What do you think of the Silent Hill franchise? What are your favorite games in the franchise and which ones are your least favorite and why?
What Do You Think About Silent Hill?
- Thread starter Wasker1995
- Start date
I don't think I have ever played a Silent Hill to full completion. I might look for the time to go through all the games sometime. I'd plan on playing them in release order, but if someone has a better suggestion as to how they should be played, I'd like to know.
I really like Silent Hill. My favorite is Silent Hill 2. I don't not like any of them really. The universe and lore of the franchise interest me as a whole so I'm always ready to play another Silent Hill game.
I'll be honest: I've never played a Silent Hill game. Most of the games I played as a kid got played because they were games my brother had and that was one he didn't play.
I keep thinking I should give it a go but I honestly don't have a whole lot of time for gaming nowadays. Maybe one day.
I keep thinking I should give it a go but I honestly don't have a whole lot of time for gaming nowadays. Maybe one day.
Silent Hill is ok, but everything seem to go downhill when or after 4 came out. Downpoor is most evident, but my fav game is Silent Hill 3.
It used to be my favorite game franchise, and I still hold SH1-4 in high regard. I have probably played the first four games over twenty times each, probably more for the latter three. I first got into the series in 2003 and since then I've completely immersed myself into its universe.
I think there is truly something unique about Silent Hill which cannot be found in any other video game series. While each game has its own distinct style, there's always some sort of dreamy, surreal atmosphere looming over them. Much of this is of course thanks to the amazing sound design. My favorites are SH1 and SH4 because of their incredible stories. SH2 and SH3 are great too though, and SH3 is probably the funniest one to replay but its story is the weakest of the bunch.
Sadly, everything went downhill with the release of Origins. Since then, the series has been stuck in a creative blockage that has developers obsessed with copying SH2 over and over again, as well as reusing the same type of aestethics, monsters, and plots. The series saw a small resurgence with P.T. and Silent Hills but we all know how that one turned out, lol. Nowadays, Silent Hill is truly dead to me and I've lost all sense of hope in Konami.
I think there is truly something unique about Silent Hill which cannot be found in any other video game series. While each game has its own distinct style, there's always some sort of dreamy, surreal atmosphere looming over them. Much of this is of course thanks to the amazing sound design. My favorites are SH1 and SH4 because of their incredible stories. SH2 and SH3 are great too though, and SH3 is probably the funniest one to replay but its story is the weakest of the bunch.
Sadly, everything went downhill with the release of Origins. Since then, the series has been stuck in a creative blockage that has developers obsessed with copying SH2 over and over again, as well as reusing the same type of aestethics, monsters, and plots. The series saw a small resurgence with P.T. and Silent Hills but we all know how that one turned out, lol. Nowadays, Silent Hill is truly dead to me and I've lost all sense of hope in Konami.
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I have played SH1-SH:Homecoming and loved them all even though I never finished Homecoming.
I love SH2 and SH3, but I have the give SH3 the edge because the art direction in that game is still unbeatable to this day. Every room and location is memorable and has some sort of creepy detail that makes me shiver.
Also, I have to give love to SH: ****tered Memories. That game was addictive to play over and over even if it gets predictable once you have played it more than once. The twist in that game is UNBELIEVABLY good.
I love SH2 and SH3, but I have the give SH3 the edge because the art direction in that game is still unbeatable to this day. Every room and location is memorable and has some sort of creepy detail that makes me shiver.
Also, I have to give love to SH: ****tered Memories. That game was addictive to play over and over even if it gets predictable once you have played it more than once. The twist in that game is UNBELIEVABLY good.
I played and own the first three games. I still think the best one was Silent Hill 1 - it had the most disturbing atmosphere (especially if you played the Japanese version with those knife-carrying deformed dwarves), although the plot was a bit too convoluted. Also, back in '99 it really stood out because it was the polar opposite of Resident Evil - but back then devs actually were after the games their competitors were not making...those were glorious days indeed. Everyone's crazy about SH2, which became the face of the franchise even though it was more of a spin-off than a real sequel (kinda like RE4 or RE7): I am not bashing it, but I never found it as scary as SH1. It did tackle more mature themes, but it never really unnerve me. Pyramid Head still casts a long shadow on the horror genre though: enemies like the Executioner from RE5 or the Butcher from The Evil Within are just its clones. SH3 is the best-looking horror game on PS2 (it kind of shows what a real, triple-A RE game would've looked like on the system) and I liked that it was a continuation of SH1, although not as disturbing. If I had to rate them, I'd say
1) Silent Hill 1
2) Silent Hill 3
3) Silent Hill 2
I wasn't intrigued by SH4: The Room and I never bothered with the following games (which are not very good, as far as I know - they are like the STV Hellraiser sequels). I wouldn't mind seeing a remake of one of the first three games or, even better, a new sequel made by a reformed Team Silent...I never got to play PT (I didn't have a PS4 back then), but, from what I've seen, it didn't really feel like Silent Hill. Also, first person feels even more wrong with SH, given how cinematic the series has always been.
