SILENT HILL
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'''Silent Hill''' (サイレントヒル) is a survival horror video game franchise developed and published by Konami. As of 2007, most installments have been created by Team Silent with the exception of two upcoming titles, '', which is being developed by Climax Studios, and ''Silent Hill V'' being developed by The Collective from Foundation 9 Entertainment.[1]
There are currently five ''Silent Hill'' games available with three under production (although one title, ''Silent Hill: Play Novel'', was released exclusively in Japan), all of which were released to strong sales and critical acclaim. The success of the series has generated several comic books, one movie adaptation (with a second release under development), and novelizations.
The gameplay includes frequent horror elements, action, various puzzles, detailed and disturbing environments, chilling background music provided by composer Akira Yamaoka, and a complex storyline revealed through numerous cinematic cut scenes and in-game documents and notes. Each game unfolds like a movie with several possible endings; the player's choices during the game determine which ending is shown.
Setting
''One of the maps players obtain in the first Silent Hill game.''
The titular town of 'Silent Hill' is a gloomy one-time resort town that lies abandoned and derelict, consumed in a perennial fog. Demonic and disfigured creatures roam the streets and buildings, their appearances usually taking the form of private fears and/or insecurities of whomever witnesses them. The town randomly shifts between everyday reality and a decaying and blood-soaked "Otherworld", where the monsters are more numerous. In the first game, the appearance and inhabitants of the Otherworld took shape from the traumatized mind of Alessa Gillespie.[2] Since then, however, subsequent games have depicted the Otherworld acting semi-independently, creating monsters whose appearance is exclusive to whomever sees them.[3] It has been implied that Silent Hill was always home to a supernatural presence (Mary Shepherd-Sunderland's assertion in ''Silent Hill 2'' was that it "used to be a sacred place."), but the town's bloody history has perverted these energies into something darker.[4]
Commentary published by Konami has stated that the power of Silent Hill has "intensified greatly" since the events of the first game.[5] While the first two games featured protagonists who were drawn into Silent Hill itself, in the third and games, the Otherworld has reached out to people in nearby towns.
The geography of Silent Hill is situated around the edge of Toluca Lake (where the resort itself lies), with the older sections of town located to the north and along the banks of the adjacent river. Due in part to heavy commercial development, the town is fairly self-sufficient; It has an elementary school, a shopping mall, two separate hospitals (Alchemilla Hospital in Paleville and Brookhaven Hospital in South Vale), and other stores and attractions. "Old Silent Hill" and "Pale Ville" hold sprawling suburban areas, with both apartments and homes, as well as several motels and the grand Lakeview Hotel. The beachfront area of Paleville also has a lighthouse and hosts the Lakeside Amusement Park.
The location of Silent Hill is ambiguous. The manual for the original game stated that it was somewhere in New England. The body of water it surrounds on three sides is later revealed in the second game to be Toluca Lake, however the only real-life Toluca Lake is in California. License plates in the first game indicate Michigan, but the liner notes of the Japanese version of the ''Silent Hill 4: The Room'' soundtrack CD gave an address for Heaven's Night, a nightclub visited by the player in ''Silent Hill 2'', that would put it in Maine. On the official Konami web site, the "map" section is imprinted with a fleur-de-lis, a traditional French symbol. The film adaptation ''Silent Hill'' places the town in the fictitious Toluca County, West Virginia.
The film's screenwriter Roger Avary used a real town of Centralia, Pennsylvania as an inspiration for the town of Silent Hill.[6] In 1962, a fire in a landfill spread to the coal mines underneath Centralia and has burned since then, which forced most inhabitants to leave forever.
Gameplay
A typical combat scenario in ''Silent Hill 2'', with James preparing to attack a monster that has moved out of the fog.
The first Silent Hill title, which served as the model for all but the fourth game, utilized a third-person perspective for the player's character, with multiple sometimes-fixed camera angles in various locations in contrast to a more conventional single camera behind the player. Silent Hill's streets are constantly filled with fog and in most indoor locations electricity and lighting are offline or nonexistent. The player character is equipped with a flash light and a pocket radio which emits static in close proximity to monsters to help the player cope with this handicap.
Much of the series's gameplay revolves around solving puzzles, often to get a key or other item essential to the plot. Various monsters are also encountered in almost all parts of the game to impede and possibly kill the player's character. The player will have access to a variety of improvised melee weapons and firearms to overcome them, although none of the characters except for '' protagonist Travis O'Grady show any indication of experience using guns[7].
All the games feature multiple endings. The nature of these different endings vary with the games. ''Silent Hill'', for example, had a progression of endings from "Bad" to "Good +" depending on how many side objectives the player accomplished before the final boss fight.[8] The endings of ''Silent Hill 2'', on the other hand, were presented as being all equal endings to the story with no clearly defined "bad" ending.[9] Most of the games have also featured a "joke" ending that can be reached on replays.
