The term 'survival horror' means a lot more. It's not just the survival of the main character but to those around you.
Graphics: 8 (washed out looking however effective enough to bring in that gloomy mood / brilliant cut scenes)
Sounds: 10 (excellent voice acting as it reminds me of any David Lynch movies / soundtrack absolutely divine and sets the tone)
Value: 7 (can be finished within ten hours / even though there are five endings with extra bonuses to complete the game, you wish it can be done first time round)
Tilt: 9 (there were two unsettling cut scenes that will etched in my mind for years to come)
Actual score: 8.3
Seven years prior to the events of the game Harry and Dahlia Mason found an abandoned child on their way to their ideal holiday location Silent Hill. Quickly adopted as their child and named her Cheryl, every year they continued the tradition of visiting this sleepy town. Sadly though on the third year, Dahlia passed away due to an illness and since then Harry hasn't really recovered from this tragic death. On the seventh year (or present day), on their way to their favourite summer vacation, Harry and his daughter was involved in a car accident almost killing an unknown female straggler. Soon after Harry woke up from unconsciousness only to discover that Silent Hill is snowing and if that wasn't strange enough his daughter gone missing…
Silent Hill can be classified as a survival horror, similar in the vein of Resident Evil or the Alone in the Dark series where combat isn't the only answer. This certainly reins true as Silent Hill has four different endings and to obtain the best ending requires intuitive thinking. Well actually there are five endings however the last one is more of an easter egg that only can be obtained once completing the game.
So right from the get-go the game 'defaults' to the worst ending and depending upon your actions in the game can gradually increase into the best ending. And to make matters worse the most 'common' ending is the worst ending. Indeed a very depressing game. So a bit of a hint to obtain the best ending is to explore a lot – that is poke your nose in areas that may seem nothing as this 'nothing' can be something…
Yet what makes Silent Hill unique is that the locations are very real - something that we all can relate to. So around Silent Hill you will see houses with picket fences, buildings like a coffee shop, take away joint, a police station, a town hall, supermarkets and the list goes on. Of course Silent Hill is not your ordinary town as it's deserted and let's don't forget snow don't normally fall during the summer. Also there will be time where the locales alter from 'normal' to 'nightmare' only to add perplexity. And trust me the 'nightmare' areas are stuff from nightmares like blood splattered walls, strange writings, clocks frozen in time and so forth.
Upon the first glance the graphics does looks somewhat 'behind the times' however once you get connected to the world (or actually the town) it suits well for the disposition. All washed out and somewhat dull looking, this effectively brings character to Silent Hill. If it was vibrant or extremely detailed (for example using the unreal / quake 3 engine) I feel the game would become less interesting meaning less immersion and horror. Yet what shines like a beacon are the cut scenes. Extremely well detailed with great animation I cannot be helped but awed. Yet and be warned that some are quite graphical and to be honest, there is one scene I really couldn't bare it so I restarted the game again hoping to avoid that situation (and thankfully I did with the assistance of a walkthrough…yes I'm a wimp). Note this was roughly two-thirds into the game.
Likewise are the sounds as considering there is no musical scores (except from the opening / closing scenes) the entire set consists of sounds arriving straight from someone's nightmare. So at times you'll hear banging of metal on metal, moans, rusty doors opening / closing, sudden crashes and so forth. So you can say that the entire composition derives from post industrial music. As a matter of interest when Composer Akira Yamaoka presented his music for the first time to the developers they mistook it as a sampling bug! Also the voice acting is great to listen to as the dialogues remind me of watching a David Lynch's movie like Lost Highway as most the sentences seem to 'pause' after completion only to add suspension.
Yet the sounds also play a very important part of the gameplay. Just after the opening scene Harry will be in the procession of a hand radio that emits a buzzing sound indicating a monster is nearby and continues to do so until the monster is perished. Along with sounds, light also plays an important part as there are parts in the game where Harry needs to use the torchlight to see what's ahead of him. Also the monsters cannot see Harry well enough without light therefore the player needs to learn when to use it in the most appropriate time. Lastly because Harry is no superhero, he cannot consistently run as he'll tire out and will pant. And when he starts to tire under combat situations he'll miss quite often. Quite an impressive list of new features as many survival horror games don't utilise these feature at all.
Sadly though there are some downfalls. The most obvious one is the camera angle as it doesn't do a good job following Harry considering the game is played in 3rd person view. Many-a-time Harry position himself in the most awkward position that only guesswork is your saviour. This can be a royal pain as some items are hard to locate even though it could be literally staring in Harry's face all along. And because of this will send you in a wild goose chase trying to solve the puzzles. Also this reigns true when fighting mobs and especially the flying ones where you cannot see them period other than a claw on your face. Granted that Harry has an auto aim however (and due to the 'realism' as the game manual portrays) he does have a tendency to miss when using any firearm. My suggestion is that if you hear a flying beast run to the nearest door to save a headache (and precious bullets).
Whilst Resident Evil is the benchmark of the survival horror genre, I feel Silent Hill brought a new meaning to this term as one of Konami Studios main goals was to bring familiarity to the player. They certainly achieved this as the entire locales and people you'll meet will be etched in your mind for a long time to come. And as mentioned before, there was one scene I couldn't bare it so I restarted the game again only to see if the situation improves and thankfully it did. So if you start to care about the actions you took then the term 'survival horror' means a lot more. Not just the survival of the main character but to those around you.