Join me as I play through my favorite horror game of all time in this Silent Hill Walkthrough on PS1. I haven’t played this game in so long and it was just as good as I remembered!
Silent Hill is one of my favorite all-time horror games which is why I was very happy to create this Silent Hill Walkthrough after 15 years since my first play through. I remember when I first got this game back in highschool. I believe it was 1999 or 2000 when it was released and I was already a huge fan of the horror genre after playing games like Resident Evil and Nightmare Creatures.
When I first put the game in, it controlled similar to Resident Evil which was cool in itself. I explored the diner you first appear in, checked my inventory for all the cool items I had found, and was then able to venture out into the city streets. I remember being absolutely blown away by two elements on the atmosphere in Silent Hill.
The first was the fog effects. As you ran around the streets, you couldn’t see more than 10 feet in front of your character which led to an excellent sense of suspense. You never knew what you would run into and enemies could appear in an instant giving you an extreme sense of panic when you ran into them. The fog also created a creepy atmosphere in itself which helped make you feel like you had truly entered a desolate town where things weren’t exactly as they appeared and evil could be lurking around every corner.
After the fact, I learned that Silent Hill was based off a town called Centralia in Pennsylvania which is only a few hours from my hometown in Pittsburgh. The city of Centralia is a near ghost town whose population has dropped from more than 1,000 residents in 1980 to 63 in 1990 and to only five in 2017. There was a coal mine fire in 1962 which has been burning ever since. The underground mine fire continues to burn to this day which causes fissures in the ground with smoke emanating out from them across the entire town. This element of the town was the basis for creating a smoke/fog town of Silent Hill and it couldn’t be any cooler! (I was pretty impressed when I learned that the game was based off Centralia).
The second thing I remember being quite amazing when I first played this game is that you were actually able to enter all the houses and buildings around the town (not all, but a lot of them). I had never played a game where I could free roam around a town and explore all the buildings. This is commonplace nowadays, but when this game released, it was quite a unique feature. I remember imagining how cool it would be if there would ever be a video game based off a “real city” where everything was accurate to spec and a real representation of a location (specifically imagining my hometown of Bethel Park or Pittsburgh).
Thinking back as I write this review, it’s quite impressive how intricate and detailed games like Grand Theft Auto and The Last of Us have become in comparison to Silent Hill.
But back to the walkthrough/review, as you play through Silent Hill, you begin to notice that things just aren’t right about the town of Silent Hill. Evil begins rearing it’s head and as you explore the world, your mind slowly starts realizing how truly horrible nightmares can be! I won’t spoil the walkthrough, but I highly encourage you to play or watch my entire walkthrough of Silent Hill.
It’s still to this day one of the most horrifying, creepy games I have ever played. So sit back and let’s play Silent Hill! Feel free to message me on social media (Twitch, Twitter, Instagram, etc) to let me know what you think of the game!