Well lets begin at the start - The history of the games.
Way back in pre-Iphone era known as 1999 Japanese game developer Konami released a survival horror game for the sony playstation. From outside the game appeared to be like any other horror game of the time; lone hero, monsters in the shadows and every damn door could only be opened with a puzzle or keys hidden by a ghost with a sick sense of humor.
However when the demos started to appear the gaming world released something very different had appeared.
Silent Hill was the brainchild of Keiichiro Toyama and his team (team silent) a great fan of 1950's American b-movies, which is why the games use American voice overs with Japanese subtitles. The plot seamed simple a father wakes up to find his daughter missing in a strange town full of mystery and dread, but which the game taking direct influence from Jacob's Ladder, David Lynch, and classic Japanese horror stories nothing was going to stay simple.
Throw in the music of Akira Yamaoka, monsters that were fast and nightmarish and a overwhelming atmosphere made the game haunting as it was memorable.
As expected the game was a huge success and redefined the survival horror genre, and even the first game is still listed as GameTrailers top horror game of all time. Soon came the sequel games. Silent hill 2 was released in 2001 for the playstation 2, xbox, and pc followed by silent hill 3 (2003) and silent hill 4:the room (2004). I will go into more about these in their reviews.
However team silents involvement ended here (apart from work with the film 2006) but the series continued with the work of Climax group and Silent hill Origins was released in 2007 for the PSP, Silent Hill 5: Homecoming in 2009, the first on a next gen console and by "sigh" Silent Hill shattered Memories for the Wii 2010.
Although the team changed the spirit did not, but in some games it felt diminished. But this year at E3 this trailer was released..
Silent Hill downpour promises a return to the Silent Hill of old, all I can stay is lets wait and see....
I should also mention that Silent Hill doesn't stop with the games, it also spawned Several play novels, a side-story on the gameboy advance, comic books, figures, an arcade game and of course a movie directed by Silent Hill fan Christopher Gans in 2006.
well I think this is long enough next time..Silent hill 1!
All sorts of awesome
