Retro Tuesday - Silent Hill(1999)
- MC Wright
- Feb 19, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 19, 2019
Hot Damn another feature dropping today!!
Retro Tuesday is a series of playing games that are at least 20 years old, discussing my (brief) time playing them, talking about the merits or downfalls, and then comparing & relating it to modern games. I allow myself to only play these games for an hour, and then write about it.
Since I made the rule of 20 years, I wanted to pick something that is just at (or close to) 20 years-old. My first pick for Retro Tuesday is Konami's Psychological-Horror, PlayStation One game; Silent Hill.
Silent Hill is Konami's first legit foray into the Horror genre(Castlevania doesn't count), and right of the bat presents what may be a horrific-atmospheric masterpiece. You begin the game with a fantastic cg-animated cut-scene depicting characters and events from the game with a chilling, & amazing song that plays along with it. Music is one of the highlights of this game, and is not to be taken lightly.
The music, or lack of dependent of the area/scene in the game evokes the type of emotion you should be feeling at that time, and does it beautifully.
Upon control of the main character, you're led down an ever escalating sketchy alley-way by way of chasing who you assume to be your daughter, Cheryl. Blood, guts, then comes the darkness & the rain with an ominous and foreboding emergency siren heard off in the distance. There's a squeaky wheelchair followed by even more blood and guts on Chain-Link fences. At the end of the gore rainbow is a person(?) tied up, legless, to one of these fences. It's here you're introduced to your first creepy-crawly, my aptly named, Knifeboy. You're trapped, with fences, rain, darkness and the only light emanating from your lighter, with these creatures, and your doom.
After you succumb to your fate(?), you awake joltingly from a bench inside what seems to be a diner. You meet an out-of-town police woman, Cybil Bennett, who informs you it's dangerous to go outside (duh), and to take her handgun to be safe (not sure any cop outside of the earliest of days of the police force decades ago would give a stranger civilian their handgun, but whatever, game logic).
After you grab some items and use the Notepad to save, as you try to leave a seemingly broken hand radio starts blaring with static and a Pterodactyl (of which I call, Dinobird) crashes through the windows. Firing 5 shots into the beast fells it, and you best get the hell on your way.
Traversing through the Streets of Silent Hill today, and back during it's release, is still a master-craft in atmosphere. Foggy due to limitations of the PlayStation hardware at the time, but to become a series mainstay, it creates a vale of dread and wonder. Running in or past numerous Biteydogs and Dinobirds along the way to find items and progress through the town. You find a note in the shady alleyway of previous note that suggests Cheryl may be at the school, so to the school you go.
Having to find a note that tells you to checkout the doghouse that's in a front lawn, to find a key to a house, in which you need to find 3 keys to exit through the backdoor. But luckily a map next to said backdoor tells you of the locations. Lot of running around in Silent Hill. Collect the keys while dodging or attacking creatures and enter the darkness once again, sans rain and emergency siren. Luckily you have a handy Flashlight now instead of your dinky Lighter.
Enter the school of nightmares and notes written from blood, here is where my playthrough ended. I obtained the Gold Medallion and ended up in the music room with yet another riddle pertaining to birds and "The Silver Reward".
1-Hour Thoughts -
Silent Hill created a fantastic atmospheric horror game, creating a psychological aspect with it's grotesque imagery & I would imagine continuing on, with it's plot. It's definitely a game I want to finish, and move into the rest of the series.
Available Platforms -
PlayStation 1 (original)
PlayStation 3/Portable/Vita/PSTV by way of PS1 Classic purchase on the PlayStation Store
Legacy -
I could honestly write a book on Silent Hill's Legacy, from sequels, to comics, movies and a cult-following of it's music. A huge controversy regarding the would-be latest installment that too, one day when all information is divulged and available, could also be it's own book.
Long story short, Silent Hill has created a multi-media franchise, that waned from greatness, to dull, and at it's worst, terrible trash.
A lot of people still look back with fogged over glasses and a love for the series though, especially it's title that started it all, and it's considered to be best installment, sequel, Silent Hill 2.
Cultural Influence -
Silent Hill, while itself being influenced by several works, in turn influenced others of it's own.
Psychological-Horror video games themselves owe a lot of credit to Silent Hill for paving the way to approved madness. A big one being Amnesia: The Dark Descent, as well as the Siren franchise (though that's cheating a little since it was the same team & director).
Today vs Yesteryear -
I would still recommend playing Silent Hill to a newcomer to the Horror genre of video games. In my opinion it's one of the easier early titles in the genre, and gets so much of it right. You'll have to put some rose-colored glasses on and forgive how it's aged in terms of graphics & tank-controls (I honestly still love the look of the game and have no problem with the controls).
But for a cold day, nothing stirring about, and the urge to play something a little spooky, a little demented, with a fantastic soundtrack; Silent Hill is still very much a go-to.
Edit: Check back in next week for the reveal of a new feature "Accomplished", where I'll discuss Silent Hill (1999) in full.
-MC Wright
(I listened to the OST on Vinyl while writing this story, and fully intend to dive back into the game and play more to completion of the story.)
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