The Game Den: Silent Hill, End of an Era
The Game Den returns with an introduction to those OTHER Silent Hill games. You know the ones!
Silent Hill series
Players: 1
Publisher: Konami
Genres: Action, Horror, Other
Publisher: Konami
Genres: Action, Horror, Other
Release Date: November 30, -0001
Developer: KCET, Climax, Double Heelix, Vatra
Developer: KCET, Climax, Double Heelix, Vatra
The Game Den: Silent Hill, End of an Era
Posted By Dena Natali about 1 year, 7 months ago
The Game Den: Silent Hill, End of an Era, 
The Game Den returns with an introduction to those OTHER Silent Hill games. You know the ones!
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The Game Den: Silent Hill, End of an Era
The Game Den returns with an introduction to those OTHER Silent Hill games. You know the ones!
I look at the Silent Hill games post SH4 kind of like a cover band. Yes, we wish the original group were still together, but we keep on coming back to see the new team try. Sure, a little bit of the past magic is there, and they may even wow us one day, but they will never be like the original.
I think the new SH games get a little too much shit, the development of Origins and Homecoming were really bad
Climax US started work on SH0, they made it like RE4…but with purple zombies and the town looked….bad, Climax UK picked it up and quickly had to remake the US version in time for release, if Climax UK had the time, 0rigins would have been a lot better
For Homecoming, Jesus, the team that made that game were a bunch of jocks, and it was the developers who wanted Pyramid Head in it, Konami werent happy about that and forced them to add a bit of mythos to the Boogeyman. (not to mention The Collective became Double Helix, also Harker was cancelled due to them falling behind on schedule)
For Shattered Memories, Konami made the clever decision of going back to Climax UK, and look how that turned out – awesome!
Downpour has had no trouble in development, so it will likely turn out as good as SHSM
Thank you very much for this great video! It’s unfortunate that a lot of companies decide to reuse previous material to the point where games lose their identities. I do think that games should pay tribute to previous installments in the series, but some companies think that that’s all they need to do to make a great game. It’s a strange balancing game, that’s for sure.
Awesome video, I look forward to watching the reviews!
Origins is made with the engine from “The Room”, so I hated combat and those damned dogs. Otherwise I liked it and the achievement-oriented bonus costume things. It was a good PSP game. Haven’t played the PS2 version though…
Mmm … I doubt it was made with the SILENT HILL 4 engine, considering in the beginning it had more of a Resident Evil 4 style of gameplay.
Also, no dogs in 0rigins. Only 4-legged enemies I can think of are Carrion and Caliban, but both are WAY bigger than dogs would be.
Thank you for the great videos! Now that you’re done with the Halloween stuff, anymore let’s plays? Listening to you scream while wandering though Silent hill or the Spencer mansion always helps me sleep at night.
damn that character designer, Minako Asano is friggin cute! The other ones pretty cute too.
anyway @ the games. I never played any silent hill games but i enjoy watchign lets plays and reviews of them. Horror games arent really my thing, and the horrible controlls the old games had made me pass them over. Maybe theyre worth picking up on the cheap for the hell of it some day.
One thing though: shattered memories: what is that? is that a remake of the first game? I actually saw it at frys the other day and was wondering if i should pick it up. If its the first game remade with better graphics and controlls maybe its wroth a look. Where can i find Dena’s lets play of it?
http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/bt/dn/lp
Shattered Memories is a “re-imagining” of the first game, but it’s mostly unrelated and stands on its own. Same characters, completely different story and feel. You really need to experience both games, they’re about as different from each other as they can be.
If you don’t like horror games, then SHIZZAM is right up your alley.
Siren’s plot is basically a ridiculously refined version of Silent Hill 1′s, only rustic Japanese. Well, that and lacking the character focus and being more about the deliciously twisted, explorable locale. Instead of generic dark forces, the cult’s a thorough mix of Christianity and Shinto specifically molded after Lovecraft. It even messes with time-space like a scary, bleak version of a Dr. Who arc. The sheer amount of searching you can do to collect and piece together the material is staggering. I’d argue it has the best written horror backstory of any medium, where it’s fulfillingly thought out but every detail adds to the mystique rather than over-explain what makes it scary.
