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Silent Hill (video game)
Encyclopedia
Silent Hill is a survival horror video game for the PlayStation and the first installment in the Silent Hill
series. Published by Konami
and developed by Team Silent
, a Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo group, the game was released in North America in January 1999, and in Japan and Europe later that year. Silent Hill uses a third-person perspective, with real-time
3D environments
. To mitigate limitations of the hardware, developers liberally used fog and darkness to muddle the graphics. Unlike earlier survival horror games that focused on protagonists with combat training, the player character
of Silent Hill is an "everyman
".
The game follows Harry Mason as he searches for his missing adopted daughter in the series' multiverse
, which consists of alternate dimension
s based on the series' eponymous fictional American town; stumbling upon a cult
conducting a ritual to revive a deity it worships, he discovers her true origin. Five game endings are possible, depending on actions taken by the player, including one joke ending.
Silent Hill received positive reviews from critics on its release and was commercially successful. It is considered a defining title in the survival horror genre, moving away from B movie
horror elements, toward a psychological style of horror
emphasizing atmosphere. Various adaptations of Silent Hill have been released, including a 2001 visual novel
, the 2006 feature film Silent Hill
, and a 2009 "reimagining" of the game, titled Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
.
The objective of the player is to guide main protagonist and player character Harry Mason through monster-filled alternate dimensions as he searches for his lost daughter Cheryl. Silent Hills gameplay consists of combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving. The game uses a third-person view, with the camera occasionally switching to other angles for dramatic effect, in pre-scripted areas. This is a change from older survival horror games, which shifted constantly through a variety of camera angles. Because Silent Hill has no heads-up display
, the player must consult a separate menu to check Harry's "health
".
Harry confronts monsters in each area with both melee weapon
s and firearm
s. An ordinary man with minimal experience with firearms, Harry cannot sustain many blows from enemies, and gasps for breath after sprinting. His inexperience in handling firearms means that his aim, and therefore the player's targeting of enemies, is often unsteady. A portable radio alerts Harry to the presence of nearby creatures with bursts of static
.
The player must locate and collect maps of each area, stylistically similar to tourist maps. Accessible from the menu and readable only when sufficient light is present, each map is marked with places of interest. Visibility is mostly low due to fog and darkness; the latter is prevalent in an alternate dimension known as the "Otherworld". The player locates a pocket-size flashlight early in the game, but the light beam illuminates only a few feet. Navigating through Silent Hill requires the player to find keys and solve puzzles.
Harry encounters a symbol marked throughout Silent Hill, said by Dahlia to enable the Otherworld take over the town if its multiplication continues. Eventually, the player has an opportunity to save Kaufmann from a monster's attack and the Otherworld begins taking over the town. After being told by Dahlia that the girl from the road is a demon responsible for the symbol's duplication and urged by her to stop the child, because if he does not, Cheryl will die, Harry is attacked by Cybil, who is parasitized
by a creature. The player must choose whether to save her or kill her.
The girl appears again, and is put under Dahlia's control by the Flauros. Dahlia arrives and explains that she manipulated Harry into trapping it, since only he could approach it. It is a phantasm of her daughter Alessa, who possesses vast supernatural powers. Harry awakens in another dimension. He encounters Lisa, who realizes she is dead and begins transforming; Harry flees, horrified. Her diary reveals that she nursed Alessa during a secret forced hospitalization of the latter in Alchemilla.
Harry soon finds Dahlia along with the apparition of Alessa and Alessa herself, charred. Seven years earlier, Dahlia had conducted a ritual that impregnated Alessa with the cult's deity through immolation; Alessa survived because her status as the deity's "vessel" rendered her immortal. Alessa's resistance to the ritual caused her soul to be bisected, preventing the birth. One half of her soul went to baby Cheryl, whom Harry and his wife had adopted. Dahlia then cast a spell that would draw it back to Alessa. Sensing Cheryl's return, Alessa manifested the symbols in the town to prevent the birth. During the endings in which Cybil survives, Dahlia reveals these symbols to be repellent. With Alessa's plan thwarted and her soul rejoined, the deity is revived and possesses her.
Four different endings are available depending on whether Harry saves Cybil or Kaufmann, or both. The "bad" ending occurs if neither is saved; Alessa electrocutes Dahlia and then attacks Harry, who ultimately defeats her. Cheryl's voice thanks Harry for freeing her and Alessa vanishes. Harry collapses and the game cuts to his corpse in the crashed car. The "bad +" ending finds Kaufmann dead and Cybil alive; after the echoing of Cheryl's voice and Alessa's disappearance, Cybil walks to Harry and convinces him to flee. The "good" ending finds Cybil dead and Kaufmann alive; Kaufmann is revealed to have secretly allied with Dahlia and enabled Alessa's hospitalization. Feeling betrayed, he forces the deity out of Alessa, also causing her to vanish. After Harry defeats it, the deity disappears and Alessa appears, who manifests a baby reincarnation
of herself, gives it to Harry, enables their escape from the dimension, and then dies. As Harry escapes with the baby, a transformed Lisa prevents Kaufmann from leaving. In the "good +" ending, Harry escapes with Cybil and the baby, with Lisa again stopping Kaufmann. The joke ending sees an abduction of Harry by extraterrestrial
s.
