Do people like to be scared? Judging by the number of scary fairy tales, creepy legends, and chilling horror stories that have been created throughout history, yes, they do. But there are also those who won’t go near a movie theater if it’s showing another horror movie, you might say. And in reality, scary events are just that… scary events, and healthy people do not want to bring them into their lives. However, you shouldn’t label everyone who likes scary stories in books, movies, or games as a psycho. Everyone likes to tickle their nerves in one form or another. And art is the most innocent and easily controlled of all the possible means of doing so. According to experts on human souls, it is the controllability of fear that attracts people to horror stories. It also trains them, making them relive this state over and over again. And the ability to turn off its source at any time has a calming effect.

Silent Hill can be called one of the most powerful “calming” game universes in this sense. Very soon, on October 8, 2024, Silent Hill 2, the remake of the most outstanding and deepest game in the series, according to most gamers and critics, will be released (or has already been released, who knows when you read this). And this, along with the October half moon, is the best reason to once again (or for the first time) plunge into the foggy town and remember (or learn) its history and the stories of its residents.

 

How Silent Hill was created

Let’s go back to 1996. The year when the grass was definitely greener for some of our readers, and some of them hadn’t even been born yet. For video games, it was a time of active 3D development. At the same time, new genres were emerging, and one of them was survival horror. The forerunner of the genre is Alone in the Dark, which was released in 1992 (and in 2024, the world saw its not-so-good, but not so terrible remake– I’m talking about quality). But the first really successful survival horror was born in Japan in March 1996. And it was Resident Evil.

Silent Hill: its creators, inhabitants and games
Concept art of the estate from the game Resident Evil

The game featured static two-dimensional backgrounds on which three-dimensional models of characters and enemies were superimposed. This made it possible to create detailed environments that could not be realized on the hardware-limited first PlayStation in a fully three-dimensional format. Resident Evil also featured a fixed camera, tank control, and a console system for storing progress only in certain places with the help of typewriters and ribbons to it (and you still need to get them!). Although the character and enemy models were quite simple by today’s standards, they were well animated.

In addition, the game had a limited inventory, forcing players to use resources rationally in battles with enemies and solving puzzles, which were an important part of the game, as well as presenting the plot through cinematic scenes and notes, which was an innovation at the time. In short, the first Resident Evil made a splash and became one of the key games that defined the features and mechanics of the genre for many years to come.

Many developers were looking at the success of Resident Evil, and especially closely at another Japanese company called Konami. At that time, it was an already established and quite successful video game developer, the creator of such hits as Contra (1987), Castlevania (1986), and Metal Gear (1987) by Hideo Kojima. At that time, Konami was mastering 3D – they created a three-dimensional sports game International Track & Field (1996). But the company did not know what to do with the new genre and did not have a clear vision of what the new game should look like, other than a vague “something like Resident Evil,” but not quite. It was this vague task that Keiichiro Toyama and his newly formed small team, the Silent Team, were faced with. They were all young and not very experienced in game development.

Silent Hill: its creators, inhabitants and games
Team Silent from 1998

Prior to that, Keichiro was engaged in interface design for Konami sports games. But this means nothing but a lack of experience. Sometimes a pastry chef can cook a perfectly acceptable steak, or even retrain to become a well-known steak cook.

The biggest problem was that the task was unclear, but the young people had plenty of creativity. The first thing the developers faced was a lack of RAM. The PlayStation, for which the game was developed, could not process all the horrors generated by the unbridled talents of the Silent Team. And then someone came up with a brilliant idea: let’s cover the entire space with fog! This is how Silent Hill’s signature gloom was born, which not only hid technical limitations but also added an eerie atmosphere to the game.

But fog is only half the battle. What about the lighting? That’s when programmer Oshima Naoto came up with the idea of using spot lighting. Imagine walking down a dark corridor with a small flashlight, and all you see is a small circle of light, and pitch blackness all around. Does it sound scary? You bet! This technique has become the hallmark of the series, forcing players to peer nervously into the darkness in anticipation of the next monster.

