Silent Hill series.

Psychanalysis05%

Psychanalysis05%

Newbie
Joined
Dec 7, 2004
Messages
350
Reaction score
0
So, do we have any Silent Hill fans in the audience? Let's see a show of hands!
I'd like to start a thread on this series to discuss what people think of it, speculations, theories, plotlines, secrets etc. I'm a huge fan of the whole series, 2 being my favourite for its psychological weirdness, then 3 for it's down right terrifyingness, then 4 because it's so damn different from pretty much anything else, and then 1 because good as it was, Konami really made an impact with later iterations. Even 1 managed to scare the crap out of me though...those damned sirens...the wailing drives me insane...stupid cat...
But yeah, anyway, I got 4 a few days ago and although it's pretty short, I like it a lot. It's a bit slower than the others, even though it has a lot more enemies. I'm right at the end and I'm off to finish it right now.
I'd also really like to see what people thought about 2 - what you think was really happening with James, why everything happened, what you think about the supporting cast and if, at all, anything did happen.
Try to give warnings before writing in spoilers too, never know who could be reading.
 
got really interested in the series last summer after browsing the sh2 forum at g/faqs,basically read the whole story through the posts and faqs,it sounded really gr8 but coz i basically knew the story decided to get sh3,after i brought it home i was so wierded out by the stories of pyramid head*shudder*i basically couldnt move the control pad i was so freaked out,i kept expectin those bunnies in the amusement park to get up,a simple change of camera angle had me jumpin.lol,anyway i really got in into it after awhile,one thing that astounded me about it was the games facial expressions,lip-synching emotion etc,its better than hl2 imo,the scene when heather breaks down in eh,whats the detectives name again?,car was amazing,the game was also the most gory of the 4,the mirror room was absolutely genius,no ****in lame ass zombies hiding in gaps in rooms ala doom(god that got old after 5 mins)or 'boo'scares,just the slow buildup of tension before bam,nothing happened.

i also loved the lil noises and conseqential things they put in like for example when you enter that building thats being rebuilt when you walk up the stairs and go into the bathroom you hear footsteps downstairs and then hear them getin louder as they come upstairs but theres no1 there spooky thers SOOOO many examples like that,also stanley coleman stalking you in the mental hospital,the hospital was gr8,after the game really went up in my estimation,the whole mystery of valtiel etc,good game,gr8 music too like 'i want love'love that song
 
Yeah, I love the SH series. The order in which I like them are 2, 1, 3, and then 4. I don't know, I think Silent Hill 4 just didn't feel enough like a "Silent Hill" game.

Silent Hill 1 was probably the scariest in my opinion, if you played it before any other SH game in the series and when it first came out in 1999 because everything was new, it went above and beyond what Resident Evil acheived in terms of pure dread. Silent Hill 2 though had the characters and story which drew you in to the world more. Silent Hill 3 captured some of that original "Silent Hill" feel and was pretty scary, especially some of the visual effects they used such as the bleeding room.
 
yeah the visual effects and changing environments,underground tunnels walls turning into blood when you walk further and going back to normal when you go back,brilliant
 
i played the first one years ago in my room on my ps1 and it was kind of scary :x
 
I played some Silent Hill games,they are really cool,but didnt hav the change to play them all
 
Silent Hill 2 is still the best of the lot; SH3's story wasn't much, and SH4's gameplay was a tad annoying at bits. The second one got the balance just right IMO.
 
I own every game, 1 - 4.
Haven't finished 4 yet though. And none of them seem to have been as scary as the original.
I didnt dig Silent Hill 2 because it was a totaly throw-away storyline. You can totaly skip over 2 and still fully get the story.
 
WhiteZero said:
I own every game, 1 - 4.
Haven't finished 4 yet though. And none of them seem to have been as scary as the original.
I didnt dig Silent Hill 2 because it was a totaly throw-away storyline. You can totaly skip over 2 and still fully get the story.
Click to expand...

That's what I liked about 2; it was a character-focused story. It was really well told as well, and I liked it more-so than the main plot-lines.
 
I have the first, but never managed to play it through.
But my playstation is broken and I can't find a bios on the net to work with a emulator, so I can't play it out, but yeah silent hill is really kick ass, From what I have played and what I have seen it is good, only in the first it had that really wierd piano puzzle in the school, but I managed to solve it myself, but damn iut was awierd one.
 