, a group of staff members within the Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo studio. The new owners of its parent company Konami
sought to produce a game that would be successful in the United States. For this reason, a Hollywood-like
atmosphere was proposed for Silent Hill. The staff members that were assigned to the game's development had failed at their previous projects. They intended to leave Konami, as they were not allowed to realize their own ideas, and were not compatible with the company's other teams. According to composer Akira Yamaoka
, the developers did not know how to proceed with the Silent Hill project, either. As the time passed, the personnel and management of Konami lost their faith in the game, and the members of Team Silent increasingly felt like outsiders. Despite the profit-oriented approach of the parent company, however, the developers of Silent Hill had much artistic freedom because the game was still produced as in the era of lower-budget 2D titles
. Eventually, the development staff decided to ignore the limits of Konami's initial plan, and to make Silent Hill a game that would appeal to the emotions of players instead.
For this purpose, the team introduced a "fear of the unknown" as a psychological type of horror
. The plot was made vague and occasionally contradictory to leave its true meaning in the dark, and to make players reflect upon unexplained parts. Director Keiichiro Toyama
created the game's scenario, while programmer Hiroyuki Owaku
wrote the text for the riddles. The localization company Latina International, which had previously worked on Final Fantasy VII
, translated the script into English. The town of Silent Hill is an interpretation of a small American community as imagined by the Japanese team. It was based on Western literature and films, as well as on depictions of American towns in European
and Russian culture
. The game's joke ending came out of a suggestion box
created to find alternative reasons for the occurrences in Silent Hill.
Artist Takayoshi Sato corrected inconsistencies in the plot, and designed the game's cast of characters. As a young employee, Sato was initially restricted to basic tasks such as font
design and file sorting. He also created 3D demos and presentations, and taught older staff members the fundamentals of 3D modeling
. However, he was not credited for this work as he did not have as much respect within Konami as older employees. Sato eventually approached the company's higher-ups with a short demo movie he had rendered, and threatened to withhold this technical knowledge from other staff members if he was not assigned to 3D work. As a consequence, his superior had to give in to his demand, and he was allowed to do character designs. Instead of relying on illustrations, Sato conceived the characters of Silent Hill while creating their computer-generated
models. He gave each their own distinctive characteristics, but made Harry almost completely neutral as he wanted to avoid forcing interpretations of the game on the players. Creating the skull shapes for the faces of the American cast was difficult because he had no Caucasian
co-workers to use for reference. Although Sato was largely responsible for the game's cinematics and characters at this point, his superior still did not want to fully credit his work, and intended to assign a visual supervisor to him. To prevent this from happening, Sato volunteered to create the full-motion videos of Silent Hill by himself. Over the course of two and a half years, he lived in the development team's office, as he had to render the scenes with the approximately 150 Unix
-based computers of his coworkers after they left work at the end of a day.
Sato estimated the game's budget at US$3–5 million. He said that the development team intended to make Silent Hill a masterpiece rather than a traditional sales-oriented game, and that they opted for an engaging story, which would persist over time – similar to successful literature. The game debuted at the 1998 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Atlanta, Georgia
, United States, where the presentations of movies and in-game scenes garnered applause from the audience. This favorable reception persuaded Konami to allot more personnel and public relation initiatives to the project. Konami later showcased Silent Hill at the European Computer Trade Show
in London, and included a demo
with its stealth game Metal Gear Solid
in Japan.
The names and designs of some Silent Hill creatures and puzzles are based on books enjoyed by the character of Alessa, including The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle
and Lewis Carroll
's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
. The game contains several real-life references, particularly in characters' names. Cheryl Mason's first name is based on actress Sheryl Lee
's first name, and Lisa Garland's surname is taken from actress Judy Garland
. "Michael Kaufmann" is a combination of Troma Studios producers Michael Herz's and Lloyd Kaufmann's first name and surname, respectively. Alessa's original name was "Asia", and Dahlia's was "Daria", based on the first names of actresses Asia Argento
and Daria Nicolodi
– Argento's mother. Harry's name was originally "Humbert", and Cheryl's was "Dolores", in reference to the protagonist and title character of Vladimir Nabokov
's novel Lolita
. The American staff altered these names, as they considered them too uncommon.
creation and audio mastering
. Yamaoka did not watch game scenes, but created the music independently from its visuals. The style of his compositions was influenced by Twin Peaks
composer Angelo Badalamenti
and the bands Metallica
and Depeche Mode
. To differentiate Silent Hill from other games as much as possible, and to support its cold and rusty feel, Yamaoka opted for industrial music
. When he presented his musical pieces to the other staff members for the first time, they misinterpreted their sound as a game bug
. Yamaoka had to explain that this noise was intended for the music, and the team only withdrew their initial objection after he elaborated on his reasons for choosing this style.
