Silent Hill

Silent Hill HD Collection is releasing this week, featuring high-definition remasterings of Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 – but how do these games fit into the greater picture of the series?

It may seem a bit confusing, but Silent Hill 3 is actually the sequel to the original Silent Hill, while Silent Hill 2 is completely isolated from the first Silent Hill’s activities.

The trend of making each Silent Hill game a self-contained story has subsequently dominated the series – with only Silent Hill 1 and Silent Hill 3 having any direct canonical relation.

Of course, all the games have one thing in common: the town of Silent Hill.

If you haven’t played the games and want to keep every detail safe until you do – be warned, minor spoilers lie ahead – here’s a quick glance back over the Silent Hill series, and where it’s taken us.

The original Silent Hill established one of the most psychologically horrifying game worlds – following the story of Harry Mason, a widower and father to his only daughter, Cheryl, whom Harry and his wife had adopted.

While driving with Cheryl on holiday, Harry loses control of his car while swerving to avoid a young lady crossing the road, and crashes his car. When Harry comes to, Cheryl is missing, and a deep fog has enshrouded the mountain road.

And so begins Harry Mason’s terrifying trip into the town of Silent Hill to seek out his missing daughter. While searching for Cheryl, he meets up with various characters, and uncovers a dark secret involving a cult which had tried and failed to birth the Anti-Christ, Samael.

The town of Silent Hill is caught on the edge of realities – transitioning between the seemingly ‘real’ world and the ‘otherworld’ – an alternate reality where the horrors of tortured souls and evil permeates the environment.

Harry eventually finds Cheryl and learns the truth about her and her ties to the town and the cult. If you meet the requirements by the end of the game, canonically, Harry escapes the horror town with his daughter, even if it’s not quite as he’d expected.

By today's standards - terrifying on many levels

Silent Hill 2

Silent Hill 2 explores a different theme of the town of Silent Hill – questioning the causality of the horrors that you encounter. It’s a separate tale to that of the original and features an entirely new cast of characters.

The game follows James Sunderland, another widower. He is drawn to Silent Hill after he receives a letter from Mary, his deceased wife, beckoning him to meet her in their special place – the town of Silent Hill, which was a favourite holiday spot for the couple.

Questioning his own sanity, James goes into the town to search for his dead wife, but instead meets Maria – a woman who strongly resembles Mary, but is completely opposite to her in almost every way. James comes across few other people in the town, all of whom seem to be lost in their own worlds…

Fitting, as the Silent Hill ‘otherworld’ eventually starts to creep into James’ journey, bringing with it horrors. The true horror, however, lies at the end of James’ journey – when the truth behind the demons of the town, and the reason James was beckoned to Silent Hill, is finally revealed.

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Silent Hill 3

Silent Hill 3 is the direct sequel to Silent Hill and expands the story covered in the first game. For the first time, the reach of horror extends beyond the town itself – though it’s definitely featured – and the game is carried by a female protagonist.

Heather is at the local mall to pick up some things for her father, when she’s approached by a private detective who wants to talk to her about her about her birth. Heather dismisses him as only a teenager could – and then things start to go to hell, literally.

Heather is quickly swooped into the hellish ‘otherworld’, which occupies and distorts the shopping mall into a twisted maze of TERROR!

After escaping the Mall, and having confrontations with the mysterious cult from the original Silent Hill – Heather quickly learns that you can take the girl out of Silent Hill – but it’s not so easy to take Silent Hill out of the girl.

Unable to escape her past, Heather resolves to face it head on and makes her way to Silent Hill to face who she is, and the demons that have been hanging over her head her whole life.

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Silent Hill: The Room

The Room was yet another departure for the series, moving away from follow-on stories and rather opting for a self-contained plot. The Room also continued the trope of having the dark world extend beyond the reaches of Silent Hill itself.

Henry Townshend South is a normal guy living in the Ashfield Heights Apartments – which seems like an average place to live, until one day Henry finds himself locked in his apartment with no way to get out.

Inexplicably, holes start appearing on various walls in his apartment – and like any sensible man, Henry decides to crawl through them to see where he ends up.

It’s through these holes that Henry makes his way to various destinations – ending up in Silent Hill (and the ever-present ‘otherworld’) more often than he’d like. Through his various journeyings, Henry uncovers the murderous plot of Walter Sullivan – a serial killer who had died years prior to the game’s events.

Henry learns that Sullivan had been raised in an orphanage in Silent Hill – managed by none other than the cult that seems to muck everything up – and had been killing people in order to fulfil the requirements to perform a dark ritual. The requirements being sacrificing 21 ‘sacraments’, which in this happy place means murdering people.

The people? Residents of Ashfield Heights Apartments where Sullivan once lived. It’s up to Henry to follow through the portals into the twisted world of Silent Hill to stop Sullivan before he can finish his task.

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Silent Hill Origins

Silent Hill Origins, being the fifth game in the series, is also actually the first. It was mostly missed by fans of the series as it was PSP release.

Set before the events of Silent Hill 1, Origins follows Travis Grady, a trucker who takes a shortcut through Silent Hill one night. Big mistake, right?

In events that mimic Silent Hill 1, Travis swerves his vehicle to miss a girl in the road, who runs off. Travis, in pursuit, comes across a burning house and hears screams from within – he runs in and saves a charred girl and collapses.

When Travis awakens, he makes his way through the town to check on the girl – and meets characters from the original Silent Hill along the way.

While Travis confronts demons of his own past, the most value from Silent Hill Origins comes from seeing the preceding events of Silent Hill taking place – providing more insight into the established mythology and characters.

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Silent Hill: Homecoming

Silent Hill: Homecoming was yet another departure for the series, having moved from Konami’s Team Silent developers to an American studio. Heavily influenced by the Silent Hill Movie, Homecoming had a more ‘Hollywood’ feel; more action – but maintained a degree of psychological horror and underlying themes.

Homecoming followed Alex Shepard, a war veteran returning to his hometown of Shepard’s Glen after a tour of duty, only to find his father and younger brother are missing.

On top of that, the overall reception he receives is a bit chilly, and weird things start happening around town, as monsters are crawling out of the fog.

Alex learns that more and more people have been disappearing out of Shepard’s Glen, and the few that are around, are not well upstairs – including his mother.

Eventually Alex uncovers the town’s dark secret – a covenant the town’s leaders had made with the cult of Silent Hill to keep the evil at bay, that had been broken unwittingly.

Fighting against the evils of Silent Hill that are creeping into the town, and uncovering the truth behind his family’s – and his own – dark past.

What the US lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in pure terror.

Which Silent Hill was your favourite? And what was the most terrifying/horrifying part for you? Silent Hill HD Collection, and Silent Hill Downpour are both out this Thursday, 5 April 2012.

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