Історія Silent Hill
Still from the game Silent Hill

Yes, technical and graphical techniques, although born out of limitations, became very important for the atmosphere of Silent Hill. But no less important was the game’s sound design, for which we have to thank the genius of Akira Yamaoka, the man who turned sounds into a full-fledged character in the game.

Before Silent Hill, Yamaoka had mostly composed upbeat tunes for arcade games, but now he was faced with the task of scaring – with noise, music, or silence. So, Yamaoka decides to do something that no one had ever done before in a video game – he turns to industrial and ambient instead of the traditional orchestral compositions or electronic melodies that were commonly used in video games. He mixes the sounds of factory machinery, distorted guitar riffs, electronic noises, and even recordings of real-life screams. The result? Music that not only accompanies the game, but becomes an integral part of it.

Silent Hill: its creators, inhabitants and games
Akira Yamaoka

But Yamaoka doesn’t stop at music alone. He pays great attention to ambient sounds and noises. Footsteps on different surfaces, creaking doors, rustling paper – all this is recorded and processed in such a way as to sound as realistic and eerie as possible.

Interestingly, Yamaoka recorded many of the sounds for the game himself, using the most unexpected objects. For example, the sound of hitting the flesh of monsters is actually a hit on a wet leather jacket. And the sound of footsteps on a metal grate was recorded on an ordinary kitchen grater.

Special attention should be paid to the siren. This piercing sound, which announces the change of reality to the “other world”, was created by Yamaoka specifically for the game. It is so effective at evoking a sense of anxiety that many players have admitted to flinching when they hear a similar sound in real life…

What about silence? Oh, Yamaoka knew how to make silence the scariest sound in the game! Sudden moments of complete silence after intense sound episodes create an effect that makes players freeze in anticipation of something terrible.

When the composer first presented his work to the development team, they were surprised, to say the least, and thought that what they heard was the result of a software glitch. Akira had to explain that these sounds were music. Moreover, this is Silent Hill.

Silent Hill: its creators, inhabitants and games
Groner is one of the lovable inhabitants of Silent Hill

Silent Hill, even with the visual limitations of the PlayStation, is also a bizarre fantasy of designer and artist Masahiro Ito. He created a whole gallery of creatures that could decorate any museum of contemporary art… Here you will find nurses whose appearance makes you seriously reconsider your plans for a medical examination, and terrifying dog-like creatures, after meeting them you will notice the germs of evil even in the sweetest Mini-New Yorker. But the real star of this horror parade is Pyramidhead, a monster that looks like someone decided to cross a bloody butcher with a road sign. However, we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves: Pyramidhead is the star of Silent Hill 2 and its subsequent installments. But he is so bright that it would be wrong not to mention him here.

Історія Silent Hill
Concept art of the Pyramid Head

If Yamaoka made the players afraid of sounds, and Ito – of pictures, the screenwriter Hiroyuki Owaku tried to make the story itself frightening.

Owaku approached the creation of Silent Hill’s plot as a multi-layered puzzle. He took elements from various sources: from classic horror literature to modern psychological theories. For example, the idea of the “Other World” in Silent Hill was inspired by Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious. And the images of monsters often reflected the repressed desires and fears of the characters, which directly echoes Freud’s theories. We’ll talk about the game’s plot a bit later, but we’d like to point out that it’s not the key one here and doesn’t play as important a role as, say, in the second part of the franchise.

When it came time to present the game at E3 in 1998, Team Silent was not very confident. And it’s not surprising, just look at the games that were presented back then: Diablo 2, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Duke Nukem Forever (which, however, was delayed for about 13 years), Tomb Raider 3, Baldur’s Gate, Half-Life, and Metal Gear Solid.

