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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: September 17, 2025, 08:43:59 pm »

Game 21 - Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (PS2) - 8 Hours

This game really surprised me. It doesn’t do everything right, but it’s a really fun experience that I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would.

Personally, I didn’t find this game to be very scary. The game’s normal world has no monsters at all so there’s nothing that can hurt you. But, if you treat the game more as an atmospheric adventure game rather than horror, it’s actually quite entertaining. The controls are excellent, and the graphics are very appealing. I enjoyed searching environments for phone numbers to call and for all of the spooky apparitions and anomalies that give you interesting stories that let your mind wander and fill in the blanks. In the nightmare world, everything is blue and icy, which while cool to watch, again, isn’t very scary. The monsters all look the same and they just want to give you a hug and you can just throw them off with a timed button press. While you can die in these stages, it was really easy to avoid the monsters and I didn’t find it challenging enough.

The real meat of the game comes from the psychological profiling that the game touts as one of the big selling points. It’s a very interesting aspect of the game that adds a lot of replayability so you can see how your choices affect certain aspects of the game. However, it doesn’t really do it for me when the game tries to sell these mechanics for anything more than a fun gimmick. This is because the nature of the psychology results is not handled in A) a consistent way and B) a way that actually makes sense.

Right from the jump, the back of the game box and an intro screen tell you that it will be  profiling you (as in the player) as you play, which to me seemed like a pretty tall (impossible really) feat to actually pull off. As you start playing though, you’re realizing that the choices you’re making in the game are changing what Harry is experiencing – either through the questionnaires or the things he interacts with. So immediately I changed my framing of the psychology portions as a role-playing exercise where you build a personality for Harry, rather than myself. And it’s pretty hardcore roleplaying because you aren’t given enough information about Harry’s past to be able to make any informed decisions about how to answer the questions. These questions ultimately change the clothes that people wear, how they talk to Harry, the monsters he sees, and the ending. So it’s really all Harry’s personality we’re changing.

But THEN the game informs that you are Cheryl while in the psychology sessions, and suddenly the delicate house of cards we had been building with this portion of the game comes crashing down. So now I’m roleplaying as Cheryl instead of Harry, but the questions still affect Harry in the story, but in Cheryl’s mind? How does Cheryl answering questions about her social life in high school make Harry’s personality different? There really shouldn’t be a connection between the two logically even though it’s in Cheryl’s mind. But because it’s in Cheryl’s mind there really isn’t any reality anyway and so nothing with the story matters. It’s inconsequential. And then at the end the psychologist is writing up an assessment about what I'm assuming is you. It just jumps around to whatever it feels like.

The other thing that bothers me about the psychology portion is the interactions with the environments while playing as Harry. When you look at objects, you aren’t given the opportunity to react in any given way. Harry just does a reaction for you, even if you aren’t trying to roleplay in that way. For example, if I’m in JCPenny and I look at a bikini on a rack, I’m not automatically made a creep for it. But if Harry looks at that, he goes “yeah nice, I like that”, and the game just assumes that you’re being a creep about it. I wish you had a choice on whether the things you look at make you feel one way or the other.

The major takeaway with all the psychology-based portions of the game is that they are cool systems that were developed to be showcased rather than connect them to storytelling or characters. A great example is when you color in the drawing of the house and it changes how the house appears to Harry in the game. It’s more of a “look what we programmed into the game” more than an actual vehicle to tell an interesting narrative.

So at the end of the day, I really liked a lot of what the game had to offer in terms of atmosphere and a lot of the mechanics of the psychology, but once again, the story just doesn’t do it for me. It’s way better than Homecoming though and I like that it’s self contained. Don’t get me wrong though – even though I’ve written a lot of criticism about it, this is my favorite Silent Hill out of all the non-original team ones.

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General / Re: VGCollect 2025 Secret Santa!

« on: September 15, 2025, 03:27:26 pm »

Chalk me up for my 11th year!

