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Silent Hill Community Thread: "There was a title here...It's gone now"

D

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
Gintoki313 said:
Is this a sales chart for survival horror games? If so, I can't believe SH4 sold more then SH3, that's pretty surprising. Speaking of sales, does anyone know if Downpour sold well? I'm curious to know if Downpour was even profitable for Konami.
Click to expand...

It doesn't surprise me, Silent Hill 4 had some pretty good marketing. I got into horror games late, and didn't know what Silent Hill was back when Silent Hill 4 was releasing, but had heard of it from TV and other things. It was the first I had heard of the SH franchise.

Downpour probably was not on account the studio that made Downpour went under after Downpour's release.
 
S

SymbiantXenos

Member
How many zones are there in Book Of Memories. Im currently in the woods atm. But there's a trophy for reaching zone 100 IIRC. Or is there a NG+ in place.
 
G

Gintoki313

Banned
Dusk Golem said:
It doesn't surprise me, Silent Hill 4 had some pretty good marketing. I got into horror games late, and didn't know what Silent Hill was back when Silent Hill 4 was releasing, but had heard of it from TV and other things. It was the first I had heard of the SH franchise.

Downpour probably was not on account the studio that made Downpour went under after Downpour's release.
Click to expand...

Ouch, that doesn't sound good. Too bad, that studio seemed like it did good with making a Silent Hill game. They just needed to clean it up a bit, to make it more appealing. No one wants to play a buggy game and that's what dragged it down.

I got into Silent hill even later. My first Silent Hill was Homecoming. I always heard of Silent Hill before, but never got into it. I just got a PS3 and wanted an adventure game, and it was the only one I saw that looked decent. Bought it, played it, and liked it. I then bought SH2, then SH1, etc to see what the rest of them were like (to my surprise they were all tank control movements). After playing all of the other SH's, I went back and played Homecoming again. Which made me realize that it probably wasn't one of the better SH's.
 
P

PetriP-TNT

Member
My favorite series ever and I haven't even finished 4 or played any of the ones outside the first 3. I have been planning for a PC re run again but still it's the only series that leave me shitless and I have been lost so many nights thinking about Silent Hill I just keep pushing them back.

I remember when I went to visit my big brother one day and there was this new game from the US. It kinda looked graphically like Metal Gear Solid. Oh shit, no way, this is Silent Hill that has been on Super Powers E3 things for a while now. What the fuck at this intro. Oh shit why is it dark. Oh shit a school? CREEPY LITTLE BABIES. *stuck for weeks on the piano puzzle*. OOOOH SHIT THIS NIGHTMARE SCHOOL KILL ME.

Amazing experience. Years later I saw Silent Hill 2. It literally dropped my jaw. My dad wife's kid bought the game as he had a PS2 on release and it was so goddamn scary. I knew I had to get Silent Hill 2 and PS2. And I did. And it was great year (GTA3!!).

Silent Hill 3 and the Jacobs Ladder references goddamn. Fun tie up with SH1, a bit more action but not any less scarier.

Silent Hill 4 I couldn't get into because of the ghosts and I hate that goddamn head but I'll clear it eventually, maybe on PC this time.
 
C

Cudder

Member
Also of note, this book:

9780472051625.jpg


Silent Hill: The Terror Engine, the second of the two inaugural studies in the Landmark Video Games series from series editors Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron, is both a close analysis of the first three Silent Hill games and a general look at the whole series. Silent Hill, with its first title released in 1999, is one of the most influential of the horror video game series. Perron situates the games within the survival horror genre, both by looking at the history of the genre and by comparing Silent Hill with such important forerunners as Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil. Taking a transmedia approach and underlining the designer's cinematic and literary influences, he uses the narrative structure; the techniques of imagery, sound, and music employed; the game mechanics; and the fiction, artifact, and gameplay emotions elicited by the games to explore the specific fears survival horror games are designed to provoke and how the experience as a whole has made the Silent Hill series one of the major landmarks of video game history.
Click to expand...