That year, Baldur’s Gate won the Best RPG Game category, Homeworld was recognized as the Most Promising New Game, and Best Real-Time Strategy Game. And the best games were Half-Life (Sierra/Valve) on PC, and Metal Gear Solid by our Silent Team colleagues from Konami on consoles. Which game was the best horror game then? It wasn’t. There was no such nomination at E3 1998 at all. By the way, Diablo II didn’t win any awards at E3, but it received a lot of interest from players.

Unlike Silent Hill, which was noticed, but not in the way its creators would have liked. The brainchild of Team Silent, born out of fog, darkness, and crazy sounds, did not go completely unnoticed. It especially impressed Konami’s management. The big bosses were surprised how a small team managed to achieve such results almost for free. So they allocated additional funding, and a year later, the beginning of a beautifully horrible story was published.

 

Silent Hill

Year 1999
Platforms PlayStation

We have already talked a bit about the technical features of the first part of the game, namely the fog, which was originally a technical limitation and later became the series’ hallmark. It made it possible to recreate a three-dimensional world instead of pre-rendered backgrounds on the weak hardware of the Sony PlayStation.

And now about the atmosphere. Although Resident Evil was also made by a Japanese company, it would be appropriate to compare it to an American horror movie where monsters jump out from around every corner. At the same time, Silent Hill is exactly like a Japanese psychological thriller, where you don’t understand whether what you see is real or just your imagination playing tricks on you.

The main character is Harry Mason, a writer who has decided to spend a vacation with his adopted daughter Cheryl in the quiet resort town of Silent Hill. How could anything go wrong? Of course, we’re in a horror universe. Before he knows it, his car is off the road. When Harry regains consciousness in the wrecked car, the girl is not there. And now he is wandering the streets of the city, shrouded in an unnatural fog, where every step can be the last. But that’s not all! It turns out that the city has its own plans for Harry. It periodically changes, turning into a rusty, bloody nightmare. And then it becomes clear that there are not only monsters to be afraid of here.

Then people appear. Sybil Bennett, a policewoman, seems to be the only sane person in this crazy town. Dalia Gillespie, connected to a local cult, speaks in riddles and seems to know more than she’s telling. And of course, Lisa Garland, a nurse who may be the only ray of light in this dark world. Or maybe not.

And just when the player thinks they have everything figured out, the game turns everything upside down. It turns out that Cheryl is not just Harry’s daughter, but a part of the soul of a girl named Alyssa, whom her own mother (the same Dalia) tried to sacrifice to give birth to a demonic deity. There is a whole cult here, and Harry finds himself in the very center of their crazy plan.

Silent Hill has four possible endings that depend on the player’s actions during the game. Each of them leaves more questions than answers. And that’s not to mention the fifth, humorous “UFO” ending, which has become a traditional big coda of the series. However, it could be opened only after completing the game again.

In fact, the plot is convoluted and full of ambiguities. However, it was enough to maintain the mysterious atmosphere of the game and allow it to become successful enough to receive a sequel, which is destined to become the greatest game in the franchise.

 

Silent Hill 2

Year 2001
Platforms PlayStation 2, Xbox, Windows

Silent Hill 2, released in 2001, was not just a sequel, but a complete rethinking of the concept of psychological horror in video games. The game, considered by many to be the best in the series, tells the story of James Sunderland, who receives a letter from his late wife Mary. Yes, that’s right, his late wife, because Mary died three years ago. But she writes that she is waiting for James in their “special place” in Silent Hill. And our hero, like a true romantic (or a madman?), goes to the city of fog and nightmares.

And the city greets him with fog, empty streets, and… monsters. But these monsters are not just scary creatures. They are the embodiment of James’ subconscious fears and desires. Because Silent Hill is not just a city. It is a living organism that attracts people burdened with guilt. And believe me, James has plenty of that feeling.

The unique atmosphere of the game is created not only by visual effects, but also by the unsurpassed soundtrack, which enhances the feeling of anxiety and hopelessness. However, since a remake of this part is coming out very soon, I’ll try to avoid any obvious plot spoilers.

