Silent Hill Part I: Scary Origins

Horror is my favorite genre of any form of media. A large part of this can be attributed to a prolonged goth phase in high school during the early 2000s and the rest can be blamed on Silent Hill. Getting my parents to buy this for me, of course, took some (shady) convincing, but it was well worth it. This series changed my perception of what horror could be. Despite the limitations of the PlayStation, this game has held up pretty well over the years. Now that story time is over, let's move onto the research. Basics Silent Hill is a pioneer of the survival horror genre, developed by the infamous Team Silent. Sadly, they only ever worked on the first four Silent Hill games. It was published by Konami and was released in North America on 01/31/1999. It was later released on 03/04/1999 in Japan and 08/01/1999 in Europe. It, obviously, earned an M rating from the ESRB.

The story follows Harry Mason, who was driving to Silent Hill with his daughter Cheryl. After a series of events, he crashes his car and his daughter leaves before he can regain consciousness. He then follows the road into town, through the dense fog, beginning the game. I don't want to go too deep into the storyline as it is intricate and spoiler-rific. All I'll say is If you are into psychological horror, you'll enjoy the story. Just make sure you have a strategy guide on hand, as parts of the story can be missed. Development Of the inspiration for Silent Hill, the team said in an interview (yes, they were lumped together) that their inspiration came from all over: "...fiction, movies, manga, new and old." A particular influence is a manga called "Whirr" by a author named Morohashi. Sadly, I couldn't find further details on this manga, as the title may be a mistranslation. If anyone has any details on it, please email or message me. Credit will be given. The following was information was pulled from two interviews with Takayoshi Sato, the CG and character designer for Silent Hill.

Sato joined Konami in 1996, right after graduating from Tama Art University of Tokyo. After begging for a 3D artist role inside Konami, he landed a job with Team Silent. In the beginning he was given a lot of grunt work. Eventually he was allowed to give a presentation on CG work, which earned him applause. However, because of internal politics, the higher ups still wanted someone more experienced to head up the CG work as Sato was still technically a novice. After pushing back and demanding full credit for his work he was informed that he would be working without assistance. He went with this as he didn't want to be labeled "assistant artist" when he was creating 100% of the work. After taking up this astronomical task, he states he didn't go home for three years and slept under his desk a good chunk of the time. Due to some issues at Konami, he left Japan to search for work in the US. For those interested in the minutia of these interviews (there is a lot of content), the sources can be found below. We have several interviews with Akira Yamaoka, the sound director. He studied at Toyo Art College and did work in other media before moving onto video games. His first project was Sparkster, by Konami, for the Super Famicom. When Silent Hill was in its concept phases, he immediately tried to get on the team. The music was inspired by Angelo Badalamenti's music of Twin Peaks fame. He added industrial sounds, lending itself well to the cold and isolating atmosphere. And like Sato, he did all the work himself. Of it, he says he is happy with how it turned out, although he laments that it isn't perfect.

Lastly, Official PlayStation Magazine sat down with producer Keiichiro Toyama, as well as Yamaoka and Sato. They described pulling inspiration from many different horror movies. They then tried to emulate those films with cinematic camera angles. Additionally, they state that Resident Evil wasn't an inspiration. The team felt that those games went for an action, Hollywood feel. For Silent Hill, on the other hand, they "...wanted to go back to the roots of what horror is supposed to be about."

When asked how long it took to render CG scenes, Sato said it took about three to four hours to create just one second. The math on that is about 2000 hours of work. If you include the modeling and other features, it adds even more time. Would all this work lead to a sequel? Well, Toyama said, although it sounded corporate, it would depend on how well received the game was. Luckily for horror fans, Silent Hill was successful.

Previews

The first preview I have was written by IGN in October 1998. They had several gripes with the game right out the gate. First, they believed the fogging was just there to hide the backgrounds as they loaded. Silent Hill was certainly using this common trick. However, they were also using fog as part of the story and to add atmosphere, proving they could work well with the limitations placed on them.

IGN's second complaint was regarding the tank controls. This is more understandable as the controls weren't great even back then. While the author thought the game looked creepy, their preview was more tempered as they thought the game was riding the coattails of Resident Evil. By January 1999, however, they were calling the game "promising." They note that the game was to be released, oddly, in North America before being released in its native Japan.

Also in January '99, CVG previewed Silent Hill. Of it, they state the puzzles, creatures, and atmosphere make it a serious challenger to Resident Evil. They even say it is more atmospheric than RE overall and felt the graphics were fantastic.

In February 1999, IGN released an article right before release in the US. The author found the game to be creepy and once again compared it to Resident Evil, saying that Silent Hill will be giving it a run for its money. They also detail all of the creatures they had information on.

PSM's article, the same month, was very enthusiastic as well. Of the comparisons to Resident Evil, they say they are "unfounded" as the only similarities between the two is the horror genre. They found the graphics to be beautiful and haunting, while the gameplay and story were creepy and twisted. They also note the seemingly never ending innovations: the protagonist isn't a hero, the sound used to bolster the horror, the use of rumble, hearing enemies before seeing them, etc. I can see why this article got me so pumped 20 years ago. As a UK magazine, CVG had to wait a little longer for Silent Hill. Their April 1999 preview asks, like many others do, if the game could be scarier than Resident Evil. They weren't sure, but at the very least the psychological horror sets it apart. Overall they found the game to be "dark and twisted."

