Does Anyone Else Get a Certain Feeling From This Game?

[Patman]

I don' t really have a favorite, I like each of the four first SH for their own strength.
What' s obvious though is that the first one is the scariest, for many reasons :
- The fog is the deepest fog of all the games, which means you always see things at the last moment. That' s probably the reason the radio hasn' t been as useful since.
- The night is the darkest of all the games, if you switch the flashlight off then you' re almost running blind. Of all the games only Origins is just as dark.
- The controls are the clumsiest of all.
- The enemies are the fastest, especially the monkeys (or whatever they are). If you don' t switch the flashlight off you' ll never outrun them.
- The environments are the most maze-like. You can explore the town more than in any other game, and for some reason I always get myself lost in the otherworld hospital (maybe cause the PS1 textures make all places look the same ?).

[Zeraylph]

Im getting pretty scared right now. My college counselor is named Cheryl. Plus the bathroom doors have broken locks and are jammed!!!!
Im now scared im trapped in a silent hill world!

[Apatheria]

I don' t really have a favorite, I like each of the four first SH for their own strength.
What' s obvious though is that the first one is the scariest, for many reasons :
- The fog is the deepest fog of all the games, which means you always see things at the last moment. That' s probably the reason the radio hasn' t been as useful since.
- The night is the darkest of all the games, if you switch the flashlight off then you' re almost running blind. Of all the games only Origins is just as dark.
- The controls are the clumsiest of all.
- The enemies are the fastest, especially the monkeys (or whatever they are). If you don' t switch the flashlight off you' ll never outrun them.
- The environments are the most maze-like. You can explore the town more than in any other game, and for some reason I always get myself lost in the otherworld hospital (maybe cause the PS1 textures make all places look the same ?).

I'd agree with all of the above. In addition, it's easily the most violent of all the Silent Hills. I already mentioned the use of blood trails or blood pools to mark items of importance. Then there are the featureless, hanging corpses that can be seen off in the distance in nearly every otherworld level, and they are downright spooky.

And then there are the ways Harry is attacked: not a single one of the non-boss monsters have a long-ranged attack, they are always close and personal. I've always found melee combat much more visceral than long-ranged, and there's a wide variety of ways that the monsters make poor 'ole Harry bleed, whether it's a Romper tackling him and munching on him, an Air Screamer digging its talons into him, or a nurse slashing him open with an old, rusty scalpel.

And of course, the overall strangeness that I mentioned earlier. I really feel this game in my gut every time I play it.

[Doctor Eggnog]

I felt that the first game had the best pacing and level design, generating the best overall gameplay. It was very scary, but I feel that SH2 just barely edges out as the scariest. SH1 is my 2nd fave game ever, after SH2.

Obviously the graphics make a difference, but a big part of it is also that so much craziness was happening, and it was all very abstract, yet you really don't have much of a clue of what's going on for a couple of playthroughs. The game was not only the weirdest in the series but the most vague story wise.

My favorite moments include the intro vid, using the school classrooms to get around the blocked off hallways, hearing the church bells, crossing the drawbridge (seriously, the pacing!), meeting dr. kaufman, the hospital fourth floor, the entire freaking town transforming (they need to do this again before the series dies), the larve turning into a moth, the exciting last sewer run, Harry ramming into Alessa's forcefield, reading Lisa's diary, finding the last keys with the weird names as well as the rites, Alessa talking to mommy, the ending. Also, I think that the scariest moment in the series is the Giant Lizard opening its mouth.

So in short, WHY OH WHY DID I HAVE TO LOSE THIS GAME!?