We should probably unpin last year's thread too 

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General / Re: What are your least favorite boss fights?

« on: September 11, 2025, 04:51:40 pm »

My least favorite boss fight has to be Nyx (the final boss) from Persona 3 FES. It's a combination of a really long tedious fight where you go through multiple boss forms, combined with the frustrations of not being able to control your party members and getting a game over if the protagonist dies.

EDIT: Another one I thought of was Dracula from Castlevania Dracula X. I died so many times trying to beat him because all it takes is one wrong hit and you plummet down a pit to your death. So annoying.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: September 08, 2025, 12:52:38 pm »

Game 21 - Silent Hill: Homecoming (PS3) - 9 Hours

A generally miserable game, I was glad to be finished with Silent Hill Homecoming. Here’s hoping that Shattered Memories will be a little better.

You've just played through what I consider to be the franchise's lowest point in regards to its console games. As long as you go in with open expectations, I think (I hope) you'll enjoy Shattered Memories.

I like it so far  Definitely not perfect but does some really interesting things!

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: September 07, 2025, 05:50:25 pm »

Game 21 - Silent Hill: Homecoming (PS3) - 9 Hours

Have you ever played a game where everything clicked? Where it seems like the game was made just few you? Well dear readers, Silent Hill Homecoming was not that game for me. This was one of the worst video games I have had the displeasure of playing in a long time. While Origins definitely had some moments, Homecoming is several steps down in quality from the previous entries in pretty much every conceivable way.

First, the game played like ass. Controls are stiff and awkward, with a “modern” 3D control scheme and camera, but the camera controls are too slow and moving left/right/backward feels incredibly sluggish. Dodge rolling has been added but it’s not very useful because you don’t gain enough speed to gain distance between you and enemies. Combat kept switching between getting combed to death or glitching the AI with your own combos and neither was particularly fun. I never really liked the menus used to swap weapons either.

Graphically, the visuals are murky, and there’s a constant noise filter applied which gave me eye strain trying to look at it. The ability to send tables and chairs flying just by walking into them is also a great way to kill the atmosphere. The game is mostly various shades of putrid mind-numbing gray and runs at a constant sub 30 fps. The visual design is also heavily borrowed from the movie, for better or worse, meaning that things are in this game that don’t match preexisting lore, including steaming cracks in the ground from the nonexistent coal fire to Pyramid Head wandering around yet James is obviously nowhere to be found.

Puzzles have always been a staple in Silent Hill, and in this game, seemingly like everything else, has also received a major step down – most puzzles are simple with no real connection to any major horror themes.  I mean come on, a sliding block puzzle? The last puzzle in the game is a pretty decent challenge however.

The final nail in the coffin was the story, which was better than everything else in the game in that it was just okay. The major thing that I liked about this game was the idea of another town outside of Silent Hill but still in the vicinity of the sacred power that could have also been affected by the cult practices and could be dealing with the fallout in a unique way. And I would be lying if I didn’t say I kind of enjoyed the brief romance scenes between Alex and Elle. But that's about all the nice things I have to say about the story. It just wasn’t done in a way that felt like Silent Hill; it felt more like Saw than anything. Most of the story consists of Alex running after his brother ad nauseum with none of the other details in the story being told until the final last moments in a long exposition from judge Halloway. The addition of branching dialogue choices were mostly superficial, though I purposefully got the worst ending so I could get turned into a pyramid head, that was fun.

A generally miserable experience, I was glad to be finished with Silent Hill Homecoming. Here’s hoping that Shattered Memories will be a little better.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: August 28, 2025, 11:55:32 am »

Game 20 - Paper Mario: The Origami King (Switch) - 25 Hours

This is honestly the best Paper Mario game since Thousand-Year Door. Bringing origami to a world focused on paper was honestly a genius decision, and makes the most sense than the sticker or paint based ideas that formed the basis of previous games. It’s a little inconsistent on whether being in origami form is a good or bad thing, but I really liked the implications for both enemy and world design. There are also so many wonderful moments both in the boss fights, side characters and general dialogue which is what Paper Mario continues to deliver on even to this day. Even though the bosses are office supplies, I thought they were used in genius ways. Throw in lots of collectables to keep you exploring the gorgeous worlds, alongside a charming soundtrack, and you have a game that is generally very enjoyable to experience.

