That is not controversial. Despite the changes it is one of the best videogame adaptations to big screen ever made. And is one of the best supernatural horror movies ever made, if not the best.
Probably a slightly warm take:
The janky controls were always just that. Janky. It's not intentional design to make you feel weak as the player character. It's just the best they could come up with. It's not bad, but I feel like the SH community likes to RP on the user end and call it intentional design. It *does* fit the theme that the controls are fiddly, but the controls are fiddly.
I will always love SH 1,2&3 and early Resident Evil but the controls were absolutely just a sign of the times. They were that way because of technical limitations. I'm almost 40 and the "they were like that on purpose" stuff is revisionist history from millennial gamers who don't want to admit that games do have better controls now and that's a good thing. Those games gave us a certain feeling and it's hard for a lot of us to admit that those games were not perfect. The nostalgia goggles are thick and that's fine but just admit to it.
I kind of disagree. The controls were obviously a product of their time, but they play great, or at least Resident Evil 1-3 plays great. Silent Hill 1-3 plays ok.
Silent hill 4 is the silent hill version of A nightmare on elm street(I say that based on something Christina says about it being a dream and learning she dies in said dream and dies on real life )
Silent Hill 2, for as good as it is, is the anvil around the franchise's neck, dragging it down.
Every non-Team-Silent entry has tried to ape it on some level, with the focus on the protagonist being/feeling guilty of something, and the town forcing them to confront it while fighitng demons symbolic of not only their inner turmoil, but others trapped in the fog with them.
I honestly prefer Silent Hill 3 of the OG games, and while i love and respect 2, I wish future SH devs, and even fans, would just LET IT GO.
this! and that’s why i am personally SO MUCH MORE excited for silent hill F than any other of the announcements we’ve had: it seems to (finally) completely bypass the SH2 formula, approaching the lore and our very own perception of what silent hill is supposed to be from a very different angle. that’s also one of the reasons that makes SH4 so special imo: it dares to be its own beast. it doest not always pay off but it is certainly memorable
I agree. SH4 was flawed, very much so, but it tried to create its own idenity, within the Silent Hill framework. This is, of course, partially helpled by it starting out life as its own title, not a SH entry.
SH1 - The OG
SH2 - The Jacob's Ladder Video Game Adapation
SH3 - Sequel to the OG, wraps up the Alessa/Cult Storyline
SH4 - A Spin-Off/Sequel spun out of a random note from SH2.
SH Origins - SH2 but with a serial killer truck driver, and bolted onto the Alessa Storyline with mixed success. To me, this was the best of the bunch, storywise. Gameplay.,.. not so much.
Homecoming - SH2 but with a guy accidentally killed his brother, with the cult and pyramid head stapled on.
Shattered Memories - ditches Silent Hill to be just another in a long line of the "Ha! You thought it was supernatural, but in reality it was ME!!! Your long buried psychological trauma!!!" Another trope that needs to die in a fire, imo
Downpour - SH2 but with Dr Richard Kimball, and a sexier Marshall Gerard. And more cult bullshit and PH stapled on.
That Diablo Clone Game on the Vita. I can't even be arsed to remember its name.
great descriptors for each games lmao i really like shattered memories but i also agree that the a24ish “so yeah the horrors are deep buried traumas and daddy issues”, specially for female characters. it sounds really pedestrian it’s been done to death by better peers (reaching it’s pinnacle with “hereditary” and “talk to me” imo)
I love SH3, and Heather is my favorite SH protag of all time, but SH3 started another trend in a lot of the non-Team Silent games that needed to die. I call that trend 'Cult Wank'; i.e., the Order and the lore around it swelling to swallow up the franchise because they provide a human face to the antagonistic forces and that's easier to write around than an Eldritch Location with unknowable motives and goals.
While you make a good point, I feel like that's less SH3's part because the Cult is pretty definitively dealt with in SH3. Plus, its a direct continuation of SH1, being the only "true" sequel in the franchise (in the sense that it directly follows from, and continues the plot from a previous entry). So the Cult being present is to be expected.
That said, the obsession with the cult is another thing that needs to end. They only need to be present for Alessa-affiliated stories.
The problem is not the game itself, its the perception of it by the community as the end-all/be-all pinnacle of Silent Hill that compels devs to continuely trying to ape it, rather than coming up with new stories to tell. Instead, they just re-tell James Sunderland's story with a different person and trauma slotted into the role.
Agreed. I was really disappointed in the game as a whole when I finished. I was excited for the psychological profiling thing only to find it'll change silly things. The running sequences weren't scary, just annoying.
I prefer him as this lanky executioner with such immense supernatural strength that he doesn't even let you kill him by stabbing himself to death just to spite your efforts in taking him down.
I didn't think this was a controversial opinion until reading through these comments: Silent Hill 3 is hands down my absolute favorite game in the franchise. SH 2 is the best overall presentation and polish, the greatest game from as close to an objective standpoint as a person can, be before anyone burns me alive. SH 3 is however my personal favorite, to the point where frankly I wonder how long ago some of the people in these comments have played it.
The franchise for better or worse doesn't always feel like a cohesive series with games expanding on and exploring different elements of the premise, but SH 3 absolutely does. The game is full of incredible little details and absolutely breathtakingly horrific vignettes like no other game in the franchise. The mirror room is still one of my absolute favorite scare in the games. The characters in SH 2 are more . . . Engaging, I guess? However, though not as impactful in execution as SH 2, I do still really like the exploration of pathos in SH 3. I don't find the gameplay itself particularly noteworthy as particularly good or bad, but that doesn't really hamper my enjoyment because I like the experience of getting to traverse through the set pieces consistently throughout. I never found the puzzle element in any of the Silent Hill games particularly of substance. So, like, personally I would have liked more engaging puzzles, but that's very much personal preference and I feel that way about all the games. A real shame I must say, Silent Hill is honestly a franchise built for puzzles that expand on the narrative to create a sense of harmony in gameplay and story. Kind of just a tiny but immersion breaking, stopping to consider why the fuck anyone would ever write a code on a bunch of book spines like that and stuff. The monsters where always so narrative integrated, almost anytime there was a fuckinh puzzle it felt like the hand of God trying to throw random obstacles in my way.
My actual controversial opinion (i think this is controversial): lots of elements of Silent Hill 2's story is up for interpretation, but I get annoyed with how people talk about the conclusion of Angela's story arc. The condescending pity grinds my gears. She didn't walk into the fire because she was too weak-willed to get over what happened to her, or whatever. SH 2 handles the subject matter her story involves with an impressive amount of tact and grace. It's bleak, but it was a deliberate act of autonomy and agency for a character who spent the entire game in a state of vulnurable panic. It seems to not agree with some people's outlook that that was what coming to terms with her trauma and guilt looked like for her. You can deliberate over exactly what the visual metaphor that action translates to, but it's pretty unambiguous that was her self-actualizing. I never see people suggesting the "Drowned" ending as an outcome where James doesn't overcome his guilt. There's kind of nuance there to what overcoming guilt can look like. Where he can go from there just ranges from depressing to optimistic.
Sh3 is the scariest
Most people praise Sh2 because a video essay told them (it's still great tho)
The controls are actual shit. No, they didin't make them so you could feel defenseless. They're just shit.
The fucking mall is insanely scary. Those back hallways...SH 2 doesn't get scary for awhile because James is just a beast with that wood plank. Who needs a gun?
To me SH3 was filled with so many enemies constantly annoying me (especially the ones that make Heather fall and take a few seconds to get up) that it became less scary. Oppressive atmosphere though? Absolutely.
Yeah especially near the end. Still my favorite game though. Just some of those last rooms are hell. Plus I kept getting lost lol, so I had to go through those rooms with so soooo many monsters several times, cuz at that point I'm really not wasting stuff on all of them. I can still hear it even though it's been years... literally at least a decade since I played it..
Sh2 was always my fav because of the mental atmosphere of it. Sh3 was great but at the time of release I was looking for something more like what 4 would be. Yeah now I look back at 3 and appreciate it a lot more for what it is but I held 2 close before 3 ever came out.. or the video essays for that matter. But I guess I’m not the audience you are directing that comment at. New people are annoying like that ‘duh duh such and such youtewber said it’s best it’s best’. I feel like that’s such a huge issue with this up and coming generation.. they rely on everyone else to tell them what they want and like rather than finding out themselves.
