@@SpunkyMcGoo Joseph is a fucking brainlet who can't grasp storytelling that refuses to spoonfeed him and instead goes for a more abstract aproach. He doesn't have what It takes to properly critique Silent Hill
Honestly, to this day if I watch the clip of Lisa transforming, I start tearing up. It's such a beautifully depicted, beautifully scored scene that perfectly captures the shock, the sick feeling in your stomach, and heartache of losing this sweet, innocent character that you've come to care about to the twisted evil of the town. Watching Harry push her away and then have to keep her barred/trapped in that room is devastating-- especially hearing her helpless, muffled cries behind the door. You just want someone to hold her and tell her it will be alright, but you know that once she fully becomes like the other nurses, she will become a danger to Harry and it's so sad! Regardless of the graphics at the time, you could tell it killed Harry to keep Lisa detained in that room, mostly thanks to the performance from Michael G (Harry's VA) when he says "Lisa...". It's clearly hurting him to be doing this to someone he's come to care about, and you can hear the guilt in his voice.
Kinda disapointing how he kinda overlooks the best intro to any horror game ever. Going down that alley way is simply masterful, the way it slowly gets darker, the way scenery gets more decrepit and disturbing, how the alleyway gets narrower and narrower. Games don't do that anymore...
TBH I hated it. I reloaded several times before dying, thinking that I have missed a weapon or something, only after that I said "fuck it" and let them kill me. Like what game does this? What game requires you to die to progress the story
I think Im quite ́Ungry No it’s not, it’s a pretty damn good re-imagining (at least story and design wise) of the first game with none of the stupid cult nonsense.
Chance Kimber the core concept is the same. An amnesiac character that cant deal with what theyve done/ what happened. It has its neat things, but its an inferior game, in level/enemy/navigation design. And the cult is what SH was about. Out of the og Team Silent games, 3 revolve around the cult
I think Im quite ́Ungry I don’t think you’ve played Shattered Memories because Harry in that game is essentially an imagining and representation of his daughter, who is still going to therapy over the death of her father. 3 do revolve around the cult, but it’s easily the worst part of the series. Slapping a goofy human face on something otherwise incorporeal is what made 1 and 3’s stories so mundane and silly at points.
Chance Kimber Just because I disagree with your point of view means that I havent played it? lol I have played it, about 3 times, and thats why I say it has its pros, with the branching options, but its heavily inferior to other games when it comes to gameplay in the "icy otherworld", Harrys movement, not being able to read the cellphone whilst holding a flare, confusing cellphone map, retarded fisher price puzzles. You can memorize the paths in the icy otherworld and i can guarantee you wont run into monster. Yes, singular. And saying that the ones revolving the cult are the worse, its like your opinion, as those 3 games alongside 2 were the highlights of the series. "Slapping a goofy human face on something otherwise incorporeal is what made 1 and 3’s stories so mundane and silly at points." what the fuck does it have that to do with your cult is shit argument. Do I need talk about SHSM monster design? for fucks sakes
It's nice to see a Slent Hill video that's not an analysis on its themes or trying to find a full answer to the story, just straight out game things. Great job!
@KuruSeed lmao right? there are so many youtube videos like this and i find it frustrating every time- who wants to watch a beat-by-beat telling of an entire experience with little else added? All power to you if you do, this is a well made video, but i don't understand it.
Depends on the game. It's disturbing in old graphics for sure, but some games like Mortal Kombat got a lot more disturbing with time I believe. I remember playing the older games when I was like 7 or so, and it was great fun, without being super disturbing cause it was all kinda cheesy or cartoony looking. Now, I watch my little siblings play the new ones, and the fatalities just gross me out. The anatomy and graphics are a little too realistic to be enjoyable in the atmosphere they try to present them in, such as Jax's fatality where he uses someone's decapitated neck hole as an ash tray. In an older game, that might have been a little more comedic, but now the comedy is lost on me, leaving Jax as just a sadistic bastard brutalizing his opponent post mortem
Silent Hill is one of my favorite game Series second only to Metal Gear Solid. My favorite game in the series is Silent Hill 3. You can imagine how frustrating it is to have both your favorite video game franchises owned by Konami.
@AJ The only Metal Gear Solid games that I actually thought we're bad are Metal Gear Solid 4 and 5. I would highly disagree that 3 was unnecessary because it recontextualizes the entire series by offering a new Perspective on the main antagonist of the first games. And even though you could say that this one is unnecessary I even love Peace Walker because of its charm and charisma especially in regards to the characters. I think it's very interesting how Kojima originally wanted to call the game Metal Gear Solid 5 Peace Walker but his team convinced him otherwise because it was only going to be released on the PSP. He has stated that for him Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker is Metal Gear Solid 5 which is why I think he called the phantom pain Metal Gear Solid V. But I always feel uncomfortable throwing around words like unnecessary because if you think about it any game past the first Metal Gear Solid was unnecessary. Initially Kojima only continued on with the series because the fans wanted it.
This is a pretty good analysis but yet again I see that the "stealth" elements found in SH's gameplay weren't mentioned. I don't know if they are only brought up in the manual and that's why so many people never find them or discuss them while reviewing these games but you can sneak around a lot of enemy encounters if you turn off your flashlight and walk slowly/sideways instead of running, but you can't interact with objects and items if you don't turn the flashlight back on so you will eventually have to try to escape from them or fight them. You can also exploit going in and out of rooms to "reset" them but it's still an interesting take on the stealth concept mixed up with some light RE elements. It's probably way more flawed than what I remember but still an interesting way to approach the game.
That was cool but only was necessary for me on Hard mode. I wish the game would make the flashlight batteries limited. That would be 100 more scary and force him to even survive more by avoiding the enemies
@@jaykelley103 It would create interesting decisions on when to use it. Walk around enemies with the flashlight turned off its the most scary shit I've been doing in SH. The mechanic sounds annoying, but the situations that can create from have limited flashlight is scary
I finished SH1 for the first time today and found out about the stealth from hint that appeared after I got a game over. After that I tried to keep my flashlight off and walked instead of running to most places whenever I heard the radio go off.
I wonder if Lisa survives for so long before turning fully into a monster because Alessa wanted to protect her. Maybe Alessa was somewhat aware of the fact that Lisa had cared for her and tried to save her for as long as she could.
In modern times its a bit rough around the edges, but back in 2000 it had my friends and I glued to the tv set trying to get through the game. We would take turns, keep notes, and just try not to die. We beat it about 3 times over the course of a few weekends and finally got the good ending on the final try, albeit we had to use a guide to find out exactly what we needed to do. Still good times and its still one of my favorite games.
I’m 23 and beat it about a week ago, first time playing and I was glued to my PsP Go. First time in what I can remember actually pulling out a notebook to write down the puzzles. Great game. I think it holds up exceedingly well. Same as Metal Gear Solid.
16:46 FWIW, Silent Hill-- being the unapologetic Twin Peaks tribute that it is, these pregnant pauses and stilted conversations are obviously a design choice. One that I'm really fond of. Their conversation is almost as hazy as the music that accompanies the scene. Not even in moments of reprieve is Silent Hill ever _comfortable._
I don't normally like horror games personally, but this one was such a creative change from most other horror games. The atmosphere is just as much character (and arguably better) than any of the characters in the plot. It created rules for the time of day (the general foggy silence, the town alarm when the nightmare portions begin, the radio static when near an enemy) and it was brilliant. I am very sad to see there won't be any more.
I can't believe you just brushed off the sewers, easily some of THE scariest places in any horror game EVER. Especially considering your radio does not work underground.
This is the first video of yours that I have ever seen and as a huge Silent Hill fan (Especially SH1) this was a fantastic analysis and extremely well put together and explained. Excellent work man. I subbed. would love to see you cover SH 2,3,4 and Shattered Memories even.
A think I love about this game is how it rewards you for being curious and exploring your surroundings,reading notes and picking every object you find,you end the game without knowingwhat the hell happened with Kauffman and killing Cybill,and you will get tje worst ending possible,explore and try stuff with objects you got earlier,and you will get both the best ending and a bunch of lore about the game.
The ending, just the blurred fog of the background with the sound of Harry's footsteps and the crackle of the radio, was just perfect. That soundbyte and blurred visual really do comprise its essence as what is indeed one of the best Horror games out there. Plus... it made me terribly nostalgic. Damn me for selling my PS2, and damn Sony for not bringing back retrocompatibility.