Історія Silent Hill
Still from the game Silent Hill 2

Silent Hill 2, a groundbreaking psychological horror game, explores themes such as guilt, grief, sexuality, and death with a frankness and depth rarely seen in video games. James’ story is not just about finding his missing wife. It is a study of the human psyche, a dive into the darkest corners of the soul.

Each character James meets is a reflection of some aspect of his personality or past. Maria, who looks so much like his late wife, embodies his desires and guilt. Angela and Eddie, the other lost souls in Silent Hill, show how far a person can go under the burden of their sins. Even the monsters, especially the iconic Pyramidhead, are powerful symbols of James’ subconscious fears and desires.

The process and style of passing have a huge impact on the development of events. And it’s not just a matter of choosing dialog options or key decisions, but a comprehensive system that tracks player behavior throughout the game. This makes each playthrough of Silent Hill 2 a unique and deeply personal experience.

Історія Silent Hill
Still from the game Silent Hill 2

For example, how often the player heals James affects the character’s perception of the value of his own life. If the player constantly keeps James’s health at a high level, it is interpreted as a desire to live, which leads to more positive endings. If he examines the knife for too long, it can affect the character’s tendency to suicidal thoughts.

His interaction with other travelers who have come to Silent Hill with their own sins is also important, and, in fact, the city is not the same for them as for James, they have their own monsters. And if a pure soul enters the city, there will be no monsters in Silent Hill for them.

The game has several endings, each of which depends on the player’s actions during the game. This innovative system for its time is not just a game design trick – it is a way to show that our actions have consequences, and that each of us can interpret the same events differently(it seems that it was from Silent Hill 2 that the developers of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Metro borrowed the system of tracking the player’s actions and the different endings that depend on them – ed.) Such mechanics make each playthrough of Silent Hill 2 a unique and deeply personal experience, which was revolutionary for the gaming industry of the early 2000s.

Історія Silent Hill
Still from the game Silent Hill 2

Developing the game was a real challenge for Team Silent. After the success of the first installment, the team faced high expectations from both fans and Konami management. Technically, the game also made a significant step forward. Sony released the PlayStation 2, which was a revolution and one of the most successful gaming consoles ever. But it had a completely new architecture, so developers had to write everything from scratch.

This challenge, however, gave Team Silent the opportunity to create a more powerful engine that allowed for more detailed character and environment models. Particular attention was paid to facial animation, which was revolutionary for video games at the time. For example, the game used sophisticated algorithms to realistically recreate characters’ facial expressions during dialogues, which greatly enhanced the emotional impact of scenes.

As for the music, composer Akira Yamaoka outdid himself here and created one of the best game soundtracks of all time. His combination of ambient, industrial, and melancholic melodies has become an integral part of Silent Hill 2’s atmosphere, emphasizing every emotional moment of the game.

Silent Hill 2 has become not just a successful game, but a cultural phenomenon. It raised the bar for the entire horror game genre and showed that video games can be a serious, mature medium for exploring complex topics.

 

Silent Hill 3

Year 2003
Platforms PlayStation 2, Windows

Silent Hill 3 was a direct sequel to the first part of the series, returning players to the story of Alyssa Gillespie and the cult that worshiped a dark deity. Unlike Silent Hill 2, which told a separate story, the third game continued the main storyline of the series.

The game’s protagonist is 17-year-old Heather (although it’s not that simple, but let’s just say that), who unexpectedly finds herself involved in mystical events related to the city of Silent Hill. The game begins not in the foggy town itself, but in an ordinary shopping center, gradually immersing the player in more and more eerie and surreal locations.

Silent Hill: its creators, inhabitants and games
Still from the game Silent Hill 3

Kazuhide Nakazawa, the game’s director, emphasized that unlike the previous installments, in Silent Hill 3 the main character is not looking for someone, but is simply trying to survive and get out of the dangerous world she found herself in.

