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Silent Hill

Started by Why I Hate Tables, May 04, 2010, 08:22:01 PM

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Why I Hate Tables

The Silent Hill games series is possibly the only games series to really draw me in. At time of writing, I've finished the second, and on the verge of hunting down the third in the series. I'm not really a gamer, but the first game blew me away. I'd already heard some of Akira Yamaoka's stuff, and was impressed by the range of styles he draws on from beautiful abstracted piano melodies to borderline Merzbow noise sadism. While diverting outside of it, in the game the music was terrifying, as was the whole atmosphere. There were several moments of intense emotional drama, and a few moments playing where I leapt out of my skin (particularly the ghost children in the school, and the nurses). The moment where Harry
Spoiler alert
walked into the Otherworld for the final time to find his daughter
[close]
in particular stood out. I was more scared playing Silent Hill than I have been by any horror movie.

The final nail in my game sceptic coffin was the second installment. There's Pyramid Head, at first dragging his sword behind him to appear and cause you harm, then carrying a spear to make it easier to kill you in one movement. There's the nurses and the strange psychosexual Abstract Daddies, and there's the Silent Hill trademarks of terrifying music and creepy little details (like the message in the bar telling you to kill yourself). Above all, there's one hell of a plot in there. Not only is there the central drama of James and his wife Mary, there's Eddie, the dog killer and Angela, the abuse victim. From the point of the revelation of Mary's fate onwards, a strange thing happened. Initially surprised by the fact I was welling up at a fucking GAME in that part, it kept happening. First in the stunning scene (link below) where Angela walks up the burning staircase, then again when he fights the TWO (count 'em) Pyramid Heads, prefacing it with a thoughtlessly moving speech which made me have to pause to compose myself before trying to avoid death.

Then there's the ending. Or should I say, every ending apart from presumably the UFO ending, which I haven't got. Both endings I got are ridiculously bleak, whether he tries to recapture what he had with his wife or gives up entirely. This combined with fantastic and at times infuriating gameplay, has made me a virtual convert to the order. Although if I ever have a daughter I doubt I'll set her on fire.


SILENT HILL 2 Angela at the burning staircase





Phil_A

To be honest, I think SH2 is probably the high point of the series. That's not to say the other games in the series aren't worth playing, but it's definitely a pinnacle of sorts. SH3 has it's moments, but without giving too much away, I felt that it was a case of retreading old ground(literally in some parts). SH4 is just...different. Very different. In actual fact it wasn't conceived as a Silent Hill game originally and plays quite differently to the others. Still worth playing, though.

The quality varies dramatically after that, as all the subsequent sequels have all been made by American studios. What I've played of Origins feels a little like a fan tribute to the earlier games(which is basically what it is), and I haven't got round to Homecoming yet. Shattered Memories on the other hand sounds more interesting, a remake of SH1 with a completely reworked approach(i.e. there's no actual combat).

TotalNightmare

I've always been mad keen to get in with the Silent Hill games, but as i've never owned a Playstation (my nintendo roots are too deep - sadly), I've never been able to play them.

Silent Hill 2 is often called one of the very best games (of any genre) and the very concept of it is right up my street.

As a result, i'm more than eager to get my hands on the Wii Shattered Memories - because, if nothing else, its a beginning 'of sorts' to the franchise.

Little Hoover

Shattered Memories is interesting but really not very scary at all, it works as a plot driven, dark mystery game. Yahtzee's zero and extra punctuation reviews cover it pretty well, it's easily the best of the games since it left the original team.

But yeah even SH3 is a bit of a retread in terms of story, it works though because it's got such a charming lead character in Heather, but it's too formulaic, and it gives you too much guns and ammo. SH4 is a very interesting story and concept even though it's frustraing I like the step towards more gritty combat. But it just doesn't quite work and they really needed to re-think some of the ideas. Never played Origins. Homecoming isn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it just really annoyed me overall.

Big Jack McBastard

I've only played the second one and The Room and I agree it's very atmospheric and is brilliantly good at shitting you up, never encountered another series or game that matches or beats it for that* but it can be frustratingly wonky to control effectively at times, though perhaps that's part of it's charm, I imagine I'd spazzing out, running into walls and shooting like a blind rat if some of the shit in those games were stalking me.