A lot of so called fans just want remasters these days. It's all fine and dandy, but not every game needs a remaster, because classics like Silent Hill 1 were done with a lot of care and some imagination in order to make a very good survival horror game. I bought this game on PSN store for PS3 and I find this game pretty scary even till this day. It has a good story and using supernatural and phsyocological elements to throw off the player are very niceley done. Another thing I never noticed,is when you have a very low heatlh, your controller vibrates, but it sounds like a human heartbeat. That is a very nice attention to detail, which I didn't experiance from playing the emulated version of the game. By remastering a game like Silent Hill 1, it would ruin the whole experiance and the passion and care Team Silent gave to this game.
I understand what you're saying, but at the same time, I think if done right, it could benefit from a remake, as long as they make characters like Dahlia look gringey enough. The rather generic monsters in the PS1 game are mostly only scary because of the fog/darkness/disorienting camera/lack of seeing them, but enemies in the future games are legit creepy as hell, like the giant baby-faced enemies that point at you in Silent Hill 4. The midgets are mainly only creepy because they sound like school kids, but imagine if they made them LOOK like the kids from the Grudge or something too. I'm not sure, but I think they could make the game even more disorienting than before...look at RE1 Remake. That game added so many confusing puzzles. If it could work for PS2 era, it could work for PS4 era. I honestly am a little disappointed in remakes lately, like RE2R and RE3R, they both cut a lot of things, and kinda change characters a bit too much since they have a much more established universe. They're not even fixed camera anymore and often cut most of the music/enemies. It's not that they can't be great and even more terrifying...just look at PT or Allison Road (both cancelled?)
I don’t know if the comment about it not having the same passion has aged very well in light of games like the RE2 remake, which many consider to be the equal or superior to the original version in every way. It would just take people who are actually passionate about the ‘art’ in a game to do a remake justice, but unfortunately those people aren’t Konami
16:50 Having checked out a few more of SH's inspirations recently, I'm given the impression that the long pauses between character's statements is a direct lift from Twin Peaks.
yes! i really love it when developers think to include the small details you mentioned about harry. i've seen modern games that don't include that level of detail. i understand when people say that sh is dated, but imo it has aged well and contributed much to the making of later horror games.
I had Silent Hill on my PS3's hard drive for ages before I decided to give the HD Collection a try... and then I tweeted about how botched that remaster set was and about my desire to instead play it on the PS2. A fan on Twitter found copies of Silent Hill 2 and 3 locally and offered to buy them and ship them to me, which they did, graciously including a copy of the Silent Hill 3 strategy guide they happened to find at the same store. This donation prompted me to finally play Silent Hill 1, since I now wanted to treat the entire series as a RUclips project, and I found myself falling in love with the series in a big way after that. Silent Hill 3 is by far my favorite. 2 has a brilliant artistic bent as a psychological horror story and 1 is great for its time, but 2 also falls short on general gameplay I feel and 1 has an endgame post-hospital that feels thrown together and rushed, which really felt unsatisfying after the brilliance of the school and hospital areas. Silent Hill 3 by contrast has a really well-written protagonist and is, from back to front, a well-realized gameplay experience to go with its horror atmosphere and story. It also had a melee parrying mechanic that was so good for that style of play that Resident Evil 7 straight-up ripped it off. Also you get a katana and a giant spiked maul as weapons during the normal course of play and the game treats this as utterly ordinary. That's just great. Anyway. Yeah. I love this series. I still haven't played through 4, Homecoming, or Downpour yet, not to the end at any rate. I have my feelings on all three, but in my mind, the first three games are an amazing set of horror gaming experiences and all should be treated as classics. The later sequels, well... they're interesting in that there's a lot to talk about, whatever your opinions on them. - Lewis
The later Silent Hill games are good in their own ways. The only truly bad one is Shattered Memories. Hell, Downpour is probably the last truly good breath of fresh air not just for Silent Hill but for traditional survival horror in general. As for RE7, eh, it was an okay, run of the mill, gritty, modern-y style survival horror game, but it just wasn't a good Resident Evil game. But yes, as much as I like SH2, there were a number of things SH1 & SH3 did better.
Oscar Álvarez Yeah, I really don't understand the blind hate from fans or the ambivalence from the mainstream gaming media. Well, I kinda sorta do for the latter since they've never really understood the survival horror genre and think it should be given all these changes for accessibility reasons (even though survival horror cannot appeal to everybody but anyway). Downpour isn't perfect, but none of the Silent HIll games are. Each one has its own flaws. Some more than others. It has some tech issues (not as bad as people overblow them to be but still). The creature design could be much better. The story, while still very engaging, is a bit derivative. But it's still a good Silent Hill game and a good survival horror game that fans that didn't give a chance because 'waah no Team Silent' and mainstream gaming media didn't give a chance because they don't care about traditional survival horror games and never have.
These games look virtually unplayable in 2018. I wish this weren't the case. As I would love to experience them as others experienced them upon their release. But they look extremely dated.
They're only unplayable if you're one of those 'gotta have the newest and shiniest new system and game that's always being released!' more casual type of consumers. For those like us, the game plays just fine. It's not 'dated'. If anything, it's very refreshing going back and playing a more traditional survival horror game like Silent Hill because we don't get traditional survival horror games anymore. Only generic 'horror' shooters like RE4-6, gritty, modern first person horror games like Outlast, multiplayer stuff like Dead by Daylight, or craft system/open world-ish stuff like 7 Days to Day or Dying Light. Besides, if you want to play a truly unplayable survival horror game from the PS1 era with legitimately bad controls, go play Evil Dead: Hail to the King. You'll come back with a greater appreciation for how much better something like Silent Hill is.
Oscar Álvarez Yeah, SH4 has its issues, but I still enjoyed it. The room concept was brilliant and the game had the most ambition of any Silent Hill game in the series if you ask me. Didn't quite utilize the room pitch to its fullest potential, but I still enjoy going back through and replaying it. And yeah, Shattered Memories stripped away so many critical things about Silent Hill from a gameplay and presentation standpoint. And the big twist at the end was just meh.
There's a lot of stunning cinematography in Silent Hill's visuals across the first 4 titles, but I think my favorite shot in the whole series is the Good+ ending of Harry and Cybil running out of the otherworld, the camera stops following them and they disappear into the fog. Fade to credits. Especially with that music, absolutely masterful.
The most subtle thing about Silent Hill are the drawings of Groaner and Air Screamer in Alessa's room. Only noticed it now, 20 years after the release. People are so busy discussing SH2 that they forget that all of Team Silent's entries are filled with layers upon layers of hidden clues and symbols. Great video, as always)
To this day SH 1-3 still unnerve me, I remember playing SH1 in a friends house when I was a kid and having nightmares for days afterwards and I played SH 2 and 3 when I was a teenager and still found it very frightening. The atmosphere, music and monsters all blend together to have you on edge, I honestly think its an accomplishment in the horror genre and Im pretty sad this franchise had more bad games than good.
I just recently discovered the silent hill series on my own back in 2013 when I bought Silent Hill HD Collection after work one day and I played SH2 and fell in love hours later. A few days later I dug up my old PS2 and was hunting on Amazon and my local retro game shops for any Silent Hill games and I played SH2 on the OG Xbox, then a few weeks later I experienced Silent Hill for the first time and fell deeper in love, then I waited till Christmas and I received a complete mint copy of Silent Hill 4: The Room for the PS2 from my parents who were buying their 22 year old son a PlayStation 2 game for Christmas and thankfully not judging him for being a loser and just being grateful that their son was cheap to shop for, and then a week or two later after falling deeper in love because I'm one of those SH guys that actually really enjoys The Room I then experienced the psychedelic surreal survival horror of Silent Hill 3 with Gamefly for a week or so. I played all these Silent Games while I was 22 to 23 and each one scared the sheet out of me and had me jumping and throwing the controller more than once. Also Silent Hill 2 has made me cry buckets of tears due to the endings and the way Mary reads her full letter to James. These games are timeless and they seem to scare people ranging from age 12 to 37 and the older you get it seems the games scare you for different reasons or the fear sticks with you on a deeper level long after the console is turned off.
