P.T demo is new Silent Hill, Kojima/Guillermo Del Toro/Norman Reedus

[Dogg Thang]

To be honest, the different endings in SH1 weren't great in the sense that the conditions were far from obvious and were very easily missed. I played through a couple of times before finding out from a guide that I had missed a location I likely never would have noticed normally given that I was running as fast as I could from place to place.

Might be worth catching up on SH3 at some point. While I far prefer SH2 in terms of story and atmosphere, there are some really good elements in SH3.

[PaTaito]

I'm going to youtube silent hill 1 for the proper story element, and then sit myself down properly for SH3.

Its less than a tenner new on ps2 on ebay, so no excuses...screw the HD collection.

[MrKirov]

SH1 is on PSN and is perfectly playable even now- the correct canon ending is easy enough to get, it's only really picking up one item off the beaten track and using it at a certain time.

I would recommend playing it over watching the story- the environments, notes and things you see are intrinsic to the story itself so watching cutscenes is only half the story.

Silent Hill 3 is fantastic, and certainly one of the most scary. You're right though, don't let the HD collection be your first experience. Go find the first play I started and posted ALOT in (in disgust) to find out why. It boils my piss that that abortion of a port would be someone's first experience of it.

[Dogg Thang]

In terms of playing through SH1, one reason I would really recommend it is if you ever planned to play Shattered Memories. It is one of the smartest reboots I have ever played and it's made even better if the original is fresh in your mind as it is full of little nods and references.

[MrKirov]

Shattered Memories was fun enough, but to me it didn't really have anything to do with Silent Hill at all.

I enjoyed it, and it was a good game in its own right- I just didn't really consider it as a Silent Hill game.

[Dogg Thang]

What is a Silent Hill game? Personally, I felt Shattered Memories was head and shoulders above several of the games that preceded it. Besides, it had Silent Hill on the box.

[MrKirov]

It was a good game and was certainly better than the trash that was Downpour or Homecoming. However, SM really was a completely different game in gameplay and theme. There are staples I think that make up a game series and SM didn't really adhere to them at all.

I understand it was a "reimagining" rather than a reboot though, and just the bare bones story themes from the first game replaced into what was nearly a different genre.

It didn't share many gameplay similarities, no puzzle solving- at least not in the same vein as the earlier games - just mostly wandering about looking at stuff- although it didn't have some inventive ideas with it. From a story perspective it didn't really fit into the previous Silent Hills at all either- other than the basic premise of SH1, and didn't involve any of the demonic/cult storylines which are the story staples.

It was fun in its own right, and I did enjoy the game but I personally don't consider it a true Silent Hill. To me, I just call it "Shattered Memories" haha!

[nakamura]

Shattered Memories was good but ruined by the awful running sections. The game had no real tension as soon as you figured out the structure.

[nakamura]

Silent Hill 3 is indeed superb. Scary, visually amazing and a really good plot.

The original is awesome too. I love the dark world the most in the first game. It felt much more horrific.

[Dogg Thang]

Well for me, Shattered Memories retold the first game brilliantly. Just my personal take on it. But then for me by far the weakest stuff in Silent Hill is the cult stuff, which makes me cringe at times especially some of the Dahlia quotes from the first which are atrocious. This is one of the main reasons that Silent Hill 2 became an instant series favourite for me whereas bringing it back in SH3 ended up with more of a Buffy feel which is fine for Buffy and fine for teenage stuff but SH2 felt far more adult. Same with Shattered Memories - for me, a deeper game because it's so much more grounded. It's also why I enjoy less literal interpretations of SH1 that come from a SH2 perspective, which is easily done.

And the other issue with the 'staples' is that they soon became dull and by the numbers. For me, taking 1 and 2 together as the pinnacle of the series and acknowledging how different they are, I think it's regrettable that the series fell into too familiar territory. And again another reason why I love Shattered Memories. It's also why I appreciate what was different in 4, even though that game lost a lot of goodwill with me for making me repeat every section just seemingly to lengthen the game.

[MrKirov]

Fair points. I think most people are torn between 1/3 and 2 being their favourites because the cult angle is divisive.

I think you can't blame 3 for going back to the originals plot line, considering it was a direct sequel to it. I would find it more acceptable to complain about that if it continued for 1 or two more games but they didn't, that's actually where they stopped the series. Silent Hill 2 was a side story in the Resident Evil 3 mold ultimately- they just did an exceptional job with it.