On March 5, 1999, the album Silent Hill Original Soundtracks was released in Japan. The 41st track on the CD, the ending theme "Esperándote", was composed by Rika Muranaka
. After Yamaoka had approached her to create a piece of music for the game, she suggested the use of bandoneón
s, violin
s, and a Spanish-speaking singer. It was decided to make the song a tango
, and Muranaka composed the melody for the English lyrics she had conceived. When she arrived in Buenos Aires
, Argentina
, to record the translated Spanish lyrics with Argentine
singer Vanesa Quiroz, Muranaka realized that the syllables did not match the melodic line any more, and she had to recompose it in five minutes.
before it could be released outside Japan. The "Grey Child" monster went through two design changes for the North American release and four design changes for the European release, before it was finally approved by censors. Originally designed to resemble knife-wielding, nude children, these monsters were deemed too graphic, particularly because the player would have been allowed to kill them. The North American version of the game features a faceless, grey, "somewhat larger" version of them with a "modified head". In the European version of Silent Hill, the Grey Child monsters were replaced by "Mumbler" monsters, which appear later in the North American version. Near the end of the European version, however, Grey Child monsters can still be seen as transparent silhouettes that are similar to the "Larval Stalkers".
Silent Hill was released for the PlayStation in North America on January 31, 1999; in Japan on March 4, 1999; and in Europe on August 1, 1999. It was included in the Japanese Silent Hill Complete Set in 2006. On March 19, 2009, Silent Hill became available for download from the European PlayStation Network store of the PlayStation 3
and the PlayStation Portable
. Two days later, the game was removed due to "unforeseen circumstances". On September 10, 2009, Silent Hill was released on the North American PlayStation Network.
. Titled Play Novel: Silent Hill and released only in Japan in 2001, it is a gamebook
-style visual novel
. It contains a retelling of Silent Hills story through text-based gameplay, with the player occasionally confronted with questions concerning what direction to take the character, as well as the puzzles, which are a major part of Silent Hills gameplay. After completing the game once, the player has the option of playing as Cybil in a second scenario, with a third made available for download once the second scenario has been completed. When the game was exhibited, Western critics were unimpressed, and criticized the lack of any soundtrack as severely detracting from the "horror" factor of the game.
A film adaptation, also titled Silent Hill
, was released on April 21, 2006. The film, directed by Christophe Gans
, was based largely but loosely on the game, incorporating elements from Silent Hill 2
, 3
, and 4
. Gans replaced Harry Mason with a female main protagonist, Rose Da Silva, because he felt Harry had many qualities typically perceived as feminine.
When designing the film's visual elements, Gans was influenced by fellow directors Michael Mann, David Lynch
, and David Cronenberg
. The film's soundtrack includes music composed by Yamaoka. Although critical reaction was mostly negative, the film was a financial success and was praised by fans, especially for its visuals.
A "reimagining" of Silent Hill, titled Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
, was developed by Climax Studios
and published by Konami Digital Entertainment. The game was released on December 8, 2009, for the Wii
and on January 19, 2010, for the PlayStation 2
and the PlayStation Portable, to mostly positive reviews. Although it retains the premise of a man's search for his missing daughter, Shattered Memories branches off into a different plot with altered characters. It features psychological profiling which alters various in-game elements depending on the player's response to questions in therapy, lacks the combat of Silent Hill, and introduces only two dimensions.
and GameRankings, respectively. The game sold over two million copies, which gained Silent Hill a place in the American PlayStation Greatest Hits budget releases.
Silent Hill has been compared to the Resident Evil series of survival horror video games. Bobba Fatt of GamePro
labeled Silent Hill a "shameless but slick Resident Evil clone". Others felt that Silent Hill was Konami's answer to the Resident Evil series in that, while they noted a similarity, Silent Hill utilized a different form of horror to induce fear, attempting to form a disturbing atmosphere for the player, in contrast to the visceral scares and action-oriented approach of Resident Evil. Adding to the atmosphere was the audio, which was well-received; Billy Matjiunis of TVG described the ambient music as "engrossing"; a reviewer for Game Revolution
also praised the audio, commenting that the sound and music "will set you on edge". Less well-received was the voice acting which, although some reviewers remarked it was better than that found in the Resident Evil series, was found poor overall by reviewers, and accompanied by pauses between lines that served to spoil the atmosphere.
Reviewers noted that Silent Hill used real-time 3D environments, in contrast to the pre-rendered environments found in Resident Evil. Fog and darkness were heavily used to disguise the limitations of the hardware. Along with the grainy textures—also from hardware limitations—most reviewers felt that these factors actually worked in the game's favor; Francesca Reyes of IGN
described it as "adding to the atmosphere of dilapidation and decay". In using 3D environments, however, controls became an issue, and in "tougher" areas, maneuverability became "an exercise in frustration".
The game's popularity as the first in the series was further recognized long after its release; a list of the best PS games of all time by IGN in 2000 listed it as the 14th-best PS game, while a 2005 article by GameSpy
detailing the best PS games listed Silent Hill as the 15th-best game produced for the console. In 2005 the game was credited for moving the survival horror genre away from B movie
horror elements to the psychological style
seen in art house
or Japanese horror
films, due to the game's emphasis on a disturbing atmosphere rather than visceral horror.