@@alexsieckmann6659 as good as a game Silent hill 4 is the controls killed the game for me and all these he remaster and not a single control rebutton oof
I'm spiraling into the whole Silent Hill lore again (like I do every year at the time autumn comes around) and just when I thought I'm out of analyses your video comes along! woop woop! grabbing my blanket and a hot chocolate and then I'm ready
28:13 I think there is a largely unrecognized charm to 5th generation 3D particularly for games that went for a more surrealist atmosphere the lack of detail ends up enhancing rather than detracting.
I hadn’t played a single silent hill game up until a few months ago, and even without nostalgia goggles, this game was amazing. The intro always gives me goosebumps. Harry’s constant confusion makes it seem like he’s in purgatory, and the scene where he is unconscious in the car makes it a theory that sounds believable. A lost soul in purgatory, desperately clinging to his loved ones as a sea of darkness surrounds him. Such a powerful game underneath the surface
That makes no sense. Being a survival horror franchise, which it very clearly is, does not in any way diminish its psychological style of horror in the least.
I remember being so scared of the first game, that I took break every 15 minute of the game. I HAD to find out what is going on in that town... but I was terrified of it. THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE DROVE ME FORWARD!!! One side note, I really liked the map system of this game. I wish other games would copy that. Actually having Farcry 2 map-system where your character holds the map in his hands when you check it and combine with this, where your character makes markings to the map would be a dream come true... er... well atleast a thing I'd like to see. :D
Exact same here, I played it on Bleem as I didn't have a PS1 back then. I usually played it at night, when I would go outside for smoke breaks every little sound made me jump! Terrifying game! Best of the series if you ask me. SH1 and SH3 were my favorites!
The dead series of quality to never be seen anywhere else. Truly, the american King horror story, yet told by weird japanese people of Team Silent. You literally cannot replicate any of this today.
For years, I was protected from the bleeding Lisa scene. I both refused to watch that scene and my brother (who was playing the game while I watched) told me not to watch for the longest time. Seeing it myself for the first time really touched me. I got to experience Silent Hill at a young age and was absolutely terrified by it, I had nightmares for days but I still loved it. Being scared like that was something else at the time and I'll only get the same feeling with the second game in the series.
Man, this is one of the series I absolutely missed the boat on. I have Silent Hill 1 through 3 now but needed an excuse to actually sit down and play them. This video might have just done the trick. We'll see what goes into the PlayStation after work tonight.
OMG, how easy those puzzles are through older eyes!! "Gold in an old man's palm" Alchemy, chemistry room! The birds thing is still ridiculous though...
This was one of the first two survival horror games I played in 2000 and Jesus was I ever petrified! R.E had jump scares and this was just unlike anything, especially with the lights off!
Just finished this masterpiece of a game today, on october 31st 2022, played it through Duckstation and man, this game can be beatifully enhanced with that emulator, running it a higher resolution gets rid of jagged edges, you can correct the texture and geometry warp and through overclocking the emulation you can run this at 30 frames per second without suffering so many slowdowns like the PS1 could, the only issue I ran into was the first cutscene when meeting Dahlia, there's a certain setting that must be turned off, or else the colors will bug horribly and I had to return a save to fix it. Other than that, absolutely recommended it, the artstry that made this game stand out in 1999 still holds up, every enviroment is detailed and its amazing to think that they managed to pull of such a large city at the time, plus this games atmosphere with Akira Yamaoka's soundtrack is a required experience for any horror fans, this is unique, there's nothing like it on the PS1.
Even at worst times, your videos generally make me smile and take me out of the real world for a bit, it would be great if we saw more creators like ya thumbs up :)
Loved this, Silent Hill 2 please? Maybe more Silent Hill after that too? Lol, I can only imagine how long it takes to make these videos, so I know its a big ask. Review the great games and explain why the crappy ones were crappy? I know its a long shot that we will ever get a good silent hill again, but having a blue print would be a good gesture to show where Homecoming- Downpour went wrong. Having a talented reviewer like you to tell it how it is may bring fresh discussion and attention to the Silent Hill games
Praise the Sun I've watched them all, but they have such a "its my way or the high way" approach, Im sure they scare off fans. And Id like to see brits viewpoint
I am surprised that I was even able to finish Silent Hill despite playing it for the first time (I just played this for the first time this month so yaaay). I played SH 1 in my phone using ePSXe. So glad someone here on RUclips recommended me ePSXe and Silent Hill (I still haven't finished Silent Hill: Origins tho since I decided to finish SH1 first)
YESSSSSSS. Finally, after all these years, we're getting some Silent Hill out of you. My body is ready.... (Also, Silent Hil 1-4 are the greatest videogame tetralogy ever made.)
It could be expressed in a number of ways. Tetralogy is used to refer to four of a specific series that go together. You could also use quartet, but that is used to refer to four of a series of books. From my knowledge, quadrilogy is used more often to refers to movie series like Harry Potter (first 4). However, quadrilogy and tetralogy mean the same exact thing and could be used interchangeably. *THE MORE YOU KNOW*
DustyO'Rusty I see, I see. I wasn't being a know-it-all, i've just never heard of tetralogy, and thought that it was odd that you didn't just used the common "quadrilogy". This was especially odd to me because the prefix "quad" is in direct reference to "four", whereas "tetra" is a type of fish. lol
Although Silent Hill 4 is my least favourite, I consider it my nemesis and the most frightening game of all time for me. Its been more than a decade since I played a Silent Hill game but still I get chills when remembering the mass murderer looking at you from the keyhole!!!!!
Something that wasn't mentioned here that I love about the series: The Joke Endings. I love how they manage to take the piss out of an otherwise dark and serious series.
Commentary #666 here! ^^ Great analysis, man. So rare people make videos deep video analysis about SH1, normally is all about SH2, a great game too yes, but forget the reasons to be. Silent Hill 1 never was perfect, but takes the limitations of the hardware, inovative and obscure soundtrack and a take on supernatural side of storytelling, making one of the best games in that era.
I love how peoples are STILL making videos about SIlent Hill series, and Im really happy that this videos still get decent ammount of views, even materials about first Silent Hill. What a timeless franchise it is.
Kaufman was abusing and controlling Lisa through the drugs you find earlier, since she has got used to using them ever since he assigned her to care for Alessa (after the incident). The effects this had on her mental and physical state were described in her diary. This also explains why Kaufman dies in practicaly every ending - Lisa finally exacts revenge on him for (1) keeping the girl alive and knowingly use her for the cult's purposes, and (2) keeping herself in check by abuse and threats (remember that scene where they fight in the intro you can so easily miss? The point is that she has finally had enough, and since you can only find her in the "spectral realm"/Otherworld, it is implied that Kaufman had her murdered before the events of the game; another hypothesis is that she overdosed the drugs).
ThePSXHive i love kaufmanns character because of the way hes presented in game. he is a piece of shit just like dahlia without even excuse of being insane but he tries to delude you (both harry and player) to think hes just a normal survivor like you. too bad his evil menacing music theme totally snitches him out
if you think about it, SH was one of those games that came at end of the original playstation lifecycle. As so, developers knew the machine and what it was capable of. Also, those were amazing days for gaming and people were still trying to innovate. Vagrant story is perhaps the best example of this, an amazing game that pushed the hardware to its limits.
Me: You've watched damn near every videogame, long form retrospective on RUclips, guess I'll watch Joseph Anderson's entire channel again. TGB: Hold my beer!
Before I even watch the video: Game with impeccable atmosphere that brings out a true sensation of horror. At least for its time (if you can't live with the old graphics). Almost wish they'd remaster it, if I wasn't more scared of them fucking it up like the SH2 remaster than I was of it being forgotten.
The point of Lisa is she's this lost, seemingly innocent girl in this hellish world, she's meant to play one the player's empathy, I know I always wished I could of saved her.
Watched the whole thing start to finish. Really knocked it out of the park. Won't be disappointed if you don't do follow up videos on the sequels, but I'll be excited if they surprise me in the future.