It's the bloody 'fetch-and-combine-and-use-in-some-obscure-location-"Damn you Capcom!"' parts that salts my japs eye, which sadly, is a significant portion of these games.

*Though there are times in Condemned and it's sequel that have caused significant ringpiece tightening especially with the full set of speakers on and a darkened room. However Condemned is set sort of within an, at least partially, functional society (though you see very little of it) so it falls short of Silent Hill's outright creepy as fuck feel, plus as I understand there's rarely an entirely coherent or even anything approaching pleasant ending in the SH games which further adds to it's grim, desolate and otherworldly vibe. 

Cerys

Words cannot express quite how much I love these games.  The sheer visceral Freudianism of the monsters makes me want to cry with admiration.  I also love the ability (in some at least) to opt for the level of puzzle difficulty.  Reading this thread has really made me want to play SH2, which is possibly my favourite.  Since it was borrowed some years ago by a friend who later threw himself in front of a train, however, I'll wait until I can get a new copy.  And another PS2.  And some time.

Milo

Silent Hill 2 was the first one I played and I absolutely loved it. Well, not sure if loved is quite right but it definitely felt like a significant event - something that has not been matched for significance until Heavy Rain for me.

I had the
Spoiler alert
In Water
[close]
ending which basically meant I was a combination of being a bit crap and very curious.

When I bought Heavy Rain, the guy in the shop said I should try SH5 too as (in his words) "The combat in the other games was always a bit crap but it's much better in this one". I felt like slapping him - you're not fucking supposed to be good at combat. Being a bit clumsy with all this weird shit going on is only to be expected.

copylight

#7
Haven't played the game before but I just want to throw my 2 penneth in to acknowledge the film having a lot going for it and was unfairly mocked by many. For all it's misgivings from a very scary and atmospheric first quarter turning into a super 8 parody of itself for the reveal, it still is a hugely underated and memorable flick (Sean Bean notwithstanding) shining with a Chris Cunnighamesque vision in parts. Likewise with the game, particularly mentionable are the film's music and cinematography.

I'm a pretty jaded viewer of horror but the aesthetics of the film still remain wholly atmospheric because of the sense of utter loneliness and airtight displacement transferred from the game and that's a feat in itself. Gans is directing the 2011 sequel with Avary and ''some help'' from Neil Gaiman, anyone else looking forward to this?

Ed/

Actually, looking at the wikipedia page, one fascinating inspiration Avary had was from a creepy little abandoned Pennsylvanian town called Centralia -

QuoteThe population of the town has dwindled from over 1,000 residents in 1981 to 9 in 2007,[31]  as a result of a 47-year-old mine fire burning beneath the borough.

In 1962, an exposed vein of coal ignited, possibly due to the burning of garbage at the borough landfill. Attempts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful; the fire is still burning and will continue to do so for the indefinite future. Adverse health effects were reported by several people due to the carbon monoxide produced.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania


Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

The film is not without its merits, but the script is pretty crummy. For all the changes they made to the original game's plot, it still sticks too closely to it, leaving us skipping from one location to the next for no other reason than cramming in another reference to the games.

I think it would have been better as a TV series, perhaps with each episode following different visitors to the town as the games did. The town's central mystery could hang in the background, with little details being revealed every so often. Kind of like Twin Peaks with less of the pie and more of the Black Lodge. I reckon the developers of the first game had a similar idea, looking at the intro sequence:
Silent Hill 1 Intro

Glebe

I'm playing SH3 at the mo, actually. Been a big fan of the Silent Hill franchise for a some time - even though it clearly rips off the Resident Evil series, it has it's own atmosphere, and is even creepier and more disturbing and nightmarish. I bought SH2 (Director's Cut) and SH3 in Spain last year (with Spanish booklets, of course!). Picked up SH4 a few years ago, but it had a bug in it and froze up some way into the game - managed to get it again recently. And I have Silent Hill Origins, but I've only played a bit of that. The creatures and enviroments in the series are pretty bizarre and unsettling. You can see the influence of Stephen King's The Mist in the foggy street settings with creatures that suddenly lurch out at you. I'd actually like to check out the film, not that I'm expecting much but it at least looks like it captures some of the atmosphere of the game, unlike the lousy Resident Evil (haven't seen the other outings in the big-screen franchise, but they look pretty silly). There's talk of a SH sequel, actually... the first one was on TV not long ago but I only watched a tiny bit; I'd pick it up on Blu-ray if I saw it in a sale.

j_u_d_a_s

#10
Oooh I wanna contribute here!