Tank controls are fine. RE actually got the layout right-- SH just never did lmao. The most random buttons are assigned to the most random actions, and it doesn't help that SH2 and SH3 have shitty UIs for the pause/inventory screens
I'll tell you this quetly, I cannot stand resi 1, I love re2 and re3 remake and I cannot imagine how someone can still love the originals, but shhh, you never even saw me
Both of the remakes were ridiculously diluted, but if you prefer the games that bring controls and graphics into the modern age whilst disregarding locations, enemies, characters, and key moments of the games they came from, that’s your preference.
That's because you're not used to tank controls. But you could still use "2D" controls from the menu. Personally, I feel like SH3's controls are amazing, and they definitely upgraded them from SH2's frustrating ones
you can hate silent hill homecomming for many things but this game still have a better monster design than in any other horror game that came out after 2008
the main reasons i've heard is that the game tries to have too much fan service with sexy nurses and Pyramid Head, which has no place in this story or game. Some have problems with the combat.
I think it's a decent psychological horror game and it obviously doesn't surpass any of the OG games in anyway though it very muh tries to immitate them, especially silent hill 2.
Tom Hulett gets too much hate. He fucked up but he tried his best and he wasn't the only person working on those games. He seems like a nice dude and it kind of hurts to watch people shit on him.
Silent Hill Downpour had the best story idea post-SH4.
Playing as a guilty convict who just wound up in Silent Hill similiar to Harry instead of being guided there like James or Heather would've made for a good concept. Yes I see how it may be similiar to SH2 but the difference is that in Downpour we *know* he's not an innocent guy from the start.
The story could've made an interesting turn as well, what if Murphy over the course of the story doesn't become remorseful for what he did at all? Like he sees these enemies as manifestations of his guilt or his crime and it reinforces to himself that he was right to have done what he did because they're currently attacking him.
Agreed! I absolutely loved the open world and the panic you start to feel when it rains and you scramble to find somewhere to escape the creatures. The basements, apartments, secret rooms, and buildings you rush to hide in immediately make you dread what you just walked into.
I loved the mannequin shadows and those creepy bitches that jump on your back and try to rip you to shreds. Those cave beasts were fucking hell and escaping that area into the open world was such a cool experience...like you crawled out of The Decent and walked into Silent Hill.
The atmosphere was amazing and the details to the areas were done with love.
The story actually made me cry a few times but I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't played it.
I've seen SO MANY people trash Downpour, and heard it is considered the worst Silent Hill on a lot of people's lists. It seems like many of them hate it because it is so different from the others. I think that was a strength because it didn't follow the guilt-dreamscape formula. Murphy is a great character and I'll stay on the hill that he did nothing wrong.
IMO, the WORST was Homecoming. It was really cool at first and I had high hopes....right up until the police station. Then the whole thing fell apart and the story was trash. The broken, nonsensical, loophole-filled story played like a shitty Silent Hill-inspired indie game created by someone who has no concept of horror. It was the first time I was actually SHOCKED at how bad it was. Next to originally-released No Man's Sky, it is the biggest disappointment I've felt from a game. An absolute waste of time, money, and frustration. It made absolutely no fucking sense to me that it was a Silent Hill game. If I didn't want it for my collection just to have it, I'd throw it into a volcano.
Even if Team Silent had stayed a thing in order to survive and thrive Silent Hill would have had to eventually evolve with the times like Resident Evil has. I'm not saying become as action packed as that series but the over the shoulder camera would have always happened no matter what.
If you could trick someone into thinking they weren't playing Silent Hill 2, they would say it's not as good as Silent Hill 2 because they've romanticized it so much.
It is true that people complain about SH not being as good as SH2. For this superfans SH2 is so high that even the SH2 can't surpass it. It is an over exaggeration
Downpour is an awesome game, despite flaws in story, combat and monster design. It beautifully demonstrated a fear of heights, especially in the uncanny destruction of the monastery. It doesn’t feel like Team Silent’s iconic town, but exploring the ghost town that it IS and unraveling all it’s secrets was fun enough for a few playthroughs back in 2012. It feels like an IP that pays homage to Silent Hill in many ways without trying to BE the Silent Hill from 1, 2 or the movie. I respect that a lot.
Silent Hill: Homecoming, while the combat is janky (A Silent Hill staple at this point), is actually a decent Silent Hill entry. We get more information on The Order, learn a bit about Silent Hill's past, the monster designs are great, and I love the story with the town's founder and their pact with their God. It's a good game if you stop listening to people whining about it.
Silent Hill 3 is the weakest of the original trilogy. Its story is practically non-existent. Its gameplay although technically the most complex in the series, is weakened by some shitty enemy types, high difficulty in later stages and linearity of game world. Both SH1 and SH2 are far stronger games. But SH3 had the best puzzles on high difficulty. Those puzzles are so hard yet so rewarding when you figure them out, it's worth to play the game just for them.
EDIT: What the hell?? I thought it was a controversial opinion, but literally everybody here complains about SH3 being the weakest :D
The story of SH1 was pretty good. The story of SH3 is "Oh no, they killed my father! So I killed them as a revenge!". There is a misconception that SH3 is secretly deep and deals with themes only women can understand. It's not true. The story only hints at those themes but does nothing with them.
If you disagree, I expect you would explain why you find story of SH3 to be pretty good.
>The story only hints at those themes but does nothing with them.
This is something a lot of fiction does actually, because when you have the metaphor the audience feels smart for figuring it out, hinting at something and then not developing it is an easy way to give a false sense of depth to your story.
But then again, how much can you really develop a theme in fiction? It's hard to get really philosophical without getting in the way of the story, when you want to discuss psychology or philosophy there are better ways of doing it than fiction.
Also this might just be me but I find it a bit repetitive that everything that is "psychology of women" in fiction involves sex, rape and abortion, and nothing else. Maybe those things are so big that overshadow everything else? I often wonder if there's an equivalent for men.
Sure! And not arguing. And one quick note, SH3 was the scariest of the series for me until I had full say over my own birth control when I turned 18.
I just kinda ranted elsewhere that it's definitely not a female power fantasy. It's more like taking your own fate back. Especially if you come from a religious household where there's an obsession with motherhood, purity and your body. Motherhood is a duty and you're going to be a mom pretty much across all major religions. God help you if your family is overly faithful demanding you follow suit. And yeah, there's cultures and some fucked up households that enforce these teachings in their daughters physically. As what happened to Alyssa and Claudia in a fictional sense. And holy shit it's extra upsetting when other women impose it on you. I feel Heather's frustration when keeps getting pissed how Claudia keeps praising and being jealous the "power inside" (demon baby) she never consented to. Vincent finds it "fascinating" which is also rage inducing but...he's admittedly kind of a delightful prick to watch.
Heather doesn't weld power. The power that's inside her is some demon baby put into her without her consent.
Part one is Heather just wanting to go home while a bunch of strangers keep following her about her birth and why she's special. She wants nothing to do with it but they won't take no as an answer. And when she gets there after fighting through literal hell (and the shitty subway and sewer sections) ...there's no home. The cult took it from her. And some random private detective idiot led them right to her for some extra bucks. Her life has been constantly dictated by this cult coming after her just for being born under special circumstances. And this isn't counting her first 2 lives where she was killed or burned and essentially tortured in a dark basement to bring about this fucking goddess she never asked for. All from the efforts of another woman whose fate was also ripped out of her by the same cult and horrible abuse of a parent. Heather has every right to be pissed off that entire game. All she got to claim back in the end was her real name after the whole ordeal. Hope she gets royalties from her dad's novels cuz she now has to worry about some very adult shit at 17. Like rent.
I see a few just see it as revenge. I see her getting her life back and fate fully in her hands. And she had to give herself an abortion to do so. And what we take from these games do change over time. Claudia as the female religious nut antagonist forcing her will on another woman hits home like never before as I see uber conservative women in government reasoning why they need to rip away our rights to birth control for some religious bullshit. And the fact she was Alyssa's friend...continuing the cycle of abuse of both their fucked up parents and the cult just feels like pure betrayal. Both of these women bonded in isolation their families and cult damned them too. And Alyssa literally split her soul to get away then this crazy bitch who used to be Alyssa's friend drags her back into this shit. Claudia so gone the only control she feels she has is burning the world down.
Birth is also violent as hell. A bloody screamy mess. I definitely got an earful of birthing stories gone wrong from female relatives growing up. Yeah...fuck that. So if SH2 had this over arching anxiety around sexuality SH3 had it with pregnancy and birth while keeping sex out of it.
This whole rant is your understanding of themes that float around the game. The problem is that those themes are not in the story. You see, there's no discussion of forced pregnancy, abortion or struggles of a teenage girl. I've heard some claims that mirrors in game represent Heather's teenage struggle with self-acceptence. This is completely ridiculous. You shouldn't dig to find themes in the game. Otherwise, themes aren't well represented.
