One of the finest moments of Konami.
While Alone In The Dark, and Resident Evil, defined the way survival horror games were created, Silent Hill proved to be an equally influential tile, and a video-game that combined the sheer game-play enjoyment with the high artistic quality.
So I will sum up the basics, as briefly as possible.
The game triumphs in five major in-game subcategories: Music, atmosphere, game-play mechanics, story, and replay value, while its graphics are of high level, but slightly inferior to other late 90's titles, and to what even the PS1's engine was capable of.
The music in Silent Hill seems to me as its strongest point. Akira Yamaoka created one of the most recognizable video-games introduction musics, and along with the other in-game themes, gave the player a mixed feeling of agony bound with melancholy. Exactly this sophisticated music clearly differentiated Silent Hill from any ordinary simple-minded game.
The atmosphere naturally greatly determined by the music, is also what this game is famous for. The mysterious abandoned city, plunged in the deep fog, and infested with mutated creatures contributed the most to the title's unique atmosphere. At all times, the player experiences a feeling of loneliness, and the tension caused by the persistent alteration between normal and abnormal, light and dark, quiet and noisy, peaceful and troubled . I will never forget, the first time I played the game, the feeling of relief that I genuinely felt after the first boss battle ended, as I saw for the first time the school, being quiet and peaceful and at the daylight, in contrast to the previous setting with the sirens, the screams, the crying, the monsters, the decaying environments and the darkness. It was the same feeling, as just having woken up from a nightmare. Yet you had the fear, that this could be a temporary only interval.
The graphics may now look terribly outdated- they weren't particularly exceptional even for the standards of the PS1- but what seems also important to me, is what the graphics portray, in other words what is the content of what we see, and not only how well illustrated it is. And in this field Silent Hill does it perfectly. The blood spilled bathroom, the rusty looks of the alternative world, or the scene where tears mixed with blood welled up in the eyes of poor Lisa's, all are images that no player can ever forget.
The game-play, if I must choose one word to describe it, this would be: generous. A detailed map, with the indication of the areas visited before, and the "hot spots" marked on, gives you the freedom to do your exploration in the game's world, without the danger of ever being lost. A fair amount of health items, weapons and ammunition that can be found in many places, combined with infinitive items capacity in your inventory, actually offer you good chances of survival, as long as you manage well your findings. The action, vivid, but never over-intense, and with no time limitation of any kind, never puts you in haste to do anything. Well, you'd better had to run in some cases, but this is totally up to you. This kind of game-play mechanism rewards the "step by step" way of approach in a game, and encourages you to develop a strategy in order to stay alive in this menacing environment.
The scenario is simple in its core, but has many twists as the story progresses; a father desperately searches for his daughter, who is lost in an evil ghost town. During his quest, the protagonist meets five other humans, that the stories of each one of them, would help him to reveal certain aspects, that explain the deadly menace that dominates the town, and most important, would help find his daughter. The game succeeds in portraying some very interesting human profiles, especially that of Lisa's, that keep the player's interest, undiminished until the very end. There are some dramatic moments in the game, where emotions seem to entirely prevail over the need of gaming.
As for the replay value of this title, for such a wonderful, and short, to speak the truth, game, one play-through isn't enough. Add to that, the five different endings, and the unlockable weapons, and the player can spend an unforgettable week into the Silent Hill's world. Regardless of that, I believe that, one more extra play at any time, is as satisfying as ever. Now that the game comes as downloadable content in PSN, many veterans will be tempted to play it again, just for the sake of the old times. At least I, did it.
One last word from me would be that, Silent Hill is enlisted among the masterpieces of the video-games art, and for that, I think it shouldn't be missed.