Silent Hill Series

I was actually thinking about purchasing the second game for the xbox but as a series in general... Do you think it's worth it?

P.S. I didn't really like the movie.

Silent Hill 2 for PS2 was the first game of the series I played, and I loved it. The story didn't make too much sense to me at the time, but it was easily the scariest game I've ever played. Get it.

If you have a good sound system, crank it up and play in the dark at night. If not, wear headphones. It'll make the experience exponentially better.

Silent Hill 2 for PS2 was the first game of the series I played, and I loved it. The story didn't make too much sense to me at the time, but it was easily the scariest game I've ever played. Get it.

If you have a good sound system, crank it up and play in the dark at night. If not, wear headphones. It'll make the experience exponentially better.

JordanElek

Thanks.

Yes, go for it. I played the original one just last year and I felt so compelled by it that I decided to try the rest of the series. I wasn´t expecting much out of it, being a PS1 game, sure the graphics had aged horribly but the gameplay, sound, atmosphere was just right Since then I´ve been hunting down the games in the series, And I kid you not, I bought both SH2 and SH3 for PS2 just today!!! Some say SH2 is the weak spot of the series, but as I recall the Xbox got a Director´s Cut version called Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams, that had some extra content. But it´s a good game nonetheless. Not so sure about SH4: The Room, I played a demo a while back and it was hard as hell. Maybe Konami should give the series a breather and retake it a few years down the line SciFiCat

SH2, while fairly light on actual gameplay (even by SH standards) is still a great gaming experience on atmosphere and story alone. Unfortunately it has some pretty nasty backtracking that will have you screaming WTF! Get it on PC if you can, its the best package of all the versions of SH2 I've played.

EDIT: I see you're looking into PC versions already. Some friendly advice, stay away from SH4 on PC, that port was completely butchered.

I prefer SH and SH2, both mainly due to the story and gameplay. Both use the structure of an open-ended environmental puzzle, byallowing you to first exploretheir respective parts of the Silent Hill township to identify and find the next level of the game. SH3 has similar gameplay, except that it consists of several serial areas that are sort of automatic -- once you finish one place you go to the next one without any township exploration, etc. By far the worst was SH4. It had a great (and unique)premise behind the story which tied somewhat to some details revealed in clues in SH2, but that story quickly became inconsistent with the scant details revealed in SH2. As for the gameplay in SH4, it was completely reinvented from the traditional series, and I can't say I liked the changes that much.

Some say SH2 is the weak spot of the series, but as I recall the Xbox got a Director´s Cut version called Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams, that had some extra content. But it´s a good game nonetheless. Not so sure about SH4: The Room, I played a demo a while back and it was hard as hell. Maybe Konami should give the series a breather and retake it a few years down the line SciFiCat

Again, I would attribute that to the long stretches of the game where there wasn't any combat, where one felt as though they were playing some action version of Myst or something like that. But no matter, SH2 is still good.

Personally, I think SH3 was the worst of the series by virtue of its ending alone of what was otherwise a good game. Yes, you read that right, the ending was such a disgrace to the point where it felt to me at least, like the whole experience had been ruined.

SH4 was difficult, but not because of its actual difficulty, it was because of some horrific game design. Not being able to stack bullets and the controller slamming inducing escort mission come to mind. It was really too bad, I thought The Room still did the SH name proud with its presentation and story, but the glitchy gameplay marred the overall experience.

SH2, while fairly light on actual gameplay (even by SH standards) is still a great gaming experience on atmosphere and story alone. Unfortunately it has some pretty nasty backtracking that will have you screaming WTF! Get it on PC if you can, its the best package of all the versions of SH2 I've played.

EDIT: I see you're looking into PC versions already. Some friendly advice, stay away from SH4 on PC, that port was completely butchered.

MarcusAntonius

Ok, I'll check Silent Hill 2 out on the PC. Thanks.

by allowing you to first exploretheir respective parts of the Silent Hill township to identify and find the next level of the game. m0zart

I think you're embellishing that open-endedness a bit. Running around until you're at the edge of a break in the road or a fence in that regard isn't really a feature worthy of praise. But still, even psuedo-nonlinearity is better than feeling like you're playing a game on training wheels. It does help one to appreciate a game's finer artistic merits after all.