Really excited to get a video on Silent Hill. I would have liked to hear you talk a little more about some of the surreal elements incorporated into the game, like the bathroom in the school that makes you teleport between Floor One and Two, or the extra floor appearing in the elevator of the hospital. Those were the details that really stuck with me after the game. I agree with you on the story. I played the game for the first time 4-5 years ago without having played any other Silent Hill first and it was very difficult to piece together what was going on, to the point where I stopped caring about the story towards the end of the game. I felt too detached from everything that was happening. Atmosphere was great right to the end, but in such a surreal story, I think there needed to be something tangible at its centre to keep the player more invested in the outcome.
I must say, this vid was dripping atmosphere, specially since I watched it at the dead of the night. Mood was quite enhanced. Still, thanks man. You rock.
can't call it "best", but it's probably has the most complicated multiple ending system for sure. the endings are totally depends on how you approach the game. like if you read every single document and letters or even listened that conversation in that corridor (just before the final area) the endings can totally change. and the most frustrating part is that, the game doesn't tells you or even gives you a hint about these stuff at all. so if you are playing this game for the first time, and don't have any idea about these stuff, then you might get stumbled into the bad ending in your first playthrough. In resulting a unsatisfying playthrough 🤔
@Svetoslav Nikolov do you remember what cutscene you got after you beat the final boss? because there are actually two types of bad ending, if I'm not mistaken. 1) the Dream ending, you get if you didn't saved anyone and also killed that angel in the end, you'll see Harry laying dead inside his car which has been damaged. 2) the Escape ending (it's more like a modest ending between good and bad) you'll get if you didn't saved anyone but saved Cheryl, in the final cutscene Harry would be running around silent hill to find a escape with the baby. I actually got the modest ending in my first playthrough, I didn't knew about that whole Cafe location, and I accidentally also killed Cybil too Lol
I recently wrote my own analysis for Silent Hill on the Silent Hill Amino. And I honestly agree with a lot of the points you bring up, both criticisms and praises. But did you know that every model and animation in this game, including the map design and build, were done exclusively by one man who basically lived in the Konami offices for 2-years so he could get his name in the project? And that the same guy who voices Harry also voices Dracula in Symphony of the Night?
While I agree the intro sets the tone, I wouldn't agree that it does it accurately, though not that it's a bad thing. When I saw the opening movie the first time I played this game, I honestly didn't know what to make of it. I had heard the game was supposed to be scary, but the intro movie didn't make it seem so. It seemed more of a mystery game, with a 70's type vibe. While that seemed kind of cool, I preferred the horror game I had heard so much of. Boy did I literally have no idea what I was getting into. After the end of the first encounter with Alternate Silent Hill, getting mauled by the demon children, and finished the cutscene with Cybil, I sat there for like 10 minutes to take everything in. This was literally only 20 minutes into the game, and I already had had my mind blown and was honestly left thoroughly shaken. To this day, no other game has ever come close to the feelings I got first playing this game. This is especially true after finishing the first school puzzle and finding the Metatron Seal for the first time. The music that begins playing right after is absolute terror in musical form. Not Silent Hill 2, 3, or any other horror game that I can think of has scared me to the point of pondering whether to turn the game off for the night.
Will you cover Silent Hill 2 ? there is a fanmade mod got released recently Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition they fixed everything and brought back fog from ps2 version.
played this game for the first time this year, and it felt surprisingly modern, particularly the camera and sound. controls took some learning to get used to, but being able to side step and interrupt enemy attacks with your own well timed attacks made the game feel more action focused than I'd have expected. definitely recommend playing on a CRT TV to get the most out of the visuals, which are intensely dithered and looks great on the right setup. it's interesting to think that this game has entered the larger cultural osmosis (if you said "it's looking like Silent Hill outside" most people would understand that it's foggy out, even if they've never actually played the game) can still feel fresh at times, considering the massive influence it's had on the horror game landscape.
Fantastic video. Well done. I agree with most of your points, the exception being the issues you raised about combat/item management. One of the things I found off putting about Resi (other than the horrific controls) was getting to a point where you had no ammo and had to restart or load an earlier save; it’s as if you were somehow expected to know you’d be in that predicament in advance. In Silent Hill, that was never a concern and even if you did somehow manage to use all your ammo, there were melee weapons that were actually useful. I just feel Resi tried to be too clever for its own good at times at the expense of making a game that was fun to play. I also know I’m in an extreme minority in thinking this. Regarding the endings, I think you were “supposed” to get the bad ending at first because, as you point out, there’s no way you’d know about the extra side quests on first play. I suspect this was done to encourage replay value and it worked.
I don't know if I can sit through a Silent Hill analysis that's under 3 hours long.
then you don't care enough about the material
i t s a j o k e
@@aaron75fy r/woooosh
really though its hard to find good analyses of SH
Joe recently started his first playthrough of it, maybe we can get a 6 hour vid on it from him!
@@SpunkyMcGoo Joseph is a fucking brainlet who can't grasp storytelling that refuses to spoonfeed him and instead goes for a more abstract aproach. He doesn't have what It takes to properly critique Silent Hill
Meeting Lisa was such a relief to meet someone so innocent in the town like yourself and losing her was actually devastating
I hated the part where Harry pushed her away
@@DutchGuyMike me too
Honestly, to this day if I watch the clip of Lisa transforming, I start tearing up. It's such a beautifully depicted, beautifully scored scene that perfectly captures the shock, the sick feeling in your stomach, and heartache of losing this sweet, innocent character that you've come to care about to the twisted evil of the town. Watching Harry push her away and then have to keep her barred/trapped in that room is devastating-- especially hearing her helpless, muffled cries behind the door. You just want someone to hold her and tell her it will be alright, but you know that once she fully becomes like the other nurses, she will become a danger to Harry and it's so sad! Regardless of the graphics at the time, you could tell it killed Harry to keep Lisa detained in that room, mostly thanks to the performance from Michael G (Harry's VA) when he says "Lisa...". It's clearly hurting him to be doing this to someone he's come to care about, and you can hear the guilt in his voice.
She wasnt innocent
In 1999 no one was skipping that intro! It was some of the best visuals of the day.
"The shots of main protagonist Harry Mason with his daughter driving" - That explains the car crash.
I thought his daughter was Cheryl...
lol techincaly tats true since alessa caused the crash andc alessa would be half of chrel
@Mr. J "Help your uncle, Jack, off his horse" vs "Help your uncle Jack off his horse"
@@LuisRodriguez-kz7nt you funny fucker
Females gotta learn to drive fr
Kinda disapointing how he kinda overlooks the best intro to any horror game ever. Going down that alley way is simply masterful, the way it slowly gets darker, the way scenery gets more decrepit and disturbing, how the alleyway gets narrower and narrower.
Games don't do that anymore...
4:38 wdym?
TBH I hated it. I reloaded several times before dying, thinking that I have missed a weapon or something, only after that I said "fuck it" and let them kill me. Like what game does this? What game requires you to die to progress the story
Steel Bear
Bloodborne does...well i guess not technically but but it is the intended outcome with the first monster to die.
@@steelbear2063 Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain is the only other game I know of that does this.
@@steelbear2063 A lot of games do that actually.
There will never be a series with such elegance as the first 4 silent hill games
hold ness SHSM story is yet another rehash of SH2
I think Im quite ́Ungry
No it’s not, it’s a pretty damn good re-imagining (at least story and design wise) of the first game with none of the stupid cult nonsense.
Chance Kimber the core concept is the same. An amnesiac character that cant deal with what theyve done/ what happened. It has its neat things, but its an inferior game, in level/enemy/navigation design. And the cult is what SH was about. Out of the og Team Silent games, 3 revolve around the cult
I think Im quite ́Ungry
I don’t think you’ve played Shattered Memories because Harry in that game is essentially an imagining and representation of his daughter, who is still going to therapy over the death of her father.
3 do revolve around the cult, but it’s easily the worst part of the series. Slapping a goofy human face on something otherwise incorporeal is what made 1 and 3’s stories so mundane and silly at points.
Chance Kimber Just because I disagree with your point of view means that I havent played it? lol I have played it, about 3 times, and thats why I say it has its pros, with the branching options, but its heavily inferior to other games when it comes to gameplay in the "icy otherworld", Harrys movement, not being able to read the cellphone whilst holding a flare, confusing cellphone map, retarded fisher price puzzles. You can memorize the paths in the icy otherworld and i can guarantee you wont run into monster. Yes, singular. And saying that the ones revolving the cult are the worse, its like your opinion, as those 3 games alongside 2 were the highlights of the series.
