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Silent Hill for PlayStation 1
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Silent Hill for PlayStation 1
85 reviews   4.62 of 5

Product Description

Strength


The Silent Hill series at its core is about HUMANITY our needs,vices and most of all our SINS. They bring you into the world Silent Hill wich is basically a purgatory of types with all types of interesting and fairly well fleshed out characters that are just as mortal and human as any of us.

This not only makes the Silent Hill games more believable but much more interesting and enveloping to the player/ gamer that experiences all that wich affects the characters of the games in a much more visceral way than any other videogames (or even many movies or novels for that matter) have ever come close to competently portraying.

That being said this particular review is about the original Silent Hill wich In my opinion is the most horrific of all the SHs with a storyline that matches if not succeeds in beating the one told in Silent Hill 2.
In fact if you include SH3 as part of the original Silent Hill (wich part 3 is the direct sequel to the original) then it is faar exceeds the excellence of parts 2 and 4.

Silent Hill 1 starts out at a slightly slow pace but the player will immediately recognize that this is not your run-of-the-mill survival horror game in that it very successfully creates a mood that is definitley one of a kind with its thick atmoshpere and incrediblely haunting music.

The storyline of the original SH is by far its biggest attraction. Harry Mason loses his daughter Cheryl at the beggining and searches for her through the remainder of the game. All the while you begin to discover and uncover all the horrendous details about the town that is Silent Hill.

The music in Silent Hill 1 (as with the rest of the series) is one of its greatest attributes and is a driving force in the game it is quite possibly one of the best uses of not only music but sound FX in any game or movie series ever created.

All in all I Highly recommend this game to any gamer or even non-gamer to anyone that is a fan of the horror genre of movies , games or novels.

Silent Hill one is a true masterpiece and a true work of art wich is a rare thing as far as videogames go and includes such works as ICO (PS2) and Shenmue (Dreamcast and part2 on Xbox) and even newer (and thankfully more successful) game like Shadow of the Collossus.

It is my hope that someday video games like Silent Hill and the others mentioned above will be recognized as works of art.

There are many ppl that are actually fans of the Silent Hill series of games that are NOT fans of the Resident Evil games. So you never know.

Overall this is one of the harder games of the series including part 3 So begginers might want to try out the casual-favored part2 or even moreso Silent Hill 4:the room since it was lightened up,toned down and made quite a bit easier purposefully by team silent hill at KONAMI to try to reach past the already hardcore Silent Hill fan-base to reach other more casual gamers.


Weakness


The graphics of the original PSone version of Silent Hill are dated yes, but are still perfectly adequate for the material at hand; meaning as TEAM SILENT HILL at Konami has stated the original PSXs limited graphics capabilities actually helped to create the type of environment that the SH games are so well known for. YES that means lots of fog and limited view of sight BUT that is also prevalent in SH2 and 3 for a reason ,it helps to convey a sense of being lost and alone with only yourself to depend on.
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Summary

I love this game!!!!! I played this long before I played the first Resident Evil (I was never really interested in the RE series) and personally thought that RE sucked. Comparing the two is an obvious move since they're of the same genre and have many similiarities but saying it's an RE ripoff cause it has health drinks and zombies is like calling Army of Darkness a Night of the Living Dead ripoff. I have played and beaten this game more times than I can count and cannot believe how every time it is still entertaining and I always see something new. This was the second game I played on PS1 (I bought Parasite Eve first) and I still play it now on my PS2. Along with the sequel and I'll be buying the third the day it comes out. The plot, the characters, the gameplay, the sound, everything. I love this whole game.
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Summary

Briliant!! I just started writing reviews for games so cut me some slack, i have played this game when it first came out in '99 i didnt JUST start playing it. it was fun then and its still fun now, i havent played it in a while, im busy with PS2 gear now..but when i did play this game i must have beaten it a dozen times, it is so damn fun at first i didnt think it would be this good. because its alot like resident evil, F** it surpassses resident evil in many ways, the camera is very unique and presise its very good i love it you can change the view if you dont like the way it starts out..the game is so spooky and its a MUST have for all you gamers out there, the story is so excellent i will never get bored of it ever. now the graphics arent tooo good, but graphics do not make a game, i have no prob with the graphics at all, the sound ahh sorta good, with the exception of bad acting the sound is awesome and sweet too. i know its an old game but i had to put my 2 cents in and let you review-readers know that I am just another Silent hill fan who really appreciates these types of games i had to beat the game with a strategy guide ( i had it to begin with so it just came in handy) i love beating this game in one day all at the same time never stopping takes about 4 hours, i love exploring the city as well...the enemies aren't toooo difficult to beat or anything, this game was revolved around the story more then action so its okay this game is a must have, bar none its pure genius and i believe i wasn't a true gamer untill i played this very game
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Summary