[QUOTE="m0zart"]

by allowing you to first exploretheir respective parts of the Silent Hill township to identify and find the next level of the game. MarcusAntonius

I think you're embellishing that open-endedness a bit. Running around until you're at the edge of a break in the road or a fence in that regard isn't really a feature worthy of praise. But still, even psuedo-nonlinearity is better than feeling like you're playing a game on training wheels. It does help one to appreciate a game's finer artistic merits after all.

I don't feel I am embellishing it at all. I was trying to be restrained in my description not to give too much spoilers away rather than overtl descriptive, but having said that, all environmental puzzle games have some limtiations or endpoints, whether it be Metroid's dungeon crawling being blocked by walls and acid, etc.or Zelda's overworld exploration being blocked by oceans and mountains. The breaks in the road and other strange roadblocks actually added to the mystery of the game somewhat, specifically, because though impossibly deep breaks in the road were inexplicable, they worked in the overall plot, which was itself supernaturally inexplicable. If they had just put up a giant wall that rose all the way up to heaven, or just an area you couldn't access due to a message and an automatic turn-around, like many games do with town-edges do, it wouldn't have worked as well. Environmental puzzles are usually enclosed in this way-- even in games like Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2.

I am definitely not trying to equate it to something like Grand Theft Auto. So if it sounded like I was implying that, apologies all the way around.

I was actually thinking about purchasing the second game for the xbox but as a series in general... Do you think it's worth it?

P.S. I didn't really like the movie.

IndieShotYou

The movie and the game are two different things, the games overall are good as long as you don't go in expecting it to be a RE4 killer or something, I would buy it if you are into those type of games.

Silent Hill and Silent Hill 3 were my two favorite games in the series because of the full storyline between the two, I also consider the original SH the creepiest. The storyline of SH and SH3 are actually the primary storyline in the entire SH series.

SH and SH3 are the only two games in the series so far that are direct sequels of one another and where the storyline actually connects. Keep in mind SH3 becomes a much better game if you understand the story by having beaten SH1 (preferably with the "Good+" or at least "Good" ending).

SH2 and SH4 are both seperate side storylines in the series that don't really connect with any other the other games. SH2 is definitely worth a buy since it was a great game, but I wouldn't bother with SH4....SH4 was a letdown.

SH2 is probably the best game to get if you want a self contained story so you can get a taste of the series without having to play the other games....but if you want to experience the primary storyline in the SH series, that's in SH1 and SH3.

If I had to rank my favorite SH games...it'd probably be in this order...

1) Silent Hill (best story and creepiest in the series)
2) tie - Silent Hill 2 / Silent Hill 3 (both equally good for different reasons....SH2 has a great self contained story.....SH3 story is cool in the way it connects with the original SH)

Like I said, I wouldn't bother with SH4, it was a completely seperate story that doesn't even really connect or relate to any other the other games anyway, and it was a letdown for the series.

Aside from SH4, its all gravy. SH1 had a strong story (though most of the voice acting was pretty bad, it improved towards the end) and great gameplay/game design. It was really cool because there were enemies that could outrun you and enemies that confronted you in numbers too great to fight (it makes sense that in a horror game sometimes one wants to sneak on by the monster) and on a related note, very limited ammo. Silent Hill 2 boasts a really, really great story with strong acting. The problem is that the gameplay/game design is somewhat lacking. The problems were that one could outrun all one's enemies and that one had enough ammo to kill almost all of one's enemies. Silent Hill 3 returned the series to all-round greatness. Once again, there was a strong plot and formidiable enemies who couldn't always be outrun.

SPOILER ALERT One great thing about SH is it demonstrates the humanity of its characters. When Harry (the protagonist of SH1) learned that Lisa was infected (and blood started running down her face) he ran out of the room and held the door shut as she sobbed on the other side, banging at the door. My first verbal reactionwas unprintable, but suffice to say I didn't think well of old Harry. But as I thought more about it, the fact he didn't have the superhero reaction videogame characters tend to do was a refreshing change. There are such moments throughout the entire series, which underlines the fact that the protagonists aren't necessarily heros (love, obsession/guilt and vengeance and the motives for the heros of the first three SHs.