I've actually been meaning to revisit the first game sometime so I can talk more about how I'd view it now but for now you'll have to put up with half-formed memories. And maybe in a way I shouldn't revisit it to preserve those long held initial feelings about how it affected how I viewed modern media. Make no mistake, as young gamer hooked on standard playstation fare, Silent Hill was a filter that encouraged me to look deeper into the media I consumed. Every aspect of it appealed to me then and I just didn't know why at the time. Much like everyone has their album that's changed their lives, Silent Hill was more or less my awakening to how I viewed all forms of art.

But before we get into the heavy symbolism of the series itself, I want to examine the climate of video games around the time SH1 was originally released. The playstation was conquering the landscape thanks to moving itself away from the kiddy image videogames had. The previous SNES/Megadrive era had flirted with including gore, most famously in Mortal Kombat, but still remained very much a colourful cartoonish experience. It was actually thanks to the MegaCD that the most succesful step at the time to include more adult themes in videogames occured with the western release of another Konami game Snatcher.



Although slightly censored from the PC-Engine CDrom remake of the PC original, this was a definite push to move videogames away from their kiddy image in the west. The plot "borrows" heavily from just about every sci-fi film you can think of, visually it's a mix of The Terminator and Blade Runner. Directed by Hideo Kojima who would then go on to produce Metal Gear Solid, Snatcher was one of the first games to have a protagonist who was actually rather dull. Seperated from his wife, sleazing endlessly over anything in a skirt, Gillian Seed was a far cry from the cartoony mascots who were all over the 16 bit era like a rash. Anyhow a couple of years after that, enter... THE PLAYSTATION!

With the new added 3D power, the playstation made a direct attack on the mainstream consciousness of videogames. Appealing to the more casual player who may have had a megadrive sitting in their loft and snaring a load more players thanks to riding the "Club cool" trend of the time, the perception of videogames changed almost overnight to become something that people could do socially. More importantly, the average age of videogamers rose from early teens to late teens-mid 20s. Videogaming had essentially grown up and so had the gamers.

Another feather in Sony's cap was their looser controls on what could go into a videogame. Nintendo at the time were notoriously family friendly and Sony, having been burned by Nintendo were eager to fill in the gaps left by their policy. One of the key games that got people talking about the Playstation was a direct tribute to Zombie movies which at the time were a niche genre, Resident Evil/Biohazard.

Resident Evil Intro

Looking back now to Silent Hill's forerunner Resident Evil/Biohazard, it seems almost comical now. But at the time, it was the most sophisticated attempt at the "game as movie" holy grail that everyone seemed to be chasing at the time. Even forming the whole new genre of "Survival Horror". Using fixed camera angles and direct lifts from typical horror conventions, Resident Evil gave many gamers the first shocks of their lives and helped out zombies back firmly on the pop culture map! But as evidenced in the intro, the "acting" was as convincing as your typical porn movie. By the second swing of the bat however, a lot of the problems of Resi 1 were addressed and the best traditional Resident Evil game was born.

Resident Evil 2 - Intro - Leon S. Kennedy

But even despite the apocalyptic nature of Resident Evil 2's plot, it still felt juvenile, more like an action movie than genuine horror. Resident Evil's dynamic even now is still Good guys are good and bad guys are bad. There's no character depth in any of them beyond what they do.

By now, there were a fair few clones of Resident Evil doing the rounds and none of them ever really matched up to the original even though it itself was heavily derivative of the Alone in the Dark series. Survival Horror however had been firmly implanted into the video game lexicon which was gaining new terms all the time during the 90s such as FPS and MMORPG. It was around 1998 when Konami announced a new title with little fanfare and build up...

Silent Hill 1 Trailer E3 1998

Silent Hill came from nowhere pretty much. Konami spent a lot of their promotion on their big hype of the era Metal Gear Solid, another title that would further blur the line between games and movies. Silent Hill received very little attention from the gaming press and even then it was then "just another Resident Evil clone". What got people excited however was the fully 3D graphics, again something which was starting to happen around that time with titles such as Tomb Raider and Super Mario 64 but was still uncommon enough to get attention.
When it finally came out, reviews praised the graphics and new atmosphere but they all fell into the chorus of "not as good as Resident Evil 2 to play" which to me misses the point dramatically.