This game is a trip. I've played it 15 hours and I've already been abducted by aliens, had my crotch grabbed by freaky knife-wielding teddy bears, been attack by a half man, half monkey, run around a foggy town with a pterodactyl biting my ass, hacked a nurse with a pulsating blob on her back to pieces with a chainsaw, seen some headless dolls, run around a rusty school, attacked by thin-legged lizards, seen mutilated, crucified corpses, picked up a mysterious bottle, revived someone from a zombiefied status, pushed a fourth floor button that wasn't there before, opened a bloody locker, seen some freaky bodies with their leg flesh pulled to their shoulders, opened a door in a painting, heard crying in a bathroom, shot a winged demon repeatedly with a rifle, seen a character start bleeding, and I haven't even covered the REALLY freaky scenes.
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Sound

The overall sound in Silent Hill is one of the main contributing factors in what make it such a great game. They set just the right kind of mood. They are soft, and distant, and rather strange. So is the music (Your pocket radio plays strange music when a bad guy is near.Very creepy). Except in one part where they use the sounds of what sounds like clashing metal as music.
Now the voices are a different story. I think that Harry's voice was just a bit too mellow for the situation. Its not even that he is mono-toned, he just sounds too relaxed. Cybil too. But all the other voices were just fine.The only other problem was the timing. It was pretty bad. There was like a 3-5 second delay between every sentence, or pause, and it was kind of annoying. But, whatever.

Gameplay

The beautiful thing about Silent Hill is the fact that you play the role of a normal person in a completely abnormal situation. Harry (the character whom which you play), has no special training, no special weapons, and no super powers. Just this alone makes Silent Hill more interesting.
Now, even though Harry might not be the quickest guy in the world, he is rather easy to control.Part of this is because the camera view never changes (unless you make it), which means you stay behind Harry the whole time. This is good because walk with Harry, and you feel like you can interact with your surrounding environment more. Unlike the annoying set camera angles that the game chooses for you, which constantly changes and gives you the "sit back and watch" kind of feeling.
The game also gives you the perfect feeling of suspense and terror due to the surrounding environment. Either its too foggy, or too dark to see much of anything, and if its not awkwardly quiet, you are hearing soft moans or breathing in the distance, or are hear faint "haunted house" style music in the background. Another thing that might scare you is the fact that you never really know whats going on. Just when you think that things cant get any worse, they never fail to. Nothing in Silent Hill seems real. Silent Hill is just as much of a mind game as it is a video game.
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Summary

I'll admit it.I'm a chicken.I'm one of the biggest wusses who ever walked this planet.
I jump at the slightest noises,and I'm afraid of
the stupidest things.But I was extremly dissapointed with the low fear factor in Silent Hill.Sure,everyone raves about how terrifying
and disturbing it is,but I played it HOME ALONE,
in the PITCH DARK,LATE AT NIGHT,and I wasin't scared.Seriously,couldin't they have done a better
job of scaring me?I had alot of fun out of this game even if it wasin't that scary.But my
biggest beef is the duration.This is the shortest
Playstation game I have ever played.The length
is just ridiculous,you could probably sit down and beat it in two hours.So that was extremly
dissapointing for me,I would have liked this game much better had it lasted longer.The story is simple,nothing like a Final Fantasy.You're
Harry.Harry Mason.A middle aged average guy who lost his wife to a disease a few years back.
Now it's just him and his cute little seven year
old daughter Cheryl.Harry decides to drive to Silent Hill with Cheryl for a vacation.On the way there,a teenage girl steps into the road and Harry swerves to avoid her,and the jeep lands in
a ditch.He's knocked unconscious and when he wakes up Cheryl's missing.Now it's your job to find her.There's a small cast of characters,
a crazy old woman named Dahlia Gillespie,
a lovely young nurse named Lisa Garland,
and a blond female cop named Cybil Bennet
as well as a male hospital worker (I forgot his name),and Alyssa.They're the only living humans
in Silent Hill,the rest of the population consists
of skinless bloody dogs,large skinless flying birds,knife weilding zombie kids,and more.
Of course,they're all anxious to chomp down on a piece of Harry's flesh.What's a nice change is
that fact that Harry's your average Joe.He's
not a arse kicking martial artist,a master sniper,
or a staff weilding sorcerer,he's merely a middle
aged average simgle parent who's never held a gun in his hand in his life.He's a bit clumsy,and
when you stop after running,he'll lean over to catch his breath.He's not very agile,either.If
you're not careful he'll topple right off the front steps and bite the dirt.So naturally,his aim in the beginning of the game isin't perfect,
but he gets better and better as he uses it more and more.





