In short this game has its moments and to this day can still hold a creepy atmosphere but the clunkiness and general very slow pace of progression make it, for me personally, a bit tedious to play.
The Good:
+ Graphics
+ Sound design
+ Game world
+ Puzzles
The Alright:
~ Story
The Bad:
- Progression
- Pacing
- Boss Fights
- Controls
First of all I have to preface this with, that I am not a retrogamer and did not grow up in the PS1 era but rather with the PS2/Original XBOX. So I'm looking at this as someone that is used to more modern gaming and does not have any nostalgic feeling towards this game.
The Good
Graphics: Despite or even because of its "retro" graphics this game presents a great creepy atmosphere, where, because of the lack of polygons, alot of the horrors are still left for your imagination. Also the use of the fog and the darkness, where only a small part of your nearest surroundings are shown at any given time, give a great sense of being lost, isolated and vulnerable. In contrast to most modern day horror titles this is also the main source of the tension and creepiness instead of playing a loud noise to make you jump scare every other minute. I prefer this form of horror by a mile.
Sound design: Already speaking of sounds, the sound design in this game is amazing. The radio starting to crackle when enemies are nearby makes you cautious and filling you with dread even before you can spot them, making every move even more tention filled to spot where the enemies actually are. Generally the sounds of the monsters and surroundings are great. The music also does a good job at raising tension and even stress sometimes.
Game World: There is a great variety of well designed and detailed locations, that all have a unique feel to them: Different parts of Silent Hill, a hospital, a school, etc. They really inspire you to explore these places for every nook and cranny.
Puzzles: I personally liked the Puzzles as they provided a nice challenge while also maintaining a wide variety, so to not make it stale over time.
The Alright:
Story: Actually before starting this game I knew nothing about the story and was hoping for an intricate mystery around Silent Hill. What I got was mostly "Where is my daughter?" and towards the ending some occult stuff, which was fine but not as much as I expected. The dialogue and the voice acting between the characters are also not that great. All in all, it was alright.
The Bad:
Progression: Generally the game does not do a good job at communicating what your current objective actually is. I found myself oftentimes in a state of confusion, what I'm supposed to be doing next. I actually had to look at a walkthrough a few times because I simply got stuck and became frustrated. An example for this is, when you are supposed to notice a small hole in the ground, where a key is hidden. I spent a good 20 minutes being stuck at that point before I just asked the internet for advice. Also in the end I feel like the character becomes a bit too powerful, so standard enemies just become cannon fodder, which takes away from the general horror at that point.
Pacing: I think the game is just too long and does not have a great progression story wise. In the first half it is, as already mentioned, basically just a guy asking "Where is my daughter?" over and over again while in the end it kinda devolves into a key collecting simulator, which at some point feels drawn out and you just want to finally come to an end.
Boss Fights: The controls are just way to clunky to engage in any interesting boss fights. It often boils down to just tanking hits with first aid kits, while trying to deal as much damage in the mean time. There is absolutely no sense in developing tactics to deal with bosses.
Controls: The general feel of the game is just super clunky and takes away alot of the fun for me. Especially the walking with only a d-pad available just feels very imprecise and annoying. Taking into consideration that alot of this game is actually nothing but walking, this can become pretty tedious after a while. Also a big negative for me is the camera. Why is the camera always pointed at you, when you enter a room, instead of showing the room ahead, where most of the time enemies spawn? I know that alot of this comes from the technical limitation of the PS1 controller only having a d-pad but in the end it still got noticebly in the way of my enjoyment for this game, so I still wanted to mention it.
Conclusion:
All in all, who would I recommend this to? If you are interested in the Silent Hill series as a whole I think this is still worthy of playing, as long as you are aware of the jankiness of this game. Else I can only really recommend it to retrogamers that love this kind of style and this era of gaming.
The Good:
+ Graphics
+ Sound design
+ Game world
+ Puzzles
The Alright:
~ Story
The Bad:
- Progression
- Pacing
- Boss Fights
- Controls
First of all I have to preface this with, that I am not a retrogamer and did not grow up in the PS1 era but rather with the PS2/Original XBOX. So I'm looking at this as someone that is used to more modern gaming and does not have any nostalgic feeling towards this game.
The Good
Graphics: Despite or even because of its "retro" graphics this game presents a great creepy atmosphere, where, because of the lack of polygons, alot of the horrors are still left for your imagination. Also the use of the fog and the darkness, where only a small part of your nearest surroundings are shown at any given time, give a great sense of being lost, isolated and vulnerable. In contrast to most modern day horror titles this is also the main source of the tension and creepiness instead of playing a loud noise to make you jump scare every other minute. I prefer this form of horror by a mile.
Sound design: Already speaking of sounds, the sound design in this game is amazing. The radio starting to crackle when enemies are nearby makes you cautious and filling you with dread even before you can spot them, making every move even more tention filled to spot where the enemies actually are. Generally the sounds of the monsters and surroundings are great. The music also does a good job at raising tension and even stress sometimes.
Game World: There is a great variety of well designed and detailed locations, that all have a unique feel to them: Different parts of Silent Hill, a hospital, a school, etc. They really inspire you to explore these places for every nook and cranny.
Puzzles: I personally liked the Puzzles as they provided a nice challenge while also maintaining a wide variety, so to not make it stale over time.
The Alright:
Story: Actually before starting this game I knew nothing about the story and was hoping for an intricate mystery around Silent Hill. What I got was mostly "Where is my daughter?" and towards the ending some occult stuff, which was fine but not as much as I expected. The dialogue and the voice acting between the characters are also not that great. All in all, it was alright.
The Bad:
Progression: Generally the game does not do a good job at communicating what your current objective actually is. I found myself oftentimes in a state of confusion, what I'm supposed to be doing next. I actually had to look at a walkthrough a few times because I simply got stuck and became frustrated. An example for this is, when you are supposed to notice a small hole in the ground, where a key is hidden. I spent a good 20 minutes being stuck at that point before I just asked the internet for advice. Also in the end I feel like the character becomes a bit too powerful, so standard enemies just become cannon fodder, which takes away from the general horror at that point.
Pacing: I think the game is just too long and does not have a great progression story wise. In the first half it is, as already mentioned, basically just a guy asking "Where is my daughter?" over and over again while in the end it kinda devolves into a key collecting simulator, which at some point feels drawn out and you just want to finally come to an end.
Boss Fights: The controls are just way to clunky to engage in any interesting boss fights. It often boils down to just tanking hits with first aid kits, while trying to deal as much damage in the mean time. There is absolutely no sense in developing tactics to deal with bosses.
Controls: The general feel of the game is just super clunky and takes away alot of the fun for me. Especially the walking with only a d-pad available just feels very imprecise and annoying. Taking into consideration that alot of this game is actually nothing but walking, this can become pretty tedious after a while. Also a big negative for me is the camera. Why is the camera always pointed at you, when you enter a room, instead of showing the room ahead, where most of the time enemies spawn? I know that alot of this comes from the technical limitation of the PS1 controller only having a d-pad but in the end it still got noticebly in the way of my enjoyment for this game, so I still wanted to mention it.
Conclusion:
All in all, who would I recommend this to? If you are interested in the Silent Hill series as a whole I think this is still worthy of playing, as long as you are aware of the jankiness of this game. Else I can only really recommend it to retrogamers that love this kind of style and this era of gaming.