I thought SH4 was an interesting experiment (the eternally reviving killer reminded me too much of a tamer version of Nemesis but the ghosts, their ability to move through walls and your ability to nail them to the ground, were cool) but some of its decisions such as the limited inventory system, the lack of a flashlight,the story (unlike past SHs, the hero had no personal investment, at least not in the ending I saw, which I think was one of the better ones) and the fact one had to go through the same areas twice (albeit modified) were all letdowns. The faces bubbling through the walls were the ugliest thing I have ever seen in a videogame though.END SPOILER

While the team behind SH: Origins is new (though they are using the old musician) it looks like Origins is kind of taking the series back to basics. The flashlight is back and the story is once again tied to something in the protagonist's past. So I'm cautiously optimistic.

Personally, I think SH3 was the worst of the series by virtue of its ending alone of what was otherwise a good game. Yes, you read that right, the ending was such a disgrace to the point where it felt to me at least, like the whole experience had been ruined.

MarcusAntonius

I have no idea why someone would think the ending of SH3 makes it bad.....in fact, one of the things I likes about SH3 is it actually has a specific ending....if anything, SH3 is the only game in the series that actually has an actual ending, as in one single ending that everyone gets on their first playthrough that actually brings some sort of closure to the storyline.

.......unlike the other SH games which either leave you confused or they have multiple endings where you don't know which one is even supposed to be the canon ending.

One of the things I HATED about SH2 is that completely Minor actions (like simply examining a minor item in your inventory, or reading a diary on a roof) literally could result in you getting the worst ending....SH2 had no real sense of direction to give the player if they where hoping for the outcome of the story to be a certain way....in fact, with SH2, doing things that you think would logically result in the best ending possible (like actually exploring places or being trying to protect certain people) would actually result in the most morbid / worst ending possible for some players.....and you would have no idea why you got the ending you did unless you went to a guide online...which flat out sucked.

I agree that SH2 has a strong story, the problem is the player was literally in the dark about what kind of actions and options they had to steer the story in a particular direction.

At least with SH3 there was one single ending everyone got on their first playthrough, and I thought it was actually a good ending that brought some form closure to the storyline started by the original Silent Hill.

I have no idea why someone would think the ending of SH3 makes it bad.....in fact, one of the things I likes about SH3 is it actually has a specific ending....if anything, SH3 is the only game in the series that actually has an actual ending, as in one single ending that everyone gets on their first playthrough that actually brings some sort of closure to the storyline.

Robnyc22

Let me help you understand more clearly

[spoiler] Don't blondes have more fun? teehee :roll: [/spoiler]

I mean come the hell on, that's it? Was Konami ******* serious with that garbage? Tomb Raider's nothing endings would have been more preferable.

.......unlike the other SH games which either leave you confused or they have multiple endings where you don't know which one is even supposed to be the canon ending.

Robnyc22

Depends, when I got an ending, I knew there were others to be had, I always thought that was obvious.

One of the things I HATED about SH2 is that completely Minor actions (like simply examining a minor item in your inventory, or reading a diary on a roof) literally could result in you getting the worst ending....SH2 had no real sense of direction to give the player if they where hoping for the outcome of the story to be a certain way....

At least with SH3 there was one single ending everyone got on their first playthrough, and I thought it was actually a good ending that brought some form closure to the storyline started by the original Silent Hill.

Robnyc22

Here's where I would agree with you, that was a pretty annoying aspect of SH2, but hey, every one of the SH games must have a big flaw of some kind or it wouldn't be a SH game. However, that next statement about SH3 simply isn't true, at least, not completely true. While the branching path is a bit more obvious for some with that scene in the confessional, it may not be totally obvious for everybody. But sure, there was at least more direction in SH3 unlike the seemingly randomness of SH2, but that doens't make SH3's ending anymore acceptable.