"Slapping a goofy human face on something otherwise incorporeal is what made 1 and 3’s stories so mundane and silly at points." what the fuck does it have that to do with your cult is shit argument. Do I need talk about SHSM monster design? for fucks sakes
It's nice to see a Slent Hill video that's not an analysis on its themes or trying to find a full answer to the story, just straight out game things. Great job!
this wasn't an analysis like at all
@beef business there’s nothing wrong with talking about the story though
@KuruSeed lmao right? there are so many youtube videos like this and i find it frustrating every time- who wants to watch a beat-by-beat telling of an entire experience with little else added?
All power to you if you do, this is a well made video, but i don't understand it.
I posit that mutilated corpses look way more disturbing on the PS1 than in modern games.
I counter that bodies in general look more disturbing on ps1.
Cause they are more deformed and pixelated
Less is more
Depends on the game. It's disturbing in old graphics for sure, but some games like Mortal Kombat got a lot more disturbing with time I believe. I remember playing the older games when I was like 7 or so, and it was great fun, without being super disturbing cause it was all kinda cheesy or cartoony looking. Now, I watch my little siblings play the new ones, and the fatalities just gross me out. The anatomy and graphics are a little too realistic to be enjoyable in the atmosphere they try to present them in, such as Jax's fatality where he uses someone's decapitated neck hole as an ash tray. In an older game, that might have been a little more comedic, but now the comedy is lost on me, leaving Jax as just a sadistic bastard brutalizing his opponent post mortem
Developers have forgotten how to let the audience use their imaginations.
Silent Hill is one of my favorite game Series second only to Metal Gear Solid. My favorite game in the series is Silent Hill 3. You can imagine how frustrating it is to have both your favorite video game franchises owned by Konami.
Silent Hill 2 and MGS3 are my favorite games of all time. Still #FucKonami
MGS is trash
@@whodatninja439 Excellent choices.
@@557deadpool Well you're just a lovely soul aren't you?
@AJ The only Metal Gear Solid games that I actually thought we're bad are Metal Gear Solid 4 and 5. I would highly disagree that 3 was unnecessary because it recontextualizes the entire series by offering a new Perspective on the main antagonist of the first games. And even though you could say that this one is unnecessary I even love Peace Walker because of its charm and charisma especially in regards to the characters. I think it's very interesting how Kojima originally wanted to call the game Metal Gear Solid 5 Peace Walker but his team convinced him otherwise because it was only going to be released on the PSP. He has stated that for him Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker is Metal Gear Solid 5 which is why I think he called the phantom pain Metal Gear Solid V. But I always feel uncomfortable throwing around words like unnecessary because if you think about it any game past the first Metal Gear Solid was unnecessary. Initially Kojima only continued on with the series because the fans wanted it.
This is a pretty good analysis but yet again I see that the "stealth" elements found in SH's gameplay weren't mentioned.
I don't know if they are only brought up in the manual and that's why so many people never find them or discuss them while reviewing these games but you can sneak around a lot of enemy encounters if you turn off your flashlight and walk slowly/sideways instead of running, but you can't interact with objects and items if you don't turn the flashlight back on so you will eventually have to try to escape from them or fight them. You can also exploit going in and out of rooms to "reset" them but it's still an interesting take on the stealth concept mixed up with some light RE elements.
It's probably way more flawed than what I remember but still an interesting way to approach the game.
But it's too scary to turn off the light!
That was cool but only was necessary for me on Hard mode. I wish the game would make the flashlight batteries limited. That would be 100 more scary and force him to even survive more by avoiding the enemies
@@LeoprosoLukewarm nah, that would just be annoying, not scary
@@jaykelley103 It would create interesting decisions on when to use it. Walk around enemies with the flashlight turned off its the most scary shit I've been doing in SH. The mechanic sounds annoying, but the situations that can create from have limited flashlight is scary
I finished SH1 for the first time today and found out about the stealth from hint that appeared after I got a game over. After that I tried to keep my flashlight off and walked instead of running to most places whenever I heard the radio go off.
Silent Hill's Soundtrack still gives me the chills
Silent Chills
Not tomorrow playing in the background for Lisas death-
One of the biggest reasons I play Silent Hill ^^
The first game had the most sinister soundtrack of the series
It's very dark, and attractive.
I wonder if Lisa survives for so long before turning fully into a monster because Alessa wanted to protect her. Maybe Alessa was somewhat aware of the fact that Lisa had cared for her and tried to save her for as long as she could.
the moment with lisa and her diary at the end was amazing and really sold me on this game
In modern times its a bit rough around the edges, but back in 2000 it had my friends and I glued to the tv set trying to get through the game. We would take turns, keep notes, and just try not to die. We beat it about 3 times over the course of a few weekends and finally got the good ending on the final try, albeit we had to use a guide to find out exactly what we needed to do. Still good times and its still one of my favorite games.
I’m 23 and beat it about a week ago, first time playing and I was glued to my PsP Go. First time in what I can remember actually pulling out a notebook to write down the puzzles. Great game. I think it holds up exceedingly well. Same as Metal Gear Solid.
16:46 FWIW, Silent Hill-- being the unapologetic Twin Peaks tribute that it is, these pregnant pauses and stilted conversations are obviously a design choice. One that I'm really fond of.
Their conversation is almost as hazy as the music that accompanies the scene. Not even in moments of reprieve is Silent Hill ever _comfortable._
Holy shit! Didn't even dare to dream of this one.
I don't normally like horror games personally, but this one was such a creative change from most other horror games. The atmosphere is just as much character (and arguably better) than any of the characters in the plot. It created rules for the time of day (the general foggy silence, the town alarm when the nightmare portions begin, the radio static when near an enemy) and it was brilliant. I am very sad to see there won't be any more.
I can't believe you just brushed off the sewers, easily some of THE scariest places in any horror game EVER. Especially considering your radio does not work underground.
Suit yourself, but I've always found that level/those levels incredibly tedious
Meh. Totally linear and the creatures aren't scary.
@@jerrodshack7610 wdym they hide on the ceiling. Literally scarier than any enemy in 1 or 2, especially 2.
This is the first video of yours that I have ever seen and as a huge Silent Hill fan (Especially SH1) this was a fantastic analysis and extremely well put together and explained. Excellent work man. I subbed. would love to see you cover SH 2,3,4 and Shattered Memories even.
Oh shit, is it finally happening? Will he finally cover Silent Hill 2 after lampshading it for years??
I wouldn't be so sure about it..... some of us are still waitig for overblod 2's re-review
the Vulkrox
Dude, I'm one of these people. I've seen all those nixed videos of his.
@@jjtheenton .......... ok maybe now that I read my comment again it's not obvious that it was a joke. Sorry, my bad😅
hey dude, guess what?
@@Haloguydev what? WHAT?!
A think I love about this game is how it rewards you for being curious and exploring your surroundings,reading notes and picking every object you find,you end the game without knowingwhat the hell happened with Kauffman and killing Cybill,and you will get tje worst ending possible,explore and try stuff with objects you got earlier,and you will get both the best ending and a bunch of lore about the game.
A thing*
The ending, just the blurred fog of the background with the sound of Harry's footsteps and the crackle of the radio, was just perfect. That soundbyte and blurred visual really do comprise its essence as what is indeed one of the best Horror games out there. Plus... it made me terribly nostalgic. Damn me for selling my PS2, and damn Sony for not bringing back retrocompatibility.
I always found The Boiler Room Boss to be intimidating as hell.
Lurch gets pretty tough on hard mode
My play through of SH1 sucked big time. I forgot the shotgun and I managed to miss the hospital vial despite spamming interact on everything
A lot of so called fans just want remasters these days. It's all fine and dandy, but not every game needs a remaster, because classics like Silent Hill 1 were done with a lot of care and some imagination in order to make a very good survival horror game. I bought this game on PSN store for PS3 and I find this game pretty scary even till this day. It has a good story and using supernatural and phsyocological elements to throw off the player are very niceley done. Another thing I never noticed,is when you have a very low heatlh, your controller vibrates, but it sounds like a human heartbeat. That is a very nice attention to detail, which I didn't experiance from playing the emulated version of the game. By remastering a game like Silent Hill 1, it would ruin the whole experiance and the passion and care Team Silent gave to this game.
