User Reviews (101 - 111 of 230)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

I'm 20 years old and afraid of the dark...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 09, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I have never seen a game that looked so grainy... something that I was mildly turned off by. The storyline didn't make any sense, the main character was a little too normal and the game wasn't scary... until all of a sudden the quiet resort town of Silent Hill was overtaken by darkness and the sky turned black, just as I was making my way to the school to find Harry's daughter, Cheryl (which is the supposed premise of the game which goes WAY WAY deeper than that). Within ten minutes I was ready to turn on the lights and never play this game again. I hated that feeling so much... but I loved that exact same feeling. This game is quite short, about 5 hours for the average gamer, but there are five endings and unlocked weapons that you can use after beating the game, depending on how well you did. What seems like a nonsensical Resident Evil ripoff is one of the deepest games I've ever played. The story is disguised so it appears that the game is about finding Harry's daughter... but it's hidden theme lies in the ancient practices of drug induced satanic rituals that brought forth an evil thats unthinkable... and alive in Harry's daughter. So go ahead. Buy the game play through it and try to figure it out. I did. And now I'm afraid of the dark.

Best Game EVER!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you like survival horror games like resident evil, clock tower, and are thinking about trying the silent hill games DO IT!! You won't regret it I promise, you have a great storyline with alot of depth and alot of twists and turns along the way. Plus there's a great chill factor, DON'T PLAY THIS ALONE!

You're Harry Mason, a man on vacation with his daughter Cheryl on the way there's an accident and Harry wakes up to find his daughter missing as well as the rest of the people in the town and what's up with that fog anyway? In this game you are literally shouded in fog and darkness in the journey to get your daughter back, will you succeed?

Replayability-Four different endings to chose as your fate as you brave through Silent Hill

The real deal

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

As you are running through what seems like endless fog, your radio starts to crackle and hiss, slowly at first, and then unbearably loud. Then at that very moment, a huge ugly demon with wings comes out of the fog and attacks you.
This is just a small portion of what you will encounter in the sick twisted world of Silent Hill. This game is more then the survial horror title it was given, it was a whole new game that scared the hell out of millions of players. Beyond the now chunky graphics and dialoge that could have been done a little better, this game makes you think. It is clever and you must solve mind bogling puzzles that you must solve to progress. Unlike games that have a dashing main character, this game has a relatable character that most of us can become. Over all, the game is a little world in it self and is highly recomendable to people over the age of 14.

Overall, a must have for game lovers.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

When I first played the game, I knew little more than the vague description on the back of the case, and with only one disk I wasn't expecting much. What I found to my surprise was a game that challenged me in more than one way.
Silent Hill might have been the first survival horror to have full 3D environments for the PlayStation, so any criticism of the graphics must be forgiving of the medium. (This game is quite dated)
The story that the game starts out with seems hokey, but quickly develops into a mystery that will keep you guessing even after you have finished the game. The endings for the game are based on your explorations and detective work, but to finish the game requires puzzle solving skills as well as some patience with the controls.
After I had finished the game, I was surprised when most of my questions were left unanswered. Discovering the answers to these questions was fantastic for the replay value, as well as finding the alternate endings and weapons. The philosophical implications of the story are oblivious to action seekers, but a very pleasant (I use the term loosely) discovery for those who take the time to look for metaphors.
The game's mood takes you step by step into the dark basement of your imagination until it is literally pitch black. Urgency quickly turns to horror within the first few minutes, only to resolve with more questions. The creepy music and sound effects perfectly complements the tone of each stage as you dash through rooms of macabre creatures.
At the time of its release, I would recommend this to almost anyone mature enough to understand the themes and undertones of the story. However, right now I would only recommend this to people with an eye for classic games or those that have the patience to look past the graphics. A total remake of this game is long overdue as its sequels barely do it justice.

Wonderful atmosphere!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Harry Mason and his seven year old daughter Cheryl are on their way to the lakeside resort known as Silent Hill for a peaceful getaway when a mysterious teenage girl appears in the headlights. Harry swerves to avoid her and ends up crashing through a fence into Silent Hill. When he regains consciousness, he finds Cheryl is missing. The town seems to be completely abandoned, save for a few abominations scurrying about, covered in a thick blanket of fog, and it's snowing-in July. He spots Cheryl up ahead through the fog and calls out to her but she runs away from him. She escapes and he is now stranded in the town and is left to search for his missing daughter in a town that is periodically taken over by the otherworld, AKA hell.

