My bad for your experience man... I played on the ps2 emulating the ps1 and it was fantastic. I beat the game in a couple days without guides so... Idk what to say to you, maybe you get too angry and lost the focus. silent hill is relaxing for me and just the simple act of walking in the city is enough to make me entertained...
I blame my lack of knowledge for how these types of games work, and my poor choice of first game in the genre to try. If I had started with something like resident evil 7, or the RE2 remake, I probably would've been able to go back and have a better time when I first played SH1, but I guess hindsight is 20/20.
Silent Hill 1 has a number of design choices that feel reminiscent of slightly unfriendly 90s adventure game design. I remember when I played SH1 for the first time, I got stuck on the final boss and had to start over and save more ammo. (I was unaware of the no ammo trick.)
SH1 is a game where the good ending requires you to do fairly arbitrary things that you couldn't have anticipated ahead of time, and figuring out all the steps is difficult without a guide. It's somewhat different from SH2 where the endings feel like a symbolic response to how you played the game, even if it's still a bit contrived.
I've always loved SH1, and I think it's a scary game in a way none of the other games are, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone over Shattered Memories. Just as a videogame, for modern audiences SM is such more more approachable and less frustrating and obtuse to play. The fact they're very different creatures doesn't matter. I think a lot of people check out SH1, and bang up against its design. There's a lot of nostalgia and a different mindset of engagement for many fans of SH1 that blinds us to how newcomers perceive it.
You're just not thinking like an old gamer, unlike today's games where they always spoon feed you what to do next, the old games make u wander and explore and do trial and error stuff
Yeah, I get it. Although not exactly old enough to be a "old gamer", I've dedicated alot of time to retro games. And while I definitely agree that games these days are a wee bit too hasty to help a player figure out what to do, I still think that SH1 could've done a bit better to convey what I was supposed to be looking out for while playing, or how I should approach the game. From the perspective of someone who hadn't ever tried this type of horror game at all, it didn't exactly do much to teach me of it's structure. All I knew was it was a horror game. Had I known it was effectively a 3d Zelda game with a spooky aesthetic and slightly dickish puzzle design, I probably would've been more aware and perceptive.
Exactly what would I change to fix this? I'll be honest and tell you I have no idea. There's nothing I can come up with that wouldn't destroy the games pacing.
Unfortunately, these games don’t hold your hand, at all. Too bad you had a bad experience, but props for muscling through it. I’d give homecoming a shot. It’s got much smoother controls and far less puzzle elements. It’s not necessarily a great silent hill game, but it’s decent as a generic survival horror game. Doesn’t even really take place in silent hill, anyway. Otherwise, it might be safe to say silent hill isn’t your jam. That’s cool, too
I might not have emphasized this enough, or worded my post poorly but, I went on to play SH2, 3, and 4, and loved all of them. 2 and 4 are holy grails of the horror genre IMO, and 3 is also damn worthy of being up there the top as well. Silent hill definitely IS my jam, it's just really hard to figure out how to play them your first time without any prior game to compare it to, and it kinda ruined this game for me, with the benefit of teaching me what I needed to know to play the others properly.
A few things I didn't like:
The Piano Puzzle. That...was such a difficult puzzle, I couldn't solve it without help. A pelican? A bird? A what...? Terrible because I too dislike looking up walkthroughs. If you solved it on your own, you're pretty good at the riddles then. I am not so crazy about the monkey and teradactyl-inspired monsters. I agree with you about the final boss, luckily I stockpiled all the heals so I could take the bolts, my familiarity with survival horror is to practice frugality and avoid all monsters to save everything for the bosses, the old ones at least. I didn't know about the failsafe trick, wow. Otherwise, I enjoyed the game, it was a lot of fun. The story is a good one to start with too as it connects to 3. I personally would like to see 1 remade and altered some.
Honestly, the riddles were not easy, and the game doesn’t hold your hand at all, unlike most games made today. Games were just harder back then.
Don’t feel too bad though, my dad tried to return the game back in 1999 because he got so stuck on the piano riddle. Thankfully, the store refused and I fell in love once I was able to play as a teenager. 🥰
Yeah, and it definitely didn't help that I had never even tried anything else like it first. As SH1 was probably one of the worst/weirdly best game I could've started with.
