'Have you seen a little girl?'

So after writing this post a few weeks ago, I realised I’d only ever done one playthrough of the original Silent Hill game, years ago. ‘I should play it again’, I thought, ‘and see if it still holds up now.’ That and I just plain fancied it, but ok.

It’s easy to forget this now, but Silent Hill was one of the first horror games that sought to truly mess with your head, rather than just provide jump in your seat scares. Not that they didn’t show, either. I will always regret replaying this with the windows open, as I jumped and screamed ‘AAARGH GET AWAY FROM ME AARGH’ every time a monster showed its horrible face. The neighbours are probably not best pleased with me.

This is probably the only games where the limitations of the system added to the atmosphere of the game, rather than detracting from it. The draw distance disguising fog meant that you would wander around the deserted town, minding your own business, when off in the fog somewhere you’d hear some horrible cry. It’s probably a monster wanting to eat your face off, Harry! RUN! And if you can’t run, I guess you’d better fight! Good luck getting that heavy iron bar over your head! It’s the eternal question, did the combat suck because of bad design, or did it suck because Harry was just a normal dude, and therefore WOULD suck at combat?

Speaking of our hero Harry, is it just me or does he only repeat the same three or four lines throughout the whole game? If he’s not asking ‘What’s going on?’ or ‘what is this?’, he’s asking after his daughter Cheryl. She wandered off into the fog and now he has to ask everyone, ‘Have you seen a little girl? Short black hair? Seven years old?’ Bloody hell, put up some posters and save your voice mate.

Even though the game suffers from that horrible affliction that made all voice acting in all games of that era atrocious, there’s still a surprising depth of characterisation for everyone involved. The example that comes to mind is Lisa Garland. She seems innocent enough, and tries to help Harry when she can, but it turns out she was a drug addict, complicit in keeping Alessa Gillespie alive after she was burnt horribly. Her death scene is especially striking:



(Oh, don’t go yelling ‘SPOILERS!’ It’s a 13 year old game at this point).

Having a nose around the internet, I saw this article point out that Silent Hill brings Western and Eastern horror together in one story, and by jove they were right. Small American town full of unknowable evil, plus the paranormal element of a tortured young girl seeking revenge, equals OH GOD WHAT’S BEHIND THAT DOOR I’M TOO SCARED TO LOOK.

It’s all understated terror, but it’s done to perfection. It’s things like the disembodied crying in the school toilets, the unexplained bodies hanging in the ‘otherworld’, or the entire disjointed feel of the ‘nowhere’ section that really get under your skin and set you on edge. I didn’t seek to plonk an easy villain in front of you, a la the zombie of Resident Evil, and be on its way. It made you question everyone and everything that happened to you as you played.

If you haven’t played it yet (and really, you haven’t by this point? Really?), then I highly, highly suggest you seek out a copy and see how horror games should be done.