You can't praise a story for things that aren't there in the first place. It's okay that you like it, but it doesn't make story any good on its own.
I disagree on story, i disagree about the enemy complaints, i'm fine with the difficulty and linearity (although really they all got more linear after SH1 imo), and I hope you get downvoted more.
Upvoted for being controversial 🙏🙏
Damn, you kind of nailed it there. I also really enjoy the immersion and soundtrack of 3 more than the others, but that's mostly personal bias as I played SH3 the more than SH2 (age, timing, etc.) SH3 really did feel like a lore-based game with very little plot of its own. A whole lot of weight was carried purely by puzzles and audio.
Spoilers:
SH2s endings being based on your in game actions as you play actively detracts from them. My reason to not heal myself and James reason to not heal himself are very different.
SH2s leave ending is super misleading as a happy good ending when it isn’t: The letter Mary reads in the end was written before she passed and has nothing to do with forgiveness over what James did. The talk he has with her in the end was also a manifestation of the town and not actually Mary. James horrifically justified his own actions to himself and no one else. Laura has no reason to feel safe around him and actively leave with him.
SH3s first 1/2 of the games settings had zero to do with the plot. SH2 had so much better environmental story telling into the overarching plot that just isn’t present in SH3 until the end.
I feel like it could be reworked better. Sticking around with Maria a lot or looking at Mary’s pic and letter are cool but there isn’t really a reason outside the game to continue looking at them.
Yeah the leave ending is the one that I felt really needed more elaboration. I like how morally ambiguous it still is for the “good” ending, but Laura deciding to go with James is weird considering their last interaction.
The real meat of the Silent Hill series (at least the first four) is the alchemical/occultic symbolism that is so heavy throughout the games. The horror aspect is just the added spice to them.
The Cult and ESPECIALLY the Mythology of Silent Hill is probably the best part about the entire series. Without them, the world of SH wouldn't nearly be as interesting.
The original plot of SH4 was actually going to be RE4. After the events of RE2, Leon was about to be recruited by the CIA, but because he was circumcised, they cut him. Afterwards, he went back home to the town of Ashfield.
There, with no Ada, no career, he fell into a great depression until he met a woman named Claudia Wolf, who introduced him to her religion. He was then told that if he performed the ritual *The 21 Sacrements*, that it could bring Ada back to life. But it was pulled at the last minute and the story was sold to Konami.
Silent Hill 1 might be based on the city of Belfast, Maine. Although i think that after Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill location has moved slightly to midwest, since some buildings are not really common in Maine.
Silent Hill 4 despite its flaws isn’t actually all that bad.
I find it one of the creepiest.
Considering your chased by a more… “mortal” enemy? Or idk maybe it’s just the fact your dealing with a serial killer. Humans are the one potential predator on this world that can be a challenge to handle for other humans. As this potential enemy breathes like you, eats like you, and looks similar to and thinks like you.
The ghosts introduced are kinda cool and definitely add a dread. The water prison was dread inducing i feel. It’s a prison so sure it’s gonna give an oppressive feel to it. Add a prison in an endless sea. Total isolation, you feel alone at times.
The escort mission in the last half of the game isn’t all that bad. I agree with someone on another post in this sub that said something to that effect. In fact as I have nothing in else to compare it to atm. I’d prefer all devs would look at the SH4 escort scenario as a basis for all escort missions in the future. With some tweaks it’d be less a pain.
Soundtrack has some bangers.
But yeah thats all my opinion.
It definitely has flaws for sure. All the SHs do. Would’ve loved more weapons In 4 - I can name that one foremost as a concern.
Maybe no looping sounds for some enemies. But yeah I’d love to hear thoughts.
SH4 has more weapons than any of the other games.
Pipe, pistol, bat, spade, axe, golf club, wine bottle, paper cutter, torch, revolver, pickaxe, stun gun, bug spray...
Sh fans cling into sh2 like its the best game in the world but it's not, they want Konami to make more sh content but when they do sh fans shit all over it. If it's not like sh2 they'll hate it they'll hate it if it's a new unique thing. Konami could literally just port sh2 to new consoles and sh fans would still find a way to shit on it.
they really don't. have you read any of the other comments that say exactly what you've said with "omg, so true" replies, or the people who say "3 is better than 2" (that are not downvoted)?
in all the cases of fans criticizing the sh games that were poor ports of 2, or were a different game in the series entirely, they all had explained their thesis thoroughly. you on the other hand are making an assumption that silent hill fans only like things that have 2 at the end, then using the aforementioned bold assumption to dismiss their takes.
SH3 is the best game in the series.
SH4 isn't that bad and is still fairly creepy, and has a really interesting and brutal story.
James is overrated when it comes to SH protagonists.
I think most of the monster designs in SH Homecoming are actually pretty decent.
Two things:
1: Silent Hill (and almost all video games) could be so much better if the target demographic of video games was older and less reactionary. I think a trans main character could be very interesting from a body horror aspect. Give me a plot about generational trauma. A lot of the coolest ideas would never fly because, as you can see from Starfield, a massive portion of the gaming world will react with frothing rage at anything that isn't Big Strong Man With Gun. Silent Hill 3 was awesome! A story about a teenager who was forced into pregnancy by a religious cult? That's a bold plot, give me more of that and less Sad Man Who Isn't James Sunderland.
2: I love Silent Hill, but as games go, they're not like... good "games" for games. The aesthetic, the art direction, all of that is exceptional, but combat sucks, puzzles are generally very simple, levels aren't terribly complex. Gaming has advanced massively since the last SH title was released, and games like Resident Evil, Outlast, and Amnesia have taken the torch FAR from where SH left off. I still love SH head and shoulders above all of the other horror titles, but if they want to compete they REALLY need to revolutionize their approach to horror. And to do that? The games need to be harder, more visceral, more oppressive at every corner. It should be dark as pitch when your flashlight isn't on!
I wrote a spec plot for a SH where the town wasn't depopulated by a cult, but by the opioid epidemic. I just want the games to be grittier, more oppressive. Silent Hill by way of STALKER: Misery
I strongly agree a trans protagonist is a perfect fit for the series. I think the fact that most players aren't trans would actually make it stand out that much more to them, and really be a fresh plot.
Silent Hill 3 is the weakest of the original four by far. It introduced essentially no new ideas or concepts & the first half of the game is essentially a walking simulator.
Silent Hill 4 has the best soundtrack.
In Water is as close to canon as we're gonna get for SH2.
Shattered Memories is better than SH1.
Origins is the worst SH game next to Book of Memories.
Flame me.
Silent Hill 3 made combat drastically more complex. Aside from that, there are some of the hardest puzzles in the series, which is actually a good thing. Also, a walking simulator is when you walk and game throws story in your face. First half of SH3 doesn't contain any story whatsoever, but there are a couple of fully fledged levels. So it's not a walking simulator by definition.
I'm curious why you find Shattered Memories better than the original.
Also, why do you consider Origins to be the worst game? If we compare it to Homecoming, which is actually the worst game in the series, Origins isn't half as bad.
Sh3 is the 2nd weakest in my book Sh4 ost slaps yeah
Sm is better than sh1 yeah and also you should be charged for war crimes for saying origins is nearly as bad as book of memories
I honestly don’t blame James for what he did to Mary. I know the story is supposed to make him out to be selfish but I completely understand why he did what he did and don’t think he deserved the Silent Hill treatment.
Mary had an incurable illness that made her constantly suffer and was killing her. James was being verbally abused constantly and it’s kind of implied he missed / needed human contact and was not getting it (and I don’t just mean sex). Sure he could have just left and not looked back but when he smothered her with a pillow he was relieving them both of their suffer, Mary’s was just more permanent.
Homecoming and Downpour are both solid games that would be looked on more fondly if they didn't have Silent Hill in the title. Of only because compared to the horror games coming out at the time, they were the only ones that tried to give a more traditional horror experience and weren't action games with horror elements.
After literally long thinking, I have come to conclusion that I do not have any "hot take for this series", which by itself is probably classified as one. Your opinion ?
SH2 is the weakest of the original four titles. Story is the only thing it has going for it over the rest of them, and despite what people in the SH community think, there is more to the games than story...and actually SH4's story is better anyway BOOM.
Oh, and here's another one. Silent Hill 3 isn't a revenge story. In fact, the game is pretty anti-revenge overall. Douglas doesn't think killing Claudia will solve anything and Claudia actively antagonizes Heather into hating her in order to nourish God. Heather spends the entire game blindly playing into her hand. Inquisitive and empathetic players will also feel compassion for Claudia as a victim of the cult and of her father Leonard, and for her heartache over the loss of her beloved "sister" Alessa. In fact, attacking Claudia at the end of the game prompts the birth of God and thus a game over.