[VenusDoom]

I've only played SH2, Origins, and SH1, in that order, SH1 had a more scaryy feel than either of them. For me it's when your'e in the other world, or it's night, you can't see shit and it's so freaking creepy! i played Silent Hill origins before SH1, so I was a little more introduced to the characters backstories... and let me tell you, I cried when Lisa died, it was so sad, I wanted to go back in and save her... That's allways gonna be one of the moments in videogames that affects me most, Silent Hill 2 had a better story and shocked you at the end and otherparts, but Sh1 shocked you every few seconds. I got SH1 a little over a week ago, and it's allready affected me. I've gotten the Good, Good+, and I'm working on the UFo ending, I plan on getting the bad endings next cuz I haven't spoiled em, I expect to be even more shocked and frightened when i get em

[Doctor Eggnog]

^ I'll try not to spoil you. Expect to be disappointed in some ways, but it might give you something of a 'What might have been?' feeling. Things can be changed up quite a bit in some ways.

[maelinimarie]

I get a serious nostalgia from the first game.Maybe it's because I remember playing it when it first came out.My favorite out of all the games is SH2 but this first one has some pretty significant moments for me.Silly AND scary.Love the moment with the doghouse.Out of playing all the games(except Shattered Memories..haven't had the chance to buy that one yet),each holds memories for me.Things that happened outside the game world when I first played it,certain scenes in the game etc.

[Midori-chan]

The whole atmosphere of SH1 is different than any other game, it gives me this certain feeling whenever I play it.

[dragonflydusk]

For me the greatest moment out of any of the Silent Hill games was when you first take that walk down the alley as Harry. That first shift to the otherworld still creeps me out more than any other scene in any of the games.

There is definite nostalgia for me in this game, but I also played the first four in immediate succession- I'd finish one, then move on to the next, so it wasn't like I played the original & waited several years for the next one. Each one has a different vibe to me, but the one I love the most is still that of the first game.

And I'll never view elementary schools the same way again.

[Doo-glas]

I think it's because that Silent Hill was so vastly different from any other games from the time is why it holds up well even today

it's also pretty significantly different from the other games in the series. with it's wider focus on exploring the town's actual streets

plus the old school graphics have a certain charm

[Actraiser]

plus the old school graphics have a certain charm

I agree....my immediate feeling from the game is nostalgia. I was watching a friend play through the game while I was at a computer. After he finished it,my first thought was WTF? After playing the game myself (The only right way to play: all the lights off and at night ) I was completely terrified, highly disturbed, and completely satisfied.

[flipain]

Yeah, I feel something special with this game, too. When the game first came out I was like 14 yeasrs, and I wasn't very interested in survival horrors, beacuse in those games you were about to die in every moment, low ammunition, low medipacks, and low number of enemies aswell, but each of them could kill you easily. I played the demo of Silent Hill. It's story fascinated me (the demo was from the beggining of the game till you awake at the bar). But being a survival horror, don played it more.
With the time, and being an adult, I remembered the game, and I gave it a try. And now the survival horror is one of my favorite genres.

The thing I remember causing a major impact on me, was the picture in the school. That strange picture, with a rusty copper color, that harry says to be disgusting. There something dark and evil in that picture, it was the sensations it transmited me.
Later, when you enter the Otherworld, through the clock, when I realised I had come out from the exact spot I had come in, it was so surreal, and fascinating. Then, the crest in the floor, and the rooms with metallic grates in all the places, walls, floor, ceiling, full of rust and blood, it was terrific imagining a world like that.
And finally i got to the picture room. I flipped out when I enetered the room, and discovered all was changed, the couch hanging from the ceiling with a hooked chain, and what was worse, the fucing picture was real now!!! with too creepy persons at each side, in some type of torture pose. That world was what I would call "Hell" I was amazed and terrified. Silent Hill 1 is unique.

[Tillerman]

It's partially nostalgia, I'm sure.

But also, SH is just a really well made game. In terms of how good it's game design is, it puts most modern games to shame. The soundtrack is top-notch, the pacing and the story is fantastic, the radio is also brilliant and is best implemented in the first game. SH2 has a better story and a soundtrack on par with SH1, but overall SH1 is still the best game in the series, IMO. And still the best horror game made to this day.

[Mr. E. Nygma]

Yeah I get a weird feeling playing or watching it, SH 2 makes me feel hopeless though.