This game even brings back some staples from previous Mario games that fans have been clamoring for for years. The return of sidekicks that can help you in battle was appreciated, though they don’t provide a ton of impact in combat. There are actually some new all-original enemies towards the very end of the game!!! That was shocking :0 (even though it really shouldn’t be). Lastly you can customize Mario’s weapon and accessory loadout which adds a little bit more roleplaying to the series. All of these changes were tiny, baby steps, but at least steps in the right direction.

Even with these welcome changes, Origami King continues to stubbornly cling to having as little actual traditional RPG combat as possible, which really started with Super Paper Mario. This time around, the combat gimmick is based around lining up enemies within a rotating target to get more hits in and increase your attack power. Truthfully, I liked this mechanic as it added an additional layer of unique puzzle solving to fights. What holds it back from being great are the lack of an exp/leveling system, and the inclusion of breakable weapons which are required for the tougher enemies (it felt awfully familiar to the expendable stickers/cards from previous games). So frustratingly, just like the previous few games, Origami King really doesn’t provide you with a reason to fight enemies. They only thing you get is money and confetti, but you can get plenty of these things in other ways through just interacting with the world.

Other aspects of the previous two games that reared their ugly heads yet again are the instant game overs from making tiny mistakes with environmental setpieces, and the lack of any original characters. The story, with all the promise it gave with the worldbuilding, wasn’t explained until the very end with a paltry motivation for the villain which felt really unsatisfying. I also feel like it should be a standard feature to be able to run from any fight in current games. Running away is so frustratingly tedious.

Origami King made a lot of great steps in the right direction, but still falls short in some important ways. I still enjoyed it, and I think people who have been turned off by the previous few entries in this series may want to give this one a shot.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: August 25, 2025, 08:19:44 am »

Game 19 - Silent Hill Origins (PS2) - 8 Hours

Up until this point I had always accepted the prevailing opinion on the Internet that any Silent Hill game after 4 is not worth playing. And because a lot of them have become expensive, I just haven’t bothered with them. Now that I have the ability to play all of them (outside of Book of Memories) my intention is to form my own opinion about these games rather than just repeat what has been told to me from others.

So we start this journey with Silent Hill Origins: a prequel to the first game. While this game certainly has flaws, it really isn't as bad as I was led to believe. Let's start with some of the things that I liked. I absolutely loved the return to heavy exploration of the town that was missing from Silent Hill 3 and 4. I also really enjoyed the stamina mechanic because it adds a layer of strategy when you're navigating the town, although as a mechanic it's not coded very well and it doesn't really matter so much when you’re indoors. I think the visuals and audio are still great; it feels like a similar in style to previous Silent Hill games, even though it came out on the PSP.

As far as gameplay things that I didn't like I was disappointed to see that the same control scheme and camera are similar if not identical to Silent Hill 4 because this game returns to a more cramped claustrophobic level design like in Silent Hill 1. The constantly changing camera angles really screw with your movement and it became very frustrating. This game is also incredibly dark. Not in the sense of themes or atmosphere. I mean literally so dark you can’t see anything even with the flashlight on. It made exploration and overall appreciation of the level and art design (which I think is good) much more difficult.

Another aspect where I felt mixed on was the breakable weapons. To me the issue isn't the fact that your character can carry 50 to 60 different large items on their person, because the fact is that all the protagonists have always carried unlimited quantities of weapons and items (with the exception Silent Hill 4). To me the breakable weapons added additional tedium because you're constantly swapping weapons in and out as they break, and the fragility of some of them felt a little immersion breaking (haha). Like it didn't make sense to me that a sledgehammer would disintegrate after five or six hits, but Travis can punch monsters in the face 50 times over and not even break a finger. The reality that you spend a lot of combat literally slapping monsters in the face felt kind of silly to me. And it ruins the balance between the melee weapons in previous games, which had unlimited use, but you had to get close to enemies, as compared to the firearms which you can use at range yet have limited ammo.