Sound

Let me state that the voice acting for Harry and Cybil are awful.The male hospital worker,Lisa,
and Dahlia Gillespie are pretty good,though.
I just hate how Harry seems pretty unxciteable.
Oh,I nearly got killed in a car accident,my
little girl's missing,possibly lieing in a pool
of blood with a skinless dog gnawing on her neck,
I keep having nightmares,I don't know what's
real anymore,and this crazy old hag's telling me
the town is being devoured by darkness.Yeah,
everything's cool with Harry.He never even thinks
that Cheryl could be dead,he's just gonna round up her little buns and take her on home.Piece o' cake,right?And Cybil is even worse.But the sounds are great.You can hear the zombie kids giggle as they hack at you with a knife,you can hear chains clanking and heavy breathing,and that doom filled
music that plays occasionally is awesome.There's hardly ever any kind of music to speak of,except
in the beginning FMV,but that music seems a little out of place in a horror game.It sounds
kind of like some wierd mexican music,but it's fine.

THE FINAL WORD:This game is a pretty fun experience while it lasts,so I recommend renting it.The graphics are crappy for the Playstation,
but they work.It didn't scare me,but it will probably scare you.

Gameplay

I already discussed the gameplay!!
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Summary

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Harry! Watch out for that huge lizard monster about to eat..*loud chewing noises* Oops, too late." Thats what you'll be yelling when you play this game. The fear is not based on Gruesome monsters and huge explosions that can blow your character to mince meat if youre not careful. Ohhhh no, this my friends is a phycological fear maker. If youre saying "Ah why listen to this guy? Resident Evils probably scarier." Than you try playing at midnight with no lights on when "somebody" Whams on the door with all their might and runs away. A true masterpiece.

Designed to scare the living s*** out of you.The creepy monsters with no skin look annoying, and you wish they would go away. at first... then half an hour later your praying for them to come back so you don't have to face the "Things" as I call them. As for the 666 hours, Thats just a little joke. hey wait whats that wierd shadow? *I turn around slowly* AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

I used to be one of those people who would sit and watch Evil Dead alone coz my older sister was hiding in the other room crying her eyes out. And go to sleep smiling. Now I'm a person who never watches horror movies alone and blares music when they sleep as if to ward off monsters. and evey siren I hear I hide immediatly. (No Joke!)

Here are some gameplay tips: Don't stand in the middle of a room and attack or the monsters will sneak behind you, rip yer head off, and spit down yer throat. Also when you get the katana you have a greater chance of surviving. If youre trapped in a corner. pull er out and swing away. you'll glide forward, be out of the corner, and possibly hurt the enemies.

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Summary

Ohhh man. This game is messed-up. SERIOUSLY messed up. And I LOVED every minute of it. I've never played a game that embodies the "horror" aspect of "survival horror" as well as this one.
Oh sure, RE2 and Dino Crisis had some good thrills on occassion, but they were usually the cheap "jump-out-and-mess-your-pants" scares that every B-grade teen slasher film uses.
Not Silent Hill. Ohh no. The programmers at Konami wanna scare the living sh-t out of you. And they accomplished this all too well. The game relies on very unsettling environments, highly disturbing imagery (a la The Shining), and some truly inspired monsters like psychotic babies, knife-wielding nurses, and weird flying beasts. I'm not embarrassed to admit that this game scared me witless on multiple occasions. To get the full effect, play at 12 AM with the lights off, the doors and blinds shut, and the volume turned up. If you can play the game under these circumstances without stopping every 10 minutes to collect your sanity, looking around after every sound, OR jumping clean out of your skin when someone opens the door, you're a far better gamer than I!
For me, the only game that provided comparable scare factor to this was the original Clock Tower. Like Clock Tower, Silent Hill is a classic and a master of its genre.