Atmosphere
The games' visual design is centered around fog-shrouded, dilapidated environments. The dense fog/pitch black settings found in the majority of each game limits visibility to about a ten foot radius around the character. The atmosphere of uneasiness and dread while in the Otherworld is enhanced by pitch-black, claustrophobic interiors. Some sound effects seem to have been included simply to frighten and alarm rather than cause actual physical harm in the game. Composer Akira Yamaoka has provided atmospheric and emotional music for the series, which ranges from the first game's post-industrial noise music to more traditional melancholy piano solos to heavy rock pieces.
Main series
Overview
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from:1999 till:2008
at:1999 text:"Silent Hill"
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at:2003 text:"Silent Hill 3"
at:2004 text:""
at:2006 text:"Silent Hill Collection"
at:2007 text:""
at:2008 text:"Silent Hill V"
As of 2007, the ''Silent Hill'' series consists of four released games and three currently under production. The series plays in chronological order, although ''Silent Hill 3'' is a direct sequel to ''Silent Hill''. Heather, the main character in ''Silent Hill 3'', continues the story begun by her father, Harry Mason, in the first game. ''Silent Hill 2'' and ''Silent Hill 4'' are self-contained stories, connected to the others only by the town of Silent Hill itself (though the town actually plays only a peripheral role in the fourth game; the fourth installment's main connection to the other games is the character Walter Sullivan, mentioned briefly in ''Silent Hill 2'') and through some references to the overall mythos of the series. These references are largely lost on James Sunderland and Henry Townshend, the heroes of ''Silent Hill'' 2 and 4, although one of ''Silent Hill 2's possible endings does involve James invoking the town's "old gods" to attempt to resurrect his late wife.
In April 2006, the "Silent Hill Collection" was released for PlayStation 2 to coincide with the release of the ''Silent Hill'' film adaptation. The set includes the games ''Silent Hill 2'', ''Silent Hill 3'' and ''. The "Silent Hill Collection" is only available in Europe and Australia.
''Silent Hill'' (1999)
Main articles: Silent Hill (video game)
Conceived by the game designer Keiichiro Toyama, the first ''Silent Hill'' was released in 1999 for the Sony PlayStation. The plot of the game centered around Harry Mason arriving in Silent Hill and his subsequent attempts at finding his lost daughter, Cheryl.
During the progress of the game, the protagonist Harry finds that his adopted daughter Cheryl has a disturbing past as the details of her genesis are revealed.
This game was followed by the release of the side story for Game Boy Advance called ''Silent Hill: Play Novel'' which is detailed below.
''Silent Hill 2'' (2001)
Main articles: Silent Hill 2
The sequel, ''Silent Hill 2'', was released in 2001 for the Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and PC. The extended versions for XBOX and PC are sometimes known as ''Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams'' and feature an extra subplot scenario, as do the "Greatest Hits"/"Platinum" budget re-releases for PS2. The plot centered around James Sunderland, who had received a letter from his deceased wife that she is waiting for him in their "special place", which leads him to Silent Hill.
''Silent Hill 3'' (2003)
Main articles: Silent Hill 3
The second full sequel, ''Silent Hill 3'', was released in 2003 for the Sony PlayStation 2 as well as for PC. Highly tethered to the events of the first game, the plot surrounds a teenager named Heather as she uncovers the mysteries that surround her past - including her own link to the haunted town.
''Silent Hill 4: The Room'' (2004)
Main articles: Silent Hill 4: The Room
''Silent Hill 4: The Room'' was released in 2004 for the Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and PC. Partly related to ''Silent Hill 2'' and briefly set near Silent Hill, the plot follows Henry Townshend who finds himself mysteriously locked in his own apartment until a hole appears in his bathroom wall. The game features characters that are mentioned in previous titles.
The game was not originally meant to be a part of the ''Silent Hill'' series, but the decision to transform it into a ''Silent Hill'' game was taken early in the development of the game, so it was heavily reworked[10].
''Silent Hill: Origins '' (2007)
Main articles: Silent Hill: Origins
An upcoming prequel first announced at E3 2006 for the PlayStation Portable.[1] The game features a mentally disturbed trucker identified as Travis Grady who becomes trapped in Silent Hill and encounters characters from the first game during his attempts to get out. As the protagonist searches for a way to escape the horrors of the town, he eventually uncovers details regarding the creation of the darkness that plagues the once peaceful Silent Hill.[2][3] This is one of the few ''Silent Hill'' titles that is not being created by Team Silent, but instead by Climax Studios.
