LIGHT SPOILERS.
presenting an anxiety-inducing hauntological dreamscape, silent hill has made me feel the most anxious a video game has ever made me feel. from the get go, the imagery of silent hill is inescapable and haunting, every other frame an emotionally loaded memory that eventually feels like one's own, rather than Harry's, the protagonist. an unreliable narrator and a uniquely oppressive and instable world contribute to an experience that leaves no doubt as to how this game became a cult classic.
why the four stars? my boyfriend and i didn't go into this game expecting perfection. i was lucky enough to ride shotgun on our adventure through silent hill, not having to deal with the badly aged controls, worsened by the emulation on a modern controller. i was therefore spared the many frustrating "achs" and "oughs" my boyfriend emitted whenever the controls would jank into an incontrollable mess. however, i did not have to play through the awful boss fights to experience exactly how terrible they were. only watching from the sidelines made me irritated, and made me think their respective designs sucked ass, even for a 1999 game.
luckily, of these sections there were few, and they didn't end up taking away too much from the overall game experience. even if this might be a four star rating, i'd still surmise that silent hill is one of the best horror games ever made, and a classic that is well deserving of its title.
presenting an anxiety-inducing hauntological dreamscape, silent hill has made me feel the most anxious a video game has ever made me feel. from the get go, the imagery of silent hill is inescapable and haunting, every other frame an emotionally loaded memory that eventually feels like one's own, rather than Harry's, the protagonist. an unreliable narrator and a uniquely oppressive and instable world contribute to an experience that leaves no doubt as to how this game became a cult classic.
why the four stars? my boyfriend and i didn't go into this game expecting perfection. i was lucky enough to ride shotgun on our adventure through silent hill, not having to deal with the badly aged controls, worsened by the emulation on a modern controller. i was therefore spared the many frustrating "achs" and "oughs" my boyfriend emitted whenever the controls would jank into an incontrollable mess. however, i did not have to play through the awful boss fights to experience exactly how terrible they were. only watching from the sidelines made me irritated, and made me think their respective designs sucked ass, even for a 1999 game.
luckily, of these sections there were few, and they didn't end up taking away too much from the overall game experience. even if this might be a four star rating, i'd still surmise that silent hill is one of the best horror games ever made, and a classic that is well deserving of its title.