Omg omg omg...
And let me just say : I was amazed by this game.
What is a great game?
A game that overcomes the technology and time itself. Games like Diablo II, Warcraft III and now Silent Hill, that will be perfect forever.
I mean, considering the old "cardboard" texture filtering, this game scared me the whole time. It made me look beyond graphics and really feel the chill down the spine every time a zombie dog howled or my radio started white noise( signature help in Silent Hill)
What saddens me is the narrow minded players disregarding the game due to its "old and crappy graphics". Indeed they are the ones that replay Crisys and similar high end games all the time.
True players knows facts. And it is a fact that graphics do not equal game. Sound, story, development, mechanics, genre, bugs, fluidity all join forces to make/break game. Graphics is the only mean to tie them all together. But even with such old graphics, the game is still highly immersive. The story of a father that came into town after car crash, searching for his daughter that escaped the car, provides chills and brain bogging puzzles.
You will soon find yourself blindly trying to find a shape in the heavy mist of Silent Hill, only to be greeted by a abandoned coffee shop. There you pick the main survival tool : A radio that noises when enemies are near. From then on a race to unravel the point and key in Silent Hill begins.
And this is the break point in game.
Silent HIll cant and shouldnt be compared to Resident Evil, that is the book case of survival horror.
In Re characters motivation is mainly the will to survive, and secondary objective being to stop the infection.
In Silent Hill goals of the 1st 4 main characters are simply to find out what is going on, how they are related to the things happening and to reveal what they forgot, while battling inner demons and fears.
Since every Silent Hill features various endings, some of them have a Lovecraftian note to it, making it score high on my board.
What is worse then running blind trought the streets, sliding next to walls to find your path?
A Nightmarish Hell mode. Every now and than a map switches into Nightmare mode, a blood soaked, emotionless rusted industrialist vista with no light. Invocation of the true Paradise a group of fanatics are trying to bring for good.
And let me mention in Hell, lamp light is just barely enough. The area where you can run off is limited, and it feels more closed than anything else. Avoiding fights under pressure also provides massive amounts of fear. The Only point i disliked in every game, is every boss fight except the final ones.
And in SIlent Hill's 1st rendition every boss is way too easy, at times it seems they don't want to kill you at all.
And i still dont get taking voice actors that cant act everything the best. Although I liked SH's actors more then RE that were just plain lolzy "BlooD!" a line from a Star operative as he gazed upon a blood puddle in the 1st Resident Evil made me laugh so long, completely killing the "scary atmosphere" for me.
Thankfully voice actors in SH deliver sometimes illogical responses the best they can. But its the fact that original voices are far better.
Final words:
Emulation is a crime.
But emulating a work of art is just cultural learning!