From a technical point of view, Silent Hill 3 used an improved version of the engine of the previous games in the series. The developers paid special attention to lighting and textures, which helped to create an even more eerie atmosphere. The game also featured high-quality animation of character facial expressions, which was quite unusual for games of that time.

Silent Hill 3 has retained the series’ signature style – all those mysterious foggy streets, dark corners, few inhabitants, and double-bottomed monsters. Akira Yamaoka has once again created a unique soundtrack, this time adding vocals to his compositions. That is, the depressingly melancholic and mysterious atmosphere has not disappeared, but there are more dynamic scenes and action.

Silent Hill: its creators, inhabitants and games
Still from the game Silent Hill 3

Silent Hill 3 was released in 2003 on PlayStation 2 and later ported to PC. In 2012, the game was included in the Silent Hill HD Collection for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, although this version was criticized for technical problems and changes in the voice acting (they were really terrible, these changes).

Silent Hill 3 is the conclusion of the trilogy of the most successful games in the series. Critics praised the game quite highly. Thus, on the review aggregator Metacritic, the PlayStation 2 version has an average score of 85 out of 100. Now, of course, few people will deny the cult status of the second part, but in fact, when Silent Hill 3 was just released, there were many fans who liked it the most.

 

Silent Hill 4: The Room

Year 2004
Platforms PlayStation 2, Xbox, Windows

The fourth installment of the series, Silent Hill 4: The Room, was the last one for the “team of silence”. This time, the developers decided to make people afraid of their own homes, which is a great and innovative idea for the series. When your home turns into a threat, you feel especially vulnerable.

So, Henry Townsend, our unfortunate protagonist, wakes up one not-so-great morning and realizes that his apartment door is chained shut. And no, it’s not a neighborhood prank – it’s something much worse. The only way out is a creepy hole in the bathroom wall.

Unlike the previous installments, The Room changes the perspective of the game. When Henry is in his apartment, the game switches to a first-person view, increasing the feeling of claustrophobia and isolation. Outside the apartment, the game returns to the familiar third-person view. This change not only refreshed the gameplay, but also added a new dimension of horror, making players feel trapped even in a seemingly safe space.

Silent Hill: its creators, inhabitants and games
Still from the game Silent Hill 4: The Room

Instead of the usual fog and rusty grates, Team Silent gave us the horrors of everyday life: from bloody footprints on the floor to a TV with a will of its own. We all know that television can create monsters, but here it takes on a literal meaning.

By the way, the game doesn’t start in Silent Hill, but in Ashfield, which is located nearby. Henry tries to get out of the apartment and maneuvers between reality and the dream world. The tunnels that appear in Henry’s apartment lead him to other worlds, where he escapes from monsters and tries to figure out what is happening.

Silent Hill 4 stands out for its limited inventory, first-person view in an apartment, and the need to fight poltergeists in your own home. Also, unique enemies appeared – ghosts that could penetrate walls and chase the player. The game has four endings that complement the story and explore the ideas of inner demons and the horrors of everyday life. Unfortunately, the aliens didn’t come this time.

Critics, as well as players, were somewhat puzzled by the change in concept and atmosphere. Metacritic gave the game a score of 76 out of 100, as if to say, “It’s still Silent Hill, but it’s a little different.” Some praised the game for its originality, while others complained about the excess of action. After all, who plays Silent Hill for the sake of fighting monsters?

Fans of the series were divided in their opinions: some appreciated the attempt to update the formula, while others felt that the game lost some of what made Silent Hill special. The change in atmosphere from a foggy, abandoned city to a claustrophobic apartment was too jarring for many fans.

However, Konami disbanded Team Silent after not very good reviews, and since then the series has taken a completely different direction. This decision became a turning point for the franchise, ending the “golden era” of Silent Hill and opening the door to new interpretations of the classic horror.

 

What is Silent Hill?

