Gaming Silent Hill 2/3 [be afraid... be very afraid]

[Muad'Dib]

Let's get one thing strait... this game is [U][I][B]SCARY[/B][/I][/U].

A while ago, I rented Silent Hill 2, and used that thing blockbuster is doing so I got to keep it for a month. At first, I thought it might be mildly creepy. I was surprised at the first ten minutes of the game, wich contain no monsters, but are incredibly creepy.

I was intruiged by the idea of using a broken radio to sense the monsters, and love the way that a wooden rafter can be used to kill the majority of your enemies.

You think it's gonna be one of those games with a great, exciting ending. [spoiler]Then you find out that James was to blame for all of it when he killed his wife.[/spoiler] It truly is an unexpected ending.

But besides all that, the game is incredibly well done, and undenyably scary. Dark corridors, unnaturaly thick mist, strange ambient noises. Speaking of noises, the sound is also well done, and you can use your ears to sense danger. You will always hear a monster before you see it. Also, the music generaly gets spookier and faster when danger is near. You'd think this gets repetitive, but it adds to the horror.

TIP: play the game with the lights [I]out[/I].

I recently rented Silent Hill 3, and had to return it today (without getting past the first area) and was surprised again at how much it had improved. The monsters take on that fidgeting, shaky movement, and are considerably harder to kill. And of course, the plot gets very, very deep. Not to mention it comes with a soundtrack! (love the intro music)

What do [I]you[/I] think of it?

[Viper0529]

I love the silent hill games and beat them all. I think that they are better than the Resident Evil games just because it is more than a meer thriller. Another game similar is Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly. It is like Pokemon Snap on steriods and crack. Very creepy, both of them. I have to say that I like the third more than the second. The first one was okay, but it would was nice for some better graphics. I agree with pheonix. PLAY WITH THE LIGHTS OUT!!!!!

[Mitch]

[size=1] I was planning on making a thread about this game series in general. I think it deserves a nice thread like that.

I'd say this is probably my favorite video game series I've ever had the chance to play (other than Final Fantasy, I guess). Why is that, you might ask?

This is the type of stuff I'm interested in. Psychological horror. To me, pyschological horror is infinitely more scary than the scares that are in Resident Evil. I think the unknown is what scares someone the most. It's the things we can't see that make us the most scared. The things that we can't understand.

This is seen infinitely. People are afraid of the future; death; life; anything and everything that someone fears is something unknown. What could happen, or could be, that is what scares us the most.

The Silent Hill series follows a staple context of horror: a deserted town which people wander into with paranormal activity. As the first game says, "every town has its secrets. Some are just darker."

This game is far more scarier than Resident Evil to me. Resident Evil doesn't really scare me now at this point. It used to when I was ten years old or so, but that was a while ago.

I own Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2. I'm almost to the end of Silent Hill, but I've barely touched Silent Hill 2. If you haven't played Silent Hill, I'd recommend that too. In fact, most people say you should play Silent Hill before Silent Hill 3, since Silent Hill 3 is a direct sequel to the first and answers all the questions.

This series is very atmospheric, mysterious, wonderous. The gameplay of the games itself is simple, even maybe a little less enticing than Resident Evil. You go around, and most often you can just run past monsters. Your character controls like a tank, just like in Resident Evil. The game's survival horror: you're given healing items, weapons, and you have to use them sparingly (on higher difficulty levels anyway). There's riddles every so often which really break it up and add a lot. Plus there's just the entire want to find out what the hell is happening in Silent Hill. I think what makes it what it is is just how atmospheric it all is. The fog, the silence at times, the sounds you hear, the music. It's all about atmosphere.

I'd say the thing I hate is that sometimes the game is so subtle in hinting at what you're supposed to do next. If I didn't have the FAQs I have for these games, I'd be pretty lost. And I don't want to use the FAQs either, but when you're stuck on some point there's not much else you can do. The games get kind of frustrating at times, kind of tedius and meticulous. You end up having to be slow in your inspections of everything as you go. You end up having to search everywhere you can just to find out what you're supposed to do to get to the next point. So if you want to try these games, I'd say you have to be patient. But it's worth it to struggle through it all. The games are highly interesting and entertaining. Not to mention scary at times too.