Silent Hill
is a survival horror video game series consisting of seven installments published by Konami and its subsidiary Konami Digital Entertainment. The first four games in the series, Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, 3 and 4, have been developed by an internal factor, Team Silent...
series. Published by Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
and developed by Team Silent
Team Silent
Team Silent was a development group within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo , responsible for the first four games in the Silent Hill franchise by Konami released from 1999 to 2004, with later titles developed by external Western companies such as Climax Studios and Double Helix Games...
, a Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo group, the game was released in North America in January 1999, and in Japan and Europe later that year. Silent Hill uses a third-person perspective, with real-time
Real-time computer graphics
Real-time computer graphics is the subfield of computer graphics focused on producing and analyzing images in real time. The term is most often used in reference to interactive 3D computer graphics, typically using a GPU, with video games the most noticeable users...
3D environments
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
. To mitigate limitations of the hardware, developers liberally used fog and darkness to muddle the graphics. Unlike earlier survival horror games that focused on protagonists with combat training, the player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
of Silent Hill is an "everyman
Everyman
In literature and drama, the term everyman has come to mean an ordinary individual, with whom the audience or reader is supposed to be able to identify easily, and who is often placed in extraordinary circumstances...
".
The game follows Harry Mason as he searches for his missing adopted daughter in the series' multiverse
Multiverse
The multiverse is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes that together comprise all of reality.Multiverse may also refer to:-In fiction:* Multiverse , the fictional multiverse used by DC Comics...
, which consists of alternate dimension
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
s based on the series' eponymous fictional American town; stumbling upon a cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
conducting a ritual to revive a deity it worships, he discovers her true origin. Five game endings are possible, depending on actions taken by the player, including one joke ending.
Silent Hill received positive reviews from critics on its release and was commercially successful. It is considered a defining title in the survival horror genre, moving away from B movie
B movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
horror elements, toward a psychological style of horror
Psychological horror
Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror fiction that relies on character fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music and emotional instability to build tension and further the plot...
emphasizing atmosphere. Various adaptations of Silent Hill have been released, including a 2001 visual novel
Visual novel
A is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art, or occasionally live-action stills or video footage...
, the 2006 feature film Silent Hill
Silent Hill (film)
Silent Hill is a 2006 horror film directed by Christophe Gans and written by Roger Avary. The story is an adaptation of the Silent Hill series of survival horror video games created by Konami. The film, particularly its emotional, religious and aesthetic content as well as its creature design,...
, and a 2009 "reimagining" of the game, titled Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a survival horror video game for the Wii and the seventh installment in the Silent Hill series, being a "reimagining" of the first installment. Published by Konami Digital Entertainment and developed by Climax Studios, the game was released in December 2009, with...
.
Gameplay
HUD (computer gaming)
In video gaming, the HUD is the method by which information is visually relayed to the player as part of a game's user interface...
, the player must consult a separate menu to check Harry's "health
Health (gaming)
Health is a game mechanic used in role-playing, computer and video games to give value to characters, enemies, NPCs, and related objects. This value can either be numerical, semi-numerical as in hit/health points, or arbitrary as in a life bar....
".
Harry confronts monsters in each area with both melee weapon
Mêlée weapon
A melee weapon is any weapon that does not involve a projectile — that is, both the user and target of the weapon are in contact with it simultaneously in normal use...
s and firearm
Firearm
A firearm is a weapon that launches one, or many, projectile at high velocity through confined burning of a propellant. This subsonic burning process is technically known as deflagration, as opposed to supersonic combustion known as a detonation. In older firearms, the propellant was typically...
s. An ordinary man with minimal experience with firearms, Harry cannot sustain many blows from enemies, and gasps for breath after sprinting. His inexperience in handling firearms means that his aim, and therefore the player's targeting of enemies, is often unsteady. A portable radio alerts Harry to the presence of nearby creatures with bursts of static
White noise
White noise is a random signal with a flat power spectral density. In other words, the signal contains equal power within a fixed bandwidth at any center frequency...
.
The player must locate and collect maps of each area, stylistically similar to tourist maps. Accessible from the menu and readable only when sufficient light is present, each map is marked with places of interest. Visibility is mostly low due to fog and darkness; the latter is prevalent in an alternate dimension known as the "Otherworld". The player locates a pocket-size flashlight early in the game, but the light beam illuminates only a few feet. Navigating through Silent Hill requires the player to find keys and solve puzzles.
Plot
At the start of the game, Harry drives to Silent Hill with his daughter Cheryl for a vacation. At the town's edge, he swerves his car to avoid hitting a girl in the road; as a result, he crashes the vehicle and loses consciousness. He wakes up in town, meets police officer Cybil Bennett and realizes that Cheryl is missing. Silent Hill is deserted and foggy, with snow falling out of season. Harry also meets Dahlia Gillespie, who gives him a charm she calls the "Flauros"; Doctor Michael Kaufmann, director of Silent Hill's Alchemilla Hospital; and nurse Lisa Garland, who worked at Alchemilla.Harry encounters a symbol marked throughout Silent Hill, said by Dahlia to enable the Otherworld take over the town if its multiplication continues. Eventually, the player has an opportunity to save Kaufmann from a monster's attack and the Otherworld begins taking over the town. After being told by Dahlia that the girl from the road is a demon responsible for the symbol's duplication and urged by her to stop the child, because if he does not, Cheryl will die, Harry is attacked by Cybil, who is parasitized
Parasitism
Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred to organisms with lifestages that needed more than one host . These are now called macroparasites...
by a creature. The player must choose whether to save her or kill her.