It's a pretty good read if you're into Silent Hill, which I'm guessing you all are.
 
kunonabi

kunonabi

Member
Gintoki313 said:
Is this a sales chart for survival horror games? If so, I can't believe SH4 sold more then SH3, that's pretty surprising. Speaking of sales, does anyone know if Downpour sold well? I'm curious to know if Downpour was even profitable for Konami.
Click to expand...

SH4 also released on Xbox where SH3 was only PS2
 
T

TheJollyCorner

Member
this could probably be a post in the "Games you expected to hate but didn't" thread, but I recall shaking my head at the first image of Silent Hill I ever saw thinking "heh, Konami's trying to get in on that RE money."

I honestly expected another crappy "me too" game like Overblood.

Then everyone started raving about the opening CG cutscene that appeared at either E3 or TGS 1998, I think.
I still wasn't ready to be impressed. As it didn't have pre-rendered backgrounds, it automatically looked like a poor man's RE in the images and some fancy CG opening wouldn't be enough to fix that.

Fast-forward to Christmas break '98 and I remember getting the Jan '99 issue of The Official PlayStation Magazine. Those magazines were awesome because they always came with a playable demo disk of upcoming games.
Silent Hill was on the disk, so my cousins and I sat down to try it. I had a lot of fun laughing at the shittiness of Overblood, so I hoped this Silent Hill game would at least entertain me in a way that only a cheap RE-wannabe could.

Needless to say there wasn't much laughing (even though the voice acting was pretty funny) and I was instantly impressed with the premise, the creative camera work (particularly in the opening alleyway), and the overall atmosphere. Unlike RE it felt very dreamlike and ominous. It was more akin to a Stephen King narrative. "A father searching for his daughter in an empty town that's foggy & snowing in the summer? This is bizarre. I... like this."

I would end up renting it upon release (I was a broke college kid at the time), but I played it to completion and ultimately bought it that summer.
I now do a SH1 playthrough around Halloween every year. :)
 
C

CaptainSchwann

Member
Dusk Golem said:
.
Click to expand...

In regards to Downpour: It doesn't exactly help that the game controls like complete ass. This is a prime example why I don't understand how people can always say things like "story matters more than gameplay". On a fundamental level, if the gameplay is so broken and glitchy I can't progress past a certain point it really doesn't matter how great the narrative progresses after that now does it?

Downpour single-handily ended the debate on which SH had the worst combat. Maybe I'll attempt to finally finish it one day when I'm feeling particularly self-hating.
 
F

Fancy Clown

Member
Anybody have any advice for the
Cybil
boss fight from Silent HIll 1?

I'm stuck there with only a few health drinks left and it feels fairly impossible to beat. It's also kind of difficult to strafe while playing on the Vita.
 
C

CaptainSchwann

Member
Fancy Clown said:
Anybody have any advice for the Cybil boss fight from Silent HIll 1?

I'm stuck there with only a few health drinks left and it feels fairly impossible to beat. It's also kind of difficult to strafe while playing on the Vita.
Click to expand...

Did you make sure to get the mysterious liquid to throw at her?

Edit: Btw are community threads cool for open spoilers or no?
 
K

Kinhow

Member
One of my favorite series of all time. I remember when I've rented Silent Hill for the first time, without knowing anything at all about the game, I just thought the cover was pretty cool for some reason.

I arrived at my home, begin to play and I was completely hooked before I knew it. The atmosphere of this game is outstanding.
 
I

itzknickknac

Member
Gintoki313 said:
Why are these characters in Silent Hill? Does Silent Hill just grab random people and kill them for fun?
No. The reasons some of the characters are placed in Silent Hill, is because they regret something that happened in the past and won't accept it. I guess you can say that Silent Hill challenges the main character to face their inner demons, and surpass them. This is a running theme of the series. Another reason is that the character could be related to the town itself, but you'll have to find out the reason for each characters involvement yourself.
Click to expand...

Can someone tell me how this applies to SH1 and Downpour? The only ones I played were these and forgot the story.. I supposed spoiler tagging them would be necessary.

Gintoki313 said:
I saw that Silent Hill 2 and 3 has an HD Collection. Do you recommend it?
No. I would HIGHLY recommend you try it out on PS2 or PC instead. The HD Collection is well known for being very buggy, and having many issues. You can pick it up if you want, but you have been warned.
Click to expand...