If you think the town is creepy at first, just wait. It gets MUCH better. Skinned bodies are hung from steal fence walls. Faceless zombie children sneak up on you in the halls of the Midwich school, knives in hand. Everything is drenched in blood and guts. Screeches, banging on a piano, cockroaches the size of cats scuttling across the floor and nibbling on your toes, the body of a decapitated dog whose head has apparently served as a child's basketball lies on the ground, grunting gorilla/men tackle you and tear out your throat, nurses in the hospital pursue you with knives, the ghost of a little girl runs past, giggling, headless ragdolls are nailed to the walls, something in the room crashes but you turn....and noone's there.

Throughout the game, you'll eventually discover why the town keeps being invaded by the otherworld, who is holding Cheryl captive and why, who the mysterious teenage girl in the road was and why she keeps appearing, and you'll meet a few interesting characters including the eccentric, creepy old woman Dahlia Gillespie, a girl named Alessa who's past is truly horrific, a female police officer named Cybil, a gruff hospital worker named Michael Kauffman, and the sweet, frightened nurse Lisa Garland.

The game terrifies many, but it honestly didn't frighten me in the least, although I LOVED the eery atmosphere, the plot, and the characters. Speaking of which, the plot is one of the deepest, most involved video game plots you'll ever see. After playing the game, you'll probably need to read a plot guide off of gamefaqs.com in order to grasp everything, and even then, it's a bear to take in everything. The writers are geniuses and Dean Koontz and Stephen King would be proud to call the plot their own brainchild.

So how about the other three Silent Hill games? Well, I Silent Hill 2 was a fantastic game that I highly recommend (it doesn't tie in to the first installment's plot). I've played through 98% of Silent Hill 3 (which is a sequel to Silent Hill 1, so try to play 1 before 3) and it's good, but dissapointing compared to the first two. Silent Hill 4, I've only played a tiny amount of as a rental, but the opening movie was quite frightening.

The Start of Something Great

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

"Silent Hill" was released for the Sony PlayStation in the late 90s and was touted by quite a few to be a "Resident Evil" clone. "Resident Evil" is by far the best known survival/horror video game series, but those connoisseurs who prefer psychological horror know that "Silent Hill" delivers.

STORY- 8.5/10
In the beginning of the game, Harry Mason takes his daughter Cheryl to the resort town of Silent Hill for a vacation. After his car crashes to avoid a pedestrian, Harry wakes up to find Cherlyl nowhere to be seen and the entire town abandoned.

The story is fascinating and characters feel like real people that you know. The problem, however, is that the plot if far too complex for one to follow without a lot of help and deep analysis, and even then, "Silent Hill" is open to individual interpretation.

GRAPHICS- 8/10
One of the game's not-so-good areas, the gra[hics of animate objects are a lot like that of "Final Fantasy VIII," which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The backgrounds, however, are exquisitely designed, and the environments of the Otherworld are intense and hellish. The monster design is diverse, but somewhat lacking in originality. The dogs and zombies have been done before, and the children, birds, Lizard, etc. aren't all that detailed.

MOOD/ATMOSPHERE- 10/10
When I showed this game to a man at a coffee shop, he claimed that he had seen Hell. Picture it: a man is walking through a rusted, blood-stained hospital hallway. A radio emits static, meaning that there's some kind of hideous creature lurking in the darkness. Do you switch on a flashlight and risk alerting the monster? Does your gun have bullets to spare? Can you take this thing out with a melee weapon? Where, precisely, is the monster? It could be on the other side of the room...or it could be rushing at your back right now, knife held high...

Where "Resident Evil" lacks, "Silent Hill" thrives. In the former, you can almost always see enemies long before they notice you. The latter constantly torments you mentally with the radio static that signals opponents constantly grating at your mind. Occasionally, the game's industrial noise-sounding music starts to blare incessantly, and for once, there's nothing to be afraid of. This and your own choices affect how badly you scare yourself in addition to the tense confrontations with various monstrosities.