Let me help you understand more clearly

[spoiler] Don't blondes have more fun? teehee :roll: [/spoiler]

I mean come the hell on, that's it? Was Konami ******* serious with that garbage? Tomb Raider's nothing endings would have been more preferable.MarcusAntonius

I thought that ending was good....first, it was a lighthearted way to end the game and the actual story started by the original Silent Hill (after all, Heather is a teenage girl), second, she's responsing to the question Douglas poses to her, which third, explains in itself explains why she altered her appearence given the revelation that we learn who she really is....finally, it shows Heather is still herself, she also confirms to the player her real name (even though we find out who she is part-way through the game).

It's a hell of a lot better then a couple of the endings in SH2, which actually made no sense given James personality and actions throughout the game, not to mention the one I consider the worst is the one the player could easily instantly get pushed toward simply by reading a book and examining a simple item in their inventory

[spoiler] After this whole long search through the whole game, trying to talk sense into people, finding clues....You kill yourself....the end.:| [/spoiler]

The "Maria" ending is even worse and made even less sense that James would actually go that route.

In fact, the only ending that actually makes sense, which I consider the best the only great ending of SH2....is the "Leave ending".....which again, the player has no direction or idea of what actions to take to even get the game to result in that ending.

However, that next statement about SH3 simply isn't true, at least, not completely true. While the branching path is a bit more obvious for some with that scene in the confessional, it may not be totally obvious for everybody.

MarcusAntonius

The ending remains the same for SH3 on your first playthrough no matter what you answer in the confessional, so on your first playthrough the confessional has no bearing whatsoever on the ending.

Even if you decide to do additional playthroughs of SH3, the confessional alone still has no bearing on ending......the only way the confessional has a bearing on the ending is if the player is purposefully attempting to get the Possessed ending (which is actually quite a challenge), which is a bonus ending that's very hard to get considering the requirments are you must have already completed the game at least once, in addition, you literally have to obtain a certain number of "points" where the player must literally let every enemy in the game hit you at least once in addition you have to kill practically every enemy in the game without a melee weapon (in other words, you can only use guns), all that on top of answering in the confessional....and even then it's not guaranteed you'll have enough points to get the "Possessed" ending.

In fact, the only way to get the Possessed ending is if you have an unlocked special bonus weapon (mainly the infinite ammo submachinegun), and again, the only way to unlock that special bonus weapon is if you've played though the game at least once.

The fact is, SH3 is the only game in the series that has an actual standard and canon ending (Konami said its the Canon ending) that everyone gets to see, since its the only ending you can get on your first playthrough of the game.

It's a hell of a lot better then a couple of the endings in SH2, which actually made no sense given James personality and actions throughout the game, not to mention the one I consider the worst is the one the player could easily instantly get pushed toward simply by reading a book and examining a simple item in their inventory

[spoiler] After this whole long search through the whole game, trying to talk sense into people, finding clues....You kill yourself....the end.:| [/spoiler]

The "Maria" ending is even worse and made even less sense that James would actually go that route.

In fact, the only ending that actually makes sense, which I consider the best the only great ending of SH2....is the "Leave ending".....which again, the player has no direction or idea of what actions to take to even get the game to result in that ending.

The fact is, SH3 is the only game in the series that has an actual standard and canon ending (Konami said its the Canon ending) that everyone gets to see, since its the only ending you can get on your first playthrough of the game.

Robnyc22

How do the other endings in SH2 not make sense? If its not making sense, you're not understanding the plot or the characters very well. You could always look up a plot FAQ for that you know. The "Maria" ending in fact was brilliant.

Whether Konami says the ending to SH3 its the canon ending or not (where you're getting this I have no idea or why anyone at Konami would feel the need to make such a statement is beyond me) is pretty disingenuous given that its the only ending available on the first play through, making such remarks seem really stupid on their part.

Get it. You don't have to play silent hill2 inorder to understand any of the silent hill games stories because only sh1 and sh3 are connected and 4 has few refrences to 2.

