User reviews

Silent Hill is by far the creepiest and most disturbing video game ever to grace a gaming consol. Taking you deep into the abandoned Town, the game uses amazing lighting effects and frightening sounds to play on the gamers nerve. Whether it be a sudden crashing noise, the quiet eerie sound of static, the ring of sirens, or the simple sounds of a creaking old house, Silent hill manages to find any way possible to scare the gamer... and it does it in a big way.

The story follows Harry Mason as he is driving to the resort town of Silent Hill with his daughter Cheryl for vacation. Late during a mysterious woman jumps out in front of the car, causing Harry to panic and veer offroad. His car slams into the side of a big tree, knocking him out in the process. When Harry awakens a thick fog lingers about him and his daughter Cheryl is missing. Scared and confused he stumbles about, entering the town of Silent Hill.

Everything about his game is brilliant. Instead of being a typical zombie blasting, monster smashing horror game, Silent Hill focuses on the little, more disturbing things. Take for example the most simplistic chill of the game. Harry is standing in the derelict school when a toy phone rings, picking it up he hears his daughter Cheryl crying and pleading to him on the other end of the phone. While it may sound dumb in writting, when actually viewing the sequence, you cant help but shudder at the thought of what may be happening to her. In your explorations you will come across six key lcations: the School, the Hospital, the Church, the Docks, the Amusement Park, and the Sewers, all of which have their own horrifing secrets. I myself got most creeped out in the Sewers. Imagine yourself trudging through a disgusting tunnels in pure darkness, when all around you hear is gurgling noise of a creature and your own heartbeat. And at any moment it may attack you. But from where? You can barely see anything. Belive me when I say I nearly jumped out of my skin every time a creature jumped out or sewer grating dropped out from beneath my feet.

If your looking for a REALLY good scare, rent Silent Hill, turn off all the lights, and cuddle your favorite teddy bear. It is THE best survival-horror game ever. Every town has its secrets, some are just darker than others...

Let me get something straight: I don't get scared easily. I've played the first two Resident Evil games without breaking a sweat, I watch Hellraiser and The Exorcist alone at night and think nothing of it.

Then there was Silent Hill... This game isn't just another random bloody horror game like the RE series, it's genuinely disturbing, and let me tell you, it scared me a lot.

It begins with a typical cliche... Harry Mason is driving down a road at night with his daughter, going to visit this little out-of-the-way resort town, Silent Hill. A girl steps in front of his car, he swerves to avoid her, and ends up crashing. From here on, strange things start to happen... Harry wakes up and finds his daughter missing, and stumbling through the mist, he sees her disappearing down a dark alley... I won't say anymore, I'll let you find out what happens.

Not only is this game very dark and scary, it's disturbing at a psychological level. It doesn't use big monsters to frighten you; after playing for only a few minutes, the slightest rustle can make you flee in terror. The plot isn't thrown in your face like other games, you have to think, and you're never really told what's going on - perhaps Harry is in a coma and dreaming all this, or maybe he died and went to Hell. The air of mystery and suspense keeps you hooked until the end, and it'll keep you coming back for more.

And I'll tell you this: After playing Silent Hill, those old WW2 air-raid sirens will never sound the same again...

What a kicker of a game, Silent Hill takes ideas from Rosemary's Baby, The Shining, and even a little Jacob's Ladder, and runs with it, making it the most horrifying game ever released, even topping Resident Evil 1. Harry Mason, the main character, decides to take his daughter Cheryl on a vacation. Harry is a writer and has just lost his wife to an unknown disease, and decides to take a break. While driving to Silent Hill, Harry is passed by a motorcycle cop in quite a hurry. The cop looks at him, and zooms off. Harry pays no mind until he sees the motorcycle wrecked a couple miles up the road, he quickly takes his eyes off the road to check out the wreck and spots someone walking across the road. Harry slams on the brakes and ends up wrecking... He wakes up in Silent Hill, his head is bashed a little bit, but other than that he's fine, except for the fact that Cheryl is missing... The game sends you on a hellish mission to find your daughter, with the help of Cybil, the motorcycle cop. Silent Hill turns out to be a nightmare town, full of evil creatures. This game screws with your head as Harry undergoes several sequences that makes it seem like he's trapped in hell. You fight several different creatures during this period like evil devil children and hellhounds. But it's all just a dream... isn't it? The music doesn't make the playing experience any easier on you, evil and ominous industrial music adds to the tension of yours and Harry's quest. Great graphics and great music, and great gameplay. Instead of screwing with your nerves like Resident Evil does, Silent Hill screws up your brain. Is this real? What is that creature? Who do I trust? The only beefs I have with this game is that it's short, and when you find out how to solve every puzzle, you can breeze through the game when you play it a second time. In my opinion, Hollywood should quit trying to come up with the right script for Resident Evil and should put their attention into Silent Hill. It's a much smarter and much more frightening game with a better script and a better plot... what's the main plot? Beats me, there is never an exact plot to begin with...

