Silent Hill is a true MASTERPIECE as is the whole series thus far.
It simply is NOT FAIR to compare Resident Evil to the excellence and brilliance that is SILENT HILL not fair to RE that is.
You see the two are a completely different breed of game.
RE is a one of my favorite game series but its all about action, super-human mercanaries and the like, dont get me wrong thats all fine and I have enjoyed the Resident Evil series since the original was relased on PSX back in '96.
The Silent Hill series at its core is about HUMANITY our needs,vices and most of all our SINS. They bring you into the world Silent Hill wich is basically a purgatory of types with all types of interesting and fairly well fleshed out characters that are just as mortal and human as any of us.
This not only makes the Silent Hill games more believable but much more interesting and enveloping to the player/ gamer that experiences all that wich affects the characters of the games in a much more visceral way than any other videogames (or even many movies or novels for that matter) have ever come close to competently portraying.
That being said this particular review is about the original Silent Hill wich In my opinion is the most horrific of all the SHs with a storyline that matches if not succeeds in beating the one told in Silent Hill 2.
In fact if you include SH3 as part of the original Silent Hill (wich part 3 is the direct sequel to the original) then it is faar exceeds the excellence of parts 2 and 4.
Silent Hill 1 starts out at a slightly slow pace but the player will immediately recognize that this is not your run-of-the-mill survival horror game in that it very successfully creates a mood that is definitley one of a kind with its thick atmoshpere and incrediblely haunting music.
The graphics of the original PSone version of Silent Hill are dated yes, but are still perfectly adequate for the material at hand; meaning as TEAM SILENT HILL at Konami has stated the original PSXs limited graphics capabilities actually helped to create the type of environment that the SH games are so well known for. YES that means lots of fog and limited view of sight BUT that is also prevalent in SH2 and 3 for a reason ,it helps to convey a sense of being lost and alone with only yourself to depend on.
The storyline of the original SH is by far its biggest attraction. Harry Mason loses his daughter Cheryl at the beggining and searches for her through the remainder of the game. All the while you begin to discover and uncover all the horrendous details about the town that is Silent Hill.
The music in Silent Hill 1 (as with the rest of the series) is one of its greatest attributes and is a driving force in the game it is quite possibly one of the best uses of not only music but sound FX in any game or movie series ever created.
All in all I Highly recommend this game to any gamer or even non-gamer to anyone that is a fan of the horror genre of movies , games or novels.
Silent Hill one is a true masterpiece and a true work of art wich is a rare thing as far as videogames go and includes such works as ICO (PS2) and Shenmue (Dreamcast and part2 on Xbox) and even newer (and thankfully more successful) game like Shadow of the Collossus.
I hope that someday video games like Silent Hill and the others mentioned above will be recognized as works of art and not just some kids hobby for immature or attention challenged adults LOL
There are many ppl that are actually fans of the Silent Hill series of games that are NOT fans of the Resident Evil games. So you never know.
Overall this is one of the harder games of the series including part 3 So begginers might want to try out the casual-favored part2 or even moreso Silent Hill 4:the room since it was lightened up,toned down and made quite a bit easier purposefully by team silent hill at KONAMI to try to reach past the already hardcore Silent Hill fan-base to reach other more casual gamers.