Unlike many other major horror games, Silent Hill, based on the name alone, tends to be quite centred around the titular town of, yes, Silent Hill. The town is a major part of the series’ appeal, and plenty of the lore that defines the games is all based around the town too. Yet even with all of that, you’d be surprised just how many games don’t touch the place.
In fact, probably half the games in the series take a massive length of time to even reach the town, if they take place there at all. So for as much as it might seem odd for a Silent Hill game not to be actually set in Silent Hill, it’s happened a lot. As early as Silent Hill 3, in fact. You can only get so much from one Cult-infested rural town, after all.
Silent Hill: Homecoming
Coming Home, Just Not There At The Beginning
via: playstation.com
Silent Hill: Homecoming puts us into the shoes of Alex Shepherd, a soldier returning from war. Plenty of guilt and feat to manifest there, we’re sure. The game begins with Alex returning to his home of Shepherd’s Glen, which it seems his family takes the name from. This quaint little town is relatively close Silent Hill.
And that likely explains the oddities occurring upon his return home. Of course, it isn’t long until the Order rears its head and kidnaps Alex’s mother, forcing him to go to Silent Hill to get the answers he needs. The rest of the game takes place here, so the vast majority is in Silent Hill. It just doesn’t start there.
Silent Hill 3
Don’t Call It A Comeback
Silent Hill 3, despite being the third entry in the series, is very much a sequel to the original Silent Hill. Playing as Heather Mason, the vast majority of the game is set far from Silent Hill. For the most part, Heather just want to live her life, and that means being away from Silent Hill entirely. It’s not a very nice town, as you’ve likely noticed by now.
Of course, every nightmare leads to Silent Hill, and Heather does find herself there treading the same paths that James Sunderland once odd. There’s not really a thematic reason for this, just efficient asset reuse. Sad she doesn’t get to see the same paths her father walked to save her all those years ago, though.
Silent Hill: Book Of Memories
At Least One Of The Endings Is In Silent Hill
via playstation.com
Silent Hill: Book of Memories
Systems
Released
October 16, 2012
ESRB
M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
Developer(s)
WayForward Technologies
People have qualms with a lot of the SIlent Hill games for veering away from the psychological elements in favour of more action and generic protagonist stuff. Perfectly fair, but then there is Silent Hill: Book Of Memories. Now that’s a different Silent Hill – a multiplayer dungeon crawler with a custom-character. It’s not particularly scary.
Nor is it set in Silent Hill. In fact, it’s not quite clear where it’s set, really, other than the fact that it’s not in Silent Hill. It is mostly set within the titular book itself, until one of the joke ending has your character and a group of friends heading to Silent Hill for a summer break. Very 1980’s horror. Proof it isn’t the town that makes the horror.
Silent Hill 4
No Silent Hill, But Still America
Silent Hill 4 remains as the ugly duckling of the original group of Silent Hill games. It took some dramatic departures from the style of the previous trilogy, and did not feature a single returning character or creature, aside from one fellow mentioned in an off-hand newspaper article. Another of its major departures – it dropped the town of Silent Hill entirely.
The Room, for the most part, does take place in Henry’s room and the Otherworld. You can see the real-world from his window though, which is set in the town of Ashfield, who knows how far from the significantly smaller Silent Hill. And you never really leave this building either, let alone make your way to Silent Hill. So in a mainline entry, The Room is the first entirely detached from the physical location of the town of Silent Hill.
Silent Hill: The Short Message
A Short Jaunt To Germany
The first game to signal the return of SIlent Hill as a series was Silent Hill: The Short Message. Set in the fictional German town of Kettenstadt, we’re already as far from the town of Silent Hill as we’ve ever been. And unlike The Room, which carried the baggage of one ex-resident of Silent Hill, The Short Message is disconnected from the town of Silent Hill entirely, the first for the series.
Playing as Anita, The Short Message attempts to tackle more modern social issues in mental health, such as the role of social media in cyber-bullying and suicide. It’s commendable, if a little overdone in how it actually handles the topic. That said, it’s a short, free little adventure, and one that cemented that Silent Hill could firmly detach itself from the town itself.
Silent Hill f
Japan Is About As Far From Silent Hill As You Can Get
In Silent Hill f, we have gotten the first full-length Silent Hill game not only detached entirely from the town of Silent Hill and its citizens, but also outside of America entirely. Set in the small mountain valley town of Ebisugaoka, you play as Hinako in the 1960s, and it is is perhaps the most unsubtle of the Silent Hill games in its themes.
Ebisugaoka is an incredible first setting to truly bring the series back, showing that the defining elements of Silent Hill have nothing to do with the literal town, but the themes and gameplay built around it. Navigating the psyche of its characters, manifesting those as enemies and, of course, an unhealthy amount of fog.