The Konami saga has lain dormant for years, but remains one of the most reputed in the survival horror genre.
Silent Hill crouches in the mist. The mist has hidden the Konami saga for far too long. After the Team Silent watered down, the Japanese opted to outsource intellectual property to Western studios, something that came to fruition with at least notable titles. From there, the last two video games did not meet expectations, so the company returned the brand to its Japanese studios, specifically, to Kojima Productions.
The outcome of the story between Hideo Kojima and Konami is well known. After the launch of the demo P.T., the joint project between the Japanese creative, the filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and the actor Normal Reedus went to waste. Silent Hills promised to be the expected return, but was left in vain hope. The town was once again trapped and at the mercy of the fog and ash, mute.
More than 5 years after its cancellation, nostalgia still reverberates in the followers’ heads. But once the rumors about a possible return of Kojima to the franchise have been denied, eyes turn to SIE Japan Studio and its director, Keiichiro Toyama, responsible for the original Silent Hill. In any case, the only official thing is that the series is going to make a cameo in Dead By Daylight. At the same time, Christophe Gans, who directed the film adaptation, has announced that he is working on a third sequel, although at the moment there is no more additional information about it.
The Silent Hill saga was born in the late 1990s and lived its golden period during the reign of PlayStation 2. Akira Yamaoka, who gave color to the sound and the soundtrack of the franchise, became one of the key figures. He was present in almost all of the projects, even when Team Silent evaporated forever, after the release of Silent Hill 4: The Room. In the following lines, we will review the past of the saga through a Top 9 of the best Silent Hill games.
9. Silent Hill: Book of Memories (PS Vita)
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If PSP received Silent Hill: Origins as an exclusive – until its commercialization on PlayStation 2 – the next (and last) Sony laptop was not without its share of terror. Unlike the aforementioned game, Book of Memories was not a conventional game within the saga. The North American Wayforward Technologies were in charge of transferring the iconography of the saga to PS Vita, but not in the way everyone imagined. Instead of designing a survival horror that would follow the schemes of the past or that would respect them by following another path, the studio created a kind of Action RPG, very focused on the dungeon crawler genre. To no one’s surprise, the reception of the public was not overly enthusiastic, quite the opposite.
The protagonist of this story celebrates his birthday in a non-festive context. However, at nightfall, a strange postman delivers him a mysterious package. It is a dusty and voluminous book, whose pages hide a story, its history. Everything that he has lived is printed in the volume, but the strangest thing is that when writing, the memories are altered and come true. The character enters a world of nightmares and dungeons where he must fight to get out of the situation.
8. Silent Hill Homecoming (PS3, Xbox 360 and PC)
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At first it was known as Silent Hill V, although it was eventually renamed and marketed in stores under the title Silent Hill Homecoming. Without Team Silent to develop it, Konami hired the North American Double Helix Games, who tried to bring the development to fruition. As a link to the past, the musician Akira Yamaoka remained involved and wrote the soundtrack for this first video game in the series for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 generation. The result was a title that followed the classic formula, although it did not finish crystallizing altogether. Both mechanically and technically, the game was far from excellence.
The Silent Hill Homecoming story puts the player in the shoes of Alex Shepherd, who returns to his hometown because his brother has disappeared without a trace. Following the tracks. Leave Shepherd’s Glen until you get to see a welcome sign. Welcome to Silent Hill. Behind those words are hidden the darkest secrets, a fine line that separates sanity from madness and a nightmarish world where nothing is what it seems. What has happened to your brother? What’s wrong with him? Is everything you think you know true? Or maybe it is just a simple illusion?
7. Silent Hill Downpour (Xbox 360 and PS3)
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Far from the glory days, but still with interesting elements to offer. This was Silent Hill: Downpour, another of the video games that were outsourced to the West by Konami. The studio at the helm of the project was not Double Helix Games, which soon after worked on Killer Instinct (Xbox One), although that did not prevent it from closing its doors only a year later, in 2014. Vatra Games, a studio from the Czech Republic, took over the project. But as in the case of Double Helix, working on a Silent Hill did not bring them much luck, since shortly after its launch, Kuju Entertainment broke the collaboration agreement that they maintained and Vatra was forced to declare bankruptcy. His video game had plot strength, puzzles and exploration, but obvious graphic problems. Akira Yamaoka got off the boat and was replaced by Dan Licht.