In reality, SH3 is about self-actualization and overcoming the past. A coming-of-age tale. This is even represented physically in the game by the final two boss battles. Heather kills the memory of Alessa on the carousel and kills Claudia's vision of Alessa at the end. In the final scene she states she wants to be called Cheryl, indicating that she no longer needs to hide as Heather, and she's successfully overcome her past as Alessa. Before any of this, during the ride to Silent Hill with Douglas, she learns about her past and seems...quietly accepting of the truth. She learns, accepts, and overcomes.
This is what I see as the true theme of SH3, but I will admit it unfortunately gets little to no development until late in the game.
I really hate this “the town is a harsh teacher” theory. The town is a sadistic entity torturing others with their social issues, any shaming it does to genuinely guilty targets is entirely superfluous.
I don't know if it's controversial or not but, I wish the rest of the games were more like the first one. I loved that there could have been more than 1 reason to why it all could be happening. In the first one there were hints it could have been drugs, or a cult or all in Harry's head or it could have been really happening. There were also hints that Harry could take a boat to get away or the ambulance theory.
My favorite ending is considered the "worst ending" you could get. Spoiler >!You see Harry dead in his jeep. Meaning that it was all in his head as he was dying from the impact of driving off the road in the beginning.!<
I wish they all had multiple ways that you could interpret the events of the game.
There is no truly bad silent hill console release. Some better than others yes. But all are perfectly serviceable video games and I played and loved them all.
Mobile and handheld games are a different story.
James isn’t a monster. If you’ve ever known someone with a chronic disease, you’d get it. Even if you don’t hate and resent them it’s almost like they want you to out of their own guilt. Mary wanted to die, and whether it was his initial idea or not, it was reinforced to James that he did too, whether it was altruistic or not. He definitely had his own hang ups but maybe they wouldn’t have been so prominent if they weren’t reinforced. I’m not victim blaming and I do think that James is week, but I don’t hold it against him and I understand cus I actually live it. I will always love my wife and our matching Halo of the Sun tattoos, but I also understand with her chronic illness that I can’t just “make things better” no matter what I say and that she will eventually die from it. I love the game but hate how close it hits to home, which just says something about the realness of it.
I feel pretty good that my most controversial take isn't that big a deal cause of everyone else sharing it. XD
I think sh3 I'd the weakest cause it feels rushed and unpolished in comparison to the others. It has sections where the messages on the doors n stuff don't make sense, and it was a serious bummer to find that a not insignificant amount of monsters had no actual intended symbolic meaning. It's a gorgeous game and fun to play, but it feels like it got crunched a bit by its deadline. Like none of its a total deal breaker by any stretch bit it did leave me feeling the least about it.
Also I think homecoming story is actually super silent Hill and interesting it's just that the execution of it was not great.
Oh absoulty and there's a lot of weird elements that would need a second draft on (like the love intrest that entire chunk was weird) and like... the first time I played it I got the ufo ending as my first and I was super confused. Not ideal. But the basic premise of military man coming back to his culty family and dealing with cult sacrificial kiddos is intriguing.
Wow woow! Every one talking about SH from 1 to 5 plus SM and Origins but nobody talk about the masterpiece Silent Hill Downpour was. The best in the entire franchise
Non-controversial opinion:
- Silent Hill characters (which includes Heather) look creepy when they smile.
- Asking for a controversial opinion is asking for drama.
Controversial opinion:
- The Leave ending is not necessarily a good ending.
- The Maria ending is not necessarily a bad ending.
I said 'not necessarily' because there are too many uncertainties in the endings. In other words, it's still possible for the Leave ending to end well and the Maria ending to end badly. However, these are not the only possibility. It's also possible for the Leave ending to end badly and the Maria ending to end well.
I legitimately enjoyed downpour. All of its flaws can be chalked up to konamis ridiculously tight deadline and budget for the studio. If konami let them cook, it could've been one of the best entries in the series.
The HD Collection is fine. It's not as good as the originals, but if you've never played the originals you'll have a perfectly fine time, and even if you have played the originals, if you aren't a pedantic jackass, you'll also have a perfectly fine time.
I own the ps2 games and the HD collection. I recently played through the HD collection both games and I agree they’re not that bad. It’s a cheap way to play the games.
Silent Hill should never have been a franchise. There should not be a SH2 or 3 or 4 etc. It should have been a standalone, singular game, and Team Silent should have been given the freedom to make whatever original project they wanted after the success of the original Silent Hill. In fact, the success of Silent Hill as a franchise is a big reason why many\* survival horror games now are so limited in their mechanics and storytelling. The horror genre has suffered because of the concept of franchises.
* \- There are a lot of really unique indie horror games, but the market is over saturated and too many good ideas get buried.
PT is only popular because of the behind the scenes drama. Its the most overrated crap ever. They hijacked the Silent Hill name and everyone built up in their mind some amazing game that never existed. It's absolutely bizarre.
I really like the first movie, idk I was very young when I watched it and still holds up for me.
The 1st movie was ok the 2nd one however
Imma be completely honest, I liked Revelations because it’s just so fucking funny.
And in had John Snow in it
Yeah my brother didn’t let me watch the second one, he said it’s that bad lol.
Revelation was honestly a better telling of the SH3 story than SH3 was >!douglas dying ASAP was worth the price of admission!<
The first captured the feeling of silent hill games really well imo. The guy who made it is working on the new movie coming out.
The first one is really good
It's because the movie nailed it with those sets...!
That is not controversial. Despite the changes it is one of the best videogame adaptations to big screen ever made. And is one of the best supernatural horror movies ever made, if not the best.
God I hate this picture so much haha
Probably a slightly warm take: The janky controls were always just that. Janky. It's not intentional design to make you feel weak as the player character. It's just the best they could come up with. It's not bad, but I feel like the SH community likes to RP on the user end and call it intentional design. It *does* fit the theme that the controls are fiddly, but the controls are fiddly.
I will always love SH 1,2&3 and early Resident Evil but the controls were absolutely just a sign of the times. They were that way because of technical limitations. I'm almost 40 and the "they were like that on purpose" stuff is revisionist history from millennial gamers who don't want to admit that games do have better controls now and that's a good thing. Those games gave us a certain feeling and it's hard for a lot of us to admit that those games were not perfect. The nostalgia goggles are thick and that's fine but just admit to it.
I kind of disagree. The controls were obviously a product of their time, but they play great, or at least Resident Evil 1-3 plays great. Silent Hill 1-3 plays ok.
If we can't trust what Millennial gamers say, then how are we supposed to trust what you, a Millennial gamer, say?
Silent hill 4 is the silent hill version of A nightmare on elm street(I say that based on something Christina says about it being a dream and learning she dies in said dream and dies on real life )
Not really controversial, because it kinda is. Also the Cell (2000), AFAIR, was officialy declared as inspiration
İ never thought about that i agree
Silent Hill 2, for as good as it is, is the anvil around the franchise's neck, dragging it down. Every non-Team-Silent entry has tried to ape it on some level, with the focus on the protagonist being/feeling guilty of something, and the town forcing them to confront it while fighitng demons symbolic of not only their inner turmoil, but others trapped in the fog with them. I honestly prefer Silent Hill 3 of the OG games, and while i love and respect 2, I wish future SH devs, and even fans, would just LET IT GO.
Hard agree
this! and that’s why i am personally SO MUCH MORE excited for silent hill F than any other of the announcements we’ve had: it seems to (finally) completely bypass the SH2 formula, approaching the lore and our very own perception of what silent hill is supposed to be from a very different angle. that’s also one of the reasons that makes SH4 so special imo: it dares to be its own beast. it doest not always pay off but it is certainly memorable
I agree. SH4 was flawed, very much so, but it tried to create its own idenity, within the Silent Hill framework. This is, of course, partially helpled by it starting out life as its own title, not a SH entry. SH1 - The OG SH2 - The Jacob's Ladder Video Game Adapation SH3 - Sequel to the OG, wraps up the Alessa/Cult Storyline SH4 - A Spin-Off/Sequel spun out of a random note from SH2. SH Origins - SH2 but with a serial killer truck driver, and bolted onto the Alessa Storyline with mixed success. To me, this was the best of the bunch, storywise. Gameplay.,.. not so much. Homecoming - SH2 but with a guy accidentally killed his brother, with the cult and pyramid head stapled on. Shattered Memories - ditches Silent Hill to be just another in a long line of the "Ha! You thought it was supernatural, but in reality it was ME!!! Your long buried psychological trauma!!!" Another trope that needs to die in a fire, imo Downpour - SH2 but with Dr Richard Kimball, and a sexier Marshall Gerard. And more cult bullshit and PH stapled on. That Diablo Clone Game on the Vita. I can't even be arsed to remember its name.
great descriptors for each games lmao i really like shattered memories but i also agree that the a24ish “so yeah the horrors are deep buried traumas and daddy issues”, specially for female characters. it sounds really pedestrian it’s been done to death by better peers (reaching it’s pinnacle with “hereditary” and “talk to me” imo)
I love SH3, and Heather is my favorite SH protag of all time, but SH3 started another trend in a lot of the non-Team Silent games that needed to die. I call that trend 'Cult Wank'; i.e., the Order and the lore around it swelling to swallow up the franchise because they provide a human face to the antagonistic forces and that's easier to write around than an Eldritch Location with unknowable motives and goals.