So let's take a look at the game itself. Literally.

Firstly the title "Silent Hill" itself. It's a wonderfully evocative moniker, tranquil in its imagery. A million miles away from usual videogame titles where you can usually expect what's written on the tin. Resident Evil, Biohazard, WipEout, Street Fighter, Tomb Raider... all of these titles promise fast instant action. You're expecting something FANTASTIC from the title alone. But Silent Hill? It's the name of a sleepy town isn't it? What could possibly be exciting about that? What conclusion could a gamer, used to colourful bright and breezyness, draw from those two words?
And here is where the enticement of this series begins. In the tradition of Stephen King novels, the title alone stirs your curiosity. You want to uncover more about it, you want to know how something so mundane could possibly ever hold your attention.

So you've made your choice to purchase it. You've seen static screenshots in magazines and maybe even streamed a blocky real media video but you're still no less wiser as to what this game is actually about other than the bare bones plot of a man attempting to find his daughter. You go your usual gameshop and you're greeted by one of these...


US cover. First regional version to be released.

For a videogame cover, this still looks very dull doesn't it. No noticeable features or anything that jumps out at you. The monochrome design doesn't seem to have any kind of pattern to it either looking as if it was just mocked up in photoshop on a lunch break. What is of interest though is the rather plain yet distressed logo. Again, something we're so used to seeing now but at the time a rarity. Looking beyond the messy layout of the images, there does seem to be something of the supernatural about the images too.
But then, for something which has such a mundane name and setting, then maybe a mundane cover is the best way to depict this game.


Japanese cover. Second version to be released.

Now here's something a bit more abstract. We have the logo subtly placed to the right for Japanese reading, but it's actually quite interesting reading it from the left too as it seems to be more of an afterthought.
We have the main design itself, a series of white tiles with the larger Silent Hill title superimposed on in blood red colouring. Aping the juxtaposition between the clean and the dirty. When we think of white tiles, it brings to mind "clean" surfaces such as hospitals, kitchens and bathrooms. What's happened here is the word "Silent" seems to have been splattered onto these surface. With the knowledge as well that Japan treats its hospitals with near reverence, that such a place could be sullied with blood everywhere is unthinkable. It also brings to mind the shower scene in Psycho which also used a similar juxtaposition. So this cover is a subtle yet powerfully subversive image designed to make you feel uncomfortable in ways you don't immediately recognise.


European cover. Final release.

The PAL release goes for a much different angle than the previous covers. Adopting the "blood and rust" texture that became almost a motif of the whole series. The use of Alessa's face and her weary expression is perhaps the biggest initial clue to the whole game plot itself. The title itself dominates the space though and doesn't seem to leave any room for much else. However the way it's repeated brings to mind the opening of Se7en which also had themes of psychological terror.

So already Silent Hill has broken away from all of the various traditions and conventions of videogames with its title and cover designs and placed itself as far away from Resident Evil as far as possible. Next time, I'll be talking about the first game itself with a mixture of nostalgia and cold unforgiving modern day play.

Consignia

Quote from: j_u_d_a_s on May 07, 2010, 05:29:01 PM
But as evidenced in the intro, the "acting" was as convincing as your typical porn movie.

Not in the least because the live action bits where actually done by porn stars. Nice post ,by the way.

Big Jack McBastard


Why I Hate Tables

Thirded. The game trailer is particularly interesting. The monster Harry kills in the bathroom looks a lot more like a child (as I presumed they're intended to be as a manifestation of Alessa's nigthmare) than it does in the game. I wonder what happened there. Did they think it would be a bit much to have you walking around smashing zombie kids to bits with a pipe?

copylight

Quote from: j_u_d_a_s on May 07, 2010, 05:29:01 PM
the heavy symbolism

Yeah, the thing about this whole franchise is that the symbolism really gets in your head and stays there. Pyramid head is one hell of a symbol too isn't he? An upgraded baddy into something far more psychological and supernatural, an ''iconography of pain''. Apparently being a manifestation of repressed anger that James feels but also a tormentor of Maria too. it's interesting to note that he seems the most overtly masculine monster in the game as most of the other strange Freudian creatures exhibit female characteristics. A friend of mine has a theory that PH is not only a product of grief by James' psyche, but also of Maria's sexual repression also (basically a rape fantasy as displayed in PH's having to violently sexual assault his prey).