The girl appears again, and is put under Dahlia's control by the Flauros. Dahlia arrives and explains that she manipulated Harry into trapping it, since only he could approach it. It is a phantasm of her daughter Alessa, who possesses vast supernatural powers. Harry awakens in another dimension. He encounters Lisa, who realizes she is dead and begins transforming; Harry flees, horrified. Her diary reveals that she nursed Alessa during a secret forced hospitalization of the latter in Alchemilla.
Harry soon finds Dahlia along with the apparition of Alessa and Alessa herself, charred. Seven years earlier, Dahlia had conducted a ritual that impregnated Alessa with the cult's deity through immolation; Alessa survived because her status as the deity's "vessel" rendered her immortal. Alessa's resistance to the ritual caused her soul to be bisected, preventing the birth. One half of her soul went to baby Cheryl, whom Harry and his wife had adopted. Dahlia then cast a spell that would draw it back to Alessa. Sensing Cheryl's return, Alessa manifested the symbols in the town to prevent the birth. During the endings in which Cybil survives, Dahlia reveals these symbols to be repellent. With Alessa's plan thwarted and her soul rejoined, the deity is revived and possesses her.
Four different endings are available depending on whether Harry saves Cybil or Kaufmann, or both. The "bad" ending occurs if neither is saved; Alessa electrocutes Dahlia and then attacks Harry, who ultimately defeats her. Cheryl's voice thanks Harry for freeing her and Alessa vanishes. Harry collapses and the game cuts to his corpse in the crashed car. The "bad +" ending finds Kaufmann dead and Cybil alive; after the echoing of Cheryl's voice and Alessa's disappearance, Cybil walks to Harry and convinces him to flee. The "good" ending finds Cybil dead and Kaufmann alive; Kaufmann is revealed to have secretly allied with Dahlia and enabled Alessa's hospitalization. Feeling betrayed, he forces the deity out of Alessa, also causing her to vanish. After Harry defeats it, the deity disappears and Alessa appears, who manifests a baby reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
of herself, gives it to Harry, enables their escape from the dimension, and then dies. As Harry escapes with the baby, a transformed Lisa prevents Kaufmann from leaving. In the "good +" ending, Harry escapes with Cybil and the baby, with Lisa again stopping Kaufmann. The joke ending sees an abduction of Harry by extraterrestrial
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
s.
Design
Development of Silent Hill started in September 1996. The game was created by Team SilentTeam Silent
Team Silent was a development group within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo , responsible for the first four games in the Silent Hill franchise by Konami released from 1999 to 2004, with later titles developed by external Western companies such as Climax Studios and Double Helix Games...
, a group of staff members within the Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo studio. The new owners of its parent company Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
sought to produce a game that would be successful in the United States. For this reason, a Hollywood-like
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
atmosphere was proposed for Silent Hill. The staff members that were assigned to the game's development had failed at their previous projects. They intended to leave Konami, as they were not allowed to realize their own ideas, and were not compatible with the company's other teams. According to composer Akira Yamaoka
Akira Yamaoka
is a video game composer, sound designer, sound director, and video game producer who worked for Konami since 1993 until his resignation in 2009. He is best known for creating the music in the Silent Hill series; he also worked as a sound director and producer on the series as well as serving as a...
, the developers did not know how to proceed with the Silent Hill project, either. As the time passed, the personnel and management of Konami lost their faith in the game, and the members of Team Silent increasingly felt like outsiders. Despite the profit-oriented approach of the parent company, however, the developers of Silent Hill had much artistic freedom because the game was still produced as in the era of lower-budget 2D titles
History of video game consoles (fourth generation)
In the history of computer and video games, the fourth generation began on October 30, 1987 with the Japanese release of Nippon Electric Company's PC Engine...
. Eventually, the development staff decided to ignore the limits of Konami's initial plan, and to make Silent Hill a game that would appeal to the emotions of players instead.
For this purpose, the team introduced a "fear of the unknown" as a psychological type of horror
Psychological horror
Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror fiction that relies on character fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music and emotional instability to build tension and further the plot...
. The plot was made vague and occasionally contradictory to leave its true meaning in the dark, and to make players reflect upon unexplained parts. Director Keiichiro Toyama
Keiichiro Toyama
is a video game designer, best known as the creator of the hit survival horror video game Silent Hill . He directed the game, as well as worked in the animation department as background designer....
created the game's scenario, while programmer Hiroyuki Owaku
Hiroyuki Owaku
is a Japanese video game writer best known for his work with Team Silent in the Silent Hill franchise.-Career:Ōwaku first worked in the survival horror video game Silent Hill as event programmer and enemy programmer. Following the game's success, Team Silent worked on various sequels, direct or...
wrote the text for the riddles. The localization company Latina International, which had previously worked on Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII
is a role-playing video game developed by Square and published by Sony Computer Entertainment as the seventh installment in the Final Fantasy series. It was originally released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation and was re-released in 1998 for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers and in 2009...