I've only seen the first movie in full (I didn't make it past the first third on the second one) and it was bad imho...even though it was a whole different game than the RE movies: the look was spot on most of the time, but everything else felt out of place.
1) Silent Hill 1
2) Silent Hill 3
3) Silent Hill 2
I wasn't intrigued by SH4: The Room and I never bothered with the following games (which are not very good, as far as I know - they are like the STV Hellraiser sequels). I wouldn't mind seeing a remake of one of the first three games or, even better, a new sequel made by a reformed Team Silent...I never got to play PT (I didn't have a PS4 back then), but, from what I've seen, it didn't really feel like Silent Hill. Also, first person feels even more wrong with SH, given how cinematic the series has always been.
I've only seen the first movie in full (I didn't make it past the first third on the second one) and it was bad imho...even though it was a whole different game than the RE movies: the look was spot on most of the time, but everything else felt out of place.
A great franchise. I played some of it's games, from 1 to 4, and Origins (I didn't finish this last one).
Compared to Resident Evil, it's more macabre, and the story has more of a psychological/mental base.
I find it interesting the change between the normal world and the distorted one, with this last one being creepy/ugly, and defying the laws of physics.
Compared to Resident Evil, it's more macabre, and the story has more of a psychological/mental base.
I find it interesting the change between the normal world and the distorted one, with this last one being creepy/ugly, and defying the laws of physics.
As much as I enjoyed them, I've never got to grips with them as much as I have the Resident Evil series.
I've only played the first 3 games through once, with Silent Hill 2 being my favourite. I'm well aware that there's multiple endings available with the series, but to date haven't brought myself to play them again.. Maybe that will change once I have a bit more time on my hands to do so.
I wasn't that bothered about SH4 so I never finished it, though I'm told it's a decent game in its own right. I've never seen or played Origins or ****tered Memories, though I now own them both so it might be time to put that right. I played through the opening hour or so of Homecoming which seemed ok but it didn't grip me enough to finish it, and I've never played Downpour.
Don't ever, ever mention Book of Memories. Ever.
I've only played the first 3 games through once, with Silent Hill 2 being my favourite. I'm well aware that there's multiple endings available with the series, but to date haven't brought myself to play them again.. Maybe that will change once I have a bit more time on my hands to do so.
I wasn't that bothered about SH4 so I never finished it, though I'm told it's a decent game in its own right. I've never seen or played Origins or ****tered Memories, though I now own them both so it might be time to put that right. I played through the opening hour or so of Homecoming which seemed ok but it didn't grip me enough to finish it, and I've never played Downpour.
Don't ever, ever mention Book of Memories. Ever.
I played and finished Silent Hill 1, 2 and 3. I played The Room, and I feel I got pretty far a long, but I eventually just gave up on it. I think I probably didn't like it, but I was certainly trying my best to finish it. I really liked the first two installments, but I didn't care for much of any of the games that came after that. Silent Hill 1 and 2 are great, though.
If you stopped there, you would not enjoy the following games. I have only played Homecoming which was fine, but it has these parry mechanics for the monsters, so single enemies take about 4-5 minutes to kill apiece. So, that kind of ruins the experience. I never finished THAT one because of it.
"so single enemies take about 4-5 minutes to kill apiece"
That's sounds more like a boss than a regular, lower level enemy. It sucks when game makers do that. I've seen that in games I've played in the past, I'm sure. It sure sounds familiar. It uses up so much of your ammo and health when they do that.
That's sounds more like a boss than a regular, lower level enemy. It sucks when game makers do that. I've seen that in games I've played in the past, I'm sure. It sure sounds familiar. It uses up so much of your ammo and health when they do that.
The worst part is that you can't really skip past enemies in Homecoming like you could in previous games. Silent Hill games have always given players the opportunity to flee past many enemies if you know where you're going, but Homecoming made defeating almost every common enemey a must in order to proceed which makes the combat extremely frustrating.
I'm sure it is quite frustrating. I feel in videos games there are three levels of gameplay:
fun, challenging, and downright frustrating, in that order. And there are very fine lines between all three.
But I wouldn't have a problem with game makers doing that if they did at least one, simple thing:
Automatically give the player at least one infinite weapon at the beginning of the game that they can carry with them everywhere they go, right to the very end of the game. It doesn't have to be the most powerful weapon in the game. It can be a pistol or a submachine gun
Do that and you can throw all the enemies and (for lack of a better term) un-retreatable situations you want to at me. I'll be OK with it.
