Gather 'round this dim lantern light, fellow adventure gamers, and listen closely. Many naysayers mistakenly believe that the adventure game is dead and the future of the genre barren. Action/adventure hybrids have appeared on the horizon, and the computer enthusiast cringes in fear. Perhaps they search in the wrong places for their nocturnal entertainment. Maybe they need look no further than their Sony Playstation, for Konami has released a horror classic, and it all transpires in the shadowy realm called Silent Hill.

Many horror aficionados will be tempted to compare Silent Hill to Capcom's Resident Evil series. But whereas the Resident Evils were more action-oriented, Silent Hill focuses more on exploration and discovery. There is some action involved as you do have a small handgun and later a rifle and shotgun, but in a nice touch of realism your character is no Duke Nukem and often has problems successfully aiming his weapon, not to mention his clumsiness in accomplishing a feat so simple as jumping off the side of a step's landing (he trips and falls to the ground). In true-blue adventure tradition, the best course of action is often evasion, although there will be situations that necessitate using your weapon.

You play as writer Harry Mason, a widower still grieving the untimely death of your wife. To help ease the pain of memory, you and Cheryl, your grade school-age daughter, set off for a vacation in the secluded resort town of Silent Hill. As you approach the town, a young girl steps in front of your car, forcing you to swerve off the road and crash. When Harry awakens, he turns to comfort his daughter, but she is gone. The remainder of the game concerns your search for Cheryl in the deserted, forlorn town that Silent Hill has become. This is a modern-day Twilight Zone as would be written by Stephen King. Harry is Everyman--wrapped up in a mystery that unfolds before his frightened eyes and which he really is powerless to control. Notes written in blood provide clues to further his search, but is it his daughter's blood or that of someone--or something--else? There is always that moment that propels you forward, that provides another piece to the puzzle of this small town that now sits like a jagged concrete island in the middle of humanity; all routes for escape blocked (in a nice touch of homage, all of the streets of Silent Hill are named after modern horror authors). Things are never as they should be or as you expect them to be, and as you get swept up into the flow of the game you find yourself slowing as you turn corners or enter rooms and literally holding your breath in anticipation of what figure may be lurking or what sight might assail your vision. This is horror at its best--a sprinkling of the eerieness of Amber mixed with a dollop of Resident Evil's action and the texture of Alone in the Dark. There is no subtle humor in this game, nor should there be, for it would destroy the mood. For keeping me edgy and leaving me wanting more, the plot gets a grade of A.

The puzzles in Silent Hill are what elevate it above any adventure game ever made specifically for the Playstation. There are a few of the find-the-key, open-the-door puzzles, but for the most part they are on a par with anything a computer adventure gamer would relish. Riddles, logic puzzles, mazes, astrological knowledge, and inventory-based puzzles are all part of the equation.

Silent Hill itself is one enormous enigma as you try to discover what has happened to transmogrify this once-vibrant tourist trap into the dreamlike psychological nightmare it has become. Almost the entire town, not just a few select buildings, is open for exploration. You will investigate a hospital, a police station, an elementary school, an amusement park, and a lighthouse, to name just a few locations. If that is not enough, you must also explore the demonic alter ego of Silent Hill's underbelly. Yet these explorations that at times seem arbitrary are actually all integral to the theme of the game and contribute to the eventual linearity of the plot. The topper, though, is that depending on exactly what locations you choose to visit and the amount of secret or hidden objects you discover during the course of the game, you will finish with one of five different endings. For the record, I "earned" the "bad" ending, but it was so twisted and sadistic that it belonged in a Hitchcock movie. In what must be a first for a Playstation game, the puzzles receive a grade of A.

Silent Hill's graphics, while not the quality of what a computer gamer would expect on a Voodoo 2 with a Pentium II processor, are perfectly realized. Polygonal and rendered on the fly, the perspective shifts depending on your circumstances, and if you wish you always have the option to change your view. The level of detail in the game is excellent; you can read street signs and the names of establishments through the rolling fog that predominates the outdoor sequences. While there is a high level of detail, there is also a graininess to the game, but instead of being a hindrance, it highlights the otherworldliness of the atmosphere--atmosphere that is thick with all of the main ingredients of horror games and movies: abandoned buildings, silhouetted figures and deformed creatures of the night, atmosphere that is heightened by the best lighting I have ever seen in any game. Harry carries a small pocket flashlight attached to his shirt pocket that pans over and cuts through the gloom, often settling on gruesome discoveries. Yet the flashlight can also be a detriment as it attracts the very creatures you are attempting to avoid. These are graphics that grasp you in their foggy tendrils and play upon your consciousness. Graphics--A.

If there is a downside to Silent Hill, it is probably the voice acting. While it is not poor, it does not at times seem to convey the emotion and fear that we would expect Harry to experience during his search for his daughter. There is also a minor problem with occasional lag time between one character's speech and the other character's response. Music is used sparingly and usually as a foreshadowing for ominous circumstances. Sound effects are sparse but always used to their greatest effect; for example, the lonely sound of footsteps reverberating down an empty hallway, the fluttering of wings as a creature of the night approaches. The most interesting sound effect of all, though, is a small pocket radio that emits static whenever a foe is near. What worked so poorly in Enemy Zero tends to jar your sensibilities in Silent Hill. Sound effects, music and voice acting--B.

As much as I would like to inform you that this is the perfect horror game, it is not. It suffers from the three maladies that seem to afflict all video games. First is the big-boss mentality. Video game developers since the first Mario seem to believe that you must have certain levels that cannot be reached until you have defeated a boss figure. While Silent Hill's bosses are always interesting, it is never more than a simple matter of figuring out their attack pattern and then blasting away. There is no intellect involved in their defeat, and that is a blemish on an otherwise fine game. Second is the limited-save mentality. The game's progress can only be saved when you find a notebook. While there are plenty of opportunities to save, this is a childish concept that should be abolished. Third is the "I need to have a walkthrough so I can beat this game faster than my friend" mentality. Before Silent Hill was even released, a major magazine had printed a two-part walkthrough. When will game companies realize that this type of reasoning is destructive to the game community in general and to adventure games in particular?

Is Silent Hill the best horror adventure game I have ever played? No. But it is the best I have ever played on the Playstation. Now lest you dismiss this lightly, consider this: how many thousands of teenagers and young adults who have never played a point-and-click game will enjoy their first experience? And they won't have been dragged kicking and screaming into the genre but will actually beg for more, and Sony and Konami will be more than happy to oblige. This is why there will be a resurgence of the adventure genre, and it will come from the most unlikely source. I think we have the beginning of a great relationship here, Louie.

Final Grade: A-