I understand what you're saying, but at the same time, I think if done right, it could benefit from a remake, as long as they make characters like Dahlia look gringey enough. The rather generic monsters in the PS1 game are mostly only scary because of the fog/darkness/disorienting camera/lack of seeing them, but enemies in the future games are legit creepy as hell, like the giant baby-faced enemies that point at you in Silent Hill 4. The midgets are mainly only creepy because they sound like school kids, but imagine if they made them LOOK like the kids from the Grudge or something too. I'm not sure, but I think they could make the game even more disorienting than before...look at RE1 Remake. That game added so many confusing puzzles. If it could work for PS2 era, it could work for PS4 era.
I honestly am a little disappointed in remakes lately, like RE2R and RE3R, they both cut a lot of things, and kinda change characters a bit too much since they have a much more established universe. They're not even fixed camera anymore and often cut most of the music/enemies. It's not that they can't be great and even more terrifying...just look at PT or Allison Road (both cancelled?)
@@Goblin_Hands U know well they wont put the same passion and they will use real ppl's faces and that will ruin it. Come on.
I don’t know if the comment about it not having the same passion has aged very well in light of games like the RE2 remake, which many consider to be the equal or superior to the original version in every way. It would just take people who are actually passionate about the ‘art’ in a game to do a remake justice, but unfortunately those people aren’t Konami
Remasters often suck...sometimes you need an actual remake. But still, stuff gets redone one way or another, been that way since the dawn of time.
Remaster is just HD bruh
16:50 Having checked out a few more of SH's inspirations recently, I'm given the impression that the long pauses between character's statements is a direct lift from Twin Peaks.
yes! i really love it when developers think to include the small details you mentioned about harry. i've seen modern games that don't include that level of detail. i understand when people say that sh is dated, but imo it has aged well and contributed much to the making of later horror games.
I had Silent Hill on my PS3's hard drive for ages before I decided to give the HD Collection a try... and then I tweeted about how botched that remaster set was and about my desire to instead play it on the PS2. A fan on Twitter found copies of Silent Hill 2 and 3 locally and offered to buy them and ship them to me, which they did, graciously including a copy of the Silent Hill 3 strategy guide they happened to find at the same store. This donation prompted me to finally play Silent Hill 1, since I now wanted to treat the entire series as a RUclips project, and I found myself falling in love with the series in a big way after that.
Silent Hill 3 is by far my favorite. 2 has a brilliant artistic bent as a psychological horror story and 1 is great for its time, but 2 also falls short on general gameplay I feel and 1 has an endgame post-hospital that feels thrown together and rushed, which really felt unsatisfying after the brilliance of the school and hospital areas. Silent Hill 3 by contrast has a really well-written protagonist and is, from back to front, a well-realized gameplay experience to go with its horror atmosphere and story. It also had a melee parrying mechanic that was so good for that style of play that Resident Evil 7 straight-up ripped it off.
Also you get a katana and a giant spiked maul as weapons during the normal course of play and the game treats this as utterly ordinary. That's just great.
Anyway. Yeah. I love this series. I still haven't played through 4, Homecoming, or Downpour yet, not to the end at any rate. I have my feelings on all three, but in my mind, the first three games are an amazing set of horror gaming experiences and all should be treated as classics. The later sequels, well... they're interesting in that there's a lot to talk about, whatever your opinions on them.
- Lewis
The later Silent Hill games are good in their own ways. The only truly bad one is Shattered Memories. Hell, Downpour is probably the last truly good breath of fresh air not just for Silent Hill but for traditional survival horror in general.
As for RE7, eh, it was an okay, run of the mill, gritty, modern-y style survival horror game, but it just wasn't a good Resident Evil game.
But yes, as much as I like SH2, there were a number of things SH1 & SH3 did better.
Oscar Álvarez Yeah, I really don't understand the blind hate from fans or the ambivalence from the mainstream gaming media. Well, I kinda sorta do for the latter since they've never really understood the survival horror genre and think it should be given all these changes for accessibility reasons (even though survival horror cannot appeal to everybody but anyway).
Downpour isn't perfect, but none of the Silent HIll games are. Each one has its own flaws. Some more than others. It has some tech issues (not as bad as people overblow them to be but still). The creature design could be much better. The story, while still very engaging, is a bit derivative. But it's still a good Silent Hill game and a good survival horror game that fans that didn't give a chance because 'waah no Team Silent' and mainstream gaming media didn't give a chance because they don't care about traditional survival horror games and never have.
These games look virtually unplayable in 2018. I wish this weren't the case. As I would love to experience them as others experienced them upon their release. But they look extremely dated.
They're only unplayable if you're one of those 'gotta have the newest and shiniest new system and game that's always being released!' more casual type of consumers. For those like us, the game plays just fine. It's not 'dated'. If anything, it's very refreshing going back and playing a more traditional survival horror game like Silent Hill because we don't get traditional survival horror games anymore. Only generic 'horror' shooters like RE4-6, gritty, modern first person horror games like Outlast, multiplayer stuff like Dead by Daylight, or craft system/open world-ish stuff like 7 Days to Day or Dying Light.
Besides, if you want to play a truly unplayable survival horror game from the PS1 era with legitimately bad controls, go play Evil Dead: Hail to the King. You'll come back with a greater appreciation for how much better something like Silent Hill is.
Oscar Álvarez Yeah, SH4 has its issues, but I still enjoyed it. The room concept was brilliant and the game had the most ambition of any Silent Hill game in the series if you ask me. Didn't quite utilize the room pitch to its fullest potential, but I still enjoy going back through and replaying it.
And yeah, Shattered Memories stripped away so many critical things about Silent Hill from a gameplay and presentation standpoint. And the big twist at the end was just meh.
There's a lot of stunning cinematography in Silent Hill's visuals across the first 4 titles, but I think my favorite shot in the whole series is the Good+ ending of Harry and Cybil running out of the otherworld, the camera stops following them and they disappear into the fog. Fade to credits.
Especially with that music, absolutely masterful.
The most subtle thing about Silent Hill are the drawings of Groaner and Air Screamer in Alessa's room. Only noticed it now, 20 years after the release. People are so busy discussing SH2 that they forget that all of Team Silent's entries are filled with layers upon layers of hidden clues and symbols.
Great video, as always)
To this day SH 1-3 still unnerve me, I remember playing SH1 in a friends house when I was a kid and having nightmares for days afterwards and I played SH 2 and 3 when I was a teenager and still found it very frightening.
The atmosphere, music and monsters all blend together to have you on edge, I honestly think its an accomplishment in the horror genre and Im pretty sad this franchise had more bad games than good.
100% agree.
I would personally include SH4 in there too.
I just recently discovered the silent hill series on my own back in 2013 when I bought Silent Hill HD Collection after work one day and I played SH2 and fell in love hours later. A few days later I dug up my old PS2 and was hunting on Amazon and my local retro game shops for any Silent Hill games and I played SH2 on the OG Xbox, then a few weeks later I experienced Silent Hill for the first time and fell deeper in love, then I waited till Christmas and I received a complete mint copy of Silent Hill 4: The Room for the PS2 from my parents who were buying their 22 year old son a PlayStation 2 game for Christmas and thankfully not judging him for being a loser and just being grateful that their son was cheap to shop for, and then a week or two later after falling deeper in love because I'm one of those SH guys that actually really enjoys The Room I then experienced the psychedelic surreal survival horror of Silent Hill 3 with Gamefly for a week or so. I played all these Silent Games while I was 22 to 23 and each one scared the sheet out of me and had me jumping and throwing the controller more than once. Also Silent Hill 2 has made me cry buckets of tears due to the endings and the way Mary reads her full letter to James. These games are timeless and they seem to scare people ranging from age 12 to 37 and the older you get it seems the games scare you for different reasons or the fear sticks with you on a deeper level long after the console is turned off.
@@alexsieckmann6659 as good as a game Silent hill 4 is the controls killed the game for me and all these he remaster and not a single control rebutton oof
If the gameplay was better and had some improved writing for the MC it would definitely be right behind SH2 I think. As is its a step below 1-3 sadly.
Damn a Brit video without the word "Legendary" used even once? Am I on bizarro world?
This time he replaced it with "obtuse"
Plot twist: He's an American with a bad accent.
