Sad to say I didn't like it

[SeparateWay]

I finished playing the first SH a couple of weeks ago after eagerly awaiting for it to come in the mail after eagerly trying to find a good deal on eBay for a copy. I began my journey of SH love with SH2 back in April and have tried to play more and more of the games, and even though I knew that the first would be a downgrade in graphics and voice acting, I still had high hopes to play the original, which I haven't touched since I was a kid. And unfortunately, by the end of it, I didn't really enjoy it, which baffled me, because as a fan, I should've liked it, right?

I guess my grievances with it are as follows: The story wasn't entirely as intriguing as 2's seeing as there wasn't a lot of story that was made clear. The monsters weren't as unique to look at and didn't give me the sense that they represented anything psychological. Seeing a giant moth reminded me of Resident Evil, but I digress. It didn't give me a sense of suspense or fear as the second one did. The score most of the time almost seemed non existent. I know there's silence, but I noticed there weren't as many atmospheric tracks that stood out as there were with 2. The characters didn't catch my interest either. I know the acting wasn't going to be great, but I never got much of a personality from any character, seeing as most of them spent their time discussing the fact that they had no idea what was going on.

One of the main things that bothered me was the story. I basically played through normally, which ended up with me getting the very bad ending, which felt like a slap in the face. It essentially leaves the player wondering why Cybil was possessed, what was the deal with the doctor, why did that happen to Lisa, and what was the entire backstory to Dahlia and her daughter? Why did any of this happen at all? I end up killing this God, and then just cut to black and roll credits? Wha... what? Of course, Silent Hill wiki was able to give me story beforehand, so I expected to see the story of Alessa develop; how she was ridiculed, her special abilities, and what happened to her that led to this nightmarish world, but none of that was ever explained.

My theory is that as gamers who followed the series from the start, these answers were revealed in SH3, which I just finished playing. Was that the case? Did Konami's PR reveal the entire story through a guide or online in 1999? Was Heather's identity and story a secret upon the release of 3? Being someone who had a late start and learned mostly online, it's hard to tell how it all played out. Overall, the first installment didn't contain all the things I expected and loved that the second one established for me and placed the idea of what Silent Hill was in my mind. It makes me sad that I'm not sure whether or not to keep it as fan or to resell it to get my money back. Any clarification?

[what]

It's hard to say.

I played the first game first, and I bought it without knowing anything about the series. No expectations. And, even though it's not my favorite, I could not imagine beginning with any other game.

I imagine that I'd like it a lot less if I'd played others first, but luckily, that didn't happen.

[Augophthalmoses]

Yeah. As much I like SH1 there were a lot of things poorly explained (or just not explained at all). It makes things incredibly confusing as there were a lot of things about the game I didn't really know about (such as the Metratron being mispronounced and the "god" figure not actually being Samael) until I started looking into all this crap on forumsa few years later. Why Cybil is possessed is never made clear in the game or anywhere else (interviews, Lost Memories, SH3, etc.) for that matter. It was most likely just intended to instill a sense of urgency for the player getting to the Amusement Park since you saw something happen to Cybil and to also set up for a boss fight while not really providing any real explanation behind who or why this would happen.

I don't think it was meant to demonstrate that the cult had attempted to possess her, Alessa had, or anything else.

Also, yes, Heather's true identity was meant to be a secret until players had finished SH3 to figure it out for themselves. The game doesn't really make it clear why exactly Kaufmann is helping the cult either. I guess he since he provides health care and shelter for Alessa he gets a share of the money derived from the cult dealing out While Claudia since Cybil does tell us the drug is noted for being sold to tourists.

Thinking about it all it makes me realize even more that even the members of the original developer weren't exactly the big experts in storytelling that a lot of people overblow them to be.

[emma]

to me SH was my first as it is the source of my inspiration to love the rest and the whole of SH games
in other words..its the only reason why i begun to love the whole SH series's

[NaturalKiller]

It's hard to say.

I played the first game first, and I bought it without knowing anything about the series. No expectations. And, even though it's not my favorite, I could not imagine beginning with any other game.

I imagine that I'd like it a lot less if I'd played others first, but luckily, that didn't happen.

Agreed.

Also the first game it's like a door for know about the concepts and start to confront the puzzles, that can look some unsense in the next games.

[Purramid_Head]

I love this game. I think it's really scary and a lot of the monsters to me are more threatening and menacing than 2's. SH2 was just, well you could outrun most of 'em. I also thought they had a good background. The story doesn't seem as good because the localization is not up to par like it is in 2. There's actually a lot of things that were re-done for the script that make the game even more confusing, especially with 3 added on. The game is not supposed to 'explain' things to you, 2 didn't do that either. But 1 to a lesser extent. It's supposed to be vague, generalizing, and give people a lot to think about. If you wanted more backstory on Alessa, play Origins.

