Silent Hill Game by Konami Reviewed by Adrock gbcam@hotmail.com Save: Memory Card, 3 slots Released: 1999 Works with: Dual Shock **************************************************************************** Opening Snide Remarks: "The fear of blood tends to create fear for the flesh." Konami dares to challenge Resident Evil to the throne of "Scariest Game of All Time." **************************************************************************** Gameplay Descripion: Silent Hill definetely deserves to be called just that, the scariest game of all time. It makes Resident Evil look like Yoshi's Story. OK, well maybe not Yoshi's Story. The cinema scene shows a man and his daughter, spinning out of control after almost hitting someone crossing the street. When he awakens in the car, his daughter is gone. He follows the silouette of his daughter, but finds a dead end full of small childlike monsters stabbing at his feet. He passes out. It was a nightmare. You start in a cafe, after awakening from this nightmare. You meet Cybil, a cop from the next town over. As you start to leave, the pocket radio buzzes. When you approach it, a gargoyle-like creature attacks you. Scared to death, you walk into the town. But, you find that there are monsters out there, and most of the roads are totally wrecked. All you know is that you must find your daughter, fast. Most of the game is in the dark. You have your trusty flashlight that fits in your chest pocket, illuminating what's in front of you, and that pocket radio, that buzzes whenever a monster is near. You are basically alone, meeting only 6 or 7 people throughout the course of the entire game. There's no electricity, cars won't start, most everything electronic is unoperational. But the good thing is you get a lot of tight weapons, like a rifle and a hammer. Beat the game and the next time you play you can get new weapons. Unlike Resident Evil, this game has story elements instead of just quick little jumps. Let's contrast and compare. RE: A zombie jumps out of, say, a locker. SE: A locker is thumping loudly. When you open it, a cat jumps out. But, in the other dimension, the same happens again, but this time, the locker is empty... except for a ton of blood splattered everywhere inside. Frightening? You haven't heard the last of it. You find a room with phones that don't work. When you start to leave, one starts to ring. It's your daughter on the phone crying, then the line goes dead. I'll try not to ruin too much of it for you, so let me just say that the game is full of very scary things. At the very start of the game even, there is a warning that says "There are violent and disturbing images in this game." Ooh. Liked: Has all the elements of a horror movie, except in a game. Good concept. Hated: A little too short of a game, but you should repeat it over and over to get all of the secret weapons, and the secret "visitors" ending. Heh heh. **************************************************************************** Graphics Description: The cinema scenes are fascinating. They are semi-realistic, rendered FMV scenes. But, some of the characters look kind of pale. Guess this was intentional? Wandering around in the dark with a flashlight takes away most of the pop-up of the game. A good idea, and it works very good for the game. Pictures in the game have very high quality revolution, so good that you can read the words right off of them. The enemies look very gory, and beware... Some of the stuff might gross you out. Especially if you are a novice to horror movies. Liked: Good FMV and pictures. Flashlight thing is a good idea. Hated: The "pixel-station" always makes the games real blurry. I'd love to see it on N64. **************************************************************************** Sound/Music Description: Most of the games "music" is pounding pots in the room ahead, a faint choir group echoing around you, you know. The typical suspense-type music. It works VERY well. The game should not be played without the volume at a good level. Even when something is not going to happen, you can still hear those weird sounds. As for grunts and groans, good job. Also, it doesn't overdo a lot of phony screaming FX. These usually ruin a game, and make it more funny then scary. Liked: Lip-biting music. Hated: Voice samples sometimes feature some bad-acting, or seem sequential instead of natural and flowing. **************************************************************************** Play Control/Game Design: Your character, Harry Mason, is no Raccoon City cop. He doesn't really run too well. But this makes the game feel all the more realistic. You really expect some Chuck Norris wannabe to be stuck in this town? That is a real cliche of media. The controls are kind of like Resident Evil, where left and right turn, rather than moving your character. This is OK, but unfortunately... You would expect full 3D control from an analog pad, right? Well, it's not. It controls about the same as the digital pad, which usually makes using the pad a better choice. To shoot you have to first hold R2 to aim. Liked: Overall good controls. Realistic character abilities. Hated: Not full 3-D controls. Kind of made issues worse for a Mario 64 veteran like me. **************************************************************************** Improve: Longer game. RIYL: RE, RE2, Steven King. **************************************************************************** Final Words: This game is awesome! Play it in the dark... **************************************************************************** Score Gameplay: ***** Graphics: **** Sound/Music: ***** Play Control/Game Design: **** Personal Opinion: ***** Total: 23 Final Score: %92 **************************************************************************** Currently Known Codes: Here's help on one of the toughest puzzles in the game. To solve the thing in the final hospital with all the pictures and numbers, the way to solve it is to key in the number of how many limbs the creature has. (Example: Human=4, Snake=0.) Just giving you an... "Alert".