, translated the script into English. The town of Silent Hill is an interpretation of a small American community as imagined by the Japanese team. It was based on Western literature and films, as well as on depictions of American towns in European
Culture of Europe
The culture of Europe might better be described as a series of overlapping cultures. Whether it is a question of North as opposed to South; West as opposed to East; Orthodoxism as opposed to Protestantism as opposed to Catholicism as opposed to Secularism; many have claimed to identify cultural...
and Russian culture
Russian culture
Russian culture is associated with the country of Russia and, sometimes, specifically with ethnic Russians. It has a rich history and can boast a long tradition of excellence in every aspect of the arts, especially when it comes to literature and philosophy, classical music and ballet, architecture...
. The game's joke ending came out of a suggestion box
Suggestion box
A suggestion box is a device for obtaining additional comments, questions, and requests. In its most basic and traditional form, it is a receptacle with an opening, not unlike an offering box or voting box. The box is used for collecting slips of paper with input from customers and patrons of a...
created to find alternative reasons for the occurrences in Silent Hill.
Artist Takayoshi Sato corrected inconsistencies in the plot, and designed the game's cast of characters. As a young employee, Sato was initially restricted to basic tasks such as font
Font
In typography, a font is traditionally defined as a quantity of sorts composing a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface...
design and file sorting. He also created 3D demos and presentations, and taught older staff members the fundamentals of 3D modeling
3D modeling
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical representation of any three-dimensional surface of object via specialized software. The product is called a 3D model...
. However, he was not credited for this work as he did not have as much respect within Konami as older employees. Sato eventually approached the company's higher-ups with a short demo movie he had rendered, and threatened to withhold this technical knowledge from other staff members if he was not assigned to 3D work. As a consequence, his superior had to give in to his demand, and he was allowed to do character designs. Instead of relying on illustrations, Sato conceived the characters of Silent Hill while creating their computer-generated
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
models. He gave each their own distinctive characteristics, but made Harry almost completely neutral as he wanted to avoid forcing interpretations of the game on the players. Creating the skull shapes for the faces of the American cast was difficult because he had no Caucasian
Caucasian race
The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia , Central Asia and South Asia...
co-workers to use for reference. Although Sato was largely responsible for the game's cinematics and characters at this point, his superior still did not want to fully credit his work, and intended to assign a visual supervisor to him. To prevent this from happening, Sato volunteered to create the full-motion videos of Silent Hill by himself. Over the course of two and a half years, he lived in the development team's office, as he had to render the scenes with the approximately 150 Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
-based computers of his coworkers after they left work at the end of a day.
Sato estimated the game's budget at US$3–5 million. He said that the development team intended to make Silent Hill a masterpiece rather than a traditional sales-oriented game, and that they opted for an engaging story, which would persist over time – similar to successful literature. The game debuted at the 1998 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, United States, where the presentations of movies and in-game scenes garnered applause from the audience. This favorable reception persuaded Konami to allot more personnel and public relation initiatives to the project. Konami later showcased Silent Hill at the European Computer Trade Show
European Computer Trade Show
The European Computer Trade Show, commonly known as ECTS, was an annual trade show for the European computer and video game industry, which first ran in 1988, with the last event occurring in 2004....
in London, and included a demo
Game demo
A game demo is a freely distributed demonstration or preview of an upcoming or recently released video game. Demos are typically released by the game's publisher to help consumers get a feel of the game before deciding whether to buy the full version....
with its stealth game Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid
is a videogame by Hideo Kojima. The game was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and first published by Konami in 1998 for the PlayStation video game console. It is the sequel to Kojimas early MSX2 computer games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake...
in Japan.
The names and designs of some Silent Hill creatures and puzzles are based on books enjoyed by the character of Alessa, including The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
and Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...
. The game contains several real-life references, particularly in characters' names. Cheryl Mason's first name is based on actress Sheryl Lee
Sheryl Lee
Sheryl Lee is an American actress. She came to international attention for her performances as Laura Palmer and Maddy Ferguson on the 1990 cult TV series Twin Peaks and in the 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me...
's first name, and Lisa Garland's surname is taken from actress Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
. "Michael Kaufmann" is a combination of Troma Studios producers Michael Herz's and Lloyd Kaufmann's first name and surname, respectively. Alessa's original name was "Asia", and Dahlia's was "Daria", based on the first names of actresses Asia Argento
Asia Argento
Aria Asia Anna Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento is an Italian actress, singer, model and director.-Family and early life:...
and Daria Nicolodi
Daria Nicolodi
Daria Nicolodi is an Italian actress and screenwriter.- Early life and career :Daria Nicolodi was born in Florence on June 19, 1950. Her father was a Florentine lawyer and her mother, Fulvia, was a scholar of ancient languages. Her maternal grandfather was composer Alfredo Casella...
– Argento's mother. Harry's name was originally "Humbert", and Cheryl's was "Dolores", in reference to the protagonist and title character of Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
's novel Lolita
Lolita
Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first written in English and published in 1955 in Paris and 1958 in New York, and later translated by the author into Russian...
. The American staff altered these names, as they considered them too uncommon.