The protagonist of Silent Hill Downpour is a different profile from other games in the series. Murphy Pendleton is a criminal jailed for theft from a police patrol. For that crime, he rots in jails for several years. The unfolding of events will lead him to act in a certain way, culminating in a brutal beating that Murphy gives to another inmate. After that, the protagonist is taken to a very high-security prison, but when he was being transferred along with other criminals, the bus suffers an accident and Murphy wakes up alone and disoriented. In his flight, he will soon find himself in trouble, especially since a nightmarish world awaits him.
6. Silent Hill Shattered Memories (PSP, PS2 and Wii)
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You can go back to the past in different ways. Some studios go for remastering; others, recompose the elements with audiovisual and playable improvements; at other times, a reimagination of an old product is chosen. That was the case with Silent Hill Shattered Memories, a project that fell into the hands of Climax, who had already worked on the franchise with good results. After publishing Silent Hill Origins, the team based the first installment of the saga and redefined the project with a new structure. Again, Akira Yamaoka serves as a bridge between the past and the present. Unfortunately, he was the last Silent Hill to lend his talent to (in Book of Memories, later title, he has a much smaller presence).
As in the classic Silent Hill, Harry Mason travels in his vehicle to the cursed town. Beside her sits Cheryl, her daughter, who has suffered terrible nightmares for a long time. At a certain moment, the protagonist loses control of the car and becomes unconscious. When he wakes up, his daughter has disappeared, so concern takes over him. Up to that point, the plot premise is practically a carbon copy of the original. However, the story branches out in different directions, something that brings freshness and a continuous sense of surprise. Each player’s experience may differ based on ingame decisions.
5. Silent Hill 4: The Room (PS2 PS3, Xbox 360)
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The beginning of the end, at least when it comes to the legendary Team Silent. After three main video games, Konami’s internal studio that had been dedicating itself to the saga since its inception, proposed a different formula. The game was played through two variants: when the action took place inside apartment 302, the player entered the skin of the protagonist, in the first person. That was a great novelty, because until that moment all Silent Hill worked in third person. However, they did not totally abandon the classical approach, since Henry was able to get into the holes in the bathroom and access places in the vicinity of Silent Hill. In these phases, the camera returned to its usual position. Those changes did not come to fruition, which is why it is considered by many to be Team Silent’s worst Silent Hill.
It all starts in apartment 302, Henry Townshend’s house. Its location is not in Silent Hill, but in a small town next door, South Ashfield. Nothing foreshadows what will happen next, but at one point, nightmares creep into his brain and won’t let him escape. Its floor is stained crimson red and offers ghostly visions. The situation becomes unsustainable soon after. Harry discovers that the door to his house has been locked with chains. The phone has been cut and the radio and television are not responding. In this situation, one fears the worst, especially considering that Silent Hill is the next town.
4. Silent Hill Origins (PSP and PS2)
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After the dissolution of Team Silent, Konami hired Climax Group with the aim of preparing an unpublished installment of Silent Hill. By that time, Sony had launched into the portable market and achieved what it later would not be able to repeat with PS Vita, the commercial success of the machine. PSP received Silent Hill Origins as an exclusive, although like other titles originally marketed only on laptop, it later received a conversion for PlayStation 2. If you play it on PSP, you better grab some good helmets to immerse yourself in the visceral terror of this origins history. And yes, with the Akira Yamaoka soundtrack.
Silent Hill Origins may not have been developed by the original team, but Climax was able to reproduce the formula and transfer it to portable terrain with great success, to the point that it is one of the best video games in the series without a doubt. The story introduces a completely new character. Travis Grady is a trucker with a winding past. Nightmares are common during your restless sleep, but you can’t imagine that they will come true. One day, he drives his truck around Silent Hill and runs into a burning house. After saving a girl, the truth about her past will be revealed. Argumentally, this Climax work ties up some loose ends from the main story.