Reviews The reviews for Silent Hill were overwhelmingly positive. GameSpot gave the game an 8.2 our of 10. The reviewer found the game wasn't quite up to Resident Evil 2's lofty standards, but was "...a good start." They hoped Silent Hill would start a franchise, which it of course did.

One of the most unnerving aspects about the game was the lighting, which they called "jaw-dropping." It often only allows the player to see a couple of feet in front of them. The sound effects were also good at creating scares. The author's only complaints were that the story was confusing if you didn't pursue the side stories and the monster designs weren't quite up to par. All that said, the game was given a positive rating and was felt to be fantastic overall.

IGN also compared the game to Resident Evil, although they believed it met those expectations. They state Silent Hill is "...an adventure masterfully crafted by the use of sound, sight and even touch." The only negative thing they could say was its controls were pretty bad. Overall, despite comparing it to Resident Evil, they felt Silent Hill stood on its own. OPSM shared the same sentiment about Silent Hill, which they gave a 4 out of 5. They liked the game overall, but felt it had some flaws. The strongest aspect was its atmosphere, although that can't completely save it from its controls, which are admittedly bad. They also weren't fans of some of the survival game design, confusing story, FPS dropping, and grainy graphics, even though that was a conscious design choice.

It wasn't all complaints, of course. They felt the game succeeded in what it tried to do and was a masterpiece. Much like Konami's other legend, Metal Gear Solid, it was flawed but amazing.They went so far as to compare Silent Hill to classic horror movies. The comparison to Resident Evil, in their opinion, was unfounded.

GamePro, however, felt the game was heavily influenced by Resident Evil. Even so, they believed that it succeeded in picking up the slack in between RE games. It used the Duel Shock support effectively, and its story and puzzles were "compelling." They were the only reviewer that enjoyed the controls. That said, the voice acting was pretty terrible (it is) and often undermines the tension in a scene. Luckily, suspense is available everywhere else in Silent Hill.

CVG's was the only negative review I could find, with a 3 out of 5 stars. They felt Silent Hill didn't live up to the precedent Resident Evil set: "it doesn't better Res Evil in any way." Furthermore, they say it isn't even scary. Personal opinion time: who is this person? I'm a horror aficionado and I think the game was plenty scary. More over, it seems they couldn't judge the game on its own merits. Anyhoo, they recommend the reader try it for themselves but to be cautious with expectations.

Modern Reception Modern reception for Silent Hill has been overwhelmingly positive. It has earned a place a video game history, as an artilce from IGN states. In a retrospective on the history of horror games, it notes that the game avoided a lot of the cliches of the time. Like many contemporary reviews for Silent Hill, the author points out that Silent Hill gave Resident Evil a run for its money.

GameSpot also published a retrospective during Silent Hill's 15th anniversary in 2014, where they covered the history of the game. Apparently, the game wasn't expected to succeed, although Team Silent had confidence in it. They cover Takayoshi Sato's work on the the game and he moved onto Silent Hill 2's development after the first game was released. The rest of this look back were editors speaking to their favorite parts of Silent Hill. It's a good read if you are interested. The Guardian published an article titled "Silent Hill at 20: The game that taught us to fear ourselves." They detail the differences between Silent Hill and Resident Evil, saying they are "profound" and Silent Hill is more psychological in its horror. It is a game that "deliberately disempowers its protagonist and, though him, the player." The game is also inspired by more avant-garde sources. Misc. Nintendo World Report wrote a review for the Silent Hill visual novel on the Game Boy Color. They didn't think the "game" turned out well. It was basically a choose your own adventure of the first game with text laid over a prerendered background and the sound...what sound? They summarize (and generalize) that while "...Japanese gamers may go in for this sort of game though, US gamers almost almost certainly will not."

IGN was similarly confused as to why this Silent Hill "game" needed to exist. They note that there aren't even that many choices in your adventure. The one positive thing they could say about the game was how fantastic the CG scenes were. In 2009 a retelling in the form of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories was released for the Wii. It was...strange. There were now plenty of people hanging around the town, killing the isolating tension of the first game. Depending on how the player spoke to these other characters, as well as your actions, determined how the story unfolded and ended.

While the first game's alternate Silent Hill changes the town into a rusty, bloody hell, Shattered Memories turns it to ice. In my personal opinion, this brightly colored ice served to kill all tension in the game, leading it to being creepy, not scary. I'm not the only one either. Many reviews have similar gripes. That said, it is still one of the best of the non-Team Silent games.

As most of you probably know, there was a movie adaptation released in 2006. While some players enjoyed the movie for what it was, overall it received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics. Personally, I agree with them. While I don't expect every adaptation to be extremely close to the source material, I do expect it not to butcher the storyline. That said, the movie is shot well and can be an entertaining ride, just don't expect Silent Hill as you know it. Of course the movie did sell tickets and a sequel named Silent Hill: Revelation was released in 2012. This time, though, fans and critics alike didn't enjoy the movie. That, of course, won't stop them from making the upcoming Silent Hill 3 movie. All that isn't to say that Silent Hill hasn't inspired good media. Parts of Stranger Things pull heavily from the series. One of the shows creators, Ross Duffer, said of these elements:

"Silent Hill is the one most people have picked up on. Because that's the least subtle one with the look of the Upside Down and with all the fog and the forest dripping. Obviously we were really looking at that game for visualizing this other world, so that's a big one.”

Silent Hill Part I: Scary Origins

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