When I had a Dreamcast, I played a game called D2. I really enjoyed playing that game. I finished it multiple times. When you ran from one cabin to the other on a snowy mountain top, you would encountered enemies and the game would immediately go from third person to first person, and it was mandatory for you to defeat the enemies before moving on. You either killed them or they killed you and you restarted from your last save. But I had my trusty infinite submachine gun, which I didn't have to do anything to earn, and I was fine. And it was a good thing they gave it to me, too. Because they throw a lot of situations like that at you and it was always multiple enemies, at least three at a time.
When I played Parasite Eve 2 on the very first Playstation, the 32 bit grey console, you didn't get an infinite weapon per say, but there was always a box of infiniite 9mm rounds nearby everywhere you went. And, again, it was good that they did that, because you face a lot of enemies. Every time an enemy encounter occurred, everything would freeze, the filter would change to black and white, and then go back to color again, and you were stuck in that situation, until, again, you defeated your enemies or they defeated you. Get killed, and, of course, you have to revert back to your most recent save.
I even recall in the original Resident Evil 2, if you chose Arrange Game, you automatically got the infinite submacine gun, the infinite gatling gun, and the infinite rocket launcher. They would be in your item box when you reached the police station. But I also finished the game on regular play as well. I don't need the game to be too easy
fun, challenging, and downright frustrating, in that order. And there are very fine lines between all three.
But I wouldn't have a problem with game makers doing that if they did at least one, simple thing:
Automatically give the player at least one infinite weapon at the beginning of the game that they can carry with them everywhere they go, right to the very end of the game. It doesn't have to be the most powerful weapon in the game. It can be a pistol or a submachine gun
Do that and you can throw all the enemies and (for lack of a better term) un-retreatable situations you want to at me. I'll be OK with it.
When I had a Dreamcast, I played a game called D2. I really enjoyed playing that game. I finished it multiple times. When you ran from one cabin to the other on a snowy mountain top, you would encountered enemies and the game would immediately go from third person to first person, and it was mandatory for you to defeat the enemies before moving on. You either killed them or they killed you and you restarted from your last save. But I had my trusty infinite submachine gun, which I didn't have to do anything to earn, and I was fine. And it was a good thing they gave it to me, too. Because they throw a lot of situations like that at you and it was always multiple enemies, at least three at a time.
When I played Parasite Eve 2 on the very first Playstation, the 32 bit grey console, you didn't get an infinite weapon per say, but there was always a box of infiniite 9mm rounds nearby everywhere you went. And, again, it was good that they did that, because you face a lot of enemies. Every time an enemy encounter occurred, everything would freeze, the filter would change to black and white, and then go back to color again, and you were stuck in that situation, until, again, you defeated your enemies or they defeated you. Get killed, and, of course, you have to revert back to your most recent save.
I even recall in the original Resident Evil 2, if you chose Arrange Game, you automatically got the infinite submacine gun, the infinite gatling gun, and the infinite rocket launcher. They would be in your item box when you reached the police station. But I also finished the game on regular play as well. I don't need the game to be too easy
I guess I'll add my contribution.
I enjoyed Silent Hill 1 and bought it when it was released, beat it a few times then stopped playing it for about a decade or so then I played it again on a different platform and enjoyed it again, so I think it's fair to say that I hold it in high esteem for the genre which was growing in popularity at the time, but all-in-all nothing really compels me to stick with the franchise as a whole, as I never even finished Silent Hill 2 despite everyone telling me how awesome and epic it was, I just kind of lost interest, despite it being absolutely not a bad game on its own right.
Because of this, I rank it 3rd place in the classic survival horror "Hall of Fame", simply due to the fact that I've played Resident Evil and Parasite Eve more than I have Silent Hill. Whether people like it or not, number of hours you've spent playing a game or genre is perhaps the leading indicator on how much you like it. I say this because I've seen people play games for hundreds of hours then jump on forums and start criticizing it just to score internet cool points. You aren't fooling me.
So, based on that thesis, I would rate my top 3 survival horror titles as thus:
1) Resident Evil
2) Parasite Eve
3) Silent Hill
I enjoyed Silent Hill 1 and bought it when it was released, beat it a few times then stopped playing it for about a decade or so then I played it again on a different platform and enjoyed it again, so I think it's fair to say that I hold it in high esteem for the genre which was growing in popularity at the time, but all-in-all nothing really compels me to stick with the franchise as a whole, as I never even finished Silent Hill 2 despite everyone telling me how awesome and epic it was, I just kind of lost interest, despite it being absolutely not a bad game on its own right.
Because of this, I rank it 3rd place in the classic survival horror "Hall of Fame", simply due to the fact that I've played Resident Evil and Parasite Eve more than I have Silent Hill. Whether people like it or not, number of hours you've spent playing a game or genre is perhaps the leading indicator on how much you like it. I say this because I've seen people play games for hundreds of hours then jump on forums and start criticizing it just to score internet cool points. You aren't fooling me
.So, based on that thesis, I would rate my top 3 survival horror titles as thus:
1) Resident Evil
2) Parasite Eve
3) Silent Hill