Silent Hill Origins marks the turning point in the series where changes and retcons were made to the lore, story, and nature of the town and nightmare, that a lot of fans were not happy with. In this game there are two clearly demarcated worlds: the normal town and the nightmare world which is now called the “Other World”. And Travis can move freely between these worlds using mirrors. While I don't hate this concept from a puzzle/exploration perspective, it's a major departure from how the nightmare world was presented in previous games, in which everything is all one world/reality rather than two distinct worlds/realities. In addition, the burning of Alessa in a ritualistic sacrifice (as first depicted in the movie) is also not the original intention and story of the first game. In fact this game borrows a lot of its enemy design, character design, and themes from the movie and from Silent Hill 2 in addition to SH 1.

The biggest disappointment for me was the use of the characters and storytelling. So much of the game is devoted to exploring Travis’s past (which again borrows heavily from SH2), and with so much buildup it was frustrating to see how little Travis actually reacts to anything regarding what he is experiencing. Painfully little is about the town and origins of the nightmare, which is what I feel like a prequel should be about. I started this game with very high hopes that these ideas would be explored. For example, what was the town like before the spiritual power became perverted? What were the lives of the characters from SH1 like before the nightmare and how are they actively grappling with the ongoing changes to their existence? Maybe there are some new characters that disappear BECAUSE of the nightmare that we don’t get to see at all in SH1. None of these themes are touched on, and any interaction Travis has with the characters from SH1 is so laughably vapid it honestly hurts. There’s a little bit about the Flauros (albeit contradictory to its nature as depicted in SH1), and some information about the soul splitting (which implies that 3 versions of Alessa exist instead of 2 and so doesn’t make sense either). The rest of the game’s cult-related information in the story is just repeated from SH1. So much wasted potential there.

I really think that from a storytelling aspect a prequel to the first game would really be an interesting way to add to the world of Silent Hill, and so I hope they revisit this concept some day. Origins just doesn’t deliver any new ideas, and is more interested in retreading Silent Hill 2 but in a less interesting and fulfilling way. However, I still enjoyed this game a lot more than I thought I would.

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General / Re: What are you playing?

« on: August 22, 2025, 10:41:12 am »

You're welcome!  Hope you enjoy it!!

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: August 07, 2025, 10:51:15 am »

Game 18 - Stray (PS5) - 7 Hours

One of the big initial draws of this game for me was being able to play as a cat. This is the first game that I've really played where you get to be an animal in this capacity.  It was really fun, with a lot of intentional gameplay decisions that mimic the behavior of cats. I kind of wish they had more things that you could do and interact with as a cat because there’s a lot of untapped potential here.  But what really sucked me into this game was the setting and atmosphere, which for me created an incredibly immersive world that was fun to explore.

I do kind of wish that there was more to the world, because most of the game takes place in very linear enclosed environments, and there isn't a lot of free roaming and exploration outside of the two town areas. There also isn't a lot of very deep gameplay elements. I ended up turning off the jump prompts so that I had a bit more of a challenge figuring out how to traverse the games very vertical environments. But other than a few light stealth sections, the platforming isn't very deep, and there’s very minimal combat, which makes the game really rely heavily on its setting, story and atmosphere to be entertaining.  Which it does but i would understand if this game was kind of boring to someone else.

Thankfully for me the story was well told, giving you lots of space to wonder about the undertones to this ruined world that was clearly brought about by stark class and wealth divisions. All of which is inhabited by interesting characters who add a lot of vibrancy to what is otherwise a pretty depressing game. And I think the non-violent nature of this game’s storytelling helps fit these themes. The music was also phenomenal. I typically don't like a lot of ambient music in games, but this game’s score really helped set the mood well.