It can also never be recommended as a game, since Siren is so thoroughly unplayable that it’s more like an exercise in frustration. You have to perform a very rigid sequence of events to progress and none of it has any hints or makes logical sense. It has intentionally found ways to make escort missions even more rage-inducing. Through it all you don’t get Silent Hill’s grand architecture or varied monsters. The worst part is it goes the extra mile to bury whatever was good about its writing; the script has way, waaaaay too many characters and has been put through a shredder to be stitched together in random order. 108 pieces, just so there’s no mistaken sense of hyperbole. Blood Curse is a more coherent, playable version of it, but it also tosses out the backstory. There’s just no good alternative here… Silent Hill is a town that hates and abuses its characters, Siren is a game with incomprehensible, inhuman malice for its players.
I was just wondering where you went. :p
Big fan of the Dead zone TV series Dena?
What was your first clue? XD
I got a massive nerdgasm upon seeing that little clip from Soul Reaver.
If I have to wait till I’m 80 for a sequel for that game, I will.
But meanwhile I will content myself with Silent Hill.
Wait, I wonder what would happen if you put Raziel into Silent Hill?!
Huh…
His angst would cause Silent Hill to explode =P
Good to see you’ll be looking at the other series, Dena! Truth be told, they DO have real flaws, but to their credit, they tried to keep true to the Silent Hill spirit whilst trying something new at the same time, and I give them points for that.
But that arcade shoot-em-up game…oh GOOOOOD. >.<
How exactly have the recent games been trying to stay true? Homecoming was nothing more than a complete rip off of the hospital scene from Jacob’s Ladder, followed by a twist that contradicts everything your character has done, a rip off of hostel, 2 pointless cameos by Pyramid Head, and movie monsters.
Origins missed the point of the first Silent Hill game completely by having Alessa being burned as a part of the ritual and having a set date. Not to mention the “symbolism” the game uses is about as subtle as a brick to the face.
SHIZZAM just sucks. It isn’t scary as you’re never wondering what’s around the next corner or what enemies await you. Instead, there is one enemy that shows up only in certain areas and all you have to do is run away. A lot. To top things off, the puzzles are about as challenging as those in Portal 2 after you’ve beaten it 7 times.
“Homecoming was nothing more than a complete rip off of the hospital scene from Jacob’s Ladder, followed by a twist that contradicts everything your character has done, a rip off of hostel, 2 pointless cameos by Pyramid Head, and movie monsters.”
Okay, Jakob’s Ladder was about a soldier who was actually DEAD being tormented by monsters because he couldn’t face the truth. Alex is a soldier that isn’t actually a soldier at all, and the monsters aren’t a result of HIS torment, but because the town is being tormented for not honoring their pledge to the God of the Cult. And technically, Silent Hill 2′s twist contradicted mostly everything James did: he’d gone there to find his dead wife because he thought she died of an illness when, in reality, he’d killed her herself, and in one ending, the “Maria” one, he never even really acknowledges he saw her there.
“Origins missed the point of the first Silent Hill game completely by having Alessa being burned as a part of the ritual and having a set date. Not to mention the “symbolism” the game uses is about as subtle as a brick to the face.” But Alessa WAS burnt by the cult as part of a ritual, that was said in the first game. Dahlia did it on purpose. Also, there’s a lot of good Shakespearean references and allusions within the game that I thought was rather clever of them: looking to outside sources, to classic western literature and using them in a twisted way was something praiseworthy in my eyes.
“SHIZZAM just sucks. It isn’t scary as you’re never wondering what’s around the next corner or what enemies await you. Instead, there is one enemy that shows up only in certain areas and all you have to do is run away. A lot. To top things off, the puzzles are about as challenging as those in Portal 2 after you’ve beaten it 7 times.”