It's true about much of the acting being bad in the film but this scene had me gawbsmacked when I first saw it -

Silent Hill - Pyramid Head spoiler scene!

New film promo-


Why I Hate Tables

QuoteA friend of mine has a theory that PH is not only a product of grief by James' psyche, but also of Maria's sexual repression also (basically a rape fantasy as displayed in PH's having to violently sexual assault his prey).

There's a lot of strange sexual imagery in the game, isn't there? The one that springs to mind other than Pyramid Head raping various monsters is the Abstract Daddy boss room with the phallic rods plunging in and out of fleshy holes as you fight a figure resembling two figures, one straddling the other. Even more significant is the fact you're saving Angela from it, so there's always the possibility she's in her own Silent Hill and the two have crossed over somehow.

Phil_A

Quote from: Why I Hate Tables on May 08, 2010, 01:43:31 AM
Thirded. The game trailer is particularly interesting. The monster Harry kills in the bathroom looks a lot more like a child (as I presumed they're intended to be as a manifestation of Alessa's nigthmare) than it does in the game. I wonder what happened there. Did they think it would be a bit much to have you walking around smashing zombie kids to bits with a pipe?

I believe those creatures(or a close version of) were still in the US/Jap version of the game, but were taken out for the UK, as apparently the censors though a shotgun-wielding man taking out childlike figures in a school would be a little close to home(Dunblane still being fresh in people's minds at this point). So they were replaced with the more ambiguous-looking "teddy bear" enemies from later in the game.

Quote from: Why I Hate Tables on May 08, 2010, 01:54:15 AM
There's a lot of strange sexual imagery in the game, isn't there? The one that springs to mind other than Pyramid Head raping various monsters is the Abstract Daddy boss room with the phallic rods plunging in and out of fleshy holes as you fight a figure resembling two figures, one straddling the other. Even more significant is the fact you're saving Angela from it, so there's always the possibility she's in her own Silent Hill and the two have crossed over somehow.

I'm sure I've read that "Abstract Daddy" is a personification of Angela's memories of abuse by her father, so I think that's definitely the case

mcbpete

Of all the moments in the whole series this is the one that always sticks with me -

Silent Hill 3 storeroom.

It's strange, it's the game that's always been known as the weakest in the franchise but is the one I've by far played the most. I love every one of the locations in it and its the one that has the greatest feeling of a nightmarish journey.

I'm really struggling with Silent Hill 5, again going against the grain from almost everyone else's opinion, despite beating all the previous games pretty easily I actually find the combat in this one nigh on impossible. I've died so many times playing it and probably am going to get the worst ending/grades when I [eventually (possibly !)] beat it. I've read that the knife is basically the only weapon to use, and since switching to that it has been slightly easier but I'm still finding it real tough.

Little Hoover

No I agree, the combat in SH5 is really difficult because they mecahnics of the dodge button are pretty broken, even if you time things perfectly you still don't always seem to avoid getting hurt, and they all take so many hits to take down. The knife is the weakest weapon, but all the others are too slow and unwieldy to use. Button bashing does not make for good silent hill combat.

SH3 is a less interesting story, but it's made up of plenty of fantastic elements and hard mode has some of the most esoteric puzzles in a game ever, including the Shakespeare Puzzle in the bookshop in the mall. and the hospital puzzle where you're supposed to work out a 4 digit keypad puzzle from this clue

"Pure eyes, blue like a glassy bead---
      You are always looking at me
      and I am always looking at you.

      Ah, you're too meek---
      beautiful, unspoiled:
      thus I'm so sad, I suffer---
      and so happy, it hurts.

      I want to hurt you
      and destroy myself
      What you would think
      if you knew how I felt.

      Would you simply smile,
      not saying a word?
      Even curses from your mouth
      would be as beautiful as pearls.

      I place my left hand on your
      face as though we were to kiss.
      Then I suddenly shove my thumb
      deep into your eyesocket.
      Abruptly, decisively,
      like drilling a hole.

      And what would it feel like?
      Like jelly?
      Trembling with ecstasy, I obscenely
      mix it around and around: I must
      taste the warmth of your blood.