Stray is a touching emotional experience that while linear and light on the gameplay, was still entertaining. The fun for me comes from exploring the intractability between yourself and the world around you, in ways that are unique. One is in the sense that you’re an animal, and the other is you’re in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by only robots who don’t truly grasp their existence. These two ideas intertwine in a compelling experience.

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General / Re: VGC's Anonymous/"General" Topic:

« on: August 04, 2025, 08:55:09 am »

I'm thinking of expanding into some other portable offerings before getting a Switch 2 for now. Either a vita, Playstation Portal, or going big and getting a Steam Deck.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: August 03, 2025, 05:00:25 pm »

Game 17 - Doom II (PS4) (Hurt Me Plenty Difficulty) - 19 Hours

Hey was able to finish another game this weekend!

Doom II is essentially just the original Doom +1. There are a couple new weapons and enemies, but it really isn't a massive departure from the original, and as a result everything I liked about the original Doom (as well as the things I didn't like) are still here.

I do think that some of Doom II’s level design, while great for the most part, has some issues. I didn’t like levels that were focused on platforming, or on puzzle solving. I like streamlined action, and level design that caters to running and gunning, which is the focus of the game for me. There are a couple levels, especially the citadel level, that felt annoying because they were so cryptic to figure out how to navigate and it sucked all the fun and pacing out of the experience. These levels don't take up most of the game, so for the most part I enjoyed myself. The only other thing I can think of is that the music was kind of lame. Going into the Doom series I knew it for being fast paced action and kick-ass music. Like the first game, the music, other than a few standout tracks, isn’t really that great.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: August 03, 2025, 04:50:57 pm »

Game 16 - Silent Hill 4: The Room (PS2) - 9 Hours

I do miss this era of gaming when companies could truly take risks with their IPs. Most people will tell you that Silent Hill 4 is a game of opposites. That it has some truly great and truly terrible aspects all rolled into one messy experience. Personally, I agree: Silent Hill 4 has some fantastic ideas at its core, but there are lots of little gameplay and design decisions that hold back the experience from being truly great.

However, Silent Hill 4 is my second favorite game right after 2. My favorite idea is the room itself (well, more like “apartment” might be a better word. But whatever). Creating a horror game that builds up the player’s dependence with a safe space where they can rest, heal and save their progress to then pull that right out from under you is truly genius horror game design. The switch to first-person combined with a random element to the events that can happen keeps you engaged and on your toes. Staying on gameplay, several of the enemy designs were excellent, and the inclusion of the ghosts and Walter who are both indestructible and can go through walls and doors added a lot of tension to the environment.

I also really liked the story in this game, and the way that it was told. It’s told in a lot more straightforward way through the red diary and notes left throughout the forest areas. You can tell how this game was really forced into the Silent Hill mythos, but I still liked it better than Silent Hill 1 and 3. It’s a deep dive into Walter’s subconscious which brought back more of the intentional level design seen in SH2, while also giving backstory and personality to his life and history with the cult and his murder sprees. For my money, his story is way more interesting and fleshed out than Alessa’s.

Now, there is a laundry list of things that while not a dealbreaker on their own, all add up to lessen the game’s experience. The controls and camera have been completely reworked. Gone are the classic tank controls with a more standard control scheme that just doesn’t work with all the shifting camera angles throughout the game. The limited inventory, like in Resident Evil, causes a lot of unnecessary trips back to your apartment just to dump all your stuff. Having half of the game be an escort mission with Eileen gets to be a little frustrating with her somewhat dubious AI. Henry Townshend is pretty bland and forgettable with no backstory or any interesting features. And finally, the sound design, enemy design, art design and music can be a little hit or miss. Some of it is great, but others, like the stock sound effects for enemies, and Eilleen’s weird bloody skin texture, takes a lot of punch out of the game’s atmosphere. And come on, wheelchairs and bugs/slugs as enemies?