Forget "Resident Evil" if you want to play a game with lots of scares. "Silent Hill" is the scariest game you will ever play! It's certainly the scariest one I've played anyway. What makes this game so terrifying is the sense of isolation and pure silence. I remember running in the streets, and the music track was purely the wind blowing. Then, the radio(which detects incoming monsters) emits a shrieking noise, letting you know somewhere near you, is a monster silently stalking you. The game is very atmospheric, with fantastic graphics that make "Resident Evil" crummy by comparison. Some of the camera angles move up in the air and then pan down again as you move, making it feel cinematic and dynamic. That kind of stuff blew me away immediately! I never completed this game, because it was too frightening for me to deal with. With some respects, video games are much more terrifying than films, because you are no longer observing. You become the characters, who are plummeted into a nightmarish hell of fear. Sure "Resident Evil" scared me when I first played it, but not like this! This was just too much! Try it out, but God knows how long you can handle it!

With movie companies wanting to turn games into celluloid, why can't they do it for games that deserve such a distinction. Tomb Raider, Super Mario Brothers and what not were horrible. The industry finally got it right when they made Resident Evil. So now its time to give Silent Hill its due.

As for the game, it was one of the few that ever got my heart racing. The music added so much atmosphere to the game, and the never ending stream of bad guys made my skin crawl a few times. When I get the Playstation 2, I'm going to purchase Silent Hill 2. I highly recommend this game, and its best you get yourself the players guide.

Silent Hill is a cross between King's "The Mist" and Barker's "Hellraiser". And it makes excellent use of both. From the very first moments of the game, you are truly scared. There were so many parts where I was like, "Oh no, I don't want to go out there." There was into the foggy streets, on foot, all alone, and there are monsters out there. EEEEK! I've been into horror my whole life and this game totally freaked me out. I think the Hospital area was one of the scariest. Just wait till you have to go into the hospital basement. And you just know you have to go in the morgue, too. Really scary. This is the best horror game I have ever played. It beats Resident Evil hands down. If you love horror games, this one is the best.

I'm going to review it on 4 different parts:

Graphics: The graphics are decent. They aren't anything special by any standards, but lighting is impressive for ps1.

Sound: Sound design is excellent, and the music is incredibly scary and intense. Constantly puts you on edge.

Gameplay: It's pretty good. You walk around dimly lit areas and fight off enemies. Very scary and lots of anticipation, since you never know their location, but you know that they are there. Truly amazing.

Innovation: This is one of the scariest and most unique games ever made, and is in the top 10 ps1 games.

Think you don't find any films or games scary any more? You fancy a scare? If the answer to both of these is yes then you definitely wanna play Silent Hill! Just a piece of advice...

Don't play it alone! The atmosphere in the game, How realistic it is, and whats happening around you all contribute to the best horror game ever, and will probably be the best for a long time to go. The closest i have gotten to being this scared was playing The Suffering on PS2, But that doesn't even touch on the effect this game has on you. You'll be walking along and you'll hear footsteps and nothings there, and it will make you freeze! I've heard many a time that the character you play is not very good at shooting, but thats whats good about it. If you just picked up a gun and aimed at something chances are you wudnt hit it! Also the locations; Hospitals, Schools, Petrol Stations, Apartments, this makes you think its even more real which is the main reason i found it scary. You definitely wont find me in a deserted school any more.

This is my personal equation for the game....