I've done alot of research in the issue and whats fixed and what isn't.. I've been warned plenty, but I'm still going through with it lol
 
P

PetriP-TNT

Member
itzknickknac said:
Can someone tell me how this applies to SH1 and Downpour? The only ones I played were these and forgot the story.. I supposed spoiler tagging them would be necessary.
Click to expand...

IIRC it doesn't apply to SH1 and it's just because of Gods and Alyssa and stuff and Downpour it was something really really dumb that changed between the endings. That only came the running theme because some thought that Silent Hill 2 was the first one and oh yeah Silent Hill 2 had the best storyline so let's go with that and remake it to all eternity.
 
T

TheJollyCorner

Member
Kinhow said:
One of my favorite series of all time. I remember when I've rented Silent Hill for the first time, without knowing anything at all about the game, I just thought the cover was pretty cool for some reason.

I arrived at my home, begin to play and I was completely hooked before I knew it. The atmosphere of this game is outstanding.
Click to expand...

I also love how Toyama and Co. took a significant technical limitation (draw distance) and actually turned it into something amazingly effective atmospherically (fog).

By the time SH2 released the fog simply became a well-animated effect.
 
C

CaptainSchwann

Member
itzknickknac said:
Can someone tell me how this applies to SH1 and Downpour? The only ones I played were these and forgot the story.. I supposed spoiler tagging them would be necessary.
Click to expand...

It doesn't. I could be making too big an assumption here, but most people who draw that conclusion started with SH2...or Homecoming which simply tried to copy SH2. Those were the only two games where the central theme was regret. The cult has been the central theme, or at least a catalyst, to the majority of entries.

Fancy Clown said:
Balls. This is my first SIlent HIll game and I absolutely love it, but I'd really like to be able to finish the game haha.
Click to expand...

Lol I actual need to go back and get the different ending on it. It's been like over ten years, and I'm pretty sure I just got the good ending and stopped.
 
RedAssedApe

RedAssedApe

Banned
itzknickknac said:
Can someone tell me how this applies to SH1 and Downpour? The only ones I played were these and forgot the story.. I supposed spoiler tagging them would be necessary.
/QUOTE]

Yeah I think SH1 was more wrong place wrong time for Harry. Him and his wife just ended up being the one who found the baby and as a result ended up being drawn into it all.

Regarding Downpour...I can't remember if any of the endings are canon but...(copied synopsis from someone on gamefaqs since I didn't want to retype lol)

1. Napier (fat guy in the prison shower intro) killed Murphy's son but left little to no evidence behind.
2. Murphy knew it was Napier, his neighbor, and sought revenge.
3. Napier soon got caught doing the same thing he did on Charlie to other kids (kidnap, rape, killed, etc) and was sent to prison.
4. Murphy finds this his only chance and did some random crime just so he can go to prison.
5. Once there Murphy strikes a deal with crooked guard Swells so he can meet up with Napier alone.
6. Murphy failed to kill Napier (he still beat him up badly) in which Sewell took care of the rest.
7. Murphy soon afterward broke his deal with Sewell (failing to take the task on killing officer Frank Coleridge).
8. Swells then killed Frank himself and set Murphy up for the murder.
Click to expand...
 
P

PoemOfTheLastMoment

Banned
Silent Hill itself is not about people facing their inner demons. Silent Hill 2 was the only one that did so. The greatest fallacy of the Western SH games was they regurgitated the themes of SH2 over and over ad nauseum.

Silent Hill 1, 3 and 4 are about the cult.

This is how the Otherworld works in the first four games:

Sh1: you are experiencing Alessa's nightmare, not Harry's.

Sh2: You are experiencing James' nightmare which often overlaps with the nightmares of Eddie and Angela.

Sh3: You are experiencing the nightmare being caused by the gestating God within Heather.

Sh4: You are experiencing Walter's nightmare.

So no, SH is not about facing your inner demons. Tomm Hulett can go suck a big fat one .
 
C

CaptainSchwann

Member
PoemOfTheLastMoment said:
Silent Hill itself is not about people facing their inner demons. Silent Hill 2 was the only one that did so. The greatest fallacy of the Western SH games was they regurgitated the themes of SH2 over and over ad nauseum.