      How would you scream?
      Would you shriek "It hurts!
      It hurts!" as cinnabar-red tears
      stream from your crushed eye?

      You can't know the maddening
      hunger I've felt in the midst of
      our kisses, so many of them
      I've lost count.

      As though drinking in your cries,
      I bring my hopes to fruition:
      biting your tongue, shredding it,
      biting at your lips as if tasting
      your lipstick.

      Oh, what euphoric heights I would
      reach, having my desires fulfilled
      like a greedy, gluttonous cur.

      I longed, too, for your cherry-tinted
      cheeks, tasty enough to bewitch my
      tongue.
      I would surely be healed,
      and would cry like a child.

      And how is your tender ear?
      It brushes against my cheek;
      I want it to creep up to my lips so
      I can sink my teeth into its flesh.

      Your left ear, always hearing words
      whispered sweet as pie---
      I want it to hear my true feelings.
      I never lied, no...
      but I did have my secrets.

      Ah, but what must you think of me?
      Do you hate me? Are you afraid?
      As though inviting you to the agony
      at the play's end, if you wish, you
      could destroy me---I wouldn't care.

      As you wish, you may destroy me
      ---I wouldn't care."

I mean it's ridculous, I don't think anyone could possibly work it out without consulting gamefaqs, but for a game to credit it's audience with such intelligence is a rare thing. And to actually write a poem that's fascinating on it's own terms, adds to the disturbing atmosphere and serves a gameplay function is just great.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: mcbpete on May 08, 2010, 02:31:10 PM
Of all the moments in the whole series this is the one that always sticks with me -

Silent Hill 3 storeroom.
Ah yes, that bit is fucked up beyond belief. 3 is certainly not without its moments, that one being chief among them, but as other have noted, it does rather feel like they were treading water.
Spoiler alert
I don't think the first game really needed a direct sequel. Ironically though, I was initially disappointed that 2 didn't follow on from the first, but then I realised that it was a masterstroke. The first game sets up the town and its powers, after which the series is free to explore any psychological freakery it wants.
[close]
3 kind of retreats from that though. There were points at which it felt like it could be part of any other schlocky action horror series, rather than a follow up to the work of art that is Silent Hill 2.

Just how great a work of art SH2 is is a question I'll leave to other, less ignorant folk. I'm aware that in a wider context it might be a fairly minor work, but as games go it's almost peerless.

Little Hoover

Quote from: Why I Hate Tables on May 08, 2010, 01:54:15 AM


There's a lot of strange sexual imagery in the game, isn't there? The one that springs to mind other than Pyramid Head raping various monsters is the Abstract Daddy boss room with the phallic rods plunging in and out of fleshy holes as you fight a figure resembling two figures, one straddling the other. Even more significant is the fact you're saving Angela from it, so there's always the possibility she's in her own Silent Hill and the two have crossed over somehow.

Well one of the interesting things About SH2's monsters is most of them aren't very agressive, they do all hurt you, but the fleshy monsters that move as if their in a straighjacket, they just breathe on you, but they seem to wander about aimlessly, it's almost as if they aren't intentionally trying to hurt you. The way the mannequins fling their legs at you could be seen as more of a sexual advance than an agressive one, the abstract daddy's are kind of rapey in the way they attack you. As for the nurses maybe, they just see you as an out of control mental patient. I mean there's the diary's in the hospital that tells of a patient who see's reality in a different way.
Spoiler alert
And SH3 of course has the "They look like monsters to you?" line, There's lots to imply the monsters aren't what they seem
Spoiler alert
[close]
[close]


j_u_d_a_s

VERY SPOILER HEAVY! No I'm not going to put spoiler tags in here because I'm talking about  videogames that are over 10 years old. Don't like it? Tough shit.

I mentioned Snatcher in my last post and before I get on to Silent Hill itself, I just want to quickly go back over it to examine some of the seeds it planted.
This sort of graphic adventure, also known as a "Digital Comic",  was pretty popular in Japan up until the mid 90s, the best way to describe it would be like a mix of text and point-&-click adventure games. Quite often, they would be licensed from popular anime/manga, and feature some rudimentary puzzles to break up the story parts. Snatcher is one of only 2 examples of this  genre translated and released in the West, at a time when anime fandom was an underground cult as opposed to now.