(The Suffering x 100) + The Shining = Silent Hill Seriousely the jumpiness, the atmosphere, the locations all make this the scariest game of our time and even 7 years on, the graphics are still playable... My advice is to play this game with at least 2 other people.

If you do not have the game already you will find its a very hard game to get hold of! My advice is try ebay. I got it on there for £22 yes it maybe 7 years old but for how great this game is its worth every penny! Hope you find my review useful :)

This was the game that catapulted the genre of psychological horror into the video game medium. And my, oh my, what a beginning. I can't quite give this game a 10 simply because its sequel is THE BEST survival horror game ever made, but this is definitely a near-masterpiece. The fact that they were able to pull a game like this off on the PS1 is nothing short of incredible. The graphics, gameplay, story and character development all stand out; I think what impressive me the most about this game at the time, however, was the actual environment of the town itself. We don't think anything about open areas in games these days but at the time this was really mindblowing.

If you somehow haven't played this game, do not be afraid to jump in due to its age. You'll get used to the graphics in no time at all and will find yourself sucked into the game as if it was brand new.

Harry and his daughter are going to Silent Hill for a vacation. Just

as they arrive a person walks out onto the road. Harry swerves to

miss the person and ends up crashing. When he comes to he

can't find his daughter. Was she unharmed and went to get help?

Was she dazed and walked off in any direction? Or did someone

take her? There are also very bizarre things going on in the town.

'Silent Hill' is the most frightening game I have ever played. But it

isn't the type of horror with 'monsters jumping out at you' made

famous in the also excellent 'Resident Evil' series. This game is

much more of a psychological horror game, playing games with

your mind. In a sense its a 'mind f&$%'. I found myself having to

get to the end of the game to find out what happens to Harry and

his daughter, the story line is extremely gripping and twists and

turns as the game progresses. The sound track is brilliant, it is as

if they translated fear, horror and hell into music. While 'Silent Hill'

is not 'run around and shoot everything that moves' type of game it

certainly is filled with violent and disturbing images. In a sense it's

like someone videotaped your worst nightmare and now your not

only watching but also playing. Top class horror, a must play.

10/10

Well what can I say-scary. Recentely acquired this ps1 game and strategy guide book. Made the mistake of playing it late at night on my own. I think what made it worse being a mum how anxious I felt when cheryl kept disappearing into the fog, and how the game gets you really involved. Can't finish it maybe I'm getting soft in my old age, but I like to be able to sleep at night!! In response to shortToOtHTOMMY

Playing on a PS2.

I'm no expert but have both PS1 and PS2 consoles and I can only save PS1 games on my PS1 on 1MB memory card.

I hope this helps, I pick most of my old games and PS1 console from car boots .

The movie was quite enjoyable as far as a horror movie goes but I didn't "get" it.

I only realised reading the reviews here that it was based on a video game.

The ending left me with more questions than answers.

I kinda felt like the script had been written by someone on acid as I didn't think it flowed very well and there were no explanations for why the husband was seeing a different "Silent Hill" than the wife/daughter were.

A bit more background on the town would have been nice too.

And the ending? What was with that? Was that done to leave the door open for sequel or what?

The only reason I finished this game the first time is that my girlfriend kept insisting that I play it to entertain her; even with company it was too freaky for me to play for more than about an hour, and alone? Don't even think about it. The creepiness factor of this game is unbelievable: the soundtrack has only moments of music; mostly it's dominated by industrial machinery or natural wind. The monsters are seriously nightmare-based, ranging from tiny knife-wielding mutant children to nurses with parasites clinging to their backs to these horrific gorilla-like things that jump and make a guttural "Unnh" sound. I mean, it's unbelievable.

There's graphic fog all over this game, but it really adds to the atmosphere, and in all fairness, for a six-year-old PSone game it has remarkable rendering and lighting effects, and some good cutscenes. Of course, the reason to play this game is the sheer psychological terror. Somewhere in Japan, somebody said, "Let's make a video game where everything might or might not be real, where the player probably doesn't have the resources to kill all of the enemies, and where the few interactions with other characters are unnerving and leave you feeling even more lonely than before." By the time you reach the "Nowhere" section at the end of the game, I swear you will be going insane.