Audio
The soundtrack for Silent Hill was composed by sound director Akira Yamaoka, who requested to join the development staff after the original musician had left. In addition to the music, he was in charge of tasks such as sound effectSound effect
For the album by The Jam, see Sound Affects.Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media...
creation and audio mastering
Audio mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
. Yamaoka did not watch game scenes, but created the music independently from its visuals. The style of his compositions was influenced by Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
composer Angelo Badalamenti
Angelo Badalamenti
Angelo Badalamenti is an American composer, known for his movie soundtrack work for director David Lynch, notably Blue Velvet, the Twin Peaks saga and Mulholland Drive...
and the bands Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
and Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...
. To differentiate Silent Hill from other games as much as possible, and to support its cold and rusty feel, Yamaoka opted for industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
. When he presented his musical pieces to the other staff members for the first time, they misinterpreted their sound as a game bug
Software bug
A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...
. Yamaoka had to explain that this noise was intended for the music, and the team only withdrew their initial objection after he elaborated on his reasons for choosing this style.
On March 5, 1999, the album Silent Hill Original Soundtracks was released in Japan. The 41st track on the CD, the ending theme "Esperándote", was composed by Rika Muranaka
Rika Muranaka
Rika Muranaka has composed and arranged and sung many vocal songs for the popular Konami video game series, Metal Gear Solid.Some of her works include "Can't Say Goodbye to Yesterday" , "The Best Is Yet To Come" and "Don't Be Afraid"...
. After Yamaoka had approached her to create a piece of music for the game, she suggested the use of bandoneón
Bandoneón
The bandoneón is a type of concertina particularly popular in Argentina and Uruguay. It plays an essential role in the orquesta típica, the tango orchestra...
s, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
s, and a Spanish-speaking singer. It was decided to make the song a tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
, and Muranaka composed the melody for the English lyrics she had conceived. When she arrived in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, to record the translated Spanish lyrics with Argentine
Argentine people
Argentines are the citizens of Argentina, or their descendants abroad. Argentina is a multiethnic society, which means that it is home to people of many different ethnic backgrounds. According to the , Argentina had a population of 36,260,130 inhabitants, of which 1,527,320, or 4.2%, were born...
singer Vanesa Quiroz, Muranaka realized that the syllables did not match the melodic line any more, and she had to recompose it in five minutes.
| Silent Hill Original Soundtracks | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. |
"Silent Hill" "All" "The Wait" "Until Death" "Over" "Devil's Lyric" "Rising Sun" "For All" "Claw Finger" "Hear Nothing" "Children Kill" "Killed by Death" "Don't Cry" |
2:51 2:08 0:09 0:52 2:04 1:27 0:57 2:40 0:53 1:33 1:33 0:19 1:25 1:29 |
15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. |
"The Bitter Season" "Moonchild" "Never Again" "Fear of the Dark" "Half Day" "Far" "I'll Kill You" "My Justice For You" "Devil's Lyric 2" "Dead End" "Ain't Gonna Rain" "Nothing Else" "Alive" |
1:26 2:49 0:45 1:14 0:39 1:48 1:15 2:53 1:21 0:25 0:18 1:12 0:51 0:33 |
29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. |
"Never Again" "Die" "Down Time" "Kill Angels" "Only You" "Not Tomorrow 1" "Not Tomorrow 2" "My Heaven" "Tears of..." "Killing Time" "She" "Esperándote" "Silent Hill (Otherside)" |
1:02 0:56 0:47 1:38 1:17 1:17 0:48 1:39 3:18 3:16 2:54 2:36 6:26 6:23 |
||||||||||||||
Release
Silent Hill had difficulty passing censorsCensorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
before it could be released outside Japan. The "Grey Child" monster went through two design changes for the North American release and four design changes for the European release, before it was finally approved by censors. Originally designed to resemble knife-wielding, nude children, these monsters were deemed too graphic, particularly because the player would have been allowed to kill them. The North American version of the game features a faceless, grey, "somewhat larger" version of them with a "modified head". In the European version of Silent Hill, the Grey Child monsters were replaced by "Mumbler" monsters, which appear later in the North American version. Near the end of the European version, however, Grey Child monsters can still be seen as transparent silhouettes that are similar to the "Larval Stalkers".
Silent Hill was released for the PlayStation in North America on January 31, 1999; in Japan on March 4, 1999; and in Europe on August 1, 1999. It was included in the Japanese Silent Hill Complete Set in 2006. On March 19, 2009, Silent Hill became available for download from the European PlayStation Network store of the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and the PlayStation Portable
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
. Two days later, the game was removed due to "unforeseen circumstances". On September 10, 2009, Silent Hill was released on the North American PlayStation Network.
Adaptations
A radically altered version of Silent Hill was released for the Game Boy AdvanceGame Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
. Titled Play Novel: Silent Hill and released only in Japan in 2001, it is a gamebook
Gamebook
A gamebook is a work of fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making effective choices. The narrative branches along various paths through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages...
-style visual novel
Visual novel
A is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art, or occasionally live-action stills or video footage...
. It contains a retelling of Silent Hills story through text-based gameplay, with the player occasionally confronted with questions concerning what direction to take the character, as well as the puzzles, which are a major part of Silent Hills gameplay. After completing the game once, the player has the option of playing as Cybil in a second scenario, with a third made available for download once the second scenario has been completed. When the game was exhibited, Western critics were unimpressed, and criticized the lack of any soundtrack as severely detracting from the "horror" factor of the game.