Sound

Ohh boy. The combination of creepy orchestration and random noises will drive you insane!! Masterful sound, excepting the voice acting, which leads to some unintended laughs.

Gameplay

The story boils down to this: You're Harry Mason, going on a road trip with your daughter. Something runs into the road, you swerve off the road and crash. You wake up, your daughter's missing, you run into the town of Silent Hill looking for her. You meet some normal people: a female police officer, a doctor, a nurse, an insane old lady. OK, now to the good part.
There's a normal world and a "nightmare" world. The latter is an dirty, bloody, industrial world that's eerier than you could possibly imagine. What REALLY sets this game apart, however, is the sudden switch from normal to nightmare, in the blink of an eye, with NO warning whatsoever. First time this happened, my reaction was "oh sh!t.." and to turn right around and head back. Which you can't do. You've got places like a hospital, a big top circus (fortunately there aren't any deranged clowns), and *shudder* *twitch* a demented school. I've never seen scarier environments for ANY video game.
Another unique aspect is wnadering around in the darkness, which is brilliant, and a concept that I wish was used more often. You'll be wandering through the dark with only a flashlight to aid you...of course the monsters are attracted to your light, and if you dare the light can be turned off! Very clever and creepy.
The controls play almost exactly like RE. If you know RE, you'll have no trouble whatsoever with these controls. Combat is easy once you get your timing down and use your ammo at a miserly rate. Harry's a bit of a klutz. He can fall down, he gets winded if he runs too much, and he's a lousy shot. He's an average guy, not some genetically-engineered supersoldier. I like that.
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Summary

This is not a resident evil ripoff as most would say, whoever says it is probably hasn't played it all. Does resident evil have nurses with knives? I dont think so. Does it have an evil world and a normal world? Definatly not. I havent finished the game yet but here is a tip, NEVER PLAY ALONE WITH THE LIGHTS OFF UNLESS YOU ARE COMPLEETLY IMMUNE TO BEING FRIGHTENED!! The hell world is the most original (and freaky) idea ive seen yet Once i was playing alone at about 10:00 and every 1 minute and thirty seconds i had to pause, change the channel and watch a peaceful show. most people are afraid of the dark, the game uses this to it's advantage. Here is another tip, check everything this can help you find items, solve puzzles or find out what the hell is going on. I've watched the beginning cinema about 1,000 times and i never get tired of it.
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Summary

If you expect your little brother Tyler to watch you play this game with you, blind him with pepper spray. THIS GAME IS NOT FOR KIDDIES!!! Harry, don't turn out those lights! What? They turned themself off? Where's a save point when you need it?! Welcome to hell, er... um, Silent Hill. I can tell you right now, I hate this game... I'm scared to look at it let alone play it. It's terrible... and the greatest game I've ever played! I wish this was a book, if only they made the GBA import from Japan... come on Nintendo! This is the scariest game I've ever played! If you enjoy movies like scream... and grose bloody bodies hanging from the ceiling everywhere you turn, take a peek and run from Silent Hill. I haven't beat the game, so you may wish not to trust this review... but you don't need a review to love this game! It's confusing... much too confusing, but it's a mystery you really want to solve. So many things happen to scare you that you just pause the game and slam on the Playstation power button, curl up into a little ball and cry until the cows come home. Now I can see how anyone 10-13 can get scared of this, but older teens may realise it's just a game and thinks it's boaring. Little kids have way too much of an imagination and will be afraid to open a closed door for weeks wondering what might be waiting on the other side... The game starts off on the lone highway. Your wife died of a disease some time ago, and your 8 year old daughter are on a vacation to Silent Hill. You do end up there but not the way you expected. You see someone on a motorcycle pass you... no big deal. But it become's a big deal when the motorcycle ends up on the side of the road with no one on it! You have nothing to do here but drive on until someone walks in front of your car, covers their eyes from the light... BAM, ERT, CRASH!!! You wake up in Silent Hill with your daughter... missing! And your cool Jeep trashed... but I loved that car! Is that Cheryl in the distance? Come back Cheryl! It's getting dark... get that flashlight and enter the eternal mist a hunting we will go! Who did you hit with your car... GASP! Could it be... was that... oh my gosh it must have been... oops, out of time, on to the next section.