There's some interesting parallels to be drawn between Snatcher and Silent Hill. Both feature normal everyman protagonists who've been displaced from normality yet are responsible for their situations. Also in Snatcher, Gillian Seed is separated from his wife owing to their amnesia while in Silent Hill, Harry Mason is a widower. So both men come not only with a bit of backstory but also they're both single. A far cry from the typical videogame conceit of the hero always getting the girlfriend. The player usually assumes the role of a typical juvenile power fantasy, the martial arts expert, the brave warrior or the expert pilot. Gillian Seed and Harry Mason are both flawed men pushed into a situation, and indeed a world, they have no control over.

Both games were developed and released by Konami japan who moved into home game development during the period of the Nes/Famicom, at first converting their arcade hits but soon developing their own titles.

So when I mentioned that Silent Hill sprang up from nowhere, it's not strictly the case. There were foundations being laid down to take storytelling in games to more mature areas.

The year before Silent Hill, Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid was released which as well as being a big budget, expansive action game also carried a non-too-subtle anti-war message. Clumsy as it may have been, it was still something new for a medium which would often glamorise war and the idea that one man could fight an entire army.
Another interesting sidestory that MGS had touched on the stockholm syndrome releationship between Otacon and Sniper Wolf. When you defeat her in battle, there's the scene where you're forced to euthanize her with a bullet in the head to spare her the pain of bleeding to death. You clearly see Otacon's pain at this to the point where he can't bear to watch. Another aspect to this scene was the rumble felt when Snake pulls the trigger, placing you, the player, right in that moment.
Metal Gear Solid also famously had a choice where you endured torture (both digital and for real as you kept pounding the button to keep yourself alive) in return for Meryl's life. If you submitted, you would find her body dead. There's also the heavy implication that she was raped by Revolver Ocelot too which again breaks away from videogame conventions. What's even more disturbing about this is that it doesn't feel gratuitous, Ocelot is a sadistic psychopath who doesn't even have allegiance to the group you're fighting against, he's in it for fun. The final moments of the credits also reveal he's working under the full knowledge of the US President.
So despite MGS at first seeming like a cheesy blockbuster, it's actually making more demands of the player than is usual for an action game. You're going through all of this alongside Snake, you feel the glory of victory and the pain of loss. Hideo Kojima always spoke about wanting to blur the lines between movies and videogames and with MGS, he made gamings biggest blockbuster movie.

So if MGS is Konami's summer blockbuster, Silent Hill is their experimental student movie!

Silent Hill - Opening - PSone

Straight away, Silent Hill marks itself as something a bit special. You're not conscious of it at first but the intro movie, rather than being an opportunity to get the player pumped for videogame action, it's actually the beginning of the game itself proper. Subtly showing the backstory of everyone involved.

It's only when you press start that you realise what has happened here. You're instantly thrown into the thick of it. Harry Mason has woken up from a crash to find his daughter missing. It's an nice way of subtly throwing the player and putting them on the defensive. And that's what Silent Hill does so well and has done from the start.

Right at the beginning you're shown Cheryl, your "goal" of the game and she runs just out of reach. So already you feel so close yet so far from the end. When you follow her into the alleyway, you hear distant sirens going off so you already know danger is approaching but you have to wander onwards to the end because Cheryl must be there after all. But as you walk on, the way the camera follows you already suggests things are not what they seem. By the end the scenery subtly shifts from the grey monochrome misty alleyway to the rust coloured industrial nightmare landscape culminating in you seeing a body strung up on a fence. By now, disfigured children with knives are crowding around you, you try to run up the way you came but already the way back has been blocked off somehow. There's nowhere you can go, there's nothing you can do. You watch helplessly as Harry succumbs to their sharp blades...

Then suddenly...

Silent Hill 1 Cutscenes - 02 - Harry Wakes in Cafe

This scene is incredibly revealing as its the first hint what you see in Silent Hill isn't what you get. Cybil seems very relaxed and confident, perhaps too much so. Notice she also tells Harry after giving him the gun to be sure that whatever he's shooting at isn't human despite telling you "all she knows" before.

So to summarise the set up so far, we have a male widower looking for his daughter and encountering a female cop. The traditional gender roles have been reversed, despite the protagonist being male. Silent Hill has subverted the norm before it's even truly begun.