[keeps]

the batshit craziness and incoherence of the first game only adds to the allure of the intricately crafted and executed second game and vice versa

the two together establish what the town fully means to me and i love them both, like, equally

the first is so raw and visceral though omg it's the best

[Devoured]

I think a great part of its incoherence can be attributed to wanting to be ambiguous, letting the player think Harry might very well be dead all throughout the game, with the only characters he does encounter acting rather strange and one-dimensional (aka they might be dead, we know Lisa is at some point, Cybil is implied early on etc). Add to that the fact that 'the camera' doesn't really leave the player at any time - we only find out things Harry actually finds out for himself in the game. It doesn't cut to show Dahlia watching her soap operas in between scenes or Cybil taking the merry-go-round for a spin the way movies and other games often do, the player is basically 'there' all (well, 99.9%) of the time, and even when it's over still not sure just what happened. I think it's also sort of imperative to show the contrast between Harry & Dahlia - Dahlia basically not giving 2 shits about her biological child and Harry going through hell (:roll:) for his adopted child, and later deciding to take care of Heatheressa as well, not really knowing just what she is but still feeling the need to take care of the latest incarnation of the lil' freak.

Well...the monsters were sort of 'psychological', they were based on animals Alessa was afraid of. Apparently Alessa just happened to be the only 80s kid to play RE a lot...seriously though, yeah, lots of games have scary animalistic monster, I don't think the intent behind SH1 was ever as ambitious as SH2's. If you ask me, they plain & simple wanted to do a horror game that mixed Western & Eastern influences and focused more on psychological fear & creepy mood than action, always playing with a 'normal' character instead of a member of a special strike force unit. I think they intentionally left some blanks in so it would kinda feel like Twin Peaks, after all there are pretty easy answers for the major questions you pointed out. If you do the Indian Runner side-quest you'll find out more about Kaufman, as it involves him and confirms he is part of the cult & their White Claude business. We don't get a full explanation but I'd think that after 2 playthroughs or so, between the articles concerning White Claudia & the police dept, Kaufman's involvement in White Claudia as well as Alessa's 'death' and stay at the hospital we get enough info to piece together that Kaufman was simply working with the cult for personal gain, distributing (maybe processing) White Claudia at the hospital. The demon nurses & doctors were supposed to be representations of the 'real' hospital staff being on White Claudia as indicated by Lisa, which would imply Cybil's being possessed is caused by that as well, but it obviously makes little sense for her to develop a habit in 5 minutes. I don't think there's anything to that though, just...not that good writing...there's a pretty good chance you get a pretty bad ending the first time and miss the Indian Runner side-quest, it's vagueness is a way to encourage you to play the game again as well, I think. Don't forget that multiple endings weren't by far as common back then as they are now.

I don't really think they planned for people to go that far into details, and it turned out more successful than they actually expected, so they decided to take a chance and take it to the next level. With 2 they very consciously set out to create a game that was extremely Freudian and felt more like a psycho-noir film than a game in the traditional sense. Playing on normal or easy will easily get you through most of the game without having to do much fighting, let alone worry about ammo - it's all about the story and feel of it all, in SH1 you can't wait to get out of those streets cause they're either boring or unnerving & unpredictable if you don't know where the enemies are, in SH2 you can wander around aimlessly, forever trapped in some misty October morning checking out the scenery, cause you're supposed to. They wanted you to feel like you're spending a day there the way James is, SH1 didn't have a very clear timeline with the constant changes in light & dark and Harry's obvious narcolepsy it was all much more bewildering and taking you on an strange rollercoaster ride, you don't know if it's been 1 day or 3 and the interaction between the secondary characters is much less direct, Kaufman or Dahlia's motives are unclear because of their sparse and cryptic dialogue. As Xuchilbara pointed out, 2 doesn't do that much explaining either, I reckon about as much as 1 did, but I think 2's story is more emotional and there isn't that much to explain about it, the interactions in 2 were so we could see what kind of people Angela & Eddie were, SH1 (I think) intentionally left us wondering just what kind of people you're dealing with, because they had nothing to do with you, Harry's an innocent bystander.

I didn't think SH3 explained that much either or showed much new detail. It introduced a whole new side (Claudia etc) that was obviously cooked up for 3 itself and we already knew Dahlia was a religious freak. As far as the actual day-to-day life of Alessa we only get a few loose remarks from Heather towards the end, nothing that revealing or even really adding to the bigger 'tapestry' at all. 0rigins does a liiittle more of that, story-wise it's pretty good, it's just executed a little poorly on certainly levels, but it's definetly the game you'll wanna play if you want any background info on the original Alessa's life as a child outside her home and church.