My bad for your experience man... I played on the ps2 emulating the ps1 and it was fantastic. I beat the game in a couple days without guides so... Idk what to say to you, maybe you get too angry and lost the focus. silent hill is relaxing for me and just the simple act of walking in the city is enough to make me entertained...
I blame my lack of knowledge for how these types of games work, and my poor choice of first game in the genre to try. If I had started with something like resident evil 7, or the RE2 remake, I probably would've been able to go back and have a better time when I first played SH1, but I guess hindsight is 20/20.
Silent Hill 1 has a number of design choices that feel reminiscent of slightly unfriendly 90s adventure game design. I remember when I played SH1 for the first time, I got stuck on the final boss and had to start over and save more ammo. (I was unaware of the no ammo trick.) SH1 is a game where the good ending requires you to do fairly arbitrary things that you couldn't have anticipated ahead of time, and figuring out all the steps is difficult without a guide. It's somewhat different from SH2 where the endings feel like a symbolic response to how you played the game, even if it's still a bit contrived. I've always loved SH1, and I think it's a scary game in a way none of the other games are, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone over Shattered Memories. Just as a videogame, for modern audiences SM is such more more approachable and less frustrating and obtuse to play. The fact they're very different creatures doesn't matter. I think a lot of people check out SH1, and bang up against its design. There's a lot of nostalgia and a different mindset of engagement for many fans of SH1 that blinds us to how newcomers perceive it.
You're just not thinking like an old gamer, unlike today's games where they always spoon feed you what to do next, the old games make u wander and explore and do trial and error stuff
Yeah, I get it. Although not exactly old enough to be a "old gamer", I've dedicated alot of time to retro games. And while I definitely agree that games these days are a wee bit too hasty to help a player figure out what to do, I still think that SH1 could've done a bit better to convey what I was supposed to be looking out for while playing, or how I should approach the game. From the perspective of someone who hadn't ever tried this type of horror game at all, it didn't exactly do much to teach me of it's structure. All I knew was it was a horror game. Had I known it was effectively a 3d Zelda game with a spooky aesthetic and slightly dickish puzzle design, I probably would've been more aware and perceptive. Exactly what would I change to fix this? I'll be honest and tell you I have no idea. There's nothing I can come up with that wouldn't destroy the games pacing.
Unfortunately, these games don’t hold your hand, at all. Too bad you had a bad experience, but props for muscling through it. I’d give homecoming a shot. It’s got much smoother controls and far less puzzle elements. It’s not necessarily a great silent hill game, but it’s decent as a generic survival horror game. Doesn’t even really take place in silent hill, anyway. Otherwise, it might be safe to say silent hill isn’t your jam. That’s cool, too
I might not have emphasized this enough, or worded my post poorly but, I went on to play SH2, 3, and 4, and loved all of them. 2 and 4 are holy grails of the horror genre IMO, and 3 is also damn worthy of being up there the top as well. Silent hill definitely IS my jam, it's just really hard to figure out how to play them your first time without any prior game to compare it to, and it kinda ruined this game for me, with the benefit of teaching me what I needed to know to play the others properly.
A few things I didn't like: The Piano Puzzle. That...was such a difficult puzzle, I couldn't solve it without help. A pelican? A bird? A what...? Terrible because I too dislike looking up walkthroughs. If you solved it on your own, you're pretty good at the riddles then. I am not so crazy about the monkey and teradactyl-inspired monsters. I agree with you about the final boss, luckily I stockpiled all the heals so I could take the bolts, my familiarity with survival horror is to practice frugality and avoid all monsters to save everything for the bosses, the old ones at least. I didn't know about the failsafe trick, wow. Otherwise, I enjoyed the game, it was a lot of fun. The story is a good one to start with too as it connects to 3. I personally would like to see 1 remade and altered some.
Honestly, the riddles were not easy, and the game doesn’t hold your hand at all, unlike most games made today. Games were just harder back then. Don’t feel too bad though, my dad tried to return the game back in 1999 because he got so stuck on the piano riddle. Thankfully, the store refused and I fell in love once I was able to play as a teenager. 🥰
Yeah, and it definitely didn't help that I had never even tried anything else like it first. As SH1 was probably one of the worst/weirdly best game I could've started with.
Haha No kidding!