Silent Hill - Fill Me In!

RopeDrink

Yes yes, we all know by know just what Silent Hill is, how good the series is and, of course, the soon to be released movie...

Thing is, during many bored hours I've done random google video searches for... Well, anything, and being a fan, Silent Hill is one of the things I've looked into, from Introductions of the games to go back in time and remember the many 'up-****-creek-without-a-chainsaw' moments that scared the living hell out of me, to random odd remakes Such as this for a bit of a laugh...

That clip involves Pyramid Head who, I assume, only appears in SH2 & 3 which I haven't played...

Can someone please fill me in on what the f0rk he/she/it is / does as in any single movie or stray clip he/she/it is in, it's doing little else than playing around with Maneq... Maniqu... Mankins... You know what I mean...

Also, I've heard the film is actually suprisingly good, coming from people who have... Seen it (*cough*)... Any new info regarding it? I simply must see it, mainly just to see wether they even remotely scratch the surface when it comes to scares, atmosphere etc

Anyone else bar myself played SH 4 and thought it was good? I enjoyed it despite there being almost zero threat to the character and only died once when trying to figure out just what I was meant to do at the last boss... Got some very nice and creepy touches to it, despite it having a lot of detracting minor problems... Like the Maniq... Manequins(?) making the same, lame burp noise everytime you hit them... That really just put me off and made it more humourous than scary, throwing a lot of atmosphere and creep factor out the window.

Anyways, enough. Any juicy morsels of info for me?

Giblet

He only appears in Silent Hill 2. Silent Hill 4 is ok, but it is nothing compared to 2.

You should play the game before reading this, as it rocks!





Pyramid Head envolved from the psyche of a tortured man due to the feelings of resentment for his wife that built up while she was sick. He is the manifestation of his sexual desires that he had no outlet for during this period. Pyramid head takes the form of an executioner in order to carry out the punishment that James feels he deserves, the pyramid on this head is there to represent the pain he is feeling (as it is supposed to look like it's horrible to wear) from all the guilt from feeling this way about his wife.

Pyramid head throughout the game seemingly "rapes" mannequins which are constructed in such a way as to show women as objects. ie: The mannequins look like two pair of legs stuck together, as in, a woman is what is between her legs (an opinion formed from sexual frustration). During the end of the game, we see James realise why pyramid head is torturing him and comes to the realisation that he does not need to be punished any more. This leads pyramid head(s) to commit suicide.

There are also more themes in the game dealing with this which make it clearer, such as who Maria is, but you should really play the game!

Giblet

There is a similar character in 3, but it's not Pyramid head. You should find sh2 quickly and play it!

Don't think about SH4 too much as it's nothing to do with the other games (in fact it wasn't a sh game when it started off).

Silent Hill 1 was excellent, but I couldn't play it again as the story wasn't great, it was too convoluted and didn't really get resolved. Silent Hill 2 does a lot better with symbolism and is more "direct". Besides the whole Silent Hill place, the story is pretty straight forward. It's more like Jacobs Ladder than anything really. PLAY IT PLAY IT PLAY IT.

Oh and the movie was good but it was a bit too mish mashed from all the games, went into the cult element a bit too deeply and I would have rathered a more literal interpretation (especially seeing as PH is so central to what SH2 is about)

Giblet

Lisa was a part of Silent Hill, not a "survivor"

monkeyfudge

The film has come and gone by the way. You'll have to catch it on DVD.

Giblet

It was rough, as in "wow jesus, that's a bit rough to be showing in a film". It wasn't scarey, it was just, disturbing. Probably wouldn't see a lot of it in a hollywood film. The effects are superb, the acting and plot, not so much, but it's insanely watchable.

monkeyfudge

I don't think the film was really that scary.. it relied too much on special effects to be scary.

But it was gory... which is something you don't see to much of these days.

Pyramid head is very well realised in the film too and is pretty damn menacing.

I think they did a very good job of capturing the Silent Hill experience... but it's really not that great in terms of it being a film.

