Horror Month: Silent Hill: School & Hospital

Originally streamed Oct 19, 2017.

This is the first official "Horror Month," where I try to play nothing but horror games for a month!

This is not only one of my all-time favorite horror games, it's one of my all-time favorite games! At the time of writing this, this is on my list as #3 favorite game of all-time.

What an incredible horror game. To say that this game is an incredible technical achievement for it's time is an understatement; the whole town is so well realized, with so many unique details for many of the buildings. And that's really the least of what makes this game so good. This game has one of the best soundtracks in any horror thing; movie OR game! It's an incredible achievement from legendary composer Akira Yamaoka, combining industrial sound with Twin Peaks inspired music in a really brilliant way. The only other horror game soundtrack that can stand up to this one Yamaoka's other masterpiece soundtrack for Silent Hill 2. I feel that a great soundtrack is extremely important for horror games because of the importance of atmosphere.

Everything else about the game is incredible too. The story is very bizarre, and will certainly leave people scratching their heads about some details after it's over... but this is one of those games where with multiple playthroughs, everything starts to come together and make sense. There are optional routes through the game that are very detailed and interesting, and completely missable. This game is doing some really brilliant things from a gameplay perspective; the way it uses audio to create a pavlovian fear response in the player simply by playing static any time a monster is nearby is such a brilliant idea, it's been copied many times since then. But it's particularly effective in this game, especially when it occaisonally breaks it's own formula on purpose!

This game also does some of my favorite things for a horror game to do: a heavy use of surrealism, including the game's often clever way of blocking off gameplay areas... the standard way this is done is usually invisible walls or inexplicable debris that is conveniently where it needs to be. This game just simply has the road suddenly end as if it were destroyed, and somehow that thematically works so well with the game while also accomplishing what it needs to from a game design perspective. Or the whole thing of doors having "broken locks" whenever there is someplace you don't need to go, which itself has a sort of thematic resonance with this game's themes and also neatly communicates to the player where you can and can't go. (If a door is locked, you can open it.)

This game is a masterpiece among masterpieces! Easily one of the best horror games of all time.

My Rating:
Overall 10/10 - Music 10/10

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Видео Horror Month: Silent Hill: School & Hospital канала Brion Foulke
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