Since I was very young I was always attracted by the world of video games, since I can remember I always liked them, being only about 7 years old I was playing on my NES (known here in my country simply as "Nintendo") super Mario Bros, Batlle City, Contra, etc..
Then I moved on to have a SNES, I enjoyed titles like: Super Mario World, Super Castlevania IV, Contra 4 among others, but I think what turned me partly into the kind of gamer I am now was the first time I saw someone playing Resident Evil 3 on a Playstation ONE, that marked me and surprised me for one simple reason, I had never seen a game so good graphics in my life, of course after coming from the world of NES and SNES those graphics for me were unthinkable and quite "REAL" to be just a game, it was then that moment that I consider that turned me into the kind of gamer I am, because right now the consoles I later had were Sony consoles (PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4 and PS vita) and my favorite video game franchise is nothing more and nothing less than Resident Evil, the first one I played was Resident Evil 2 and this type of game made it my favorite genre of video games (Survival Horror) playing not only all the numbered installments of Play Station One, of this saga but also getting into Alone In The Dark 4 "The New Nightmare" being games with similarities.
Then I had the joy of falling into the Silent Hill saga, in its Origins installment, the first game of the saga that I played and with which I had 2 impressions: The good, even being different from Resident Evil Survival Horror, this time focusing on the supernatural and pure terror, ending up being a game that I enjoyed a lot what I could play, since I could not play it completely, reaching approximately 50% of the adventure being the second important impression the reason for this: the game literally traumatized me, I do not remember much of the game to this day as I have not played it again today, apart from that the protagonist drove a truck and stops to see a girl on the road to get off and see that a house is completely on fire and then faint, is not much what I remember but what made me feel the game, fear, terror of what could be around the corner. Something similar to the Resident Evil saga but more intensified, focusing more on psychological terror than on the scares as such, being for me as a child too much to continue advancing even though I wanted to finish the campaign (just like when you suffer watching a horror movie and do not want to continue but at the same time if you want to finish it to understand the mysteries and know how it ends) after that I did not dare to try another Silent Hill until about 1 year ago on my PS Vita, which encouraged me to play again the first Silent Hill.
I am aware that some people who want to give the game a chance may feel very uncomfortable, due to the controls and gameplay, more for those who come from current games but for me at all, it seemed so simply because my beginnings as I mentioned were with the Resident Evil saga which has the tank type controls and is also largely due to the fact that every time I replay them, especially the first 3 games and Code Veronica, so perhaps it did not affect me at all the gameplay.
Graphically speaking there are 2 sides of the coin logically excluding the fact that it is a game of the time of the first Play Station: on the one hand and at first glance aesthetically may seem outdated next to possibly any installment of Resident Evil of that time but on the other hand we have to take into account the technical data: Silent Hill uses scenarios in full 3D unlike the first installments of the aforementioned (being changed this with the arrival of Code: Veronica) this makes on the one hand to be more difficult to create an eye-catching environment because the first ones, by using prerendered environments and not in true 3D can offer much more realistic and detailed images than for example S-H however talk about environments completely in 3D in a game of the first PS is an achievement and also what differentiated it from the competition at that time since as I mentioned above RE did not bet on environments in third dimension, However, thanks to this we also have dynamic camera (as in Code Veronica) apart from the atmosphere that the game has, the fog (originally created by the technical limitations of the first PS) helps a lot to create that atmosphere of tension not knowing what may be on the other side of it as happened with the static camera of the Resident Evil, classic that not knowing that there was to cross the corner generates that feeling of tension something that in Silent Hill is quite successful in my opinion but as not only setting and atmosphere, a horror game is served, here we have the abominations, classic monsters of a horror game being their designs very, very creative, monsters that scare us not only for its aesthetics and the danger it represents for the player but also the game uses sound to terrify us from all possible ways (special mention to the monsters shaped like children called Demon Child that make noises, I can assure you that will not go unnoticed as they can make your hair stand on end).
It is also worth mentioning as a point in favor of the game that it can be so immersive due to the setting, sound and atmosphere that does not need all the time to show you monsters and deformities to make you feel terror but with the pure atmosphere already makes you feel disconcerted, and the game knows how to make you feel unsafe from the scarce ammunition, the creepy atmosphere, the setting, the sound, the enemies, in all forms, manages to scare you and make you feel at times really inside Silent Hill, it's amazing what a small group can do in a game (Team Silent) and demonstrate the talent of the hands behind this game, the combat is thought more to the melee than the use of weapons and that is reflected in the low ammunition of the game and the amount of melee weapons that you will have in the progress of the game (axes, knives, pipes, etc.. ).
Like any good Survival Horror you must know how to manage resources so you do not run out of them and know how to avoid fighting enemies to avoid running out of ammunition or health, it should be noted that in my personal case although there were moments of exception mostly the game was relatively easy and I finished it, I had enough ammunition and considerable life at the end of the game in its normal difficulty, although this may be largely the fault of my taste for this genre and the countless times I have completed the classic Resident Evil, so I think that if you are veterans in this type of game and are encouraged to try for the first time Silent Hill choose the hard mode to better enjoy the campaign.
As for the exploration of the game say that we will have a considerably long map where you can easily get lost and you may be hitting the map button many times to see if we go in the right direction and also say that the game usually reward exploration in the form of items (ammunition, melee weapons, health).
The plot of the game while it is nothing to write about, I consider it to be good and entertaining, it keeps you going through the game to find out if Harry Mason will be able to find his daughter Cheryl in the end.
I've always loved puzzles and this game has some pretty ingenious and complicated ones, that will make you break your brain a lot and even get stuck in a specific part without knowing what to do (special mention to the piano puzzle that I'm still recovering from it).
The game has several endings including a comedy ending that is a bit difficult to get and that I only got 2 endings, the length of the game is decent and can logically vary depending on how good we are with the puzzles and how much we like to explore.
In conclusion, the first Silent Hill is a pretty entertaining and good game that definitely has everything to get you hooked with its setting and story, the game perfectly fulfills the task of scaring you and does it in a very successful and outstanding way, a cult game that every Survival Horror fan should try at least once, I for one would have liked to try it at the time, but it was not too late.
All images are taken from silenthill.fandom.com