I personally liked SH4 story best though the the way the game was excuted was bad and konami did the minimum effort to make it yet it had interetsing gameplay concept like the demon exocism.

Silent Hill3 is silent hill 2 repeated with contiuation of silent hill1 story. The best in the series but the story wasn't that powerful.

Silent hill2 has a great storyline as well and the scariest of them all.

Whether Konami says the ending to SH3 its the canon ending or not (where you're getting this I have no idea or why anyone at Konami would feel the need to make such a statement is beyond me) is pretty disingenuous given that its the only ending available on the first play through, making such remarks seem really stupid on their part.

MarcusAntonius

Konami released an official book called "Lost Memories" from the creators of SH 1,2,3 that was an official analyzation of the Silent Hill trilogy as well as stating the Normal ending of SH3 was the canon ending.

[QUOTE="SciFiCat"]Yes, go for it. I played the original one just last year and I felt so compelled by it that I decided to try the rest of the series. I wasn´t expecting much out of it, being a PS1 game, sure the graphics had aged horribly but the gameplay, sound, atmosphere was just right Since then I´ve been hunting down the games in the series, And I kid you not, I bought both SH2 and SH3 for PS2 just today!!! Some say SH2 is the weak spot of the series, but as I recall the Xbox got a Director´s Cut version called Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams, that had some extra content. But it´s a good game nonetheless. Not so sure about SH4: The Room, I played a demo a while back and it was hard as hell. Maybe Konami should give the series a breather and retake it a few years down the line Crucifier

here a tip when maria follow jame later on in silent hill 2 becareful and avoid shooting at maria kyacat

I repeated the game just to save her in the elevator cutscene but I found out that I couldn't :( that was a nightmaire!

Do you guys think that the next silent hill will be done like RE4? I would not mind as long as they keep the puzzles and story intact.mmcodyz

So you have two games of the same genre and content? No then survival horror genre will really die.

Do you guys think that the next silent hill will be done like RE4? I would not mind as long as they keep the puzzles and story intact.mmcodyz

The highly troubled SH: Origins is RE4-like.

here a tip when maria follow jame later on in silent hill 2 becareful and avoid shooting at maria kyacat

Actually, for the best ending, which is the "Leave ending", you're supposed to avoid Maria and not get close to her nor really care about ehr.....like go to your destination without caring if she keeps up or not, and also, don't check back on her in the hospital and prison cell.

You can't kill her (you can actually bump into her a few times), but at the same time you're not supposed to care what happens to her......since your goal is to find Mary, and Maria simply is a dark distraction to that goal.

Okay well i know you got a ton of posts on this game but i wanna put my two cents in also.

I randomly wanted to play silent hill a few years back so i asked for SH3 for Christmas. I got the game and i thought it was amazing and really scary.IMO, it is the best in the series. SHII is another amazing game, with less action but more haunting atmosphere and another amazing story. SH4 was hard as heck and very frustrating. The gameplay was pathetic if you ask me. I can tell the game was intended to be good, but it just fell short, actually fell bya lot. But anyway, the games are cheap now, except the first one i never played is pretty expanisve for a ps1 game. Kinda rare i guess. I recommend Silent 2 since you have xbox, and silent hill 3 on the pc. I forget if silent hill 4 is on xbox, but if it is, get it later on, its a decent game but not as good as 2 and 3. And good luck finding the first game cheaply.

You can't kill her (you can actually bump into her a few times), but at the same time you're not supposed to care what happens to her......since your goal is to find Mary, and Maria simply is a dark distraction to that goal.

Robnyc22

Actually you can kill her, but doing so will end the game. In fact, hitting her a couple of times withthe wooden plank you pick up at the start of the gameis a good way of making the Leave ending more likely and the Maria ending less likely.

[QUOTE="trifecta_basic"]

[QUOTE="mmcodyz"]Do you guys think that the next silent hill will be done like RE4? I would not mind as long as they keep the puzzles and story intact.dvader654

The highly troubled SH: Origins is RE4-like.

Wasn't there a new trailer or pics that showed they went back to the old style and ditched the RE4 style.