Another thing that's annoying is wandering around outside Silent Hill. You end up coming on broken streets, and having to take a sidetrack to get to whatever street or place you're trying to get to. It gets kind of annoying, as with what I mentioned above. But if you live past these things, the game isn't bad at all. It's also annoying that you can't go into every house or whatnot you see outside in Silent Hill. It'd be cool if you could, definitely be an interesting thing. But it's understandable that it's not like that.

So yeah. That's about all I have to say. I love this series. I've always loved psychological horror, and that's really what this game is. It's "smart" scaring, unlike Resident Evil.[/size]

[Muad'Dib]

Alright, now you've got me interested in the first one... I could never find it in Blockbuster, and never bothered to look else-where because each of the installments is more or less a seperate story.

Just read your thread on the up-coming fourth installment Mitch, very interesting.

You're deffinately right about the psycological horror thing that Silent Hill has goin' on. When going through a new door, you find yourself praying that you won't hear static when you reach the other side.

One thing that is always a let down with Silent Hill games... you never find out how it all happened! I didn't finish number three, so I'm not sure if that explains further, but on number two, even after seeing the end cut-scene, you wonder "What the hell was that about?"

[sweetie_rei]

I've only played the second one... I thought that it was hella cool...want to play the other ones but i dont have time anymore ya know with school and all it suxs majory. :( I want to play again but my grandparents found it and tried to play and then they talked to me and said that i couldnt play these type of games but i still play resident evil ha ha got them on that one

[James]

[color=#707875]I'm a big Silent Hill fan, though I never played the third game.

I'm also a pretty big Resident Evil fan. And it's interesting to think about how the two franchises are so different.

In some ways, Silent Hill has borrowed a lot of elements from Resident Evil; particularly in terms of control mechanism. But it's done more successfully in Silent Hill, because you get the feeling of being an ordinary person -- not some athletic cop or special forces type person.

Resident Evil is certainly a franchise with a good name for a reason. Despite the stagnation in puzzles, controls and other elements...it's still a pretty fun series. The story is relatively strong and there are some genuinely frightening elements to it.

But Resident Evil pulls a "Scream" -- it tries to shock you and surprise you with sudden surprises. It does succeed at this...but generally I think it does so to the detriment of other horror elements.

Silent Hill is fundamentally different. Silent Hill uses some really basic techniques to scare you. The most-used technique would be disorientation -- Silent Hill deliberately makes you feel lost. You are constantly being thrown between the light and dark environments...and various events occur that are deliberately designed to disorient you.

Another horrific aspect to Silent Hill is the sense of being alone. The enveloping fog...the fact that you often only hear your own footsteps...it all works so well.

I remember when I first entered the school in Silent Hill -- I desperately wanted to take my shoes off. My footsteps were so loud...they were drilling into my head. It was like I was yelling with every step, telling all the creatures my exact location. It worked very well.

Also, I think that Silent Hill's story was on another level. Resident Evil's plot is generally pretty linear and straightforward. But Silent Hill (particularly the first game) has an insanely difficult-to-grasp plot.

Even Konami has had difficulty explaining certain elements of it, because many of their representatives simply don't know the answers. lol

I like the fact that Konami also borrowed from various movies and novels, to create the story. The whole combination of a religious cult and a dark conspiracy...it's a truly terrifying story. [spoiler]The way that the older girl (Anna? I forget her name) was burned in order to keep her alive (but to keep the devil's power manageable) was a really nasty and gritty element to it.[/spoiler]

Silent Hill 2 certainly had a better plot, in terms of it being more easily digestible, but no less horrific. [spoiler]The concept that Silent Hill is like hell -- that it is punishing truly guilty people -- was something that I found to be a devistating and sobering reality. Even the boy (again, I forget his name) who was going around shooting people...constantly seeing them as people who were teasing him about his weight, and also being punished for his mistake over and over again...it was almost a gut-wrenching part of the story. Really depressing.[/spoiler]

So, I'm definitely a fan of the franchise. Silent Hill doesn't come anywhere near being one of my favourite games in terms of gameplay...but as a lesson in fantastic plot, awesome characters and truly horrific situations...it's right at the top of the list.[/color]