Henry Jones nailed it all right on the money.

EXCEPT that

ANYONE WHO DOES NOT LIKE ORIGINS

DOES NOT LIKE SILENT HILL!

Origins had some of the absolute best psychological fuckery of ALL the games.

Shattered Memories was also totally amazing in this respect.

Killian, just play 1, 2, then 3. No reason to skip 2 for later, Allison be cray cray. Play 4 if you are like desperate. Homecoming is super meh but it exists and you are free to make that decision as an adult.

Origins and Shattered Memories are the unsung heroes of this franchise!

Definitely play 4. it's a good game! It just doesn't have much to do with the rest of the series, so I guess you could leave that one till last.

Disagree about Shattered Memories. There is not much I liked about that one. People bitch about unkillable ghosts that follow you around in SH4? That is ALL Shattered Memories had! Not to mention, they are fast as hell, forcing you to run through the nightmare world thus missing all the slow, silent, creepy atmosphere that makes this series so great. Oh yeah, and it's the same damn monster the entire time. No new, terrifying things around the corner. I just really, really, was not on board with what they were doing with that one and I am very lenient!

Wow.

Indeed, CS. Serious bizness

Shattered Memories is the only game I've played in the series, and I enjoyed it. Sometimes you need the helplessness of quick nightmares chasing you down through a maze. Still, when I can, I'm going to get the Silent Hill HD collection and finally try out SH2.

I wouldn't say DON'T play 4, because there is some incidental Silent Hill lore that I enjoyed reading/learning in-game, and I liked some specific sequences in-game, but as for gameplay, plot, characterization, fear factor, and level design, it is by far the worst of the lot on average (up until that point; the only one I've touched since then is Origins, and again, that was for a handful of minutes).

4 is the only one I have never had an inkling to replay, and struggled to finish because I was losing interest toward the end. It's real shame because I really liked some of the ideas and concepts of SH4, but I don't think really any single part of the game was executed very well- although the visual quality might have been the best of the series up to that point (but then, SH3 was good-lookin', too, and it might be the same engine for all I know).

For a first run-through of the series, definitely play SH4. But if you, say, can't find a copy anywhere, or you have something better to do, you wouldn't be doing yourself a great disservice to trail off after SH3.

Silent Hill 1 is difficult to play now because the graphics and gameplay are so outdated. I tried a few years back on the original ps1 discs and the impact was just not there anymore.

Allison said:
Disagree about Shattered Memories.

That's fine and I get you, but then you're in it for the horror and not the psychology. Because the psychology was super duper fascinating and it played with the original in totally crazy ways (like Lisa bleeding the same way she bled in SH1).

Also my game ended with Harry videotaping himself having a threesome.

So.

Best game ever.

Started playing SH1 from PSN and while yes the graphics are VERY VERY dated they do not take away from the game mood at all. The only thing that did was the controls but I think that just takes some getting used to.

Still creepy as hell! I never appreciated the scene in the begging of the movie that was shot just like the alleyway in the game but that is awesome!

That's a good start. Keep going.

I'm glad you're playing it! I'd love to go back and relive the original. I really do miss exploring the neighborhoods, like Jarod was saying... maybe I gotta get this Downpour thing.

Why was CS activated by Killian and not "videotaping himself having a threesome?"

warning about the HD collection. its got bad audio issues frame rate dropping and even freezes for some people =(

Remember Lommy Greenhands said:
Henry Jones nailed it all right on the money.

EXCEPT that

ANYONE WHO DOES NOT LIKE ORIGINS

DOES NOT LIKE SILENT HILL!

Origins had some of the absolute best psychological fuckery of ALL the games.

Shattered Memories was also ...

What I hated about Origins was the non-moving camera that constantly gets in your way. I don't care if it's a PSP game, there's no excuse for a game of its era to have the same camera problems of the original Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil. And the Butcher is a ripoff of Pyramid Head and never reaches beyond that, I don't care what the "What a twist!" moment reveals. Other than that, it's a solid story and has some pretty unique monster design, but it was a really annoying game to play.

Mannnnnnnn I wish I could replay sh1. I just can't get over how cliche and dated it now seems, even though it invented most of that shit. But I can't be scared of ~25 triangles that awkwardly amble towards me.

Really? I always felt like SH1 holds up a whole lot better nowadays than pretty much any other 3D PS1 game (admittedly that isn't saying terribly much) because it was designed less to be flashy than to take full advantage of the system's strengths (audio quality, etc) and spin its weaknesses into atmosphere (hiding low draw distance behind spooky fog, design enemies just abstractly enough that low poly counts don't wreck their design, etc).

( I found most of the game to be slow and somewhat annoying on replay! It's sad, but I remember being terrified in the early years, but it just doesn't do it for me anymore.... clunky, ugly....)

Henry Jones said:


awful nonsense

Uh, hello Missing The Point Entirely. The Butcher WAS Pyramid Head and so was the main character. Hi!

You go ahead and "not care" about the greatest psychological story in the entire series. (Harry's threesome notwithstanding.)

I'll be over here, where brilliant stories are brilliant.

And I'll be over here where underwhelming shit is underwhelming.

One big problem with Silent Hill Homecoming (other than... the rest of it) was ALL THEY DID was redo Silent Hill 2's story and then they straight up steal the end of Origins.

Obviously, don't watch if you don't want to see the ends of these games.

Origins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi5bFLP-Bhw&feature=fvst

(travnasty realizes he's the butcher/pyramid head)

Homecoming: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi5bFLP-Bhw&feature=fvst

(same exact thing with all subtlety... quite removed)

It's pretty telling that even The Room has Allison to defend it, and I will fight for Origins and Shattered Memories to the death, but no one but NO ONE is stepping up to the plate for Homecoming.

Here's hoping Downpour is more memorable.

A Study in Pink said:
Silent Hill 1 is difficult to play now because the graphics and gameplay are so outdated. I tried a few years back on the original ps1 discs and the impact was just not there anymore.

While I'll give you the graphics being outdated, the gameplay was nearly identical for at least 3-4 games!