Zhiqing Wan
Best Silent Hill Games, Ranked
9. Silent Hill: Book of Memories
I’m not quite sure what Konami and WayForward were thinking with this one, but you’d be hard pressed to find a series fan who considers Book of Memories a true Silent Hill game. Instead of being a game about psychological horror filled with tormented characters and complex protagonists, Book of Memories was a top-down, isometric dungeon-crawler that focused on multiplayer action and RPG grinds instead of, y’know, Silent Hill itself. The gameplay isn’t terrible, per se, and dungeon crawler fans will have a lot of fun picking up loot and finding new types of weapons to experiment with. But for series fans, the less said about this one, the better and it definitely doesn’t come close to touching the best Silent Hill games.
8. Silent Hill: Origins
If you’re looking for the most basic of basic Silent Hill games to play while you’re on the go, Origins fits that bill perfectly. As the name suggests, Origins takes place a few years before the events of the original game, and follows the story of a trucker named Travis. He’s got his own personal problems to deal with, and those issues are certainly manifested in this iteration of the lonely town, but he’s just not quite as compelling as the other protagonists we’ve seen in the series. Origins also brings back some familiar faces including Lisa, Dahlia, and Michael Kaufmann. It’s pretty neat to find out more about these characters and learn what they were up to before Harry Mason came around. But ultimately, Origins feels more like a knockoff Silent Hill game with no particularly memorable moments or plot points to speak of. It’s on the PSP, though. Portable Silent Hill is always a nice thing to have when you’re feeling bored on your commute.
7. Silent Hill: Homecoming
Homecoming is the sixth entry in the horror franchise, and it follows the story of Alex Shepherd, a soldier who comes home only to find that his mom is now catatonic, and his brother and father are now missing. Needless to say, shit inevitably goes down when Alex eventually finds his family and uncovers a horrifying truth about himself and the people around him. Honestly, the story would’ve been a lot more hard-hitting if it didn’t feel like a rip-off of Silent Hill 2. Plus, bringing Pyramid Head back for no other reason than “he’s iconic and scary” felt awfully cheap, and only served to weaken the story’s impact. Homecoming was also the first game in the series to actually implement a proper combat system where Alex could perform light and heavy attacks, chain combos, and dodge enemies skillfully. It wasn’t a bad game to play, but overall Homecoming focused too hard on the ‘combat’ aspect rather than the psychological horror, which is what we’re all really here for.
6. Silent Hill: Downpour
Prison inmate Murphy Pendleton serves as the main protagonist of Downpour, and he actually ends up being one of the most interesting characters we’ve seen in the series. Downpour starts you off in jail, where Murphy bribes a prison guard to allow him access to a pedophile and fellow inmate in the showers. Murphy then proceeds to brutally murder him. This entire segment serves as the game’s basic tutorial of the controls and really helps to set the tone for the rest of the journey. Murphy hides a lot of secrets in his past, and Downpour does a fantastic job of pacing out the story and constantly leaving the player wanting to find out more about him. Downpour also manages to be sufficiently creepy with the introduction of the rain mechanic. Aside from the persisting fog of Silent Hill, players also have to watch out for rainfall, as the water makes enemies appear more frequently, and also more aggressive. Downpour is full of intriguing puzzles and set pieces. It’s no Silent Hill 1 or 2, that’s for sure, but it’s a damn good effort on Vatra Games’ part to bring the franchise back to life and still holds up fairly well today.
5. Shattered Memories
As a Wii-exclusive game that uses motion controls, no one really expected Shattered Memories to be as good as it turned out to be. Following the story of Silent Hill’s OG protagonist Harry Mason, Shattered Memories has essentially the same premise as Silent Hill 1 –Harry’s in town, searching for his missing daughter Cheryl. However, the story’s been altered quite a bit, and you’ll meet familiar faces from the first game, but they’ll all act a little differently from how you remember them. The game cuts between the exploration segments and first-person psychotherapy sessions between the player and Michael Kaufmann. Before long, Shattered Memories starts messing with your head, and forces you to question what really happened in Silent Hill when Harry went looking for his daughter. The puzzles aren’t great in Shattered Memories, and the gameplay is markedly different from what fans are used to –you’ll run from enemies while trying to escape an area, and you can’t fight back. Still, it’s an awesome take on a classic story, and it’s a must-play for fans who couldn’t get enough of the original Silent Hill and its memorable characters, and it is remembered as one of the better Silent Hill games out there.