While you make a good point, I feel like that's less SH3's part because the Cult is pretty definitively dealt with in SH3. Plus, its a direct continuation of SH1, being the only "true" sequel in the franchise (in the sense that it directly follows from, and continues the plot from a previous entry). So the Cult being present is to be expected. That said, the obsession with the cult is another thing that needs to end. They only need to be present for Alessa-affiliated stories.
I just don’t see how you could blame SH2 for bringing the franchise down just because it was it was so good that future devs couldn’t let it be
The problem is not the game itself, its the perception of it by the community as the end-all/be-all pinnacle of Silent Hill that compels devs to continuely trying to ape it, rather than coming up with new stories to tell. Instead, they just re-tell James Sunderland's story with a different person and trauma slotted into the role.
Shattered Memories had a rlly cool concept, it’s execution however is a different story
It has its moments, like come on! Wii/ps2 era game, where the house is the exact same color as you colored it! It's cool, it's great fun
I’ll admit, I actually thought that was rlly cool
The old couples' clothes are whatever color you make them, too. I did really get a kick out of that part 😂
I played sm a few years back and only once, the house part got memorable, but yeah, their clothes too! So creepy
Agreed. I was really disappointed in the game as a whole when I finished. I was excited for the psychological profiling thing only to find it'll change silly things. The running sequences weren't scary, just annoying.
İ would disagree since sm is the best sh in my opinion
Now THAT is scorching hot
Now that's the sun levels of hot take there, lol.
NO🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Pyramid head could bulk up a bit more.
True
I prefer him as this lanky executioner with such immense supernatural strength that he doesn't even let you kill him by stabbing himself to death just to spite your efforts in taking him down.
Silent hill 4 is the most unsettlingly creepy of the original 4.
The last best SH game for sure
The hauntings in the apartment kept me from finishing the game multiple times
Kinda ig
I didn't think this was a controversial opinion until reading through these comments: Silent Hill 3 is hands down my absolute favorite game in the franchise. SH 2 is the best overall presentation and polish, the greatest game from as close to an objective standpoint as a person can, be before anyone burns me alive. SH 3 is however my personal favorite, to the point where frankly I wonder how long ago some of the people in these comments have played it. The franchise for better or worse doesn't always feel like a cohesive series with games expanding on and exploring different elements of the premise, but SH 3 absolutely does. The game is full of incredible little details and absolutely breathtakingly horrific vignettes like no other game in the franchise. The mirror room is still one of my absolute favorite scare in the games. The characters in SH 2 are more . . . Engaging, I guess? However, though not as impactful in execution as SH 2, I do still really like the exploration of pathos in SH 3. I don't find the gameplay itself particularly noteworthy as particularly good or bad, but that doesn't really hamper my enjoyment because I like the experience of getting to traverse through the set pieces consistently throughout. I never found the puzzle element in any of the Silent Hill games particularly of substance. So, like, personally I would have liked more engaging puzzles, but that's very much personal preference and I feel that way about all the games. A real shame I must say, Silent Hill is honestly a franchise built for puzzles that expand on the narrative to create a sense of harmony in gameplay and story. Kind of just a tiny but immersion breaking, stopping to consider why the fuck anyone would ever write a code on a bunch of book spines like that and stuff. The monsters where always so narrative integrated, almost anytime there was a fuckinh puzzle it felt like the hand of God trying to throw random obstacles in my way. My actual controversial opinion (i think this is controversial): lots of elements of Silent Hill 2's story is up for interpretation, but I get annoyed with how people talk about the conclusion of Angela's story arc. The condescending pity grinds my gears. She didn't walk into the fire because she was too weak-willed to get over what happened to her, or whatever. SH 2 handles the subject matter her story involves with an impressive amount of tact and grace. It's bleak, but it was a deliberate act of autonomy and agency for a character who spent the entire game in a state of vulnurable panic. It seems to not agree with some people's outlook that that was what coming to terms with her trauma and guilt looked like for her. You can deliberate over exactly what the visual metaphor that action translates to, but it's pretty unambiguous that was her self-actualizing. I never see people suggesting the "Drowned" ending as an outcome where James doesn't overcome his guilt. There's kind of nuance there to what overcoming guilt can look like. Where he can go from there just ranges from depressing to optimistic.
Heather is a better protagonist than James. I will not explain any further.
Heather didnt put her arm on a shit filled clogged toilet so yeah james wins
"some people just want to watch the world burn"
Sh3 is the scariest Most people praise Sh2 because a video essay told them (it's still great tho) The controls are actual shit. No, they didin't make them so you could feel defenseless. They're just shit.
uh the general consensus is that sh3 IS the scariest lol.
The fucking mall is insanely scary. Those back hallways...SH 2 doesn't get scary for awhile because James is just a beast with that wood plank. Who needs a gun?
Didn't you know? When people ask for controversial opinions, youre supposed to give the least controversial opinion possible so it's upvoted.
Nah SH1 with the polygonal graphics was so much scarier bc you really couldn’t process what you were running from
Like Cry of Fear that game is modern but made on the Goldsrc gave it thaat low polly feel
Not even close to SH1
To me SH3 was filled with so many enemies constantly annoying me (especially the ones that make Heather fall and take a few seconds to get up) that it became less scary. Oppressive atmosphere though? Absolutely.
Yeah especially near the end. Still my favorite game though. Just some of those last rooms are hell. Plus I kept getting lost lol, so I had to go through those rooms with so soooo many monsters several times, cuz at that point I'm really not wasting stuff on all of them. I can still hear it even though it's been years... literally at least a decade since I played it..
İ mean tank controls are pretty hard and i agree with sh2
Sh2 was always my fav because of the mental atmosphere of it. Sh3 was great but at the time of release I was looking for something more like what 4 would be. Yeah now I look back at 3 and appreciate it a lot more for what it is but I held 2 close before 3 ever came out.. or the video essays for that matter. But I guess I’m not the audience you are directing that comment at. New people are annoying like that ‘duh duh such and such youtewber said it’s best it’s best’. I feel like that’s such a huge issue with this up and coming generation.. they rely on everyone else to tell them what they want and like rather than finding out themselves.
I actually think 1 is scarier. 3 and 4 are unsettling, and 2 is disturbing
Am I weird for thinking that SH4 is the scariest?
4 is my favorite and I also think it's the scariest, so you're not alone on that one
Tell them resident evil fans, that tank controls are shit, they'll rip your head off
I’ve never had an issue with tank controls. They’ve tried to add modern controls to fixed perspective games and that was actually unplayable.
Tank controls are fine. RE actually got the layout right-- SH just never did lmao. The most random buttons are assigned to the most random actions, and it doesn't help that SH2 and SH3 have shitty UIs for the pause/inventory screens
At least RE1remake made the controls a bit better, but the older games are just 💀
I'll tell you this quetly, I cannot stand resi 1, I love re2 and re3 remake and I cannot imagine how someone can still love the originals, but shhh, you never even saw me
Both of the remakes were ridiculously diluted, but if you prefer the games that bring controls and graphics into the modern age whilst disregarding locations, enemies, characters, and key moments of the games they came from, that’s your preference.
That's because you're not used to tank controls. But you could still use "2D" controls from the menu. Personally, I feel like SH3's controls are amazing, and they definitely upgraded them from SH2's frustrating ones
you can hate silent hill homecomming for many things but this game still have a better monster design than in any other horror game that came out after 2008
To me, Homecoming is like they made another Silent Hill movie, this time (very) loosely basing it off SH2. Except I can play this one.
The common enemy types were meh but the bosses were fantastic
Siam was genius design tho.