Sound

Scratchy, errie, and terrible!!! Thank god! This is what I want, this is what Konami wanted and it turned out awesome! It may not have much music, it may not be as dramatic as Final Fatasy, Chrono Cross or Castlevania (another great Konami game) but still gives that errie long Cello and Violen tone of Jaws. There are noises that just come out of nowhere to scare you... I'll give you examples but if you don't want to know what happens stop reading this review.
When you walk down a hallway, you may try to open a door, but when you walk by the next time where there's no music, you will hear a loud click and voila! Easy enterance. When you start up a generator many different sounds will come up around the entire area, always different from different areas and blocking out the radio static so you don't know if there's an enemy in the same room you are now behind you just waiting for the perfect moment to say hello. In the real world you enter a locker room and you hear a banging from a locker! You slowly come up to the locker waiting for something to happen, but it seems that there's only a cat, what was that noise? Where'd that cat go to? But when you come back, somewhere else? In the same room you hear that banging from the same locker, do you have the courage? If you do, take a look around that same room a bit, there may be something you didn't see before... have a great New Year everyone! (It is new year's eve...)

Gameplay

There's three modes of difficulty... easy is, well, easy. Hard is, well, hard etc.. Your controls stand strong, and two camera views help alot. I read the PSM review as the 14th best PSone game and decided to check it out as a greatest hits. I got Resident Evil 2 the same day... and I haven't touched it for a week. This game is overall just the same as RE, but SH had rotating and 3-D backgrounds. There's a great storyline and many different areas to explore. The radio helps you detect... I won't give it away... enemies. (If you don't want to find out what the enemies are don't read the other reviews, they give away the story) Many times you will be confused but that's what they want. The fog may get in the way but adds to the mood. When it gets dark... and I mean REALLY dark you use a flashlight to see five more feet in front of you. Harry is average, and in that way he will take average hits from his enemies and do average hits for them. After playing a little bit think for a second... would you do this to find your daughter? Or wait for Cybil to get the police?
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Summary

the benchmark for horror silent hill is it its a classic game from konami but whats makes this so diffrent is it pycological horror rather than blood and gore like some other horrid titles like nightmare creatures 2 silent hill is based on solid gameplay puzzles solving shooting and finding items sure these elements have been used in loads of games but silent hill brings them together brillantly with some much atmosphere creepy sounds that scare the life out of you the alfull child like creatures with claws dinosuar like birds the town is totally diserted and empty houses eerily vacant cars lefe parked a ghost town with a constant fog in the wrong season with never lifts blocking your view of the whole enviroment you wonder if it hadnt had that would it have been some scary based on a harry mason who goes to silent hill with his seven year old daughter cheryl for a late vacation they harry mason sees a young girl about fourteen years old who suddenly appears in front of his jeep seeing her just to late he swerves crashing in to a wall waking up much later he finds his daughter missing and thats where the game begins but this aint no ordinary town as corspes mark tragedy black occult sh as the making of horror films indeed the street names are named after horror writers and other things in term of lifespan silent hill is huge five diffent endings options to make life more interesting the game works well on this feature a game that everybody shold play a league of its own like imagine what silent hill 2 must be like

Sound

as good as it needs to be music and sound effect stiunning monstrs sound scary and you feel they go really well for the places you go to when you walk or run on grass you footsteps get heavier making you a target for enemies as they have excellant hearing so staying on the middle of the road is best although not all the time foes reACT OT SOUND SO side stepping to pass them isa good idea they wont attack unles they see you or hear you so being quiet is important theres no point in running into fights