PLAYABILITY- 6.5/10
And here we have the semi-failing of the whole damn genre: awkward controls. These are similar to "Resident Evil" (which in turn is similar to "Along In the Dark"), meaning that direction is based on which way the character is facing, as opposed to being relative to the screen. Combat controls, especially with melee weapons, are rather difficult to use, and the enemy lock-on system is confusing, but this actually makes sense (Harry's a writer, not a soldier). Guns tend to miss at range, but this adds realism to the game. Melee weapons have two possible attacks, but most people probably won't figure out how to execute which one specifically until they've played for a while. These do not, however, mar the experience all that much.

OVERALL (NOT AN AVERAGE)- 9/10
This is a terrific game which has started the greatest horror series of all time. The controls may be a bit hard to get used to, but once you do, you can't forget them. The load screens are short, but I still found myself getting annoyed in the second or so in which it takes for my map to load or for a door to open. These are trivial concerns, though.

If you love a game that toys with your very perception of reality, "Silent Hill" will draw you in and refuse to let you go until you beg for mercy. And even then, you might just see a quiet, abandoned town in your nightmares for years to come.

Excellent

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Before SIlent Hill was released, all we horror gamers had to scare us were the Resident Evil (Biohazard) series of games, with big, flashy chills and spills, and the Alone In The Dark series, which were just plain bad console conversions of average PC games. It just goes to show what can be done with a genre when a development team sits down and outs their heads together properly.

Eclipsing Resident Evil and all other competitors in terms of scares, character development and sophistication, Silent Hill, upon its release in 1999, was unfairly ignored by the general public, even though critics were highly impressed with its blend of psychological method-scares and real-time environments. The public, used to zombie dogs bursting through windows and super-sharp pre-rendered backdrops, couldn't seem to get into a foggy real-time atmosphere where what you heard was scarier than what you saw. However, thanks in no small part to it's sequels (the standard-setting Silent Hill 2, and the graphically amazing, slightly hollow SIlent Hill 3), the original Silent Hill now enjoys something of a Classic status, and I have to say, it's very well-deserved.

You play Harry Mason, a widower, whose daughter Cheryl goes missing en route to their vacation in the resort town of Silent Hill. Along the way you encounter allies and enemies (Cybil the Cop, Dr. Michael, Nurse Lisa, and the memorable Dahlia Gillespie, one of the series' coolest characters to date) and unravel the ghastly truth behind the desertion and possession of a seemingly innocent town.

The graphics haven't aged well, but still have the ability to scare. One of the first survival horror-games to utilise fully modelled realtime environments, the camera angles and darkness/fog make for some truly chilling views. You find your way with the aid of a map, torch and a radio that emits static only when an enemy is close. Since darkness and fog are very cleverly employed in the game (ostensibly to keep the slowdown to a minimum, it also serves to heighten the tense atmosphere) what you hear and do not see is a lot scarier than what you do see. There are also several of the truly cool, nightmarish vignettes that the series has become famous for - Pyramid-Heads in steel cages, the Mark of Samael, and terribly wasted corpses cling to walls and ceilings and give us a deeper sense of the ravages of satanism.

The gameplay and controls in the game, while doing nothing really new for the genre, are loose and easy. This is a system that will never be perfect, lacking the fluidity of the Tomb Raider games and the precision of point-and-click adventures, but does the job nicely. The auto-aim of games like Residnet Evil isn't present, so shooting can become a tense and exciting exercise - but you'll more often than not end up running scared from whatever it is you can't see.

The characterisation is superior, thanks in no small part to superb pre-rendered cut scenes and excellent voice acting. Konami have taken great pains in all of their Silent Hill games to make sure that we understand the characters in the game, and the original is no exception. Our protagonist Harry is the dullest of the players, but he's still a likeable and well-realised character. Cheryl is not the stereotypical bug-eyed Manga cute girl we've come to expect from Japanese games, and she;s all the more realistic and endearing because of it. Nurse Lisa is sinister and forbidding in her surroundings, but her innocence and frailty is heart-rending - I defy anyone not to mist up when she makes her exit in the game. And Dahlia Gillespie is a masterpiece, she's a scary, eccentric old woman that will stay in the memory long after you've finished playing.

I hate giving away plot points in my reviews, and I won't here, either, but a word of advice from a survival-horror completist - CONSERVE YOUR AMMO. Depending on the ending you get (one of a possible five) you may have to fight up to three end-of-game bosses. And nothing spoils your enjoyment of a game more than having to replay the final half for more ammo.