"I'm gonna make this video more chill and not my usual humor"
"Shit gets rusty, all doors are locked"
this vids a breath of fresh air with all the pseudo-psycologist echoing themes of the series....just some good ol gameplay breakdowns
"Being used by her mother for some sort of impregnation ritual."
That's just one of those sentences man... O_o
I'm spiraling into the whole Silent Hill lore again (like I do every year at the time autumn comes around) and just when I thought I'm out of analyses your video comes along! woop woop! grabbing my blanket and a hot chocolate and then I'm ready
28:13 I think there is a largely unrecognized charm to 5th generation 3D particularly for games that went for a more surrealist atmosphere the lack of detail ends up enhancing rather than detracting.
I like that the intro shows Kaufman grabbing Lisa's arm as she tries to leave. Sets the tone for how sinister he is.
I hadn’t played a single silent hill game up until a few months ago, and even without nostalgia goggles, this game was amazing. The intro always gives me goosebumps. Harry’s constant confusion makes it seem like he’s in purgatory, and the scene where he is unconscious in the car makes it a theory that sounds believable. A lost soul in purgatory, desperately clinging to his loved ones as a sea of darkness surrounds him. Such a powerful game underneath the surface
Should have released this at halloween.
No but for real dawg, I'm excited to watch!
Alpha Volta dontcha know, tgb lives in a perpetual state of Halloween.
To be fair, SH is not a survival horror, but a phychological terror.
Also, you forgot to mention how much relieving it is to be on the normal school again, in the daylight after killing the first boss.
I prefer to call it a character horror game.
It's just a horror game with really good horror.
The sewers are horribly frightening :(
That makes no sense. Being a survival horror franchise, which it very clearly is, does not in any way diminish its psychological style of horror in the least.
Silent Hill 1 is the most underrated of the Silent Hill series. My personal favourite, even over 2.
love your thumbnail for this vid
My favorite franchise since 2003. It's full of great games from the first to the fourth Silent Hill. The soundtrack was just.... GREAT.
I remember being so scared of the first game, that I took break every 15 minute of the game. I HAD to find out what is going on in that town... but I was terrified of it. THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE DROVE ME FORWARD!!!
One side note, I really liked the map system of this game. I wish other games would copy that. Actually having Farcry 2 map-system where your character holds the map in his hands when you check it and combine with this, where your character makes markings to the map would be a dream come true... er... well atleast a thing I'd like to see. :D
Exact same here, I played it on Bleem as I didn't have a PS1 back then. I usually played it at night, when I would go outside for smoke breaks every little sound made me jump! Terrifying game! Best of the series if you ask me. SH1 and SH3 were my favorites!
The dead series of quality to never be seen anywhere else. Truly, the american King horror story, yet told by weird japanese people of Team Silent.
You literally cannot replicate any of this today.
Yes! I am always hungry for some Silent Hill content. Thank you for this video
*Sits down with lunch* Thanks Brit, just in time.
For years, I was protected from the bleeding Lisa scene. I both refused to watch that scene and my brother (who was playing the game while I watched) told me not to watch for the longest time. Seeing it myself for the first time really touched me.
I got to experience Silent Hill at a young age and was absolutely terrified by it, I had nightmares for days but I still loved it. Being scared like that was something else at the time and I'll only get the same feeling with the second game in the series.
Man, this is one of the series I absolutely missed the boat on. I have Silent Hill 1 through 3 now but needed an excuse to actually sit down and play them. This video might have just done the trick. We'll see what goes into the PlayStation after work tonight.
OMG, how easy those puzzles are through older eyes!! "Gold in an old man's palm" Alchemy, chemistry room!
The birds thing is still ridiculous though...
Hello ladies and gentlemen.
Hello turbo, where you been the last 7 months.
helooooo
Only Irishmen with a silky voice are allowed to say that.
Hello
This is the 6th in a series of 3 reviews based on the silent hill series
Great explanation on why Silent Hill is "simplified" on combat side of things.
I still think the cutscene with lisa when not tomorrow starts playing is one the most powerful scenes in gaming
Glad to see Matthewmatosis uploading more frequently.
Claire Deming that’s what I thought. Especially since I forgot about matthewmatosis voice.
This was one of the first two survival horror games I played in 2000 and Jesus was I ever petrified! R.E had jump scares and this was just unlike anything, especially with the lights off!
Just finished this masterpiece of a game today, on october 31st 2022, played it through Duckstation and man, this game can be beatifully enhanced with that emulator, running it a higher resolution gets rid of jagged edges, you can correct the texture and geometry warp and through overclocking the emulation you can run this at 30 frames per second without suffering so many slowdowns like the PS1 could, the only issue I ran into was the first cutscene when meeting Dahlia, there's a certain setting that must be turned off, or else the colors will bug horribly and I had to return a save to fix it.
Other than that, absolutely recommended it, the artstry that made this game stand out in 1999 still holds up, every enviroment is detailed and its amazing to think that they managed to pull of such a large city at the time, plus this games atmosphere with Akira Yamaoka's soundtrack is a required experience for any horror fans, this is unique, there's nothing like it on the PS1.
Even at worst times, your videos generally make me smile and take me out of the real world for a bit, it would be great if we saw more creators like ya
thumbs up :)
Loved this, Silent Hill 2 please? Maybe more Silent Hill after that too? Lol, I can only imagine how long it takes to make these videos, so I know its a big ask. Review the great games and explain why the crappy ones were crappy? I know its a long shot that we will ever get a good silent hill again, but having a blue print would be a good gesture to show where Homecoming- Downpour went wrong. Having a talented reviewer like you to tell it how it is may bring fresh discussion and attention to the Silent Hill games
Praise the Sun
I've watched them all, but they have such a "its my way or the high way" approach, Im sure they scare off fans. And Id like to see brits viewpoint
Man, Silent Hill 1 through 3 were SOOO good.
I am surprised that I was even able to finish Silent Hill despite playing it for the first time (I just played this for the first time this month so yaaay). I played SH 1 in my phone using ePSXe. So glad someone here on RUclips recommended me ePSXe and Silent Hill (I still haven't finished Silent Hill: Origins tho since I decided to finish SH1 first)
YESSSSSSS. Finally, after all these years, we're getting some Silent Hill out of you. My body is ready....
(Also, Silent Hil 1-4 are the greatest videogame tetralogy ever made.)
DustyO'Rusty
True, but wouldn't it be Quadrilogy?
It could be expressed in a number of ways. Tetralogy is used to refer to four of a specific series that go together. You could also use quartet, but that is used to refer to four of a series of books. From my knowledge, quadrilogy is used more often to refers to movie series like Harry Potter (first 4). However, quadrilogy and tetralogy mean the same exact thing and could be used interchangeably. *THE MORE YOU KNOW*
DustyO'Rusty
I see, I see. I wasn't being a know-it-all, i've just never heard of tetralogy, and thought that it was odd that you didn't just used the common "quadrilogy". This was especially odd to me because the prefix "quad" is in direct reference to "four", whereas "tetra" is a type of fish. lol
Although Silent Hill 4 is my least favourite, I consider it my nemesis and the most frightening game of all time for me. Its been more than a decade since I played a Silent Hill game but still I get chills when remembering the mass murderer looking at you from the keyhole!!!!!
4 is ehhh. Killer concept, awful gameplay
Something that wasn't mentioned here that I love about the series: The Joke Endings. I love how they manage to take the piss out of an otherwise dark and serious series.
Commentary #666 here! ^^
Great analysis, man. So rare people make videos deep video analysis about SH1, normally is all about SH2, a great game too yes, but forget the reasons to be. Silent Hill 1 never was perfect, but takes the limitations of the hardware, inovative and obscure soundtrack and a take on supernatural side of storytelling, making one of the best games in that era.
Silent Hill > Resident Evil
In story yes but not In gameplay, gameplay in silent hill is no different from a walking sim
I love how peoples are STILL making videos about SIlent Hill series, and Im really happy that this videos still get decent ammount of views, even materials about first Silent Hill. What a timeless franchise it is.
