With Halloween right around the corner, many people will be revisiting their favorite horror games, with the Silent Hill franchise being a true fan favorite. But whereas many Silent Hill fans will be visiting the second and third game, people are sleeping on the PS1 original that started it all.

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Though its graphics, voice acting, and boss fights are a bit rough around the edges, Konami and Team Silent's original Silent Hill game has aged a lot better than some of its competitors. There's a reason why, even over 20 years later, the 1999 game is still considered a horror masterpiece.

The Controls

Harry Mason aims his gun at a nurse in the hellworld.

Among the game's best aspects, the controls are easily the most divisive. Akin to games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill uses the infamous tank controls system which many now frown upon, but Silent Hill does it far better than Capcom's magnum opus.

Silent Hill makes the controls feel a lot smoother, no doubt assisted by the game's less static camera system. If fans strongly dislike tank controls, they owe it to themselves to give Silent Hill a chance, as the game proves that they can truly work.

The Camera

Harry Mason approaches a "Beware of Dog" sign.

Fixed-cameras were the style at the time, but Silent Hill set out to do something different, succeeding with flying colors. Silent Hill's camera follows protagonist Harry Mason around the foggy town of Silent Hill, making for a much smoother experience than other horror games around that time.

While the game still utilizes fixed-camera angles, they are used sparingly and often to good effect. Believe it or not, this fancy new camera system even helps the controls, as the camera's position makes it easier for the player to calculate their actions.

The Story

A message on the walls of a padded cell in an ad for Silent Hill.

When Harry Mason and his daughter Cheryl crash their car while swerving to avoid a little girl, the former awakens in the city of Silent Hill and must make his way through the foggy town in order to find his daughter. On his way, he must battle horrifying monsters, encounter less than trustworthy people, and uncover dark secrets about the town.

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Silent Hill's core narrative is fairly simple, but it's handled in a way that doesn't hold the player's hand. The story takes its time to properly unfold, drawing the player into the mystery of Silent Hill before flooring them with the twists and turns that await them.

The Scares

Harry Mason avoids a pterodactyl monster in a diner whilst apparently being filmed on a potato.

There's a reason why, even after all these years, Silent Hill still influences horror games. The game employs a healthy mix of jump scares, tension, a slow-building dread that manages to elicit fear from even the hardest of hardcore gamers.

Silent Hill also does a fantastic job at building up scares, setting up the scare earlier on in the game before catching the player by surprise later on. Putting it bluntly, Silent Hill is still a scary game all these years later.

Creature Design

The Romper from Silent Hill.

Part of what makes Silent Hill so scary is its creature design. Whether it be The Nurses, The Rompers, or The Mumblers, each conjures up uncomfortable feelings whilst parallelling the inner thoughts and fears of a character central to the story.

Designed by Masahiro Ito, unlike the typical zombies and monsters from Resident Evil, Silent Hill's creatures look like nothing that could be made by a human, clearly coming from somewhere far from Earth. Silent Hill's creatures stick in the player's mind, influencing creepy fan art to this day.

The Atmosphere

Harry Mason in Silent Hill's police station.

Silent Hill is a spooky setting, blanketed in a fog that's just thick enough to hide what lies beyond it. This wouldn't work if the game's atmosphere wasn't on point, but Silent Hill has little to worry about in that regard, crafting an almost unbearable dread.

Not even when entering a location does the player feel safe, as the interior environments are covered in threatening darkness that's almost scarier than the monsters that come from it. Silent Hill's atmosphere makes the player both afraid as well as alone and it's all the better for it.

The Score by Akira Yamaoka

Composer Akira Yamaoka.

When discussing the heroes that brought Silent Hill to life, composer and later producer Akira Yamaoka is one of the first mentioned. His haunting scores have always been a highlight of the games, but the first game's score is something special.

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While Yamaoka's later Silent Hill scores would become more sad and ethereal, the first game's score is metallic and raw, managing to be both enjoyable and unbearable at the same time. Yamaoka's score solidifies the game's atmosphere and scares, helping the game stand out above the crowd.

The Cinematics

Lisa pre-transformation in Silent Hill.

Not only are Silent Hill's cinematics impressive for the time, but they also have an interesting story behind them. A story told by many sources, including Did You Know Gaming, is that the cutscenes were entirely handled by designer Takayoshi Sato, who had to handle them alone in order to stop Konami from holding him back creatively.

Not only are the in-game cinematics near photo-realistic for the original Playstation, but the fact that they were handled by one person is astonishing. The uncanny valley effect these cutscenes conjure up adds to the game's atmosphere, something no Silent Hill remaster or remake could improve.

The Impact

James Sunderland in Silent Hill 2.

Neither Ito, Yamaoka, Sato, or director Keiichrio Toyama could have foreseen the impact their little horror game would have. A game designed by a group of outcasts in Konami would soon blow everyone away, still heralded as a scary Playstation game today.

Whether on purpose or otherwise, the original Silent Hill set up a sequel that radically changed the game for horror games, giving game designers the courage to comment on more touchy subjects. Though the later Silent Hill games never lived up to the original two, if the franchise ended with Silent Hill 2, there's a solid chance people would still be talking about it.

NEXT: 10 Ways Silent Hill Changed Video Games Forever