After the initial encounter with the winged creature, you take a step outside into the by now familiar yet strange town of Old Silent Hill.

More to come later.

Little Hoover

Exciting!

Mentioning the reversal of gender roles in the game reminds me how it's odd that they opted to make the protagonist female in the film, Gans gave some justifcation for this, suggesting that the way Harry acts in the game is more like a woman, which strikes as a bit of an odd attitude. But what also seems odd is that the b-story with Sean Bean was only added after they noticed the first draft of the script had no men in it, which is they added his character to the film, but his story really doesn't add anything. Seems like it would have been a lot better to just have a male main character, not to mention the dynamic of a single parent looking for their daughter is just more interesting and works better in the context of the story.

j_u_d_a_s

Quote from: Little Hoover on May 08, 2010, 08:12:18 PM
Exciting!

Mentioning the reversal of gender roles in the game reminds me how it's odd that they opted to make the protagonist female in the film, Gans gave some justifcation for this, suggesting that the way Harry acts in the game is more like a woman, which strikes as a bit of an odd attitude. But what also seems odd is that the b-story with Sean Bean was only added after they noticed the first draft of the script had no men in it, which is they added his character to the film, but his story really doesn't add anything. Seems like it would have been a lot better to just have a male main character, not to mention the dynamic of a single parent looking for their daughter is just more interesting and works better in the context of the story.

Oh indeed. I do plan on going off on one about the movie as well eventually but looking back at it now, it's a very "safe" adaptation. Rather than do something in the spirit of the game by skewing the norm, it just went for the safer option. The only worthwhile adaptation of Silent Hill is something that also plays with its medium as much as the game. That the Order has such a prominent role in the movie rather than the dribs and drabs of information you had to glean for yourself in the game speaks volumes about how each medium works and how they were both approached. Remember SH1 the game was very experimental within the confines of being a videogame, the movie was very straightforward.

Phil_A

Quote from: j_u_d_a_s on May 08, 2010, 08:43:41 PM
Oh indeed. I do plan on going off on one about the movie as well eventually but looking back at it now, it's a very "safe" adaptation. Rather than do something in the spirit of the game by skewing the norm, it just went for the safer option. The only worthwhile adaptation of Silent Hill is something that also plays with its medium as much as the game. That the Order has such a prominent role in the movie rather than the dribs and drabs of information you had to glean for yourself in the game speaks volumes about how each medium works and how they were both approached. Remember SH1 the game was very experimental within the confines of being a videogame, the movie was very straightforward.

The interesting thing, well, one of the interesting things about SH1 is it could almost be described as a meta-game, in the sense that the actual "game" is not being played by you, the player,  but by the two antagonists, Dahlia and Alessa as they each manipulate Harry to his ultimate fate. Effectively, the game plays you, rather than the other way around. Does that make sense? I'm sure someone else has explained this theory before, much more eloquently than I could.

Glebe

Heads up: Silent Hill is on E4 right now. I only just remembered it now and it's been on nearly ten minutes and so I'm gonna give it as miss meself.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

A thing I just noticed on this viewing: In the game when Harry is accosted by the child monsters after first getting into the town, you get killed by them. In the film however, Rose just appears to get knocked out. Of course the game has access to various extra ways of signifying the character's death that the film doesn't such as the status display and rumbling controller (it stops just short of showing you a game over screen, which would have been a step too far I think - although Metal Gear Solid 3 successfully did that later on). It's a seemingly small difference, but it makes the film less effectively mysterious and lessens the impact of that scene.

Having said before that film suffers from sticking too close to the game, it does conversely seem like the various deviations from the games are the weakest parts. The exception to that would be the janitor monster, which is the one addition that really does seem to show an understanding of what the games were about.

Little Hoover

Showing all the various followers of The Order does just seem like a mistake, I can see maybe the movie needs another element to it, but putting human faces behind the cult just seems to ruin things a bit.

Sill wondering if we're ever going to hear more details about SH2, and if they do adapt the game's story or just write a sequel to what they've already done. It's certainly a story that could work, but it'd be such a shame if they ruin it.

I downloaded SH2 on the PC a few months back but it seemed to run like complete shit. Was this because the PC port was just shit? I've never played through it but really loved the atmosphere of the opening ten minutes and feel it'd do me proud. It just crashed and crashed, though.