Suffice to say that the endings are unsatisfying, but nothing could really sum up a game like this. After playing it once or twice for real, do yourself a favor and get the procedure for the "UFO Ending"; it'll help calm your nerves and keep the whole thing in perspective.

Truly a unique game.

I've played many horror games, probably most of them... But no video game is scary like this one, Silent Hill...

The story tells about a man called Harry Mason who travels to a city called Silent Hill with his daughter Cheryl. On his way to the town, a very mysterious girl tries to cross the road, so Harry crashes his car. When he wakes up, some very dense fog has taken the entire place... His daughter isn't there with him, he's alone in something like a ghost town... Could this be... Silent Hill?

Graphics in this game aren't great, even for PSOne... Soundtrack isn't great, it's much more about the noises... But the Main Titles are a masterpiece. What makes this game so scary is the story...

Everything fits, and you feel really lost, not knowing what's going on... But you feel like it's something really big, something... wordless. There are multiple endings, but the boss itself isn't very great... But, still, this is the ultimate choice if you want to get really scared with a joystick in your hands.

If you are a real fan of horror... you won't find much stuff on this level.

This game is superb. Although time hasn't acted in favor of it's graphics... and there's something weird about how dialogue is paced... or "spaced"...

Consider playing this as watching an old classic movie. Not the best in technical aspects but, if you consider the time when this was released, there's SO MANY THINGS RIGHT about this game and almost the whole franchise. Totally worth playing, or even watching.

In the end, even the graphics' limitations acted in favour.

Don't miss this game! Close your room, turn of the lights, turn up the volume (maybe use headphones if you don't have a great sound system) and forget your phone and anything else... if you have someone to watch you playing, go ahead, just make sure it's someone who respects ART, cause this is what this game is.

Try to remain SILENT while playing. This is an experience!

In 1999, i owned a very small Japanese video Club in Montreal, a lot of gamers came to my place. One day, one of them told me that i should play SILENT HILL.

I bought it and when the club closed at 11:00 p.m. I put the game in the PS, and, like i did for every movie, i closed the light... I was alone.

The Intro was outstanding and amazing. Then I started to play. After a few minutes i ended-up in a alley... I Lived the most memorable sequence played in a video game so far. When Harry Mason wakes up, i press the Start Button (Pause). I opened up the light, i was frightened and disturbed: OH! I Love that Feeling! SILENT HILL is addictive I get addicted, and like every substance, you'll experience a Excellent Bad Trip and Hellish Nightmare!

I went to the bathroom (call of nature), and after a took a glass of water, then i closed the light again... to the Otherworld...

SILENT HILL is a Masterpiece and a breakthrough not only in Horror but in the gaming world. Like ICO is to beauty and Light.

The Atmosphere is astonishing and creeps you out. The Music play with your visceral emotion with virtuosity.

The Story is very good, the characters are interesting, specially Dahlia Gilepsie. The game play and Graphics may not be the best, but sometimes, the camera movements are amazing and destabilizing. The shadow and the Fog enhance the element of Fear, you know there's something around you.

There's no problem with the Ending... And one of the many reasons SILENT HILL is a Masterpiece is because For Once, You Have to Use Your Mind...

Go and Experience it... if you Dare...

Yann

I started playing silent hill about 4 jeers ago with a friend of mine. I had never hear of silent hill before but she told me the references where good and she said it seamed a really cool game to her. So we played it. The first silent hill we played was part 3, which I still find the best one. We played part 1 first, but we never finished it, because the graphics sucked. haha, no but the disk she had was not very good and we could not find it in any store, so. Then we played part 2 which was very cool. But I don't really think that it explains a lot about the history of silent hill. Which is not a big problem because they do this in part 3 and a bit in 4. Most of the story is about Henry himself. Weird it is. And a bit sad. After 2 we did not play silent hill for a long time. we played project zero and clock tower. Still, silent hill was always the best. Our luck could not run out when part 4 came out. really groovy. The story is even sicker than the others, but the ending is a bit vague. Why I Walter there when you killed him? A different time or reality? I don't now.