I like the SH series too...i can remember number 1 quite well, because, i was at school when i got it and me and two mates twagged (skipped/didn't attend) the second half of a day to play it and got shit scared. :D
 
Yes, Silent Hill 2 is wonderfull. The thing I love about it, is that unlike the other games it's all about pure psychological fear more than fear of the dark. Once you really get inside James' head things just get really twisted.
--SPOILER-- I don't know about any of you, but the scene in the burned hotel, where every door leads to the wrong place was just nightmarish.

And I personally love 3 over 1, because of how well they had it relate to the first. And just how terryfying it is. And those guys turning the valves...almost as if they're controlling everything behind the scenes.

Back to 2. Pyramid head, stupid though his name sounds, has to be the best 'recurring boss' ever in a game. The way you just never really find out who or what he is aside from the picture of the 1700s executioners, and the fact that he gets busy with the other monsters was just downright creepy.
--SPOILER-- What did anybody think he actually was? I personally see Pyramid Head as the personification of James 'mental block', and once he finally realises what's happening to him, PH sees that he is no longer needed and 'removes himself' from the equation. I could also see him as James' denial of what he did to his wife, and defeating him was James' realisation.
I also see the other characters as James' flaws, like the woman (forgot her name) being his suicidal tendancies, Eddie was his anger...not, not anger...maybe his arrogance.. and Maria was his lust. Laura also seemed to be more than just a girl, I saw her as his guidance through the ordeal, his last grip on his sanity.
Tell me what you guys think.
 
Is there a site that tells and explains all the stories of all the 3 games.
 
psychaanalysis the guy turning the valves in sh3 was valtiel,hes considered the gatekeeper of the 'alternate' worlds of sh,youll notice that when heather dies in sh in otherworld locations he appears and drags her away,hes sorta the cleaner.lol.the bodies you find around the place in lockers etc were put there by him,hes considered a very powerful force in the sh world although when you come near him he or she tends to keep its distance probably coz he/she knows who heather realy is *wink*,you come into contact with him alot in the church at the end,hes very freaky with the shakin head ala jacobs ladder,much argument rages about whether he is in fact a guardian angel of heather as he never harms her,also in the church in sh3 in one of those paintings on the walls there is a very subtle image of pyramid head and valtiel behind another figure,you should check it out
 
i've been a great massive fan of this series since the beginning

first time i played the first game was at a mates house and he just told me its really twisted but i didn't know quite what to expect and was BLOWN away by it. i didn't have a psx myself but borrowed, copied it and played it on BLEEM if any of you remember it. never had i been scared/disturbed by anything like i had silent hill...a true masterpiece in tangling your senses, untangling them and playing around with them. i remember the first time i experience the alternative location at the school and being horrified by the whole concept, not to mention nearly pooing every time i heard the radio. EXCELLENT

silent hill 2 i was expecting a MUCH MUCH darker experience than the first as i only saw the first proof of concept material from 2001 and the whole feel of the game was VERY different in that trailer and i was actually very shocked by what i saw...then i came to play the game and found they toned it down a LOT. i later read that they were told to cut the game as they showed it for the first time in house at konami and a lot of staff were literally sickened by what they saw. still an absolutley AMAZING game and i think i LOVE it as much as i do the first...brilliant atmosphere, very well thought out characters and the location detail was way waaaaaay ahead of its time. also, it will drive you insane like no other game

silent hill 3 and 4 .....well.....these were both big dissapointments. don't get me wrong...i do LOVE these games but i could feel the departure of the core team from the first two had influenced a lot through this game as the music director, who by the way is a genius, took on the role of producer and has gone for combat over the other aspects that make the series stand out

onto the good points about them, silent hill 3 was a GREAT game based on some of the truely nasty things you witness throughout the game. i don't think i've ever known any other game that.....

have had women puking and eating up babies

alls i can say is....the alternate brookhaven hospital. truely chilling

silent hill 4 goes back to truely great story writing but lacks in scares and the implimentation of the new combat system was a stupid decision in my opinion because the game is more about atmosphere than fighting off hordes of zombie dogs. while the game does have atmosphere, it lacked that special something the other series have....i think the monster design was shabby in sh4

i have the 'lost memories: art and music of silent hill' dvd and its something you have to get if you love silent hill. loads of concept art, fukuro, ki-no-ko and usagi art videos, storyboards, music from the first 3 games (it was released before 4 came out) and looooads more....

yep...MAAAAASSIVE fan over here and believe me, if roger avary and chris gans have ****ed up the feature film, i'll get elton john to eat their aunty
 
OMG OMG ....we have to talk about SH more....MORE!!.....