Seeing as Silent Hill 4 wasn't even supposed to be a Silent Hill game, and the name and links to the story were shoehorned in at the last minute, that really can't be counted for much either- although I did appreciate the differences in gameplay- it was supposed to be a different game until Konami forced them to change it.

I can't blame any voice acting from the original though because bar a few good eggs, most voice acting/translations around that period were pretty bad.

[Dogg Thang]

Hmm...I disagree with how you're categorising them but we're really just debating terms here. Silent Hill 2 I wouldn't term as a side story given that the only games with direct continuity are 1 and 3. There are what, 8 Silent Hill games? So 3 is really the odd man out there, not 2. 2 when it came out was obviously 50% of the series and I can't imagine it was approached as a side story and given the 2 lightly. It IS the sequel to Silent Hill.

As for Silent Hill 4, I can't say for certain what the real story is behind that one but I haven't found an official or reputable source on it not being developed as a Silent Hill game and I have looked many times since that story became accepted on message boards. Actually, if you have a source I would really appreciate it because I've been really curious about the origins of that game. It is certainly different. But then they all are and it was developed by Team Silent, is produced by Yamaoka and does tie in strongly to the mythology. I couldn't possibly discount that game over the outsourced games that followed. So for me, it is absolutely a Silent Hill game regardless of its origins.

For better or worse (at times), they're all Silent Hill games to me. I'll stick with the titles they give them on the box.

On the SH1 lines, just to clarify, I'm not just talking about the delivery but also the script. I guess that comes down to translation perhaps. If ever one wanted to take a non-literal interpretation of that game, I think the core of the evidence would be: real people would never say these things. Doesn't stop it being an incredible game though. For me, it's still easily the scariest of the series.

Edit: realised I missed a game when I counted them. I missed the Vita one (well, and the GBA play novel). But my reaction when I remembered about the Vita one was, well that's not a proper Silent Hill game. I never claimed to be consistent!

[Golgo]

I'm with Dogg Thang. SH2 is the finest. A very powerful, self-contained story -

->Open Spoiler<-

which puts you in the head of one awfully disturbed man working through the horror of his own guilt

- without any need for any cheesy occultist guff. The fact it's all

->Open Spoiler<-

"in there"

makes it so much more powerful than any amount of crummy Lovecraftian lore about monsters invading the real world, and such.

Edit: I'm not sure Dogg Thang actually said SH2 is the finest, but in my head he did.

[Dogg Thang]

In my head I did too. And also out loud and in text form and expressed through dance and in many other forms. I love SH2. That game stayed with me for months after I played it and I can't think of a single other game that did that (the one that came the closest is actually probably Shattered Memories). I played through SH2 several times and pulled it to bits trying to see it from different angles and find meanings for the smallest details.

[MrKirov]

I'm not disputing a lot of what's being said, only that SM for want of a better term, didn't "feel" like Silent Hill to me.

Although it had Silent Hill on the box, that doesn't mean a thing. Homecoming, Downpour, the IOS games, Silent Hill the Arcade, Silent Hill Origins, they all had the name on the box but all of them were guff, and certainly didn't feel like the original Team Silent games.

From what I understood- which I will look into later, is the "The Room"was originally supposed to be a separate game from Silent Hill done by some of the member of Team Silent. Konami then turned it into a Silent Hill game because they feared sales without the branding. I'm sure there were interviews about it from some of the Team Silent members knocking around- Infact I'm sure the TwinPerfect video about 4 links directly to the info.

I don't disagree that SH2 was at he standout from a story perspective, and certainly had the clearest and most poignant narrative of all of them- however when 3/4 of the main games (I dont count the others) all reference the cultist demonic elements, then I consider that the main theme. 2 certainly did the most for the brand recognition of the title and put it on the map significantly more than the first, but it's the only one that doesn't fall into that category- so to me feels like a side story - however much it is my favourite too!!

In regards to SH1, yes the translation and voice acting weren't great- I can look past it due to the time it was released. I don't think Jeremy Blaustein came into it until 2 if I recall- but even then, some of the lines delivered and the things said in two are quite ropey ( however much they say this was intentional- there are definately a few duff lines- but much improved with Blausteins efforts- even though he then apparently stood by Tomm Hulett when he started re-writing SH3....

I'm just glad to be talking about SH again to be honest. It's been mistreated for far too long, and it's great to be having these conversations with people again- I thought the love had died already. From the demo as a proof of concept, it's shown me to have faith in what's being done. I don't feel nervous about the release like I did with the untested studios used before, and finally feel confident that something good is going to come out of the Silent Hill brand again