After a creepy opening montage that screamed ’90s
TV drama, Silent Hill started with everyman Harry
Mason waking up in his crashed car to find his young
daughter Cheryl has disappeared into the dense fog
of an off-the-map town. He caught glimpses of her
and set off in pursuit, straight into the maw of an
alley filled with entrails.
CLASSIC INTRO
A banging locker in Midwich Elementary School
lead to a well-timed jump scare involved a cat
bursting out and being eaten by a monster.
Playing on that knowledge, Konami repeated
the trick in the school’s hellish version - only for
it to be empty. A few seconds later, however, a
corpse dropped out of another locker.
CLASSIC MOMENT
W
hile Resident Evil was
happily throwing big
weapons and crowds of
zombies at horror fans,
Konami’s exploration into the genre
was far more reserved. As much of
a psychological horror as an all-out
monster gallery (though to be fair,
it delivered demons – horrible, gag-
worthy ones at that – aplenty), it largely
eschewed Resi’s claustrophobic, fixed-
camera setup for a pioneering foggy,
wide-open ghost town setting and
proper 3D movement and exploration.
Protagonist Harry Mason was just
a regular dad trapped in a horrific
situation, and his skills reflected that.
More apt to beat away enemies with a
lead pipe than a gun (when you did get a
pistol his aim was never true), he carried
a radio that crackled to give warning
of impeding attacks from within the
choking fog. That atmosphere was
actually a result of PS1’s technical
limitations and the inability to draw
objects more than a few metres away
from Harry, but Konami turned this
drawback into an asset by making the
omnipresent grey mist all part of the
town’s paranormal power.
As reality blended with an alternate
nightmare dimension, players could
never tell what was coming next - they
only knew to fear it.