I love the silent hill series....first game to make me wake my folks from yelling at it in fear
 
I`ve only played the first silent hill on ps1. loved it!
 
I personally also adore Akira Yamaoka's work, his soundtracks are simply mindblowing. I really lenjoyed the vocal tracks in 3 and 4 also, Michelle Williams is a fantastic vocalist and the title track to SH3 'You're Not Here' was wonderful, one of my wife's favourite songs even. SH4's Michelle Williams tracks are also wonderful, conveying incredible emotion at times;

as when Cynthia dies...

I think the name of that track is either Your Rain or Tender Sugar, I have the soundtrack case here but the cd is in my cd player with dead batteries and I can't be bothered to go get it to put the cd in here.
'Hometown', which plays in the Silent Hill 3 end credits was a great vocal version of 4 Eyes (The theme from SH1), with the vocals of Joe Romersa, a man who reminds me a lot of an even darker David Bowie.
 
I did generate a creepy feeling while playing the demo, but the controls were awkward for me.
I wish Konami would port Zone of the Enders to the PC.
 
Those were pretty freaky. But the game didn't have any HUD or at least, I couldn't activate one.
 
Prince of China said:
I did generate a creepy feeling while playing the demo, but the controls were awkward for me.
I wish Konami would port Zone of the Enders to the PC.
Click to expand...

Me too
 
The 1st and 2nd ones rocked. I loved the Occultic representations in the first one -- its got downhill. I want a two disc game for the PS2 or XBox, it being that long, full of conspiracies, horror, and new shit that would rock my pants.

I'm a fan of all the Silent Hills. :D
 
psych - the song is called room of angel

prince of china - there isnt and never has been a hud in silent hill games and most survival horror to heighten immersion...silent hill 4 has a slight hud however but not what you'd be used to with fps games

for anyone thinking of getting the game, don't think....just get it...you will absolutley LOVE it if your not some numb closed mind 10 year old kid. its probably one of the most mature game series you'll get your hands on but i warn you, they deal with a lot of taboo subject matter with these games...rape, abandoned childhood, murder, woman beating, sex, death.....etc ....very dark game series
 
I love the themes -- and probably why the games have gotten duller over the years, is because we've gotten used to them.

Doom 3 scared the pants off me -- and I loved it! :D
 
Silent Hill is what I think of when I think of horror. None of this stupid zombies and demons shazbot. I want psychological horror and real twisted aberrations of the mind. A real 'fear of the dark' kind of horror.
 
Psychanalysis05% said:
Silent Hill is what I think of when I think of horror. None of this stupid zombies and demons shazbot. I want psychological horror and real twisted aberrations of the mind. A real 'fear of the dark' kind of horror.
Click to expand...

same here
 
I've just made a plan...a brilliant one...I want all the games...the end
 
YOu don't want them. You NEED them. Being a Zim fan, you should appreciate the twisted imagery.
 
i'm listening to the silent hill 2 soundtrack as we speak.....just amazing beyond words
 
It's so good, it gives you a slight chill when you listen to it. Just so moving and wonderful, yet undeniably terrible (in the fearful sense).
 
Silent Hill 5 is going back to the older formulae I think, with a few twists. Yamaoka said it'll be more like Silent Hill 2. Which is good!

I just hope they work out some method of scaring the pants off of us! It isn't easy now-a-days.
 
It's real easy for the Silent Hill crew to do it, if the whole team is there. 2 and 3 STILL manage to scare me. 4 doesn't really though, it lacks a lot because most of the team went off to work on Forbidden Siren (which needs a PC or Xbox port badly.)
The two headed babies with the big arms are kinda creepy though. And the ghosts creeped me out when I realised the limbs have ragdoll...
And the face...the giant face...with the twitching eyes...uurrrggghhh...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Acepilotf14
Forum archival
Replies
0
Views
48
Acepilotf14
Acepilotf14
Krynn72
You guys, what the **** is up.
Replies
11
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
HL2.NET HORROR SLAP
Replies
7
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
TechnoHippyChic
Star Citizen
Replies
3
Views
1K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
bbson john
Hi everyone. I am new to this forum!
Replies
11
Views
6K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
Back
Top