Even though Silent Hill 4 is deeply flawed, I still love it. Flaws included. Shoutout to dhaabi who sent me their copies of the other Silent Hill games so I can do a full playthrough of the series! Origins is next. 

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: July 28, 2025, 12:17:24 pm »

Game 15 – Grandia (Switch) – 38 Hours

Grandia is a solid RPG from the PS1 era that has a lot of great things going for it. For my money, this is one of the best-looking role-playing games on the PS1. I just can't get over how beautiful the game’s use of 2D sprites over these intricate and detailed 3D models and environments. It’s a visual treat both in exploring the world, particularly towns which are bursting with personality, and engaging in the combat where the magic and attack animations are spectacular. Other small flourishes like the use of dynamic portraits during dialogue, with lots of fluid character animations, make it a very cinematic game as well. However, the voice acting was a little hit or miss to me. I do think it’s serviceable; the main issue for me was the adding of lots of dead air in between lines which made the deliveries feel more stilted and awkward than they were. I think for the time though, it's impressive. The music was a little inconsistent too. Some of the songs that play in dungeons in particular weren't that great. But, when a great song started playing, it fit the mood incredibly well. So you can see that one of the big draws for this game for me was its visuals, presentation, and overall polish that helped make a very engaging experience.

Now as far as the story goes, I thought it was OK. It wasn't anything particularly special it's a very cliche story with not a lot of surprises, but it got the job done and was entertaining enough. The game features a lot of cutscenes and again with the visual style of this game it made the story more enjoyable. The writing is pretty decent and again the voice acting helps drive home some of the more important moments. I loved the little moments where the groups shares a meal and conversation together before going to sleep, that really helped me connect more with the characters. I thought the characters were entertaining and I liked the budding romance between Justin and Feena, it felt very natural and believable.

Where I get a little bit more mixed feelings on is the gameplay. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the combat system. The use of timed sequencing of attacks to cancel out your opponent’s actions on a timeline added a nice layer of strategy, and the leveling up system for different weapons and spells kept you engaged in your character's progress over the course of the game. The magic system is very deep offering you tons of utility for fighting, which was fun to experiment. With all that praise, I do also think that this game is very unbalanced both in terms of its enemy encounter rates, and the percentage of time that you spend engaging in the combat. Easily after around 18 hours in I was getting sick of clearing what felt like dungeon after dungeon after dungeon after dungeon, back-to-back-to-back, with very little story to break up the monotony. And with no side quests or mini games to speak of you will just be fighting for probably 75% of this game and it got very old. That great leveling up system that I mentioned earlier also became more and more tedious because you have to constantly be switching different weapons or focusing on different elemental attacks and because you change out several playable characters at least three or four times, the micromanaging started to feel repetitive.

While the game for me overstayed its welcome, I still felt a lot of satisfaction upon finishing it. This is a really decent RPG that I was glad to have experienced and I've heard the sequel is great as well, if not better.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: July 15, 2025, 05:08:27 pm »

Game 14 - Silent Hill 3 (PS2) - 9 Hours

I wouldn't say that I have the most experience with survival horror games. I've played a few Silent Hills; I've played a few Resident Evils; the random Fatal Frame and Amnesia game here or there… But for my money the scariest game that I've ever played is Silent Hill 3. To me (no surprise) it comes down to the atmosphere. In my opinion, the graphics in this game were some of the best PlayStation 2 had to offer, which were used to make some of the most visceral, disturbing, and stomach-churning environments, enemies and set pieces. The developers make extremely smart use of textures, lighting, sound design, and uses that to artistically craft a truly unsettling and terrifying horror experience. The game rides this fine line between gross out creepiness but also vaguely enticing imagery so that you want to look away, but you really aren't able to. The monster design is excellent, and the difficulty is perfect with the improved controls and a wider variety of weapons and tricks to use against the monsters.. And of course, the game is tied together with this excellent soundtrack that brings the trademark mixture of ambience, industrial, instrumentation and rhythm that sets the mood perfectly of both the game and the story.

