Silent Hill 4: The Room (Xbox)

During development on Silent Hill 3 (SH3), Team Silent also worked its successor, Silent Hill 4: The Room (SH4), with the philosophy of change and shaking up the established formula. While the general reception from critics to the new direction was by no means negative, SH4 was and still is a divisive entry, especially since development of the series was handed off to western developers afterwards. Looking online, you’ll find just as many people, from 2004 to now, who enjoyed the game in spite of its faults as you will those who don’t think very highly of it, both for justifiable reasons. As such, I knew what I was getting myself into when I got to this point in my deep dive of the series, but otherwise went in without any knowledge of the major twists and turns.

Of course, price is also a factor and, interestingly, SH4 is one of the more accessible and affordable Team Silent games, with a digital PS2 copy available on the Japanese PSN store on PS3 and a modern rerelease of the original PC port on GOG that’s Windows 10 compatible. Not wanting to go through the hassle of having a Japanese PSN account for the former or downloading patches to restore content apparently cut from the latter, however, I still ended up paying about $70 for a complete physical Xbox copy, if only because it was easier to find and cheaper than a complete original PS2 copy. With all of this in mind, I still found myself landing somewhere in the middle in terms of how I felt. While I found the game an interesting and often engaging change of pace, some development decisions do add some unnecessary tedium and I’m not sure that buying a physical copy of the game would be worth the cost for most people nowadays.

Silent Hill 3

In the years since their original release, the Silent Hill games, particularly the entries developed by Team Silent, have maintained a reputation as some of the scariest horror games ever created. Unfortunately, general neglect from Konami, the series’ publisher and IP holder, following the infamous delisting of P.T. has caused a scarcity of the Team Silent entries and increased the monetary barrier of entry for fans of the console releases who either don’t want to deal with emulation or don’t have access to a PS3. This hit 2003’s Silent Hill 3 (SH3) particularly hard, considering it never received a digital rerelease, unlike Silent Hill (SH1) and Silent Hill 4: The Room, and outside of Silent Hill HD Collection only had a console release on the PS2. As such, without a cheaper Xbox copy to fall back on, secondhand North American copies easily go for over $100, even floating around $200 if you also want the soundtrack that it originally came with.

Since I was unfortunate enough to get into the series late, I was one of those who ended up paying about $180 for a complete PS2 copy in good condition and even then, I wondered how long it would take for buyer’s remorse to sink in. As such, I did everything possible to get the most value out of my copy, including playing on multiple difficulties, viewing every ending and obtaining or viewing just about every secret I could. After all of that, did the game hold up to its reputation as one of the best and scariest games in the series? Yes. Is it worth paying the unnecessarily high price point to experience it? No.

Silent Hill (Game)

After I had played Silent Hill 2, I found myself interested in playing the other Silent Hill games, starting with the original Team Silent entries. For the original Silent Hill, often considered one of the greatest PS1 games ever made, I considered buying a digital copy off the PlayStation Store during the time Sony had announced legacy store closures. However, I came across a complete physical PlayStation copy for only $50, which put me in the unique position to experience it as someone who would have bought it at launch in 1999. While many aspects of the game have aged surprisingly well, I can confidently say it’s nowhere near worth the inflated aftermarket values.

Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams (Xbox)

Silent Hill 2’s reputation for having one of the best video game narratives ever got me intrigued to play it, but for whatever reason I could never find an original PS2 copy. I did, however, happen upon an enhanced Xbox copy of the game and went for it, but still didn’t get around to it. With P.T. as my only frame of reference for Silent Hill, however, I felt more curious about Team Silent’s original take on the series and finally gave it a try. As it turns out, its narrative truly is one of the strongest I’ve ever seen in a video game, but it feels strange saying that the actual gameplay didn’t age very well.