All in all, Silent Hill is a convoluted, enthralling game. It may be slightly rough-looking in places but it's well-worth the ride, and an absolute MUST if you intend to play the laterst installment. Highly recommended.

Scary and fun at the same time.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: September 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

When I first go this game I was 7 or 8 I could only make it to the hospital then I would get freeked out. 5 years later I began playing the game again and I am now able to beat the game without getting scared. But enough about that let,s get to the story. This game revolves around a man named Harry Mason. He and his daughter come to Silent Hill for vacation. They are driving down the road when suddenley a strange figure appears out of nowhere Harry turns the wheel and crashes the car. He awakes shortly later to find his daughter is missing!! He stumbles out of the car and ventures into Silent Hill and begins his search for his daughter.

This game is not for the faint of heart it is very gorey and is loaded with tons of grotesque monsters. The graphics arent the best but the cinematics are quite good. This game is more about messing with your mind than grossing you out ( like Resident evil) but it still can gross you out at times. I think it is an awsome game it,s fun to fight the winged demons with a steel pipe. But if you dont like solving riddles than you better sit this one out. Other than that I think this game is awsome and that you should buy it.

At last: a TRUE horror.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: September 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Few movies, and few games exist that enact the true nature of horror. It's refereshing to find something that really digs into the depth of your mind, plays with your perception of reality, and leaves you sleeping with a baseball bat at night.

The designers obviously have performed deep studies on psychology while designing Silent Hill. The atmosphere will often leave you doing a 360 in an empty hallway, just to make sure nothing's behind you. The darkness, coupled with the incessant hissing of the radio, does wonders for paranoia. This game, unlike the combat-gimpy Resident Evil trash, plays with your mind, and will reawaken fear within.

Running around a town going to the abyss is fun; many elements - ads, stores, cars, etc. - lend an anchor to normality, as Silent Hill serves as a nexus of warped and demented realities shifting together and apart. The voice-acting is good, and the graphics are excellent.

My only nitpickings are the vagueness of the plot, and the somewhat choppy combat. Without the help of online guides (or strong knowledge of the occult), the typical player is often left in the dark (no pun intended) about what is really going on.

This game is almost an art. I own the entire series! I think I'm beginning to understand why people look at me funny, when I walk around, ranting about Samael and the "mother of God."

Survival Horror At Its Best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Back in 1997, I purchased a copy of Resident Evil: Director's Cut, mostly because I'd been exposed to the original verion at a friend's place, and thought it was interesting. The shotty dialogue was a bit annoying, but the game itself was done very well, with good graphics, a puzzle-solving integration, and some really interesting monsters. So when Silent Hill rolled around, I thought I should see how Konami's take on the survival/horror genre would be. I wasn't let down, and Silent Hill quickly became one of my favorite PS titles of all time.

You play as Harry Mason, a single dad with a young seven-year-old daughter named Cheryl. You're on a vacation trip to try to get away from it all, when a mysterious woman appears in the middle of the road. Frantically, you jerk the wheel of your jeep to avoid hitting her, only to end up crashing into a ditch. You lose consciousness, and awake to find you're engulfed in a strange fog, and Cheryl is missing. You don't know where you are, or what's around you, but you know you've got to get Cheryl back.

Silent Hill features the entire layout of the town of Silent Hill. The buildings, the streets, the signposts, mailboxes, benches, trees, and everything else are all carved out for you to explore. It features an array of strange, twisted enemies to fight, and a small stock of different weapons you can use to defeat them with. But most important of all, the scenarios become twisted and nightmarish as night falls, and you jump into another dimension with scenes so frightening, you'll just be thankful you're not Harry himself.

Instead of the usual video-game music playing as you run around the town, the game features a soundtrack of creepy noises and other sounds that keep you on edge. Your pocket radio crackles with static when enemies are nearby, and the sound effects of the environment chill you to the bone.

Any other horror film, game, or soundtrack you've experience before are Sunday-School lessons compared to Silent Hill. It's definitely worth owning, but you might want to rent it first to see if you're ready to be that terrified. And don't forget to check out Silent Hill 2, and Silent Hill 3 in August 2003.

Review Page: Previous 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Next 

Actions