Silent Hill 1, 3 and 4 are about the cult.

This is how the Otherworld works in the first four games:

Sh1: you are experiencing Alessa's nightmare, not Harry's.

Sh2: You are experiencing James' nightmare which often overlaps with the nightmares of Eddie and Angela.

Sh3: You are experiencing the nightmare being caused by the gestating God within Heather.

Sh4: You are experiencing Walter's nightmare.

So no, SH is not about facing your inner demons. Tomm Hulett can go suck a big fat one .
Click to expand...

Hey Tom Hulett loves SH more than any of us.
 
T

Typographenia

Member
PoemOfTheLastMoment said:
You can already see the damage caused by the newer games. The OP incorrectly states this as an established fact.
Click to expand...
The reasons some of the characters are placed in Silent Hill, is because they regret something that happened in the past and won't accept it. I guess you can say that Silent Hill challenges the main character to face their inner demons, and surpass them. This is a running theme of the series. Another reason is that the character could be related to the town itself, but you'll have to find out the reason for each characters involvement yourself.
Click to expand...
I mean, it's great that you're ready to come in here swinging, though. Fits the typical tone for most SH threads.
 
P

PoemOfTheLastMoment

Banned
There's a reason why i waited 5 pages to write the correction, considering the fact that i've been following the thread since the first post hoping for someone to correct the OP.
 
M

MagnaderAlpha

Member
CaptainSchwann said:
Hey Tom Hulett loves SH more than any of us.
Click to expand...
Given Tom Hulett's perception of what he "believes" Silent Hill to be, he should've NEVER been put into the leading position to lead the franchise. His bias and boner for SH2 stunted the series, and fucked over those who came into the series believing that Silent Hill is MAINLY about flawed heroes facing their regrets.
 
G

Gintoki313

Banned
itzknickknac said:
Can someone tell me how this applies to SH1 and Downpour? The only ones I played were these and forgot the story.. I supposed spoiler tagging them would be necessary.
Click to expand...

You have to remember that in Downpour it
wasn't all about Murphy. It was about the cop women as well. I would say they both had regret
.

Murphy -
Regretted killing the good cop. During the morgue level it also showed that he regretted killing the guy in prison (I'm terrible with names).
I played the game 2 days ago and I remember clearly Murphy yelling his brains out saying
"I didn't mean to, it wasn't my fault, I should have been there!"
Women Cop - She just wanted to kill Murphy for her father. Murphy was going to leave after accepting that revenge wasn't right, but she dragged him back.

itzknickknac said:
I've done alot of research in the issue and whats fixed and what isn't.. I've been warned plenty, but I'm still going through with it lol
Click to expand...

I was just warning people, so they wouldn't yell at me for letting them get it without research. If I'm ever bored, I'm planning on picking it up for the trophies alone. Downpour was a pretty fun game to get all the trophies in, so I'm sure the others are as well.
 
R

RadioHeadAche

Member
I was always curious about Silent Hill 3 not doing as well as the first two. I figured that there would have been a lot of buzz after how well SH2 turned out, but maybe not?
 
A

AmethystEnd

Member
PoemOfTheLastMoment said:
Silent Hill itself is not about people facing their inner demons. Silent Hill 2 was the only one that did so. The greatest fallacy of the Western SH games was they regurgitated the themes of SH2 over and over ad nauseum.

Silent Hill 1, 3 and 4 are about the cult.

This is how the Otherworld works in the first four games:

Sh1: you are experiencing Alessa's nightmare, not Harry's.

Sh2: You are experiencing James' nightmare which often overlaps with the nightmares of Eddie and Angela.

Sh3: You are experiencing the nightmare being caused by the gestating God within Heather.

Sh4: You are experiencing Walter's nightmare.

So no, SH is not about facing your inner demons. Tomm Hulett can go suck a big fat one .
Click to expand...

I'm with you 100% bro, minus the whole antagonizing other people's opinions and stuff.
 
D

DVCY201

Member
RadioHeadAche said:
I was always curious about Silent Hill 3 not doing as well as the first two. I figured that there would have been a lot of buzz after how well SH2 turned out, but maybe not?
Click to expand...