But since I played silent hill; - I hate subway stations. Never go in there. - I hate hospitals. And nurses. gross. - I am scared of people with long hair (including myself, haha) - Sometimes I get goosebumps even of looking at the TV. even when it is off.

And after playing 1, 2, 3 and part 4 we conclude; the creators of Silent Hill are crazy. And we love it.

In 1999, i played SILENT HILL.

I putted the game in the PS, and, like i did for every movie, i closed the light... I was alone.

The Intro was outstanding and amazing. Then I started to play; after a few minutes i ended-up in a alley... I lived the most memorable sequence played in a video game so far. When Harry Mason wakes up, i pressed the Start Button (Pause). I opened up the light in my living room, i was frightened and disturbed: OOOHH! I love that feeling!!! SILENT HILL is addictive! I got addicted, and like any drugs, you'll experience a Excellent Trip or Bad Trip... & Hellish Nightmare! I went to the bathroom (call of nature); drank a glass of water; then i closed the light again... to the Otherworld...

SILENT HILL is a Masterpiece and a breakthrough not only in Horror but in the gaming world. Like ICO is to beauty and Light.

The Atmosphere is astonishing and creeps you out. The Music play with your visceral emotion with virtuosity.

The Story is very good, the characters are interesting, specially Dahlia Gilepsie. The game play and Graphics may not be the best, but sometimes, the camera movements are amazing and destabilizing. The shadow and the Fog enhance the element of Fear, you know there's something around you.

There's no problem with the Ending... And one of the many reasons SILENT HILL is a masterpiece is because for once, the game play with your mind & force you to Use it...

Go and experience it... if you dare...

This game is really good. The storyline is very good, right out of a Stephen King novel. Basically, you arrive in Silent Hill, a small holiday resort, with your daughter, but something goes wrong and you end up searching for her in a town gone mad. This game begins to be very scary when you arrive at the school, but i crapped myself when I arrived at the alternative school, with wire floors, black darkness, dead monks hanging just inches above your head, dead bodies everywhere, complete with blood and gore and people being sucked into huge fans in a haunted classroom. This is scarier than any film or game I have ever seen and would really advise it to people who want to live...

Positives:

• Atmosphere
• Musical score
• Tone and style
• Puzzles
• Monsters designs

Negatives:

• It has aged a bit overtime

The games atmosphere is so nice and rust, I can almost feel the Tetanus getting in my veins, but it does lose a lot when you get bored when you don't know what to do, because I certainly had to use a walkthrough sometimes because there was some items I forgotten. Piano puzzle I could not get through without a walkthrough.

I really impressed by how helpful the map is. Map is wonderful to keeping stack of where everything important is, and having the human touch of putting a line on the doors that can't get through.

The gameplay is just a bit too easy. It's hard to get the tension, where I have a hundred thirty bullets and a shotgun ready to go, when something hard like a boss goes up. Maybe they are too many enemies. So they had to give way too much ammunition or maybe it's just not that difficult a game.

The story needs some time to really get cooking,but I will say that I was really sitting on the edge of my seed in the later half the game, keeps the plot close to it, Just into the last moments and then it explodes. I enjoyed dad's Quest for his daughter even if, I liked a bit more character from him other than being a good dad.

The presentation is out of this world for PS1 game, the camera angle use are just so cinematic. Audio design is so crunchy and just metallic it sounds so good and has just the night atmosphere to it.

I have criticized the game a bit but it is still good, it stills comes together, it has so many weak parts. It is greater than some of it parts, it impressive PS1 game.

Silent Hill is by far one of the scariest games on the Playstation. I have gotten all five endings and I'm still not tired of the game and it still scares the crap out of me! You play as Harry Mason, a writer who goes on vacation to the resort town of Silent Hill with his 7-year-old daughter Cheryl. On the way into town, you swerve your car in order to avoid hitting a woman in the road. You crash your car into a side railing and you lose consciousness. When you wake up you find Cheryl missing. This is when you take control of Harry. You go searching for your missing daughter. Little do you realize the dangers that await you as you search a school, church, amusement park among others, facing deadly creatures like fying demons, devil children, apes, dogs and many others. You also meet a small handful of human characters as well, some you trust, some you don't. If you want a good scare, Silent Hill is just for you! Don't miss it!