Silent Hill (video Game) - Reception

Reception

Silent Hill received mainly positive reviews, gaining an 86/100 and 84.99 percent aggregate at ratings websites Metacritic and GameRankings, respectively. The game sold over two million copies, which gained Silent Hill a place in the American PlayStation Greatest Hits budget releases.

Silent Hill has been compared to the Resident Evil series of survival horror video games. Bobba Fatt of GamePro labeled Silent Hill a "shameless but slick Resident Evil clone". Others felt that Silent Hill was Konami's answer to the Resident Evil series in that, while they noted a similarity, Silent Hill utilized a different form of horror to induce fear, attempting to form a disturbing atmosphere for the player, in contrast to the visceral scares and action-oriented approach of Resident Evil. Adding to the atmosphere was the audio, which was well-received; Billy Matjiunis of TVG described the ambient music as "engrossing"; a reviewer for Game Revolution also praised the audio, commenting that the sound and music "will set you on edge". Less well-received was the voice acting which, although some reviewers remarked it was better than that found in the Resident Evil series, was found poor overall by reviewers, and accompanied by pauses between lines that served to spoil the atmosphere.

Reviewers noted that Silent Hill used real-time 3D environments, in contrast to the pre-rendered environments found in Resident Evil. Fog and darkness were heavily used to disguise the limitations of the hardware. Along with the grainy textures—also from hardware limitations—most reviewers felt that these factors actually worked in the game's favor; Francesca Reyes of IGN described it as "adding to the atmosphere of dilapidation and decay". In using 3D environments, however, controls became an issue, and in "tougher" areas, maneuverability became "an exercise in frustration".

The game's popularity as the first in the series was further recognized long after its release; a list of the best PS games of all time by IGN in 2000 listed it as the 14th-best PS game, while a 2005 article by GameSpy detailing the best PS games listed Silent Hill as the 15th-best game produced for the console. A GameTrailers video feature in 2006 ranked Silent Hill as number one in its list of the top ten scariest games of all time. In 2005, the game was credited for moving the survival horror genre away from B movie horror elements to the psychological style seen in art house or Japanese horror films, due to the game's emphasis on a disturbing atmosphere rather than visceral horror. In November 2012, Time named it one of the 100 greatest video games of all time.