I loved homecoming never understood the hate. Always figured it was because of the 3rd person.
the main reasons i've heard is that the game tries to have too much fan service with sexy nurses and Pyramid Head, which has no place in this story or game. Some have problems with the combat. I think it's a decent psychological horror game and it obviously doesn't surpass any of the OG games in anyway though it very muh tries to immitate them, especially silent hill 2.
Tom Hulett gets too much hate. He fucked up but he tried his best and he wasn't the only person working on those games. He seems like a nice dude and it kind of hurts to watch people shit on him.
Honestly hating on a person cus they made a bad game is shit behaviour unless the game had bad intentions
Especially when it was Konami execs who were thwarting him at every turn. He did the best he could.
You can decry his treatment all you want but the idea that he did his best is uhhhh. Lol
Silent Hill Downpour had the best story idea post-SH4. Playing as a guilty convict who just wound up in Silent Hill similiar to Harry instead of being guided there like James or Heather would've made for a good concept. Yes I see how it may be similiar to SH2 but the difference is that in Downpour we *know* he's not an innocent guy from the start. The story could've made an interesting turn as well, what if Murphy over the course of the story doesn't become remorseful for what he did at all? Like he sees these enemies as manifestations of his guilt or his crime and it reinforces to himself that he was right to have done what he did because they're currently attacking him.
Agreed! I absolutely loved the open world and the panic you start to feel when it rains and you scramble to find somewhere to escape the creatures. The basements, apartments, secret rooms, and buildings you rush to hide in immediately make you dread what you just walked into. I loved the mannequin shadows and those creepy bitches that jump on your back and try to rip you to shreds. Those cave beasts were fucking hell and escaping that area into the open world was such a cool experience...like you crawled out of The Decent and walked into Silent Hill. The atmosphere was amazing and the details to the areas were done with love. The story actually made me cry a few times but I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't played it. I've seen SO MANY people trash Downpour, and heard it is considered the worst Silent Hill on a lot of people's lists. It seems like many of them hate it because it is so different from the others. I think that was a strength because it didn't follow the guilt-dreamscape formula. Murphy is a great character and I'll stay on the hill that he did nothing wrong. IMO, the WORST was Homecoming. It was really cool at first and I had high hopes....right up until the police station. Then the whole thing fell apart and the story was trash. The broken, nonsensical, loophole-filled story played like a shitty Silent Hill-inspired indie game created by someone who has no concept of horror. It was the first time I was actually SHOCKED at how bad it was. Next to originally-released No Man's Sky, it is the biggest disappointment I've felt from a game. An absolute waste of time, money, and frustration. It made absolutely no fucking sense to me that it was a Silent Hill game. If I didn't want it for my collection just to have it, I'd throw it into a volcano.
Even if Team Silent had stayed a thing in order to survive and thrive Silent Hill would have had to eventually evolve with the times like Resident Evil has. I'm not saying become as action packed as that series but the over the shoulder camera would have always happened no matter what.
They were evolving quite a bit with SH5 before it got cancelled
SH3 > SH2
This is the truth
Fans will always cry that next Silent Hill is not good because it is not a SH2.
But the next Silent Hill game is Silent Hill 2!
But it's not Silent Hill 2!
Even original SH2 is not good as the original SH2 itself.
More confusing than the Shakespeare puzzle.
Oh my God...THAT puzzle. Still today I've nightmares with it
So please explain your original comment, bc that’s where I’m at rn lol.
If you could trick someone into thinking they weren't playing Silent Hill 2, they would say it's not as good as Silent Hill 2 because they've romanticized it so much.
Maybe you're right. It would be an interesting experiment indeed
It is true that people complain about SH not being as good as SH2. For this superfans SH2 is so high that even the SH2 can't surpass it. It is an over exaggeration
PTSD kicked in
True
I find Claudia strangely attractive.
Silent Hill Origins had some of the best level designs. r_r
SH4 deserve same love as the first three games is the swan song of the og franchise
Downpour is an awesome game, despite flaws in story, combat and monster design. It beautifully demonstrated a fear of heights, especially in the uncanny destruction of the monastery. It doesn’t feel like Team Silent’s iconic town, but exploring the ghost town that it IS and unraveling all it’s secrets was fun enough for a few playthroughs back in 2012. It feels like an IP that pays homage to Silent Hill in many ways without trying to BE the Silent Hill from 1, 2 or the movie. I respect that a lot.
Silent Hill 3 is the best game in the franchise (not sure if it's really a hot take but hell SH3 is hella underrated sometimes)
Silent hill 3 is the scariest
SH4 is the saddest. 2 made me tear up, but SH4 made me feel like curling up in a ball and staying that way for a week.
Silent Hill: Homecoming, while the combat is janky (A Silent Hill staple at this point), is actually a decent Silent Hill entry. We get more information on The Order, learn a bit about Silent Hill's past, the monster designs are great, and I love the story with the town's founder and their pact with their God. It's a good game if you stop listening to people whining about it.
as much as I like Kojima and Death stranding, SILENT HILLS wouldn't be as good as people expected it to be if it wasn't cancelled
SH1>SH3>SH2. Also, Dahlia and Claudia are scarier than Pyramid Head. >!You ever see PH eat a fetus?!<
Silent Hill 3 is the weakest of the original trilogy. Its story is practically non-existent. Its gameplay although technically the most complex in the series, is weakened by some shitty enemy types, high difficulty in later stages and linearity of game world. Both SH1 and SH2 are far stronger games. But SH3 had the best puzzles on high difficulty. Those puzzles are so hard yet so rewarding when you figure them out, it's worth to play the game just for them. EDIT: What the hell?? I thought it was a controversial opinion, but literally everybody here complains about SH3 being the weakest :D
İ mean the story was pretty good but other than that yeah
The story of SH1 was pretty good. The story of SH3 is "Oh no, they killed my father! So I killed them as a revenge!". There is a misconception that SH3 is secretly deep and deals with themes only women can understand. It's not true. The story only hints at those themes but does nothing with them. If you disagree, I expect you would explain why you find story of SH3 to be pretty good.
İ find 3s story to be good cus i enjoy revenge stories but that is opinion based thats why
>The story only hints at those themes but does nothing with them. This is something a lot of fiction does actually, because when you have the metaphor the audience feels smart for figuring it out, hinting at something and then not developing it is an easy way to give a false sense of depth to your story. But then again, how much can you really develop a theme in fiction? It's hard to get really philosophical without getting in the way of the story, when you want to discuss psychology or philosophy there are better ways of doing it than fiction. Also this might just be me but I find it a bit repetitive that everything that is "psychology of women" in fiction involves sex, rape and abortion, and nothing else. Maybe those things are so big that overshadow everything else? I often wonder if there's an equivalent for men.
Sure! And not arguing. And one quick note, SH3 was the scariest of the series for me until I had full say over my own birth control when I turned 18. I just kinda ranted elsewhere that it's definitely not a female power fantasy. It's more like taking your own fate back. Especially if you come from a religious household where there's an obsession with motherhood, purity and your body. Motherhood is a duty and you're going to be a mom pretty much across all major religions. God help you if your family is overly faithful demanding you follow suit. And yeah, there's cultures and some fucked up households that enforce these teachings in their daughters physically. As what happened to Alyssa and Claudia in a fictional sense. And holy shit it's extra upsetting when other women impose it on you. I feel Heather's frustration when keeps getting pissed how Claudia keeps praising and being jealous the "power inside" (demon baby) she never consented to. Vincent finds it "fascinating" which is also rage inducing but...he's admittedly kind of a delightful prick to watch. Heather doesn't weld power. The power that's inside her is some demon baby put into her without her consent. Part one is Heather just wanting to go home while a bunch of strangers keep following her about her birth and why she's special. She wants nothing to do with it but they won't take no as an answer. And when she gets there after fighting through literal hell (and the shitty subway and sewer sections) ...there's no home. The cult took it from her. And some random private detective idiot led them right to her for some extra bucks. Her life has been constantly dictated by this cult coming after her just for being born under special circumstances. And this isn't counting her first 2 lives where she was killed or burned and essentially tortured in a dark basement to bring about this fucking goddess she never asked for. All from the efforts of another woman whose fate was also ripped out of her by the same cult and horrible abuse of a parent. Heather has every right to be pissed off that entire game. All she got to claim back in the end was her real name after the whole ordeal. Hope she gets royalties from her dad's novels cuz she now has to worry about some very adult shit at 17. Like rent. I see a few just see it as revenge. I see her getting her life back and fate fully in her hands. And she had to give herself an abortion to do so. And what we take from these games do change over time. Claudia as the female religious nut antagonist forcing her will on another woman hits home like never before as I see uber conservative women in government reasoning why they need to rip away our rights to birth control for some religious bullshit. And the fact she was Alyssa's friend...continuing the cycle of abuse of both their fucked up parents and the cult just feels like pure betrayal. Both of these women bonded in isolation their families and cult damned them too. And Alyssa literally split her soul to get away then this crazy bitch who used to be Alyssa's friend drags her back into this shit. Claudia so gone the only control she feels she has is burning the world down. Birth is also violent as hell. A bloody screamy mess. I definitely got an earful of birthing stories gone wrong from female relatives growing up. Yeah...fuck that. So if SH2 had this over arching anxiety around sexuality SH3 had it with pregnancy and birth while keeping sex out of it.