At this point, I propose to make a short pause. Before we move on to the four least successful Silent Hill installments, I’d like to talk a little bit about the protagonist of absolutely all of these games, in fact, about the town itself, which comes to sinners in their dreams.

Silent Hill: its creators, inhabitants and games
Map of the city of Silent Hill

The town of Silent Hill is believed to be located somewhere in Maine, and its history dates back to the distant past. Initially, it was a sacred land of Native Americans who considered it a place of power. Later, European colonists settled here. The city has survived epidemics, wars, and was a prison and a mining settlement. Its reputation was not the best, and in the 20th century, local authorities decided to whitewash Silent Hill’s image by turning it into a popular resort. But behind the facade of the idyllic town, something dark and sinister has always been hidden. All this time, there was a secret cult in the city that worshiped ancient powers. It continued its dark activities even in the most peaceful times for Silent Hill, influencing the life of the city from behind the scenes.

Some players simply enjoyed the atmosphere of the game series without thinking about its deeper meaning. However, there were also those who were interested in the ideas and messages laid down by the creators. After all, when creating such a world, the authors invest not only their own experience, but also the cultural heritage of generations, forming a world that reflects their views, experiences and influences of different eras. Silent Hill has become a unique fusion of different cultural and philosophical concepts. In it, you can see echoes of Japanese mythology about the yokai spirits that inhabit objects and places. At the same time, the city fits into the tradition of American literature about small towns with dark secrets, such as Stephen King’s Castle Rock or David Lynch’s Twin Peaks.

Silent Hill: its creators, inhabitants and games
Welcome to Silent Hill

From a philosophical point of view, Silent Hill is often interpreted as a kind of purgatory or a place of redemption. Here, people face their sins, fears, and traumas, which materialize in the form of monsters and terrifying visions. This is reminiscent of the concept of the “Zone” from the Strugatsky brothers’ Picnic on the Side of the Road, a place where reality changes according to the inner world of visitors and fulfills secret desires that the requestor may not even realize.

The city can also be viewed through the prism of Jungian psychoanalysis as a space where the collective unconscious manifests itself in the material world. Silent Hill forces its “guests” to face repressed emotions, repressed memories, and archetypal images of their psyche.

An important aspect of Silent Hill is its ability to blur the lines between reality and the supernatural, life and death. This makes it similar to Stanislav Lem’s Solaris, a living planet that interacts with human consciousness. In Silent Hill, as in Solaris, a person’s inner world becomes outer, and the past literally comes to life.

 

Silent Hill: Origins

Year 2007
Platforms PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2

After the success of the first three installments, Konami decided to go back to basics and create a prequel, Silent Hill Origins. The development was entrusted to the British studio Climax, which initially planned to remake the first part for the PSP, but eventually made a full-fledged prequel. The protagonist, trucker Travis Grady, enters the city seven years before the events of the first game, uncovering the secrets of the past.

Історія Silent Hill
Still from Silent Hill: Origins

The game tries to recreate the atmosphere of the original and adds a new mechanism for switching between realities through mirrors. While fans appreciated the commitment to style, many criticized the game for being too similar to previous installments and lacking new ideas.

Silent Hill: Origins received mixed reviews: 78 points on Metacritic for the PSP version and 70 for the PS2. Despite the atmosphere and Akira Yamaoka’s music, many reviewers were disappointed with the lack of innovation. Silent Hill: Origins was the first game to show that outsourcing development to Western studios might not be the best idea for the series. But Konami didn’t seem to pay attention to this. Well, at least this game wasn’t a complete failure. Just another step towards the decline of a once great franchise.

 

Silent Hill: Homecoming

Year 2008
Platforms PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows

In 2007, Konami commissioned The Collective to develop Silent Hill: Homecoming is an American foggy town through the eyes of Americans. The main character Alex Shepherd returns to his native Shepherd’s Glen (the name of the town is not a coincidence, it should be) and discovers that his father and brother have disappeared. And here begins the classic American horror quest: searching for relatives, finding monsters, revealing family secrets. It’s just like the good old Silent Hill, only with a strong popcorn flavor.