With all my praise up until this point, it's unfortunate to me that I didn't really find the story all that great. I enjoyed Silent Hill one’s story a lot more on a replay. But Silent Hill 3, in many ways, just feels like a repeat of a lot of the basic structure of the first game. Perhaps it was meant to be a huge twist that Heather in fact was carrying the God all along, but this is never really explained to the player how this happened, and it ends up feeling like a rehash of Cheryl’s story. Most of the game afterward is filling this back story of Alessa and Heather’s shared past that as a player you already saw it in SH1 so it isn’t really interesting. There wasn't enough of Heather really grappling with this new discovery of herself that previously had been repressed for so long it doesn't come across as very well executed. I imagine that Silent Hill one was not intended to have a sequel originally because none of these new cult members, like Leonard, Vincent and Claudia were ever present or mentioned in the first game. So to me that's a little odd when they seem to be such important figures of the cult membership.

Lastly while I think this game dives a bit more into the actual cult as a religion, including it’s key figures, traditions, and worldview (which appears to be an interesting combination of several different religions) the overall motive behind Claudia’s desire to rebuild the is about cliche as you can get. It felt more like something a typical role-playing game villain would pursue than something a religious leader would get behind. And the fact (again like in Silent Hill 1) that this God can die after you can pump a few shotgun shells into doesn't make it all that convincing. The ending was also really unsatisfying, with just a few quips between Heather and Douglas and then a cut to the credits.

So overall, Silent Hill 3 absolutely brings it with unparalleled horror gameplay but with a mostly underwhelming story that just felt like a retread of the original.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: July 06, 2025, 07:41:09 am »

Game 13 - Silent Hill (PS1) - 5 Hours

Ah yes, Silent Hill. My plan for this year is to play through the first four games saving Silent Hill 2 for last and then jump into the remake sometime in October.

There's a lot about the first Silent Hill game that still feels very fresh and interesting. For the time, it was definitely a different take on survival horror than what had been previously established by Resident Evil. Certainly it in my opinion blows the horror element of previous games out of the water and establishes a very creepy atmosphere that's perfectly encapsulated by the music and the graphics particularly the heavy use of fog and darkness. The gameplay itself is a huge improvement over Resident Evil and yet strikes a balance between being functional without the player feeling too overpowered. I happen to really love the tank control scheme that was very prevalent during games of this era even though a lot of people tend to not like them. For me the easiest way to control these games is just to use the directional pad buttons rather than an analog stick, and it works incredibly well. The monster design is really quite impressive however I felt like the boss designs in this game are definitely some of the worst in the series most of them are just giant insects without really any interesting features.

Another aspect of Silent Hill that was unique at the time was the puzzles and in this game the puzzles range from pretty simple to pretty complicated. My favorite puzzle is definitely the piano key puzzle with the birds. I remember having a lot of trouble with it first time I tried the puzzle but this time it was actually pretty easy. The worst puzzle is that damn Zodiac appendage puzzle because it's not well designed at all and is based on faulty logic and information. (FYI, tails and fins are also considered appendages in real biology, and I don't know why a scale would be considered to have two appendages either. It's just a mess of a puzzle). The puzzles aren't the only aspect of the game that's a little hit or miss for me. I found that I enjoyed the story a little bit more than my first playthrough but in general the heavy occult like nature of these games is something that I just have never really been able to get into. I just don't find them particularly interesting and given that the cult is essentially just made of 1 member at this time it just doesn't feel too substantial. Plot is also pretty confusing and once you kind of get what characters are saying to you it fits together pretty well but it's easy to get confused on our first time playthrough. I do like the multiple ending feature which encourages you to replay the game and try to explore new areas in order to uncover all the game secrets.

So overall even though Silent Hill has aged poorly in some aspects it still holds up in a lot of areas and I did enjoy my time playing it