Kaufman was abusing and controlling Lisa through the drugs you find earlier, since she has got used to using them ever since he assigned her to care for Alessa (after the incident). The effects this had on her mental and physical state were described in her diary. This also explains why Kaufman dies in practicaly every ending - Lisa finally exacts revenge on him for (1) keeping the girl alive and knowingly use her for the cult's purposes, and (2) keeping herself in check by abuse and threats (remember that scene where they fight in the intro you can so easily miss? The point is that she has finally had enough, and since you can only find her in the "spectral realm"/Otherworld, it is implied that Kaufman had her murdered before the events of the game; another hypothesis is that she overdosed the drugs).
ThePSXHive i love kaufmanns character because of the way hes presented in game. he is a piece of shit just like dahlia without even excuse of being insane but he tries to delude you (both harry and player) to think hes just a normal survivor like you. too bad his evil menacing music theme totally snitches him out
This is excellent! I love to listen for SH analysis videos
if you think about it, SH was one of those games that came at end of the original playstation lifecycle. As so, developers knew the machine and what it was capable of. Also, those were amazing days for gaming and people were still trying to innovate. Vagrant story is perhaps the best example of this, an amazing game that pushed the hardware to its limits.
Ahh I feel so at home watching this💕 Thank you!
Woah, great channel. From Pennsylvania, USA. Thanks for the gaming analysis Brit! Perfect for Halloween time!!!
Me: You've watched damn near every videogame, long form retrospective on RUclips, guess I'll watch Joseph Anderson's entire channel again.
TGB: Hold my beer!
@Praise the Sun So, what review of his pissed you off?
@@madman407708 SH2 lmao
Before I even watch the video: Game with impeccable atmosphere that brings out a true sensation of horror. At least for its time (if you can't live with the old graphics).
Almost wish they'd remaster it, if I wasn't more scared of them fucking it up like the SH2 remaster than I was of it being forgotten.
Man Brit its a real pleasure to see you tackle this series. Can't wait for the rest of this its gonna be amazing.
The point of Lisa is she's this lost, seemingly innocent girl in this hellish world, she's meant to play one the player's empathy, I know I always wished I could of saved her.
The CGI of this game is very good even today.
one of the few channels that I get genuinely excited to see new videos from. keep it up!
This is not a Road to the Rocket launcher FeelsBadMan
After eighteen years... this game still gives me shivers.
"10 minute chunk of jam on the side of your toast" is such a good simile
Great video! I wish you would have touched on the worst ending, but enjoyed reflecting back on this amazing game.
Watched the whole thing start to finish. Really knocked it out of the park.
Won't be disappointed if you don't do follow up videos on the sequels, but I'll be excited if they surprise me in the future.
you uploaded right after I completed Silent Hill for the first time
now thats what I call good timing
"So she can live a better life away from the cult"
About that...
okay but i'm just so happy you knew about the boiler explosion memo.
Really excited to get a video on Silent Hill. I would have liked to hear you talk a little more about some of the surreal elements incorporated into the game, like the bathroom in the school that makes you teleport between Floor One and Two, or the extra floor appearing in the elevator of the hospital. Those were the details that really stuck with me after the game.
I agree with you on the story. I played the game for the first time 4-5 years ago without having played any other Silent Hill first and it was very difficult to piece together what was going on, to the point where I stopped caring about the story towards the end of the game. I felt too detached from everything that was happening. Atmosphere was great right to the end, but in such a surreal story, I think there needed to be something tangible at its centre to keep the player more invested in the outcome.
I must say, this vid was dripping atmosphere, specially since I watched it at the dead of the night. Mood was quite enhanced. Still, thanks man. You rock.
The way the endings work was probably the weakest part about this game. Silent hill 2 had the best multiple ending system by far though
Its based on how nice you are and like health and bullets right ?
can't call it "best", but it's probably has the most complicated multiple ending system for sure. the endings are totally depends on how you approach the game. like if you read every single document and letters or even listened that conversation in that corridor (just before the final area) the endings can totally change. and the most frustrating part is that, the game doesn't tells you or even gives you a hint about these stuff at all. so if you are playing this game for the first time, and don't have any idea about these stuff, then you might get stumbled into the bad ending in your first playthrough. In resulting a unsatisfying playthrough 🤔
@Svetoslav Nikolov do you remember what cutscene you got after you beat the final boss? because there are actually two types of bad ending, if I'm not mistaken. 1) the Dream ending, you get if you didn't saved anyone and also killed that angel in the end, you'll see Harry laying dead inside his car which has been damaged. 2) the Escape ending (it's more like a modest ending between good and bad) you'll get if you didn't saved anyone but saved Cheryl, in the final cutscene Harry would be running around silent hill to find a escape with the baby. I actually got the modest ending in my first playthrough, I didn't knew about that whole Cafe location, and I accidentally also killed Cybil too Lol
Sweet! I actually Asked for this in some way. So glad to see this come to fruition.
Was a sophmore in highschool when this came out. A world changer indeed being a huge RE fan, and video game fan since the late 80s in general.
Boy, can't wait for Silent Hills!
Hah that will be...never tho.
I recently wrote my own analysis for Silent Hill on the Silent Hill Amino. And I honestly agree with a lot of the points you bring up, both criticisms and praises. But did you know that every model and animation in this game, including the map design and build, were done exclusively by one man who basically lived in the Konami offices for 2-years so he could get his name in the project?
And that the same guy who voices Harry also voices Dracula in Symphony of the Night?
Awesome work as always man! Recently became a patron of the channel and I'm hooked on your content. Look forward to seeing more!
While I agree the intro sets the tone, I wouldn't agree that it does it accurately, though not that it's a bad thing. When I saw the opening movie the first time I played this game, I honestly didn't know what to make of it.
I had heard the game was supposed to be scary, but the intro movie didn't make it seem so. It seemed more of a mystery game, with a 70's type vibe. While that seemed kind of cool, I preferred the horror game I had heard so much of.
Boy did I literally have no idea what I was getting into.
After the end of the first encounter with Alternate Silent Hill, getting mauled by the demon children, and finished the cutscene with Cybil, I sat there for like 10 minutes to take everything in. This was literally only 20 minutes into the game, and I already had had my mind blown and was honestly left thoroughly shaken.
To this day, no other game has ever come close to the feelings I got first playing this game. This is especially true after finishing the first school puzzle and finding the Metatron Seal for the first time. The music that begins playing right after is absolute terror in musical form. Not Silent Hill 2, 3, or any other horror game that I can think of has scared me to the point of pondering whether to turn the game off for the night.
Will you cover Silent Hill 2 ? there is a fanmade mod got released recently Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition they fixed everything and brought back fog from ps2 version.
Dude, the Enhanced Edition is so god damn good. It is everything the HD-Edition could've been and more.
Did they get rid of comic sans?
@Elleborus The enhanced edition has quite a bit of touched up art.
your commentary is even better than the games. Eileen dissapears? "she gone" Getting frustrated "going to yeet my desktop out of the window"
I experience real, tangible pain thinking about and wishing for the existence of Kojima's take on this series.
played this game for the first time this year, and it felt surprisingly modern, particularly the camera and sound. controls took some learning to get used to, but being able to side step and interrupt enemy attacks with your own well timed attacks made the game feel more action focused than I'd have expected. definitely recommend playing on a CRT TV to get the most out of the visuals, which are intensely dithered and looks great on the right setup.
it's interesting to think that this game has entered the larger cultural osmosis (if you said "it's looking like Silent Hill outside" most people would understand that it's foggy out, even if they've never actually played the game) can still feel fresh at times, considering the massive influence it's had on the horror game landscape.
Finally ! My favorite series covered by the Brit Man. Thanks a lot for the vid !
Thanks man, this is one of my all time favorite games, and I really enjoyed this analysis
Fantastic video. Well done.
I agree with most of your points, the exception being the issues you raised about combat/item management. One of the things I found off putting about Resi (other than the horrific controls) was getting to a point where you had no ammo and had to restart or load an earlier save; it’s as if you were somehow expected to know you’d be in that predicament in advance. In Silent Hill, that was never a concern and even if you did somehow manage to use all your ammo, there were melee weapons that were actually useful. I just feel Resi tried to be too clever for its own good at times at the expense of making a game that was fun to play. I also know I’m in an extreme minority in thinking this.
Regarding the endings, I think you were “supposed” to get the bad ending at first because, as you point out, there’s no way you’d know about the extra side quests on first play. I suspect this was done to encourage replay value and it worked.