4. Silent Hill 4: The Room
The Room plays out completely differently from the rest of the Silent Hill games, but it ends up being one of the most uncomfortable entries in the series. In a good way. You step into the shoes of Henry Townshend as he finds himself trapped inside his own apartment. These apartment segments are played out in first-person view where you examine items and try to interact with the outside world (spoiler: no one can hear you scream). Oh, there are also very ominous holes in various walls in your apartment. Henry climbs through these to enter another world where he interacts with various NPCs, and piece together clues about the life of a certain Walter Sullivan. Series fans will recognize Sullivan’s name as it’s been featured prominently in past games as a serial killer. In fact, some of his past victims actually served as bosses in previous games as well. The Room excels at making the player feel uneasy and unsettled in Henry’s apartment –a place that’s supposed to be his (and your) safe haven. It’s different, but The Room is delightfully creepy and innovative in the way it presents its story.
3. Silent Hill 3
Silent Hill 3 is a direct continuation of the original, and it follows the story of Heather Mason, a teenage girl who was raised by Harry. She ends up going to Silent Hill (surprise) to learn more about her origins, and she eventually gets caught up with some very dubious cult members in the town. Heather is a bit of a whiny teenage girl, and Silent Hill 3 is definitely the weakest entry in the original trilogy, but props must be given to this one for being unafraid to tackle themes of childbirth and fertility in a totally horrific manner. Following Silent Hill’s story of screwed up parentage and bloodlines, SH3 is full of grotesque bosses that embody those themes, and gloriously disgusting set pieces where Heather literally pukes out a baby. And then the evil cult leader, Claudia, eats that same baby, and you’re tasked with defeating the demonic god that grows from the fetus you just threw up. Silent Hill 3 closed out the original story rather nicely and is one of the best Silent Hill games. Some fans will argue that the game could’ve used a better, more relatable protagonist, but I like to think that Heather’s teenage angst only added to its charm over the years. We also got our first look at the very creepy Robbie the Rabbit.
2. Silent Hill
I’m not quite sure where to start with this one. I think composer Akira Yamaoka really set the tone for the entire game with that amazing score used in the opening movie. There’s also something really unsettling about those PS1 character models in the cutscenes that I can’t quite put my finger on. With how limited the PS1 hardware must have been during the 90s, Team Silent made the game work by covering everything in fog, creating an iconic atmosphere that you won’t soon forget whenever someone utters the words “survival horror”. Aside from the music and well-done environments, Silent Hill is also full of complex characters that you meet along the way. They could be allies, they could end up backstabbing you later on, or you might end up having to kill them even if you don’t want to. The game makes you wonder, if not care, about these characters, and there’s that one thought that’s always going to niggle at the back of your mind: can I trust these people? Silent Hill doesn’t thrive on jump scares. It excels at being a creeping terror, making the player afraid of going around every corner because you can’t even imagine what you’re going to see next and it’s one of the best Silent Hill games for sure.
1. Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 2 is likely one of the first games that’ll immediately come to mind whenever the topic of horror games comes up. It’s a classic for a reason; this is a game that doesn’t rely on jump scares or traditional scare tactics to instill fear in the player. It’s a psychological horror game that isn’t afraid to ask you: “What if we’re all just prisoners of our own natures?” This is a game that forces its characters to grapple with themselves, their pasts, their futures, their sense of agency and acceptance all throughout its runtime. Pyramid Head is creepy, sure. The dead nurses are terrifying, yes. But Silent Hill 2 recognizes that true horror comes from within, it comes from finding out what you’re really capable of, and whether you have the capacity to break free from that. Silent Hill 2 is also a game with multiple endings, but the game world actively pays attention to your actions and adapts to what you do. Reading your dead wife’s letter too much means that James is subconsciously thinking about her the whole time, and staring at a knife too much means James probably has thoughts of murder in his head, or something to that effect. Staying at critical health throughout the entire journey? Well, that probably means James has a death wish. There are no binaries in Silent Hill 2. You don’t perform X activity to get Y ending. By the end of the game (regardless of which ending you see), you start to realize that the terrifying enemies you see in town aren’t even scary compared to what’s really in James’ head. Silent Hill 2 is, hands down, the best Silent Hill game, and a game that shows the industry what real psychological horror looks like. That does it for our ranking of the best Silent Hill games. Disagree with our picks? Let us know!
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