Introduction
Banned in Germany!!
Silent Hill (1999)
Platform: Sony Playstation
Publisher: Konami
Developer: KCET - Team Silent
The Game
In 1999, Konami presented the world with a different kind of survival horror game. Unlike contemporaries of its day like Resident Evil 2, Silent Hill forwent many of the monster closet jump scares that were typical of the genre for a more psychological brand of horror.
Utilizing limited vision and superb sound design, the scariest moments in Silent Hill are often the least eventful; the quiet times when your mind is free to fill in the gaps between the pictures.
The story follows Harry Mason, an ordinary man who wakes up in his car after an accident to find his seven-year-old daughter, Cheryl, missing. Harry must make his way through the fog-shrouded horrors of the titular town of Silent Hill to find her.
The Players
Kyle (19LettersLong) | Role: Driver
Keith (Somethingdumb) | Role: Moral/Ethical/Technical Support
We're two cousins. We ostensibly do a podcast about video games, but for the past few months we've been spending most of our time playing a lot of Sonic games. But that's starting to take its toll. There's only so many consecutive hours of anthropomorphic hedgehogs a person can take. So to mix things up, we wanted to try something totally different, something we had never played before.
That something is Silent Hill. We'll be working together to take on its puzzles and perils with no prior knowledge, only turning to a hint guide when it's absolutely necessary to keep things moving. That's not to say there won't be editing involved, of course. As is typical of our commentaries, we will discuss the game at hand when appropriate, and whatever else we want in the meantime.
We'll laugh, we'll cry (in terror!), and, as I've learned, we'll apparently not be seeing a person with a pyramid for a head.
I want to give a big thanks to my friend, Courtney, for putting in a lot of time and effort to make us this great art, and Eating Only Apples for serving as our test audience.
There are a number a reasons for this, the simplest being that it's very difficult to be scared if you know what's going to happen. It destroys the atmosphere of tension created by Silent Hill, and flies in the face of the game's principal ideal of knowledge gained through exploration and discovery. Without these things, what's the point?
The thought behind the decision to play Silent Hill was for Keith and I to go through a game in which we would be able to work together and generally be more engaged in the game at hand, unlike our Sonic videos, in which there's very little to be said about what's happening on the screen at any given moment. Lacking prior knowledge of the levels and puzzles is essential to this.
Just as Harry Mason's map of Silent Hill starts empty and is marked up as he explores, so too will we begin as blank slates and (hopefully) learn as we progress through the game. Our hope with this series is to present an organic Silent Hill playthrough that at times can be just as tense as entertaining.
The first two episodes of this Let's Play will be presented virtually free of editing as we discover the game's core mechanics for the first time, but beyond that there will be numerous cuts. We know that there's a fine line between documenting the process of discovery and problem-solving and simply forcing viewers to watch two idiots doing nothing. I will strive to keep our videos on the favorable side of that line as much as possible.
That being said, this LP isn't going to appeal to everyone, but if you need any more convincing, just look at 2:17 in Episode 2 or 31:25 in Episode 4. Those are things that could only happen in a blind run.
Silent Hill game manual posted:
The resort town of Silent Hill slips into quiet desolation, now that the peak of development and growth has passed by. The memories of a tragic fire 7 years ago still haunt the townsfolk, and with the tourist season long past, there is hardly a shadow stirring.
Harry Mason prefers to take late vacations with his daughter Cheryl. This year they've made plans to visit Silent Hill. Due to car trouble, they reach the outskirts of the town late at night. Cheryl is sleeping in the back seat as a motorcycle cop roars past his truck.
Moments later Harry spots the motorcycle dumped on the shoulder. There is no one to be seen. It paints an ominous picture. Suddenly, a shadow appears in front of the car.
Harry turns the wheel in panic. The car slides off the edge of the road and into a gully.
Harry eventually regains consciousness. Cheryl is nowhere to be seen. It is unusually cold. Snow is falling out of season. Where has Cheryl disappeared to?
Harry walks toward a town he sees in the distance.
Game objective
Find Harry's missing daughter, Cheryl.
| Episode 01: Welcome to Silent Hill (pt.1) | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| We take our lumps as we get accustomed to Silent Hill's particular ways of doing business. | ||
| Episode 02: Welcome to Silent Hill (pt.2) | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| We accidentally find some keys on our way to the school. | ||
| Episode 03: Hotel for (Skinless) Dogs | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| We search for the third key until the sun goes down. | ||
| Episode 04: Riot-Proof | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| It's written in blood: Hit Deborah Cliff with creepy knife children to make Time's hungry beast. | ||
| Episode 05: Time Trials | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| Creepy knife children aren't the only obstacles to be found in Midwich Elementary School. | ||
| Episode 06: The Other School | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| We set foot beyond the clock tower. | ||
| Episode 07: The Magic Bathroom | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| Do you know what the shells are for? | ||
| Episode 08: Dark Days | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| Our journey through the inverted school hits a wall. And then another wall. | ||
| Episode 09: School's Out | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| The monster lurks. | ||
| Episode 10: The Fourth Floor | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| We make our way to Alchemilla Hospital. | ||
| Episode 11: Silent Skills | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| Blood packs and cat plates. | ||
| Episode 12: Hammer Time | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| We find a trusty new tool for Harry's arsenal. | ||
| Episode 13: Going Deeper | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| It's an Inception joke, you guys! GET IT??? | ||
| Episode 14: A Night on the Town | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| Let's take a walk. | ||
| Episode 15: The Long Dark | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| We make our way through the sewers of Silent Hill. | ||
| Episode 16: Kaufmann Key and the Funk Tour Ladies EP: That of Utmost Importance | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| There's nobody inside. | ||
| Episode 17: Cake & Drama | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| Boy, I sure hope you guys wanna hear about Cake Boss. | ||
| Episode 18: Getting Nowhere (pt.1) | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| We step into a world where elevators mean nothing. | ||
| Episode 19: Getting Nowhere (pt.2) | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| Timmy Mapmoore would be proud. | ||
| Episode 20: Now Leaving Silent Hill | Blip/Polsy | Youtube |
| And not a single question went unanswered. | ||