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-