There are few horror games-- substantially less if you take away fast paced action shooters, like Dead Space and Left 4 Dead. The Silent Hill series reins supreme over psychological horror, and it's a well deserved spot at the top. The original Silent Hill was the first true psychological horror game, followed by the amazing (and amazingly fucked up) Silent Hill 2. The third installment followed suit, offering a twisted plot, amazing characters and horrifying monsters. Silent Hill 4 is where it fell apart.
Silent Hill 4: The Room was never intended to be a Silent Hill title. It was a side project of Team Silent, exploring different creative directions. Konami feared the title would not move, so they slapped the Silent Hill brand on it. It sold well, but left fans with a foul taste in their mouths. It was a far cry from the depraved and deep fare that they had loyally followed.
But in business, money matters. Silent Hill: Origins was released for the PSP, sloppily billed as a prequel and more relevantly, handed off to Climax Studios for development. And then, Silent Hill 5: Homecoming, which again switched hands to be developed by Double Helix. And then, not to stop milking the cash cow, Silent Hill Shattered Memories.
And then there was the movie. And now another in the works, jumping on the 3D bandwagon.
Silent Hill, a story about a small town had no home of it's own anymore. With each change in hands, the series lost something more. The stories became shallow, the action overplayed, the creatures tired and the soul-- and fear, gone.
But the series still had one thing, which was their strongest asset. Akira Yamaoka.
If there is anyone alive on the face of this earth who understands the fundamentals of raw fear, it's this man. A producer and composer for each of the installments, he brought something irreplaceable to the table. To me, his scores were the most effective and frightening aspects of the games, blurring the line between game and reality. His music and sound effects were something palpable, something undeniable and most importantly, something horrifying.
As of 2009, he's left Silent Hill behind him.
Now comes Silent Hill 8: Downpour. Miles away from it's origin, without even a nod from Team Silent, and abandoned by the heart of it all, Akira Yamaoka.
I have to admit, I'm curious. With the shortage of horror games, I feel I should take what I can get. The series should have ended as a trilogy, brilliantly. Instead, we have ten titles, each successively worse and further away from what birthed it's rabid fandom.
It's time to move out of Silent Hill.
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