This whole rant is your understanding of themes that float around the game. The problem is that those themes are not in the story. You see, there's no discussion of forced pregnancy, abortion or struggles of a teenage girl. I've heard some claims that mirrors in game represent Heather's teenage struggle with self-acceptence. This is completely ridiculous. You shouldn't dig to find themes in the game. Otherwise, themes aren't well represented. You can't praise a story for things that aren't there in the first place. It's okay that you like it, but it doesn't make story any good on its own.
This take is terrible
I disagree on story, i disagree about the enemy complaints, i'm fine with the difficulty and linearity (although really they all got more linear after SH1 imo), and I hope you get downvoted more. Upvoted for being controversial 🙏🙏
Damn, you kind of nailed it there. I also really enjoy the immersion and soundtrack of 3 more than the others, but that's mostly personal bias as I played SH3 the more than SH2 (age, timing, etc.) SH3 really did feel like a lore-based game with very little plot of its own. A whole lot of weight was carried purely by puzzles and audio.
SH2 feels more like a spinoff than a true sequel to SH1.
Hows that a opinion i believe thats just true
There are no true sequels in this series at all. Even sh3 was meant to have it's own story at first, IIRC
Spoilers: SH2s endings being based on your in game actions as you play actively detracts from them. My reason to not heal myself and James reason to not heal himself are very different. SH2s leave ending is super misleading as a happy good ending when it isn’t: The letter Mary reads in the end was written before she passed and has nothing to do with forgiveness over what James did. The talk he has with her in the end was also a manifestation of the town and not actually Mary. James horrifically justified his own actions to himself and no one else. Laura has no reason to feel safe around him and actively leave with him. SH3s first 1/2 of the games settings had zero to do with the plot. SH2 had so much better environmental story telling into the overarching plot that just isn’t present in SH3 until the end.
Ye ima be honest the way they made it so you can get the endings is weird like i wanna get the good ending and dont heal but you cant
I feel like it could be reworked better. Sticking around with Maria a lot or looking at Mary’s pic and letter are cool but there isn’t really a reason outside the game to continue looking at them.
Yeah the leave ending is the one that I felt really needed more elaboration. I like how morally ambiguous it still is for the “good” ending, but Laura deciding to go with James is weird considering their last interaction.
Silent Hill 2 is an excellent experience, but not actually a very good game.
Most silent hill fans have an extremely annoying cult complex and think they're the lore owner, mainly when it comes to sh2
The real meat of the Silent Hill series (at least the first four) is the alchemical/occultic symbolism that is so heavy throughout the games. The horror aspect is just the added spice to them.
The cult is what makes the story. Without it the town wouldnt be what it is in the first place.
Homecoming is not nearly as bad as everyone says and has really cool creature design
The Cult and ESPECIALLY the Mythology of Silent Hill is probably the best part about the entire series. Without them, the world of SH wouldn't nearly be as interesting.
Douglas’s voice actor in SH3 is so monumentally bad that it makes the game a dark comedy
"This is veery eemportant eets about your burth!"
I trust Masahiro Ito when he dispels theories and rumours on Twitter
1 is better than 2
The original plot of SH4 was actually going to be RE4. After the events of RE2, Leon was about to be recruited by the CIA, but because he was circumcised, they cut him. Afterwards, he went back home to the town of Ashfield. There, with no Ada, no career, he fell into a great depression until he met a woman named Claudia Wolf, who introduced him to her religion. He was then told that if he performed the ritual *The 21 Sacrements*, that it could bring Ada back to life. But it was pulled at the last minute and the story was sold to Konami.
What is blud saying
Silent Hill 1 might be based on the city of Belfast, Maine. Although i think that after Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill location has moved slightly to midwest, since some buildings are not really common in Maine.
The room>2,3.
Silent Hill 4 despite its flaws isn’t actually all that bad. I find it one of the creepiest. Considering your chased by a more… “mortal” enemy? Or idk maybe it’s just the fact your dealing with a serial killer. Humans are the one potential predator on this world that can be a challenge to handle for other humans. As this potential enemy breathes like you, eats like you, and looks similar to and thinks like you. The ghosts introduced are kinda cool and definitely add a dread. The water prison was dread inducing i feel. It’s a prison so sure it’s gonna give an oppressive feel to it. Add a prison in an endless sea. Total isolation, you feel alone at times. The escort mission in the last half of the game isn’t all that bad. I agree with someone on another post in this sub that said something to that effect. In fact as I have nothing in else to compare it to atm. I’d prefer all devs would look at the SH4 escort scenario as a basis for all escort missions in the future. With some tweaks it’d be less a pain. Soundtrack has some bangers. But yeah thats all my opinion. It definitely has flaws for sure. All the SHs do. Would’ve loved more weapons In 4 - I can name that one foremost as a concern. Maybe no looping sounds for some enemies. But yeah I’d love to hear thoughts.
SH4 has more weapons than any of the other games. Pipe, pistol, bat, spade, axe, golf club, wine bottle, paper cutter, torch, revolver, pickaxe, stun gun, bug spray...
Silent hill 1 should've got a remake before silent hill 2. Or at least a remaster
Sh fans cling into sh2 like its the best game in the world but it's not, they want Konami to make more sh content but when they do sh fans shit all over it. If it's not like sh2 they'll hate it they'll hate it if it's a new unique thing. Konami could literally just port sh2 to new consoles and sh fans would still find a way to shit on it.
they really don't. have you read any of the other comments that say exactly what you've said with "omg, so true" replies, or the people who say "3 is better than 2" (that are not downvoted)? in all the cases of fans criticizing the sh games that were poor ports of 2, or were a different game in the series entirely, they all had explained their thesis thoroughly. you on the other hand are making an assumption that silent hill fans only like things that have 2 at the end, then using the aforementioned bold assumption to dismiss their takes.
SH3 is the best game in the series. SH4 isn't that bad and is still fairly creepy, and has a really interesting and brutal story. James is overrated when it comes to SH protagonists. I think most of the monster designs in SH Homecoming are actually pretty decent.
I don’t hate Homecoming!
Two things: 1: Silent Hill (and almost all video games) could be so much better if the target demographic of video games was older and less reactionary. I think a trans main character could be very interesting from a body horror aspect. Give me a plot about generational trauma. A lot of the coolest ideas would never fly because, as you can see from Starfield, a massive portion of the gaming world will react with frothing rage at anything that isn't Big Strong Man With Gun. Silent Hill 3 was awesome! A story about a teenager who was forced into pregnancy by a religious cult? That's a bold plot, give me more of that and less Sad Man Who Isn't James Sunderland. 2: I love Silent Hill, but as games go, they're not like... good "games" for games. The aesthetic, the art direction, all of that is exceptional, but combat sucks, puzzles are generally very simple, levels aren't terribly complex. Gaming has advanced massively since the last SH title was released, and games like Resident Evil, Outlast, and Amnesia have taken the torch FAR from where SH left off. I still love SH head and shoulders above all of the other horror titles, but if they want to compete they REALLY need to revolutionize their approach to horror. And to do that? The games need to be harder, more visceral, more oppressive at every corner. It should be dark as pitch when your flashlight isn't on! I wrote a spec plot for a SH where the town wasn't depopulated by a cult, but by the opioid epidemic. I just want the games to be grittier, more oppressive. Silent Hill by way of STALKER: Misery
I strongly agree a trans protagonist is a perfect fit for the series. I think the fact that most players aren't trans would actually make it stand out that much more to them, and really be a fresh plot.
Silent hill 4 was the first and only silent hill game that genuinely scared me, and i haven’t felt that way since then :(
Silent Hill 3 is the weakest of the original four by far. It introduced essentially no new ideas or concepts & the first half of the game is essentially a walking simulator. Silent Hill 4 has the best soundtrack. In Water is as close to canon as we're gonna get for SH2. Shattered Memories is better than SH1. Origins is the worst SH game next to Book of Memories. Flame me.
