working on my backlog of at least 10 horror games. I’d rather not wait another 6 months for some extra atmosphere, so with sunlight penetrating my blinds I got started with the original Silent Hill. I tried to play this game last year, but I hadn’t bothered to empty my Dad’s old memory card, so I moved onto Silent Hill 2 (I was more excited to play that game anyway).

Silent Hill 2 may have one of the best intros in gaming, but there’s a lot to like about the beginning of Silent Hill 1. Running into deep fog, only for your surroundings to get more metallic, more bloody, more violent, until you get attacked by polygonal monsters…only to wake up in a cafe with funky music. A great sample of the beats of this franchise.

This game creates a rough formula that will be followed by its successors:
- Objective: Reach a marker on the map. This path is usually obstructed, leading to an exploration of the town where you must find alternate routes and hidden items to reach your destination.
- Objective: Explore a building. You’ll be given an interior map, some area-appropriate enemies to deal with, and word based riddles for solving inter-connected puzzles. Then you’ll go to the “Otherworld” version, which is more alien and hostile.

Comparisons to Resident Evil are inevitable, although these games are vastly different. One of the best features of Silent Hill is holding the L2 button to reorient the camera behind you, as it follows you most of the time instead of the entirely fixed camera angles of Resident Evil. Silent Hill needs no inventory management, and is more generous when it comes to health and ammo. I don’t really see the point of comparing these franchises any further, other than their differences helping me appreciate each of them more.

This is because Silent Hill is less about the challenging survival aspects of the genre, and more about creating fear through psychological horror. Atmosphere is the main thing that separates Silent Hill from its competitors. Most notable is the fog, which was introduced to hide terrain loading but was so effective that they kept it for every game. The CG cutscenes give the game a real uncanny valley feel. Dialogue delivery is pretty stilted but I think that actually helps things feel more weird. Of course a lot of what makes the scares effective is due to the beautiful work of Akira Yamaoka. You needn’t have me tell you how amazing his compositions are, but I want to specifically highlight how effective his sound design is for creating horror. The radio static for nearby enemies is perfect for tension, especially when you can’t see them yet. Instead of opting for jumpscaring you with a sudden enemy, the game lets you know they’re nearby far before you ever see them, and so you build up fear yourself from the anticipation. Furthermore the static compliments the more industrial and “noise” songs in the soundtrack, by making you completely uncertain at times whether you’re hearing “music” or an approaching enemy. There was a part of the game where I ran for my life because I couldn’t tell if it was music or enemy noises and I didn’t want to find out. It ended up being one of the scariest moments from a game in recent memory. Honestly just the whole sewers section is terrifying to me.

There are some cool references to be found in the game, too. Every street is named after a famous horror author, and the title song remixes the Twin Peaks theme. Certain songs do sound very inspired by that show’s soundtrack, too.

My only issue with this game is the combat. The enemies suck. They all have weird shapes and erratic movement. The combat is sluggish even for survival horror standards. By the time you’ve aimed the gun and pressed the trigger, the enemy has either moved out of the way or already done tons of damage to you. Bosses are also quite irritating. Now, this does help the fear, since you’re encouraged to dodge enemies, which can be very tense. However other horror games achieve fear through enemies without making it this annoying. I might go back on Easy mode next time so I can get the other endings without getting too annoyed.

Silent Hill 1 is a great game, but it’s missing a bit of that oomph that Silent Hill 2 has. It’s still worth checking out as one of the most effective horror games I’ve ever played.