Silent Hill | |
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North American box art depicting main protagonist Harry Mason (center) and other major characters
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Developer(s) | Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo |
Publisher(s) | Konami |
Director(s) | Keiichiro Toyama |
Producer(s) | Gozo Kitao |
Writer(s) | Keiichiro Toyama |
Composer(s) | Akira Yamaoka |
Series | Silent Hill |
Platform(s) | PlayStation |
Release date(s) | |
Genre(s) | Survival horror |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Aggregate scores | |
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Aggregator | Score |
GameRankings | 84.99% |
Metacritic | 86/100 |
Review scores | |
Publication | Score |
Famitsu | 34/40 |
GamePro | 4.5/5 |
Game Revolution | B+ |
GameSpot | 8.2/10 |
IGN | 9/10 |
PSM | 10/10 |
Silent Hill is a survival horror video game for the PlayStation published by Konami and developed by Team Silent, a Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo group. The first installment in the Silent Hill series, the game was released in North America in January 1999, and in Japan and Europe later that year. Silent Hill uses a third-person view, with real-time 3D environments. To mitigate limitations of the hardware, developers liberally used fog and darkness to muddle the graphics. Unlike earlier survival horror games that focused on protagonists with combat training, the player character of Silent Hill is an "everyman".
The game follows Harry Mason as he searches for his missing adopted daughter in the eponymous fictional American town of Silent Hill; stumbling upon a cult conducting a ritual to revive a deity it worships, he discovers her true origin. Five game endings are possible, depending on actions taken by the player, including one joke ending.
Silent Hill received positive reviews from critics on its release and was commercially successful. It is considered a defining title in the survival horror genre, moving away from B movie horror elements, toward a psychological style of horror emphasizing atmosphere. Various adaptations of Silent Hill have been released, including a 2001 visual novel, the 2006 feature film Silent Hill, and a 2009 reimagining of the game, titled Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. The game was followed by Silent Hill 2 in 2001.