The point behind Shattered Memories was really the heartbreakingness of it all. It’s not meant to be a simple “barely hold your ground” type of game like Silent Hill’s games usually are. It was meant to be something quite different, like a brand new game, not just a remake. And there’s a lot of fun to be had in replaying again and again to see what changes, and a lot of fun in looking around the town, exploring a frozen and fearful wasteland. Truth be told, the place reminds me of a Stephen King novel. Made me think I was in Derry, Maine.
Devil May Cry may very well end up like Silent Hill and will never be taken seriously ever again if western developers keep tarnishing the name.
Interesting. I only played the first game and haven’t been following that series.
“A Silent Hill game without Pyramid Head is like a Resident Evil game without zombies”
You mean like Resident Evil 4 and 5 which have no zombies at all?
I was thinking that as well, but even those games have mixed feelings with fans.
Awesome. So glad to see another of these.
Don’t worry, either, Dena. That clip is awesome (as was the show until like season 5 or something where they literally ran out of ideas and it was obvious).
Anyway, looking forward to these.
I thought the final season got off to an interesting start, but the ending was thoroughly unsatisfying.
Good start with talking on how they are different and similar some, not much to say on this part really. Glad you’re back.
At long last you are back Dena! I’ve missed the game den and all your videos!
After I watch this, I may have comments to make as usual, but guess we’ll see lol (No idea if you read any of my old ones, but my horror Novella I’ve been working on is inspired by Silent Hill)
Don’t worry, I read all comments. I just get lazy about responding after a certain point =P
I probably chose the worst time to become a Silent Hill fan, I like the older games a lot but I don’t think they give me the same nostalgia kick most other fans get (regardless SH4 is still my favourite).
I thought Homecoming had some decent concepts but it was basically Silent Hill 2 and the film thrown into a blender with a mix of bad horror movie cliches and…Well we all know how that came out, though I still prefer it over Origins if only for the fact that Origins did not need to exist…
But hey, I’m just here to comment. I can’t wait to see the video.
Great review as always i just recently started to get into the games a bit ago love them all except homecomeing also what your thoughts on the upcomeing silent hill game downpour will u be playing that one
here is a quik list of my faverite silent hill games in order of my faverite to my least faverite
4
origins
shatterd memories
homecoming
2
1
3
now that i have completely destroyed my credibility as a silent hill fan, i have to say i can’t wait for you to get this retrospective on the way
being australian and not knowing the joys of halloween this is what i look forward too every october!
Dena is back! awesome! Anyway, I was a big SH fan until 4 came out. I had beaten the ones before it and would replay them to get better endings and so forth. But 4 was more like a “how much annoying crap can you tolerate!” with ghosts that stalked you, a cast a idiots and terrible weapons. If I picked up a lead pipe, it would break 5 minutes later. A lead-f-ing-pipe breaks. Then the ghosts would haunt you until your dead and there was nothing the player could do about it. The part I quit was where you run through a series of subway trains with a stupid ghost on each train. I said “screw that” and put it down.
I did try Homecoming but the story was exactly like the movies. It felt like I was playing a bad mashup of all the SH games thrown in a blender and this weird goo was the game that came out. I got bored playing a SH game. That should not ever exist in the universe, a boring SH game but that is Homecoming. I’m done ranting, and I look forward to your awesome videos!
The lead pipe did not break in SH4, only the golf clubs did–those were mainly pointless collectibles anyway. The breakable weapons didn’t really come into play until 0rigins.
Its been a really long time since I played it or thought about it. I apologize for the rant, its been boiling in my brain for awhile ;;>_>
Never played a Silent Hill game
hey that’s cool man, maybe you should watch some of dena’s stuff then and maybe it’lll get you interested, i can’t say they are the best games out there but they do give you a pretty unique experience that’s worth at least a little try!
So glad to see you making videos again Dena! Maybe if I’m lucky, you’ll do more positive reviews of old horror movies since I fell in love with those! Could you clarify SH: Homecoming when you get to it for me? When I first heard about it previous to it’s release, I had heard that the game was toted as being more of a tie-in to the movie than the four games before it. Is that true?
I’m gonna cover that when I get to Homecoming, but the short answer is … yes and no … mostly yes ;/
Nice to see you making videos again Dena!