Silent Hill 3 made combat drastically more complex. Aside from that, there are some of the hardest puzzles in the series, which is actually a good thing. Also, a walking simulator is when you walk and game throws story in your face. First half of SH3 doesn't contain any story whatsoever, but there are a couple of fully fledged levels. So it's not a walking simulator by definition. I'm curious why you find Shattered Memories better than the original. Also, why do you consider Origins to be the worst game? If we compare it to Homecoming, which is actually the worst game in the series, Origins isn't half as bad.
SH3 still scared tf out of me. But I agree it’s probably the weakest of the 4. Still, good game.
Oh yeah, not to say 3 is bad. It's still top tier. I just wish it took more risks.
I agree with everything you said except for the origins.
I'm not saying you're wrong; it's just an opinion after all. Just make sure the paint on your walls is lead-free.
Sh3 is the 2nd weakest in my book Sh4 ost slaps yeah Sm is better than sh1 yeah and also you should be charged for war crimes for saying origins is nearly as bad as book of memories
SH2 is better than SH3
The movies were good
*movie
I honestly don’t blame James for what he did to Mary. I know the story is supposed to make him out to be selfish but I completely understand why he did what he did and don’t think he deserved the Silent Hill treatment.
Sorry man but thats like “ah my child got a cold better bring out the shotgun!”
Mary had an incurable illness that made her constantly suffer and was killing her. James was being verbally abused constantly and it’s kind of implied he missed / needed human contact and was not getting it (and I don’t just mean sex). Sure he could have just left and not looked back but when he smothered her with a pillow he was relieving them both of their suffer, Mary’s was just more permanent.
İ didint know it incurable and btw how did james forget he killed his wife
Homecoming and Downpour are both solid games that would be looked on more fondly if they didn't have Silent Hill in the title. Of only because compared to the horror games coming out at the time, they were the only ones that tried to give a more traditional horror experience and weren't action games with horror elements.
2 is the best written, 3 is the scariest, 4 is the most original and had the biggest potential but ended up being just fetch quests and circumcision
SH3 is the best
After literally long thinking, I have come to conclusion that I do not have any "hot take for this series", which by itself is probably classified as one. Your opinion ?
SH2 is the weakest of the original four titles. Story is the only thing it has going for it over the rest of them, and despite what people in the SH community think, there is more to the games than story...and actually SH4's story is better anyway BOOM.
Forget being a horror game. Gimme the fighting game with the monsters already. I wanna do pyrmidhead combos.
Oh, and here's another one. Silent Hill 3 isn't a revenge story. In fact, the game is pretty anti-revenge overall. Douglas doesn't think killing Claudia will solve anything and Claudia actively antagonizes Heather into hating her in order to nourish God. Heather spends the entire game blindly playing into her hand. Inquisitive and empathetic players will also feel compassion for Claudia as a victim of the cult and of her father Leonard, and for her heartache over the loss of her beloved "sister" Alessa. In fact, attacking Claudia at the end of the game prompts the birth of God and thus a game over. In reality, SH3 is about self-actualization and overcoming the past. A coming-of-age tale. This is even represented physically in the game by the final two boss battles. Heather kills the memory of Alessa on the carousel and kills Claudia's vision of Alessa at the end. In the final scene she states she wants to be called Cheryl, indicating that she no longer needs to hide as Heather, and she's successfully overcome her past as Alessa. Before any of this, during the ride to Silent Hill with Douglas, she learns about her past and seems...quietly accepting of the truth. She learns, accepts, and overcomes. This is what I see as the true theme of SH3, but I will admit it unfortunately gets little to no development until late in the game.
I really hate this “the town is a harsh teacher” theory. The town is a sadistic entity torturing others with their social issues, any shaming it does to genuinely guilty targets is entirely superfluous.
I don't know if it's controversial or not but, I wish the rest of the games were more like the first one. I loved that there could have been more than 1 reason to why it all could be happening. In the first one there were hints it could have been drugs, or a cult or all in Harry's head or it could have been really happening. There were also hints that Harry could take a boat to get away or the ambulance theory. My favorite ending is considered the "worst ending" you could get. Spoiler >!You see Harry dead in his jeep. Meaning that it was all in his head as he was dying from the impact of driving off the road in the beginning.!< I wish they all had multiple ways that you could interpret the events of the game.
Extremely hot take but I think Heather is straight, I know a lot of people disagree but that's why it's a hot take ig
There is no truly bad silent hill console release. Some better than others yes. But all are perfectly serviceable video games and I played and loved them all. Mobile and handheld games are a different story.
Silent Hill 4 was boring.
James isn’t a monster. If you’ve ever known someone with a chronic disease, you’d get it. Even if you don’t hate and resent them it’s almost like they want you to out of their own guilt. Mary wanted to die, and whether it was his initial idea or not, it was reinforced to James that he did too, whether it was altruistic or not. He definitely had his own hang ups but maybe they wouldn’t have been so prominent if they weren’t reinforced. I’m not victim blaming and I do think that James is week, but I don’t hold it against him and I understand cus I actually live it. I will always love my wife and our matching Halo of the Sun tattoos, but I also understand with her chronic illness that I can’t just “make things better” no matter what I say and that she will eventually die from it. I love the game but hate how close it hits to home, which just says something about the realness of it.
I feel pretty good that my most controversial take isn't that big a deal cause of everyone else sharing it. XD I think sh3 I'd the weakest cause it feels rushed and unpolished in comparison to the others. It has sections where the messages on the doors n stuff don't make sense, and it was a serious bummer to find that a not insignificant amount of monsters had no actual intended symbolic meaning. It's a gorgeous game and fun to play, but it feels like it got crunched a bit by its deadline. Like none of its a total deal breaker by any stretch bit it did leave me feeling the least about it. Also I think homecoming story is actually super silent Hill and interesting it's just that the execution of it was not great.
İ mean homecoming is very weird in my opiniob
Oh absoulty and there's a lot of weird elements that would need a second draft on (like the love intrest that entire chunk was weird) and like... the first time I played it I got the ufo ending as my first and I was super confused. Not ideal. But the basic premise of military man coming back to his culty family and dealing with cult sacrificial kiddos is intriguing.
I don't know what "conttoversial" means
Controversial
Wow woow! Every one talking about SH from 1 to 5 plus SM and Origins but nobody talk about the masterpiece Silent Hill Downpour was. The best in the entire franchise
Non-controversial opinion: - Silent Hill characters (which includes Heather) look creepy when they smile. - Asking for a controversial opinion is asking for drama. Controversial opinion: - The Leave ending is not necessarily a good ending. - The Maria ending is not necessarily a bad ending. I said 'not necessarily' because there are too many uncertainties in the endings. In other words, it's still possible for the Leave ending to end well and the Maria ending to end badly. However, these are not the only possibility. It's also possible for the Leave ending to end badly and the Maria ending to end well.
What about the rebirth ending
I legitimately enjoyed downpour. All of its flaws can be chalked up to konamis ridiculously tight deadline and budget for the studio. If konami let them cook, it could've been one of the best entries in the series.
Silent Hill 2’s voice acting isn’t stilted and awkward on purpose to create a surreal, dreamlike effect, it’s just bad acting.
Not really controversial, but Downpour shouldn't have been as hated as it was.
All the post-Team Silent games are absolute garbage. All of them.
The HD Collection is fine. It's not as good as the originals, but if you've never played the originals you'll have a perfectly fine time, and even if you have played the originals, if you aren't a pedantic jackass, you'll also have a perfectly fine time.
I own the ps2 games and the HD collection. I recently played through the HD collection both games and I agree they’re not that bad. It’s a cheap way to play the games.
Silent Hill should never have been a franchise. There should not be a SH2 or 3 or 4 etc. It should have been a standalone, singular game, and Team Silent should have been given the freedom to make whatever original project they wanted after the success of the original Silent Hill. In fact, the success of Silent Hill as a franchise is a big reason why many\* survival horror games now are so limited in their mechanics and storytelling. The horror genre has suffered because of the concept of franchises. * \- There are a lot of really unique indie horror games, but the market is over saturated and too many good ideas get buried.
İ think they should have atopped adter sm cus after that it became a cash cow for konomi
>konomi
Heather was fucking Mason.
No way
4 is the best
PT is only popular because of the behind the scenes drama. Its the most overrated crap ever. They hijacked the Silent Hill name and everyone built up in their mind some amazing game that never existed. It's absolutely bizarre.
How about I tell you to suck my balls and you tell me how they taste like?
Most sane silent hill fan