3. Silent Hill 3 (PS2, PS3, Xbox 360)
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Following the success of Silent Hill 2, the development of a third installment was a matter of time. Silent Hill 3 went on sale on PlayStation just two years after the release of the previous chapter. Building on all of the above, Team Silent built a solid video game in almost every way, though perhaps it just didn’t feel as fresh and fresh anymore. Akira Yamaoka’s fabulous work was combined with an impressive graphic section for the time. A certain character dressed in a raincoat became a meme and an example of graphic power.
Many children are afraid of clowns. The circus, the fairground environment, the amusement parks … all this entertainment can be seen from different points of view, so they have many faces. Therefore, they are locations that do not escape horror fiction. Silent Hill 3 kicks off at an abandoned amusement park. The protagonist, Heather Mason (the last name is not a coincidence, is the adoptive daughter of Harry), advances through that dark place. What in a normal situation would be cause for joy, becomes a terrifying experience. The place is worn out; the attractions, husked. And on a bench, a pink rabbit rests slightly lying down. There is silence, but it is a silence without calm, since something is stirred in the shadows. It’s Heather’s nightmare, bringing her back again and again to a place … to Silent Hill.
2. Silent Hill (PlayStation)
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At the end of the nineties a type of series B horror was carried in video games. Resident Evil, Dino Crisis and other similar products focused on the action and presented somewhat absurd stories. In the case of Capcom games, that component was reflected even in the actors’ performances, not overly brilliant (to put it in good manners). Silent Hill, with Keiichiro Toyama at the helm, explored a different direction, a type of survival horror that twisted into psychological terror. The script was not only written with great taste, but also knew how to provide the players with material to ramble and plot their own theories. In the construction of fear, the artistic had unquestionable importance, but Akira Yamaoka’s sound design gave it a truly terrifying touch.
Silent Hill has aged. More than twenty years have passed since its launch on the first PlayStation, so the 3D of its graphics can be difficult to see before the eyes accustomed to current technology. Still, its puzzles, the atmosphere and everything that surrounds the video game continues fully in force. As in Shattered Memories, this work places us in the shoes of Harry, who goes to Silent Hill accompanied by his daughter. After the accident, disoriented and worried, he must go into the fog and discover what the truth hides.
1. Silent Hill 2 (PS2, PS3, Xbox 360)
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New generation, new video game of the saga. Silent Hill 2 is a brilliant product, a true masterpiece in the survival horror genre and one of the best titles released on PlayStation 2. The first qualitative leap that was visible was the visual one, since the game used some Much more realistic graphics that harnessed the power of the new console (of course the third installment would follow, which once again marked a ceiling, as previously discussed). The puzzles, the history, the music … everything flowed in harmony and in harmony. And the sound, oh, the sound! Pyramidal head somewhere in the apartment cluster. The protagonist advances through the rooms and in the distance, but closer and closer, the screech of a huge sword rips the ground.
James Sunderland is a man in love, but the loss of his wife has plunged him into the deepest sadness. Mary is dead and buried, although in the world of delusions in Silent Hill, even the dead speak. James receives a letter from his late wife and goes to the cursed town without knowing what he is going to find. The truth? The blame? A fate like his wife’s? Everyone who enters Silent Hill comes out changed, if they can manage to escape their unfathomable horrors.
Bonus track, P.T.
That Hideo Kojima knows how to push the marketing of his products to the limit is an indisputable fact. The Japanese creative surprised both his own and strangers by launching a conceptual demo of his project, P.T. At the end of the demo, the video that confirmed the title he was working on appeared with Guillermo del Toro and Normal Reedus, Silent Hills. Unfortunately, the good ideas from that proof of concept never translated into a more tangible product. At the end of 2015, Kojima Productions was finishing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, but behind the scenes the departure of Kojima, who had been vice president at Konami and a voice of maximum authority, was brewing. Silent Hills was canceled and Kojima Productions was rearmed with an independent studio. The roads don’t seem to cross again, although you never know what may happen in the future.