''Silent Hill: The Arcade'' (2007)
Main articles: Silent Hill: The Arcade
At the 2007 Japan Arcade Operator's Union trade show, Konami revealed a forthcoming light gun arcade shooter game based on the ''Silent Hill'' series.[11] [12] The game deals with two characters, Eric and Tina, who have entered the town of Silent Hill after the mysterious return of the "Little Baroness" after it vanished 75 years earlier in 1918, and must battle enemies which include Nurses and Pyramid Head from ''Silent Hill 2''. It is said that the two-player arcade will play much like ''House of the Dead''.[13]
''Silent Hill V'' (2008)
Main articles: Silent Hill V
The sixth installment was officially confirmed on July 11th, 2007, during E3 2007 for the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360. The game tells the story of Alex Shepherd, a soldier who has returned from a war overseas. Shepherd discovers upon his arrival that his father has gone missing and his mother has become catatonic. Joshua, his brother, is the only one who can provide solace, but he soon vanishes. The game will chronicle Shepherd's search to find his missing brother. [14] Much like ''Silent Hill: Origins'', Team Silent will not be developing the project, but instead by The Collective from Foundation 9 Entertainment.[1]
Spin-off titles and promotional discs
''Silent Hill: Play Novel'' (2001)
In 2001, ''Silent Hill: Play Novel'' was released in Japan for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. The game consists of still images and text and is played in the style of a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Full Motion Video sequences from the first game are also included. It deals with Cybil's adventures through the town as well as the exploits of a boy named Andy. It is considered a gaiden story and it has not been released outside of Japan.
''Art of Silent Hill'' (2002)
First multimedia DVD focusing mostly on material from Silent Hill 2 such as artworks and renders. It contains exclusive up to date music video 'Caramel Mix' as well as 'Ki-no-ko' and 'Fukuro' (both of which appeared on future media discs).
''Lost Memories: The Art and Music of Silent Hill'' (2003)
Released only in Japan, it is a second and most popular multimedia DVD. Most of the content found on "The Art of Silent Hill" is included here in addition to new content cited below. Divided into seven sections, it contains full soundtracks, trailer collections, artworks, renders and creature galleries from all three games as well as additional music videos: Ki-no-ko, Fukuro, Usagimu and video with Heather performing the song 'You're Not Here' from SH3 OST.
''Inescapable rain in Yoshiwara (2004)''
Audio drama added to Japanese version of Silent Hill 4 OST. It was made by Akira Yamaoka & Teisui Ichiryusa and lasts for 57 minutes, however there was later released additional 16 minute chapter to the story. The story is not linked to the Silent Hill series in any way.
''The Silent Hill Experience'' (2006)
Main articles: Silent Hill Experience
This Video Universal Media Disc was released April 6, 2006 for PlayStation Portable by Sony Entertainment as a promotional item for the now released Silent Hill (film). It is the third multimedia disc related to Silent Hill series.
''The Silent Hill: Cage of Cradle'' (2006)
Interactive manga comic book written by Hiroyuki Owaku and illustrated by Masahiro Ito. It is currently only available on cellphones in Japan. A paper-back release is being planned for 2007. Not much is known about the story and images of the comic have been mostly concealed. What ''is'' known, however, is that the story will focus on Lisa Garland before the events of the first game in the series. Promotional images reveal that Doctor Kauffman will appear, as well as the notorious Pyramid Head and Alessa Gillespie. These images show noticeable influence from the visuals of the Silent Hill Movie.
''Silent Hill: Double Under Dusk (2007)''
This is the second Silent Hill manga to appear exclusively to Konami's cellphone network. Many details, such as the synopsis and the involvement of Owaku and Ito are currently unknown.[16].
Film adaptation (2006)
''One of several posters for Silent Hill depicting The Janitor''.
Main articles: Silent Hill (film)
In 2003 a motion picture based on ''Silent Hill'' was officially announced, with French director Christophe Gans (''Brotherhood of the Wolf'') attached. The main storyline for the film adaptation follows the original 1999 video game, but with a selection of features from the other games in the series as well as a selection of modern revisions. The film was released in April 2006.
The overall plot layout and the town itself had remained intact within the film, however the changes to the story and characters were obvious. Changes to the story included a reversal of roles for one of the prime antagonists of the first game and a different religion following cult.
Harry Mason was replaced with Rose Da Silva (played by Radha Mitchell), a married mother. Her life takes the unexpected turn toward Silent Hill in the hope to discover the source of her adoptive daughter Sharon's (Jodelle Ferland) nightmares culminating in a cry of "Silent Hill". Against the wishes and knowledge of her husband Chris Da Silva (Sean Bean), Rose takes off with Sharon on a journey to find the elusive town of Silent Hill, passing through the nearest settlement to their destination, Brahams. In Brahams, Rose encounters Brahams Police Department officer Cybil Bennett (Laurie Holden), who is suspicious of the distraught mother and her actions.