I think “missing the point” is what it really comes down to with these new SH games. I really wish some top tier American developer could get their hands on the franchise, like Valve or Bioware, but as long as Konami owns it yeah, that ain’t happening.
I definitely think Silent Hill 3 had the best voice acting of the classic series, especially Heather’s voice, she was wonderful.
I’m probably going to disagree with you when it comes to Shattered Memories, but no matter, I loved your previous Silent Hill videos and your analysis is always very interesting.
I’ve played all the Silent Hill games, and I didn’t really like the first Siren, it was too frustrating.
Siren: Blood Curse on the other hand, I thought was really good.
Yay, Dena’s back with Silent Hill! I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time! (It was even harder than waiting for the season 2 of MLP).
I actually re-watched previous installments of your series recently, after I realized, that October was drawing near.
Yessssss! I love Game Den. Series like these are such a refreshing break from “What the fuck is this fucking shit? fuck fuck fuckity fuck, this thing I’m talking about fucking sucks!”
Yeay another Silent Hill month
Everytime you use that clip from the dead zone it reminds me that it was cancelled
Anyway always nice to see new vids, is Lee still making videos? He hasnt posted one in a wile
Welcome back.
Ahh, the “Silent Hill” games. No creativity, no innovation, just copy and pasting, creating inconsistencies within the story, or just doing it wrong by making a not scary game. Lord only knows how bad the new one will be.
You mention The Legacy of Kain a lot in your videos I noticed. Maybe an idea for another Game Den topic? Well ok I saw a deep analysis of the games on youtube so maybe not. Sadly this analysis is in german before you ask.
Ok on topic now. I think the problem with the new SH games is the same with japanese Horror movies that are remade in Hollywood. They just tend to oversimplify things to their most common denominator. I don’t know if that’s true or not but it feels like it. But on that note I kinda liked Homecoming for some reason.
Yah, I haven’t played Soul Reaver in years, but I was a mega-fan at one point. I may switch to Legacy of Kain once I’ve run out of Silent Hill games to talk about.
A Game Den episode(s) on the Soul Reaver series would really be interesting to watch.
If I may be as bold to request you give that one some consideration.
SHE IS BACK!!!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! WELCOME BACK, i missed you ! dena it is great to see you again
welcome back, this site was boring until now 
Oh sweet, can’t wait to see your reviews about the games.
Oh, hate to be a grammar nazi here, no offence but he term “European” only applies to something that is spread across Europe, such as unions, businesses, money Etc. Since Climax is a British (or more specifically English) developer, it doesn’t really apply to them.
It’s like saying Konami is an “Asian” company.
But we europeans are all so tiny in the entertainment industry, next to the powerhouses of america and japan, that only as a group we have any significance.
Better to share the glory, than being a no-name. ^^
Sorry, in terms of sales Britain now develops more games now than Japan and in fact the rest or Europe combined.
Specifically, Scotland really. They produce the most AAA titles now.
In fact Japan is third or fourth now behind South Korea and China.
There’s a ton of good game developers especially in Eastern Europe where people haven’t yet submitted to imported entertainment. Ofcourse it’s only relatively recently that they’ve started getting international recognition, though many have made games for international market through American publishers for years.
Actually we might say that about Konami, and wouldn’t be corrected in America. That could be the new standard. I mean hey you if guys can say a company from Guam or Puerto Rico is an American company… seems like a double standard on your part.
Actually, since Vatra Games is a Chech company, I was trying to cover them and Climax (Britain) in the same sentence. ZING!
(or I’m covering my ass =P Either way, it’s not an innacurate statement, just a vague one)
Hate to be a language nazi, but that has nothing to do with grammar
Wouldn’t be October without a Game Den look at the Silent Hill series. I’m looking forward to the next segment.
I do enjoy your retrospectives, Dena!
Good to see you’ve returned to Silent Hill in time for Halloween.
I definitely look forward to these videos! I just beat Origins today, and I have to say, I don’t find it as bad as people seem to say it is.
Great commentary as always, Dena. Looking forward to your thoughts on Downpour
Welcome back Dena, I’ve really missed your vids!!!
Thanks, Larry ^.^