Silent damn HillWell folks this was my third try since 1999 to beat this game. Every time I walk away with the same sense of "meh". Don't get me wrong, I understand that the original Silent Hill is historically important in its genre, and spawned a popular franchise. And yes, Silent Hill had stupendous graphical power given its platform. Indeed, Silent Hill accomplishes tremendous atmosphere using the PS1's limitations creatively to render a fog laden nightmarescape. And absolutely, Silent Hill has a very interesting premise with a unique concept. The game has chilling backdrops, creepy enemies, and a pretty nice cafe. There's just one problem; Silent Hill is not fun to play. Nope. It wasn't fun to play in 1999, and it hasn't gotten any better in the 18 years since. I say this as someone who enjoys a decent survival horror from time to time.
So in Silent Hill, you're expected to wander around aimlessly, groping yourself against locked doors incessantly, desperately in search of keys. You are constantly hounded by enemies, which are not fun to fight, due to a piss poor combat system. Silent Hill supports the DualShock controller, but still forces its player to use tank controls. Tank controls in a fully 3D environment by the way, meaning the camera is not fixed. It practically feels like you're controlling a drunk man with impaired hand-eye coordination the entire time. Often the player is accosted with nebulous puzzles having solutions best described as byzantine. You're expected to constantly reference maps, but a map takes a good two to three seconds to load every time you push the map button. And that's the game folks; wander drunkenly, fight badly, endure inane key hunts, beat your head against "puzzles", and stare at slow loading maps. Until you die that is, and lose a half hour or more of progress due to sparse save points.
I put four hours into Silent Hill this time, making it to the hospital. That's the furthest I've ever made it in this boring excuse for a horror game. I had zero fun the entire time. Zero. Literally zero. I pushed buttons for at least 240 minutes and had no return of entertainment to speak of. Why did I bother? Because Silent Hill is lauded to this day, considered a classic even. Thus I feel I should play through it, before moving on to the rest of the series. But once again, I am reminded why I never beat Silent Hill. It's because Silent Hill is the opposite of fun. Perhaps worse yet, Silent Hill is not even particularly scary. The best ideas in Silent Hill were ripped right out of Hellraiser. I supposed I can understand why gamers of 1999 were impressed with Silent Hill. The phenomenal graphics (relatively speaking), the Hellraiser chains and body bags, and a sinister plot. None of that matters when the core gameplay is horrendously banal. Silent Hill's insipid "game design" can die in a fire. A hospital fire. I looked at a walkthrough, and you know what I had ahead of me next? A fucking sewer maze. No thanks. Ack ol' boy, you can keep this one.