Lots of plot holes too.

superfly

i remember reading at the time of playing SH1 that you had to find a puddle of something and fill your flask with it and give it to the female cop character otherwise she turns into the evil character, now that seems a little bit convoluted seeing as we didn't know she was going to do that
i have all 4 games but i have only played up to the start of the third game and have yet to get back to it
so far 2 was the best, very atmospheric and i'll wait till the movie comes out on dvd or wait till its 3 for 30 in HMV

Zombrex

Don't know much about the SH games, always meant to get into it since my housemate in collect played SH1 all the way through and nearly had a break down (ok, slight exaggeration, but he did go on and on about it for about a week)

Was thinking of getting the Silent Hill Collection for the PS2 (cheap second hand in GameStop), but it doesn't include Silent Hill 1. Is it necessary to play the games in order to figure out what is going on, or can you pick up from number 2 and still follow the story? Is it work picking up SH 1 and playing it through on a PS2 (the joys of backwards compatability)

Retr0gamer

Silent Hill 3 follows on from the events of Silent Hill 1. Silent Hill 2 is practically a stand alone game and storywise, far different than 1,3 or 4.

monkeyfudge

There is an emulated version of Silent Hill 1 out there for the PC, which enhances the graphics to a degree.

Although I'm pretty sure it's a bit of a legal grey area.... but if you already own a copy of the original then fire away.

i_am_dogboy

Wicknight wrote:

Is it necessary to play the games in order to figure out what is going on, or can you pick up from number 2 and still follow the story? Is it work picking up SH 1 and playing it through on a PS2 (the joys of backwards compatability)

I didn't play SH1 till after playing 2,3 and 4 in that order. There are no reference to 1 in 2, but there are some in 3 and 4 so you can afford to play 2 without missing out at all.

The game hasn't aged well though, and while the controls were acceptable in 99, it's a bit of a handfull these days, worth playing alright, but it will do your head in more than a few times...

Inisin

Although I haven't had a chance to play the games, I think this small peice sums up the movie fairly well.

Creature

I thought the film was alright. It had some fantastic set-pieces and the soundtrack was good, composed by Akira Yamaoka who was also responsible for the games music. However I felt the film didn't really know where it was going plot wise as they tried to incorporate to many elements from the games.

Aye, I knew she wasn't a 'survivor' but Silent Hill offers all forms of characters that are nothing but 'uncertainties'... If Lisa was part of Silent Hill then what was... Can't remember his name... You had to rescue him in order to get the good ending where he helps you reveal the REAL boss... And Lisa dragged him into the abyss at the end...

No idea, again, what the heck.

Well Lisa, just like the monsters is a "creation" of Alyssa. However Lisa was one of the few people to ever treat Alyssa with kindness so when she was "recreated" she didn't appear as a monster, she just appeared as her normal self.
The guy who you're referring to is Kaufmann, the doctor guy yeah? He was a survivor (as in a real person, not one of Alyssa's manifestations) and was one of the high ranking members of Dahlia's cult.
I think it was implied that he killed Lisa (before all the **** happened to the town) to stop her divulging information about his drug dealing. And I assume that her dragging him into the pit at the end is some form of revenge.

Zombrex

i_am_dogboy wrote:

The game hasn't aged well though, and while the controls were acceptable in 99, it's a bit of a handfull these days, worth playing alright, but it will do your head in more than a few times...

Was looking at the reviews on gamespot.com, and tbh I'm wondering what the fuss is about. All the games get low 8.0s high 7.0s.

Are the games actually anyone good? Or is it just that they are popular (not necessarily the same thing)

Giblet

A low 8 or high 7 is good though. I don't understand why people expect all games to get 99% and then it's good, seems like a placebo effect of sorts.

They are good games, but the story requires a bit of thought.

The games aren't that popular, I don't know many people who have any of them.

i_am_dogboy

They are very VERY good games, the best of the survival horrors by far(don't count RE4 as survival horror) I was just commenting on how the first game hasn't aged so well, the control scheme has hugely improved since then, and even at that the first isn't unplayable, it's just awkward to get used to.

The score in a review rarely tells you anything unless it's really low, i've bought loads of games that got middling review scores where actually reading the review convinced me....

Rhyme

Perhaps all you need to know about Silent Hill...

http://www.translatedmemories.com/book.html

That and the wikipedia archives.

Brow

Theres meant to be a new one coming out on the PSP called 'origins' I think where a truck driver called Travis O'Grady pulls into Silent Hill and gets involved with the cult. It's a prequel and you meet Kaufman and Dahlia and co from Silent Hill 1. I might just fork out for that game...