Gameplay

based in a whole 3d the game is surperbly shown to be scary as hell and not right where is everybody the game consits of finding your daughter and meeting other charactors talking like rpgs but this not a rpg the game has similair resi evi lcontrol expect that you control the camera angles this works well as its cool to see what you want from his view or a behind view some places you cant change it there a weapons like shotguns but unlike resi evil you can use a hammer or axe to kill enemies while presing the x button down for a while quickly or slowly this work really well on monsters you need to avoid using up to much ammo has its quite scarce for weapons like the hunting rifle you need to save it for the bosses three difficulty setting which make the game easier or harder the game is easy to control one of the thing which is realistic is the aiming harry mason isnt trained to use weapons so aming is life like you have side steps etc but what a joy the game is to play with dark places than when the game changes to light again the game is well behond other games
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Summary

Well Konami can make lots of great games like Metal Gear Solid, Castlevani Symphony Of The Night and Vandal Hearts 2 and Silent Hill is another amazing game by this great company. In this game are Harry Mason a man who is trying to find his daughter Cheryl Mason. Sadly for Harry Silent Hill is a town filled with zombies and other scary monsters. Before I played this I played this or its sequel I thought they were like Resident evil but they are not because you actually get a good story in the silent hill games and you fight far less enemies. The story in this game was hard for me to understand but when I finally understood it I really liked it. The graphics in this game are not the best but for its time they are great. The gameplay for this game is also very good. Basically my only problem with Silent hill is its horrible camera angles. Overall this is the second best survival horror the sequel is the best but I am near the begining in it.
good points
Graphics
Sound
control
gameplay
story
Bad Points
Camera angle

Now for the ratings
Graphics 8 great
Sound 10 perfect
story 8
Characters 9
Gameplay 9
Camera angles 1
Overall 9.0
Bottom Line This is the best playstatin Survivla horror game ever and almost as good as its perfect sequel.
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Summary

(A Repost from a previous review. I have yet to play SH 2 as I haven't bought the PS2 hardware)
I'm convinced that the creators of SH borrowed heavily from Steven King's short story, 'The Mist.' Take a look at the names of some of the streets in this game and if you've ever cracked open some sci-fi or horror novels you'll get the not too subtle wink from the game's creators. The majority of the street names are author's names, e.g. Bachman (AKA Steven King) and Bradbury (,Ray) street . I found that to be a nice little story bonus.
Since everyone has to use RE as the bennchmark of gaming horror, I'll chime in on how SH vastly surpasses RE in the fear generating department.
What I found to be the most distinguishing factor between the RE series and Silent H is that SH is much more a psychological thriller. In RE your battling science generated monsters (mindless zombies and such), in SH Hell itself is your enemy! In RE 3 you placed in a city that's been torn to pieces by monsterous inhabitants. The environment in SH however is in an seemingly abandoned town that is all about darkness, blood and rust. Oh plenty of people complain that the all pervasive fog in the game is used to cover up pixilation and graphics shortcomings, but I could care less! The visceral feeling of the game is what I'm interested in and SH1 delivers.The surroundings seem that much more murky and alive for it. There is a more organic feel to it than RE 3, and I aint talkin' about the produce you buy. The plot line is good but still it's a bit choppy and leaves some loose ends. (All those movies in the begining/preview sequence of the game are largely unseen during the actual game playing.) Voice acting is nominal. On the other hand this may make the game more mysterious for the player. There are no defnite answers here in the town of SH, no satisfactory mission completed, "let's head back to base for a six pack" endings. Horror is about letting the participant dangle and leaving things to one's own imagination. A hard task to acheive in our world of instant gratification.
I've read complaints about a lack of nifty weapons like in RE and other horror adventure based games... Well tough poor gaming babies but the rocket launchers and gattling gun have to stay in the RE's armory! You have to fight creepy crawlies w/ a weak ol' handgun and a pipe at first and the weapons you find along the way are paltry compared to what you get in other horror based games. Harry the protagonist is no paramillitary man. He misses targets and stumbles around like any other ordinary guy. Hey I enjoy them both but besides the stuff mentioned above there are 2 things (there are many more items but I wont bore you) though that I beleive SH does that puts itself ahead of RE:
1) The scoring of this game is downright disturbing. Whoever made up the scoring should be locked up for all of our safety. If you have a decent home theater system you'll fully apprieciate the twistedness of the music and sound FX.
2) The atmosFEAR created is chilling w/out being campy. I loved the school as being a place of horror. Alternate dimensions enable the game to be that more chilling.
Hellspawn abound. Will you ever be able to look at a rusted, old chain-link fence w/out a thought about SH again? HMMM?