And everything seems interesting, but it’s not. The new developers decided that the series lacked action. So Alex turned into a martial arts master, which sets him apart from the previous characters in the series.

Silent Hill: its creators, inhabitants and games
Still from the game Silent Hill: Homecoming

Akira Yamaoka once again created a great soundtrack, but even that didn’t help Homecoming. The game was oversaturated with references to the previous installments and the 2008 movie (they managed to make a movie of average quality) so densely that there was almost no room for your own ideas.

Critics greeted the game with restrained enthusiasm. Homecoming was the first part of the series that was not released in Japan at all. Apparently, Konami decided that it was better not to traumatize the psyche of the creators of the original games. Or it was simply afraid that Japanese fans would come to the company’s office with pitchforks and torches.

In the end, Silent Hill: Homecoming is like an American remake of a Japanese horror movie. Everything seems to be in place, but sometimes it’s not scary, it’s funny and something is missing.

 

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

Year 2009
Platforms Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is another experiment in the universe of the foggy town developed by Climax Studios. The studio, inspired by its relative success with Origins, decided to go all-in and rethink the first part of the series.

Initially, the developers worked on the Cold Heart concept, where the main character was supposed to be a student lost in the snow in Silent Hill. But then they decided: “Why not take good old Harry Mason and make him run around the city with a Wii Remote instead of a gun?” And that’s how Shattered Memories was born.

Історія Silent Hill
Still from the game Silent Hill: Shattered Memorie

The game has turned into a strange mix of psychological thriller and quest. You either wander around the city, solving puzzles with your phone and flashlight, or find yourself in a psychiatrist’s office, where your answers form Harry’s psychological portrait. And all this affects what happens in the game.

But what surprised the fans the most was that the game… has no combat system. No combat system at all. Instead of fighting monsters, Harry has to run away from them. A strange decision, but casual players appreciated this approach, and Shattered Memories became the most popular game in the series developed without Team Silent’s involvement.

Shattered Memories was originally released for the Wii and later ported to the PSP and PS2 to make the game available to a wider audience.

 

Silent Hill: Downpour

Year 2012
Platforms PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Silent Hill: Downpour is an attempt by the Czech studio Vatra Games, known for its work on Mafia, to breathe new life into the series. The protagonist is a prisoner Murphy Pendleton, who ends up in Silent Hill after a prison bus crash. And here begins the classic “hello, you’re in hell”.

The developers decided that the series lacked an open world and side quests. That’s why Silent Hill suddenly grew in size, and you could find as many as 13 additional tasks. From searching for lost birds to investigating murders – these are the JRPG elements in Silent Hill…

Silent Hill: its creators, inhabitants and games
Still from the game Silent Hill: Downpour

But the main feature of the game was the rain, and the more abundant it was, the more monsters were generated around the main character. It would seem that Vatra Games did everything right. On the one hand, they went back to the roots, and on the other hand, they added new elements. But for some reason, it didn’t work. Perhaps it was because the monsters weren’t very well rendered, or because of a clunky combat system that forced players to fight the gamepad instead of the monsters.

Critics, as well as players, greeted the game with a lukewarm reception. Downpour received an average score of 68 out of 100 on Metacritic. Players complained about bugs, poor performance, and a lack of deep fear.

Downpour was the last “big” game in the series. After it, Vatra Games declared bankruptcy, and Silent Hill went into the shadows for 12 years, appearing only on a portal. But please, let’s not talk about it.

 

Rise, fall… and rise again?

It seems that neither the film nor the gaming industry knows a series that has always remained smooth and completely successful. Silent Hill resembles a human life: first, rise, then stagnation, and then decline, and so on until the very end. But perhaps the remake of the best game in the series will be a new beginning that will attract young talent to the development. We hope that the remake itself will be as good as the original.