Silent Hill 2 came out early in the PS2's life, right? So, it could've been that people were just looking for games. Silent Hill 3 I actually remember some negativity from, people said it was too "action" over horror. Now SH3 is my favourite, but it did feel a bit more "grindhouse" in style and tone.
 
G

Gintoki313

Banned
Yeah, I think I'll just remove the faq in the OP all together. I personally think it applies to (
SH3
,
SH4
,
SH2
,
SHD
,
SHH
,
SHSM
).
SH1
is the only one that had me wondering if I should add the faq or not.
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
Rogue_Ledr said:
Hmmm interesting. Good read! Thanks!

Did the series really need to be revived though? As far as I understand, SH3 and SH4 were hits!
Click to expand...

It just depends on what they wanted the series to be. I believe I remember Toyama saying that Konami wanted him to make a competitor for RE, and his idea was SH. So, it's safe to assume that they were hoping that SH could be as popular as RE. They may have been hoping that the western devs would have a formula that would click and propel the series to much greater heights in terms of sales.

SH just really isn't a series that's ever really going to approach RE in terms of sales. The formula is just too different.
 
K

Krafter

Member
Great idea for a thread, subscribed.

Silent Hill has always been my favourite horror franchise, and just about my favourite series in all of gaming. Would commit heinous crimes for internal developed Silent Hills to return. Alas.
 
Rhazer Fusion

Rhazer Fusion

Member
dan2026 said:
Why is it so hard for developers to make a decent Silent Hill game these days?
Nobody seems to get it anymore.
Click to expand...


Well, let's just say they should probably give it back to the uh....original creators of the game if you get my drift. I think they fully understand the Silent Hill experience the best since that is what they specialize in.
 
S

Sgblues

Member
So is anyone a fan of Twin-perfect and their great analysis of the Silent Hill series?

Well they just put up part 2 of the fridge logic behind the Silent Hill movies and boy does it nail all the inconsistencies these movies brought up.

Here is part 1 dealing with the first movie


And here is part 2, dealing with the sequel

I remember people saying these were the "BEST" video game to movie adaptations out there and I'd ask why they thought so and their reason? "Man Pyramid head is in it! That makes it the best!" And I would tell them that no, it actually makes it the worse because of it.
 
I

Imbarkus

As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
PoemOfTheLastMoment said:
Silent Hill Revelation is arguably the worst movie ever made and a slap to the face for the fans who actually paid to see this trainwreck!
Click to expand...

I really enjoyed the first one, which a lot of people didn't, so the fact that Revelation was almost completely forgettable to me is quite a shame.
 
P

Polioliolio

Member
Gintoki313 said:
Is this a sales chart for survival horror games? If so, I can't believe SH4 sold more then SH3, that's pretty surprising. Speaking of sales, does anyone know if Downpour sold well? I'm curious to know if Downpour was even profitable for Konami.
Click to expand...

Silent Hill 4 also launched on Xbox at what was probably the height of the series popularity, so that may help explain that.
 
I

itzknickknac

Member
Gintoki313 said:
You have to remember that in Downpour it
wasn't all about Murphy. It was about the cop women as well. I would say they both had regret
.

Murphy -
Regretted killing the good cop. During the morgue level it also showed that he regretted killing the guy in prison (I'm terrible with names).
I played the game 2 days ago and I remember clearly Murphy yelling his brains out saying
"I didn't mean to, it wasn't my fault, I should have been there!"
Women Cop - She just wanted to kill Murphy for her father. Murphy was going to leave after accepting that revenge wasn't right, but she dragged him back.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the female cop. There were many endings I forgot most of them, but I'll probably youtube that to refresh my memory.

Gintoki313 said:
I was just warning people, so they wouldn't yell at me for letting them get it without research. If I'm ever bored, I'm planning on picking it up for the trophies alone. Downpour was a pretty fun game to get all the trophies in, so I'm sure the others are as well.
Click to expand...

That's what I'm doing, playing it for trophies (primarily for the game/story). But if it gets unbearably playable, I have the PS2 copy of SH2 to fall back to.
 
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