The film featured music from series composer Akira Yamaoka. The musical score featured several selections of original game music, such as the opening from the first game "Silent Hill", "Promise - Reprise" from ''Silent Hill 2'', and "Theme Of Laura" and "Laura Plays the Piano", also from the second game.
The film was released through Tristar in the United States, and Pathé in Europe. The film was considered a success opening at #1 in the US with $20.1 million dollars on its way to a total of $47 million domestically.[17] A sequel has been commissioned with the IMDB predicting a 2008 release, but presently little is known about it.[18][19]
Books
All books are officially available only in Japan.
''Lost Memories'' (2003)
Guidebook detailing various aspects of the first three games like symbolism and ideas behind games or development process. Originally released with the original version of ''Silent Hill 3'', the book has been the subject of unofficial translations outside Japan.[20][21]
''Drawing Block: Silent Hill 3 Program'' (2003)
Artbook added to limited editions of Silent Hill 3 together with Lost Memories DVD and two posters.
''Silent Hill'' (2006)
Novelization of the first game of the series by Sadamu Yamashita. It is divided into three chapters: Fog, Darkness and Nightmare. Not to be confused with novelization of the film released the same year and under the same title.
''Silent Hill'' comic books
''Dying Inside''
A series of comic books written by Scott Ciencin with artwork by Ben Templesmith (''Dying Inside'' #1 and 2), Aadi Salman (''Dying Inside'' #3,4,5), Shaun Thomas (''Paint It Black'', ''Among The Damned'') and Nick Stakal (''Grinning Man'', ''Dead/Alive'' #1 to 5) have been published by IDW Publishing.
Influences
The games' developers have acknowledged that they are fans of the film ''Jacob's Ladder'' and its technique of inducing fear through a more psychological level of perception[22]. The films of David Lynch are also acknowledged to be an influence on ''Silent Hill''.[23]
References
1. http://kotaku.com/gaming/e307/silent-hill-v-first-screens-developer-named-277532.php Kotaku: "Silent Hill V First Screens, Developer Named" Created on July 11, 2007. Retrieved on July 12th, 2007
2. ''Book of Lost Memories'' (per Translated Memories translation.) Konami, 2003. 26-27, "Silent Hill Creature Commentary."
3. ''Book of Lost Memories'' (per Translated Memories translation.) Konami, 2003. 48-49, "Silent Hill 2 Creature Commentary."
4. ''Book of Lost Memories'' (per Translated Memories translation.) Konami, 2003. 94, "Power of the Town."
5. ''Book of Lost Memories'' (per Translated Memories translation.) Konami, 2003. 08-09, "Alessa's History."
6. The Real Silent Hill
7. "Silent Hill Origins Impressions and Interview" at IGN.com
8. ''Book of Lost Memories'' (per Translated Memories translation.) Konami, 2003. 28-29, "Silent Hill Ending Analysis" with translator's notes.
9. ''Book of Lost Memories'' (per Translated Memories translation.) Konami, 2003. 50-51, "Silent Hill 2 Ending Analysis" with translator's notes.
10. ''Game Informer'', September 2006
11. ''Kotaku'' Next Silent Hill Coming To... Arcades? February 16 2007
12. ''Konami'' Expo 2007 February 16 2007
13. ''Siliconera'' More on the Silent Hill Arcade game February 16 2007
14. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6174357.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0 GameSpot: Konami's 15-minute press event raises eyebrows" Created and retrieved on July 11, 2007.
15. http://kotaku.com/gaming/e307/silent-hill-v-first-screens-developer-named-277532.php Kotaku: "Silent Hill V First Screens, Developer Named" Created on July 11, 2007. Retrieved on July 12th, 2007
16. ''Silent Hill Origins''. [4] 06 July 2007 12:07
17. Silent Hill. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 2007-06-04.
18. Boyes, Emma. Silent Hill 2 movie confirmed. Gamespot UK, 2006-12-29. Retrieved on 2007-06-04.
19. Silent Hill 2 (2008). Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2007-06-04.
20. "About." Translated Memories. Retrieved on 2007-07-01.
21. "Links." Translated Memories. Retrieved on 2007-07-01.
22. Interview with Christophe Gans
23. IGN PS2 Interviews Silent Hill 2 Producer Akihiro Imamura. IGN, 2001-03-28. Retrieved on 2007-07-08.
External links
★ Official ''Silent Hill'' series site (Konami Europe)
★ Official ''Silent Hill 2'' site (Konami Europe)
★ Official ''Silent Hill 3'' site (Konami Europe)
★ Official ''Silent Hill 4'' site (Konami Europe)
★ Official ''The Silent Hill Experience'' site (Konami America)
★ ''Silent Hill'' series (Konami Japan)
★ Welcome to Silent Hill The official site for the 2006 movie, contains teaser and information.
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