[TraceBASS]

I will agree, Silent Hill 2 is a more engaging game than the original Silent Hill. But they are both hallmark games, and are both worth playing. (And I cannot get enough of the first game's soundtrack...that stuff is mind-'sploding!)

[Mercury]

SH1 is in a completely different category of its own, so it makes sense that there are people who have a hard time getting into it. SH4 has similar problems with fans.

[WisHouse]

Personally I loved SH1, had a smart, dark plot and many situations that could get you really nervous(or at least in my case).Maybe some folks nowadays have "trouble" while playing this game bacause of its graphics or just cant get used to the shity fighting system or other things(gotta agree with you with the moth boss)
But SH is that kind of game that you´ve got to play before you die, hahaha

[captain crowbar]

I haven't actually played it in years, but I remember it being hard as fuck the first time through on the hardest setting. I thought it was amazing.

And I think the classic SH fighting system gets an unfortunately bad rap. It's clunky for a reason...to make the idea of fighting the things that much more daunting.

It was a step up from a lot of games in the same genre, anyway.

TBH, I don't know if the Downpour fight system will be more or less frustrating...it looks pretty ugh to me.

[what]

And I think the classic SH fighting system gets an unfortunately bad rap. It's clunky for a reason...to make the idea of fighting the things that much more daunting.

It's clunky because it's poorly-implemented and/or designed.

I don't think any game gets as much of a pass on its flaws as this one. Poor graphics? That's atmosphere (I give the poor graphics a pass because it's on inadequate hardware, but I don't think it adds to the atmosphere in any way)! Terrible voiceovers? Makes it sound like a dream (don't even understand this, people in my dreams never sound like such doofuses)! Loose, imprecise controls? Makes it feel even harder (which is true and also a completely bullshit way to make a game more difficult).

Silent Hill is a good game in spite of its flaws, but let's not try to pretend that it doesn't have a lot of them.

[devil hunter]

Yeah, the controls in older games were never really good and they were pretty similar to horror games of that time, some had better controls though.

I think graphics are one of the better stuff about SH1. For its time they were awesome. I dunno how to explain it, but SH1 is also scary because of those graphics. How people move like stiff marionettes, monsters look really weird thanks to the console, same to the enviroments. The limits of the console make the game spookier.

I agree about voice acting and bad controls though.

[WisHouse]

Yeah, the controls in older games were never really good and they were pretty similar to horror games of that time, some had better controls though.

I think graphics are one of the better stuff about SH1. For its time they were awesome. I dunno how to explain it, but SH1 is also scary because of those graphics. How people move like stiff marionettes, monsters look really weird thanks to the console, same to the enviroments. The limits of the console make the game spookier.

I agree about voice acting and bad controls though.

Yeah the graphics definitely helped the cause. Bad controls were common back then, but SH wasnt that bad. Have you guys ever played the original Alone in the Dark? It was painful to even make the character walk.Resident Evil wasnt a revolution either

[Sunchaser]

For me, silent hill 1 was epic, and because i was so focused on that storyline the 2nd game did not hit me as much, i was too busy hoping to see otherworld. When the 3rd came out i was heavy into drugs so it affected me a different way, along with my obsession with that story. I dont even know what im saying. I like turtles

[captain crowbar]

It's clunky because it's poorly-implemented and/or designed.

I think that comes down to opinion. I liked it.

[devil hunter]

I never had problem with controls of SH games and even though the combat was bad it didn't bother me, I guess that's because I played Resi games before so I kind of adjusted to them lol

[Augophthalmoses]

^ Pretty much that. Tomb Raider 2 was my first brush with tank controls (as well as a TR game) then sometime later I played RE. So by that time I was used to them. They weren't anywhere near as involved and complicated as TR's tank controls were when you started playing a TR game for the very first time.

The RE games definitely had the easiest tank controls to use of all the PSX era games I've played. Somebody who has problems with those controls probably just has an extremely low tolerance level for tank controls.

[what]

It's clunky because it's poorly-implemented and/or designed.

I think that comes down to opinion. I liked it.

And, that's your little red wagon. But, I sincerely disbelieve the controls were intentionally made to be loose and imprecise. Harry runs like someone who is severely lacking in body control.

I don't mind tank controls, in fact I prefer them to the 2D style which was forced on us starting with Silent Hill 4 and never implemented correctly. I don't like the controls in the first game because they're too sloppy. And, no, sloppy controls don't make a game more atmospheric.