The Resident Evil franchise is stronger than ever, with its zombie hordes and biomutants rampaging across both consoles and the silver screen in 2021. The comparison with Konami’s dormant Silent Hill franchise couldn’t be starker, with the iconic town and many of its denizens such as Pyramid Head seemingly all but disappeared into the mist.
However, despite this disparity, the 22-year-old original Silent Hill is still arguably a better and more chilling horror game than any Resident Evil title that has ever been released thanks to its unique strengths. Silent Hill eschewed the B-movie gore and soap opera plots of its rival to create an unrivaled disturbing experience.
What Made the First Silent Hill Special
Despite reverence afforded to Konami’s now-legendary Team Silent, which created the first four Silent Hill games, the group was originally considered to be a gang of misfits. Cobbled together from various faltering projects, the team was tasked with creating a Resident Evil clone, and then given very little guidance or oversight.
These humble beginnings resulted in a landmark survival horror game. Rather than the schlocky science-fiction premise of Capcom’s bestseller, Team Silent pursued a disturbing paranormal feeling that was greatly influenced by the surrealist works of creators like David Lynch. Silent Hill terrified players by distorting the familiar into horrifying parodies, such as the famous sequence in which a school transforms into a hellish nightmare, or when the protagonist is attacked by deformed nurses inside a hospital.
The title demonstrates remarkable restraint and maturity, making it feel like a truly adult horror experience. Akira Yamaoka’s musical score avoids cheesy orchestral swells in favor of haunting ambience and unsettling, cacophonous soundscapes. Its creature design is also understated, with claw-handed children and half-glimpsed horrors emerging from the dark to terrify players without relying on jump scares.
Although Silent Hill 2 is deservedly showered with praise, many of the seminal title’s best features were conceived in its predecessor, such as the use of fog to mask the PS1’s technical shortcomings, or the broken radio that frightened players by emitting static whenever a monster was approaching. The first Silent Hill is a true masterpiece that advanced the video game horror genre.
How Silent Hill Succeeds Over Resident Evil
Resident Evil is about gore, zombies, jump scares, and battling grotesque monsters. These elements are all highly effective, and have propelled the franchise to blockbuster status. However, fans of disturbing shows like Twin Peaks or more thoughtful horror movies like Jacob’s Ladder or Rosemary’s Baby have found the first Silent Hill better scratchs this itch.
The Resident Evil games tell stories about evil mega corporations battling against specialist police units, and about people who gain superhuman powers after exposure to bio-engineered viruses. The first Silent Hill was about a man searching for his missing daughter, one who encounters a pseudo-Satanic cult along the way. The former is undoubtedly fun, but the latter is not played for laughs at any point. In cinematic terms, it's comparable to zombie B-movies versus more thoughtful titles like Hereditary or The Witch.
This different theming also affects gameplay. In Resident Evil, players are often trained law enforcement officers, adept at firing guns and fending off attackers. In Silent Hill, players controlled Harry Mason, an everyman who was recently involved in a car accident. Harry had no combat experience, and the game’s mechanics highlighted this by making his shots inaccurate and his melee attacks weak. The title remains one of the earliest and most effective examples of using a disempowered protagonist to heighten a game’s scares, a trend that has continued into more recent releases like Outlast.
Resident Evil is a classic horror franchise beloved by fans, but for gamers looking for a slice of pure psychological horror, the first Silent Hill remains a must-play. However, whether the troubled franchise is able to recover and reboot itself as successfully as Capcom’s zombie epics remains to be seen.