A film adaptation, also titled Silent Hill
Silent Hill (film)
Silent Hill is a 2006 horror film directed by Christophe Gans and written by Roger Avary. The story is an adaptation of the Silent Hill series of survival horror video games created by Konami. The film, particularly its emotional, religious and aesthetic content as well as its creature design,...
, was released on April 21, 2006. The film, directed by Christophe Gans
Christophe Gans
Christophe Gans is a French film director, writer, and producer who specializes in horror, fantasy movies and video game adaptations.-Biography:...
, was based largely but loosely on the game, incorporating elements from Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 2 is a survival horror video game published by Konami for the PlayStation 2 and developed by Team Silent, a production group within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo...
, 3
Silent Hill 3
Silent Hill 3 is a survival horror video game published by Konami for the PlayStation 2 and developed by Team Silent, a production group within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo. It is the third installment in the Silent Hill series and a direct sequel to the first Silent Hill game...
, and 4
Silent Hill 4: The Room
Silent Hill 4: The Room is the fourth installment in the Silent Hill survival horror series, published by Konami and developed by Team Silent, a production group within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo. The game was released in Japan in June 2004 and in North America and Europe in September of...
. Gans replaced Harry Mason with a female main protagonist, Rose Da Silva, because he felt Harry had many qualities typically perceived as feminine.
When designing the film's visual elements, Gans was influenced by fellow directors Michael Mann, David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
, and David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
. The film's soundtrack includes music composed by Yamaoka. Although critical reaction was mostly negative, the film was a financial success and was praised by fans, especially for its visuals.
A "reimagining" of Silent Hill, titled Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a survival horror video game for the Wii and the seventh installment in the Silent Hill series, being a "reimagining" of the first installment. Published by Konami Digital Entertainment and developed by Climax Studios, the game was released in December 2009, with...
, was developed by Climax Studios
Climax Group
Climax Group is a British independent video game development company. It was founded by Karl Jeffery in 1988 and is based in Portsmouth, Hampshire....
and published by Konami Digital Entertainment. The game was released on December 8, 2009, for the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
and on January 19, 2010, for the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
and the PlayStation Portable, to mostly positive reviews. Although it retains the premise of a man's search for his missing daughter, Shattered Memories branches off into a different plot with altered characters. It features psychological profiling which alters various in-game elements depending on the player's response to questions in therapy, lacks the combat of Silent Hill, and introduces only two dimensions.
Reception
Silent Hill received mainly positive reviews, gaining an 86/100 and 84.03 per cent aggregate at ratings sites MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
and GameRankings, respectively. The game sold over two million copies, which gained Silent Hill a place in the American PlayStation Greatest Hits budget releases.
Silent Hill has been compared to the Resident Evil series of survival horror video games. Bobba Fatt of GamePro
GamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
labeled Silent Hill a "shameless but slick Resident Evil clone". Others felt that Silent Hill was Konami's answer to the Resident Evil series in that, while they noted a similarity, Silent Hill utilized a different form of horror to induce fear, attempting to form a disturbing atmosphere for the player, in contrast to the visceral scares and action-oriented approach of Resident Evil. Adding to the atmosphere was the audio, which was well-received; Billy Matjiunis of TVG described the ambient music as "engrossing"; a reviewer for Game Revolution
Game Revolution
Game Revolution or GR is a gaming website created in 1996. Based in Berkeley, California, the site includes reviews, previews, a gaming download area, cheats, and a merchandise store, as well as webcomics, screenshots, and videos...
also praised the audio, commenting that the sound and music "will set you on edge". Less well-received was the voice acting which, although some reviewers remarked it was better than that found in the Resident Evil series, was found poor overall by reviewers, and accompanied by pauses between lines that served to spoil the atmosphere.
Reviewers noted that Silent Hill used real-time 3D environments, in contrast to the pre-rendered environments found in Resident Evil. Fog and darkness were heavily used to disguise the limitations of the hardware. Along with the grainy textures—also from hardware limitations—most reviewers felt that these factors actually worked in the game's favor; Francesca Reyes of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
described it as "adding to the atmosphere of dilapidation and decay". In using 3D environments, however, controls became an issue, and in "tougher" areas, maneuverability became "an exercise in frustration".
The game's popularity as the first in the series was further recognized long after its release; a list of the best PS games of all time by IGN in 2000 listed it as the 14th-best PS game, while a 2005 article by GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
detailing the best PS games listed Silent Hill as the 15th-best game produced for the console. In 2005 the game was credited for moving the survival horror genre away from B movie
B movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
horror elements to the psychological style
Psychological horror
Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror fiction that relies on character fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music and emotional instability to build tension and further the plot...
seen in art house
Art film
An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...
or Japanese horror
J-Horror
Japanese horror, or J-Horror, is Japanese horror fiction in popular culture, noted for its unique thematic and conventional treatment of the horror genre in light of western treatments...
films, due to the game's emphasis on a disturbing atmosphere rather than visceral horror.
External links
via Internet ArchiveInternet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...