Bjorn

Foggy Memories - A Silent Hill Thread

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The PT thread has it's own thing going on with whatever Kojima is working on, but I wanted to talk about Silent Hill in general. I have a fondness for the series that really isn't justified. I only played SH1, and I cheated to finish it. I ended up frustrated or something, and turned on an endless health cheat, because I did want to continue exploring the town. I only vaguely remember a few things from it. I also very briefly played The Room, but only for an hour or two, not enough to have a real opinion on it.

So last night I downloaded SH1, SH2 (PC version) and PT. I'm starting with SH2, since it seems to be regarded as the best. I know almost nothing about it, amazingly. I know Pyramid Head is a thing. I know about the wacky dog ending, and that what end you get is goverened by some odd stuff. That's about it. I don't know if I will play all the way through it, but I'm going to give it a shot and thought it would interesting to share some thoughts.

Installing fan mods/fixes to run it at 1920x1080 was painless, and it looks surprisngly okay for a 12-year-old game.

I only got about 2 hours into it (had the first real encounter with Pyramid Head). There are so many good design decisions in this game.

* No HUD - Goooood
* No button prompts on screen - Even better

* Your character has a physical map he is making notes and marks on (also used in SH1, I think?)
* It uses the Grim Fandango thing of having your head look at items you can pickup/interact with - YESYESYESYES - So much better than making items glow or something
* The radio screeching building tension (which I also remember from SH1, but still so good)
* The sheer number of times you have to beat one of the mannequin monsters to put it down with your starting weapon. It feels exhausting for your character just killing one of those things.
* Related to the previous one, combat feels discouraged not through its difficulty, but through the time consuming nature of it, particularly when in the streets.
 

The camera is so close to being good, but frustratingly insane at the same time. 


There are a few other things that I don't know if they were added to the PC version, or present in the PS2 version as well. You can choose between tank and free controls (thank you!). You can save anywhere (but it looks like it wasn't designed to be that way, with save points). Saving anywhere lowers the tension some, but I really appreciate having it so I don't have to backtrack just to quit for the night.

I haven't felt at all scared or even really unnerved by it yet. Maybe it is the age and stature of it, but I feel like I'm being too clinical in playing it, observing it mechanically rather than being able to get emotionally involved in the atmosphere, themes and imagery of it.

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I had never played any of the Silent Hills until one of my friends decided that it was something I required for my cultural education. So me, him and another game dev friend played through it together, passing the controller over whenever we died or just wanted to let one of the others have a go.

 

This was maybe a year and a half ago, and I thought the game held up really quite well despite its age. I believe the alternate control scheme you mention was part of the PS2 version we had as well, because I don't recall the controls being that much of an issue. I completely agree with you regarding, well, all of the points you've raised above. 

 

I was never extremely scared by it either, though that could largely be explained by the fact that I was playing together with two other people during the light hours of the day. I certainly found it very atmospheric and at times quite oppressive. Once I had figured out that I could just run past certain enemies quite easily most of the tension around combat went away.

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I've played Silent Hill 1, 2, and 4. I don't remember 1 at all, and only remember the annoying bits of 2, but I have a fairly clear memory of 4 and I really enjoyed it. I know a lot of people hated it, but the transformation for your room from a place of refuge at the start of the game to a place that you dread returning too really had an effect on me. It also benefitted from me having played it in the Youtube era, where I could look up the different endings when I got one that I wasn't a fan of, which is what put me off 2 back in the day.

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I'm a massive fan of the original series, and 2 is a lot of peoples favorite. SH2 isn't the scariest of the games, so not being freaked out by it isn't crazy. It's the most psychologically unnerving one, so it makes you just feel weird as you play it, if anything. I think the scariest of all of them is SH4, but I'm one of the biggest apologists of that game. Hope you continue with the game and the series.

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I've played Silent Hill 1, 2, and 4. I don't remember 1 at all, and only remember the annoying bits of 2, but I have a fairly clear memory of 4 and I really enjoyed it. I know a lot of people hated it, but the transformation for your room from a place of refuge at the start of the game to a place that you dread returning too really had an effect on me. It also benefitted from me having played it in the Youtube era, where I could look up the different endings when I got one that I wasn't a fan of, which is what put me off 2 back in the day.

 

I loved that in SH4, the one safe haven you have is slowly corrupted until you feel like you have nowhere left. I think another thing that works for that game is that since it's not technically set in Silent Hill, the set pieces were a lot crazier. It was so much different from the previous 3 games, because they didn't have to obey the same rules. That being said, playing the end without any help would make anyone lose their mind.

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The Silent Hill series is one I've always wanted to re-try, especially since my only ever play experience involved getting lost in the fog, using up my ammo and not knowing where to go. I was too young to properly play.

 

Unfortunately SH seems to be one of those games that hits the achilles heel of no PC digital downloads, which is essentially the only way I ever get any games any more. Maybe when the current gen next gen consoles are in full swing I could grab a cheap PS3 to mop up the lost games I never played.

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Big fan of the SH series, well, I should say, until four. 

 

SH3 is definitely the scariest of the bunch, 2 having a great story to it and 4 for being having such a tense and suffocating atmosphere that would wear you down as you played. 

Actually, I'd dare say SH 4 is the best of the bunch even with all its problems: great story matched with, again, a tense and suffocating atmosphere that made it a hard game to play at night.  Though SH 4 will never reach the scariness factor of 3, it's almost up there with it.

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If anyone hasn't heard the episode of Retronauts Bob Mackey did on Silent Hill, it's definitely worth checking out. Watch out for Fireballs also did a great episode on SH2.
 

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Came in to say this to anyone who may happen to come in here, hasn't played it, and ask what version to get.

 

*clears throat*

 

DON'T BUY THE HD REMASTERS ON PS3 AND XBOX360.

 

To the point, it's a trash re-release that not only remasters it HORRIBLY, but also include changes that ruin the atmosphere and story. Seriously, they are trash. Get them on their original consoles, emulate them, PC versions, what have you...but don't get the remasters.

 

Want a very detailed look into how the remaster ended up so shit?

 
 two videos explaining how this horrendous cash grab became a thing. Also, that one dude looks like Nick Breckon. Congrats Nick!

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Yeah, I thought about ordering the HD remasters, then read some reviews of them and decided that tracking down, ahem, the original PC version of SH2 would be for the best. 

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Those are some very large angry letters.

But fair enough!

 

I've mostly heard bad stuff about the titles after 4, but I have to say Shattered Memories(?) sounded interesting. What with the non-combat approach and everything.

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Came in to say this to anyone who may happen to come in here, hasn't played it, and ask what version to get.

 

*clears throat*

 

DON'T BUY THE HD REMASTERS ON PS3 AND XBOX360.

 

To the point, it's a trash re-release that not only remasters it HORRIBLY, but also include changes that ruin the atmosphere and story. Seriously, they are trash. Get them on their original consoles, emulate them, PC versions, what have you...but don't get the remasters.

 

Want a very detailed look into how the remaster ended up so shit?

 
 two videos explaining how this horrendous cash grab became a thing. Also, that one dude looks like Nick Breckon. Congrats Nick!

FUCKING THIS!

I bought the re-make the day it came out and jesus h christ! Which is weird because the HD remakes of MGS and ZOE are fabulous 

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I have a hundred half formed thoughts and memories about this series but for now here's some "further reading" stuff I've enjoyed.

 

Making of videos (watch only if you've played the game in question):



 

Here's a shorter video about SH1



The Book of Lost Memories translated: http://www.translatedmemories.com/book.html

"The Book of Lost Memories is a piece of text published with the Japanese Silent Hill 3 guide released by Konami in 2003, in collaboration with Team Silent. It was printed upside-down on the last pages of the guide, using the book's back cover as a front cover. The text covered in-depth information on most aspects of the first three games in the series." Description from http://silenthill.wikia.com/wiki/Silent_Hill_Wiki which is a really good site also.

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I have a hundred half formed thoughts and memories about this series but for now here's some "further reading" stuff I've enjoyed.

 

Making of videos (watch only if you've played the game in question)

 

Argh, I love these making of videos. They show so much passion and vision within these devs, it's beautiful. 

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Yeah, they might not be the most well produced or informative behind the scenes videos but it is so great to see and hear the actual people behind those fascinating games.

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I played a bit of SH2 on the PC. Not long after the start you get trapped in a big, dilapidated block of flats and have to find your way through. It had some genuinely scary sections as well as a couple of interesting puzzles, but was also confusing as heck (there's not much to differentiate one room from another, or one floor from another, so easy to get turned around) and went on a bit too long.

 

7/10

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I got to the second sentence in your post then killed my wife.

4/10

You're right though, the apartment block is really confusing and all looks the same (probably intentional so). I implicitly remember feeling that way when I played it like 10 years ago. God knows how it holds up today... I probably would have quit too.

Amended score 7.5/10

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I stopped playing shortly after the drab apartments, not because of them, just because I got distracted by something else.  I should go back and play some more of it.

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I.... liked the HD versions of Silent Hill 2 & 3, I never saw the horrible things people said about it, so I guess they patched it out eventually?

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