Silent Hill (franchise)
From Silent Hill Wiki
- The name Silent Hill may refer to multiple subjects. Please see Silent Hill for other uses of the term.
Silent Hill (サイレントヒル Sairento Hiru) is a survival horror video game franchise developed and published by Konami. Most installments have been created by Team Silent with the exception of three titles, Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories by Climax Studios and Silent Hill: Homecoming by Double Helix Games games. There are currently six main Silent Hill games, all of which were released to strong sales and critical acclaim. The success of these games has generated a series of comic books, a film adaptation (with a second under development), and novelizations.
The series gets its name from the fictional American resort town of Silent Hill, which is where most of the games are set. Those that aren't, such as Silent Hill 4: The Room and Homecoming, are connected to the town through history, people and various events that occur within the other games. Some of these events and people are explicitly documented or named, whereas others are implied.
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Story
While each game features characters unique to that story, many are in some way connected to others. For example, Silent Hill explores the story of Harry Mason, who is searching for his missing daughter, Cheryl. The third game is set a number of years later, and the player takes control of Harry's daughter, now named Heather. In the second game, the main protagonist is a man named James Sunderland, and in the fourth game a character named Frank Sunderland is implied to be his father.
Many of the games (ie: Silent Hill, Silent Hill 3, Silent Hill: Origins) strongly relate to the first game's primary storyline, which told of the sacrifice of a young girl named Alessa Gillespie by the town's religious cult, The Order.
In the series, the town of Silent Hill was once known as a sacred and holy place by Native Americans. When settlers from Europe arrived in the 1600s, the Native Americans were forced to abandon. Even then, the land seemed to possess a mysterious power. As time passed, the power of Silent Hill appeared to increase (which led to strange events such as disappearing citizens, misfortune at Toluca Lake, and the mayor of Silent Hill suddenly dying). This shaped the events which occur in subsequent games and the lives of the characters involved.
Ordinary people with darkness (sins, personal issues, guilt, or unable to see the truth) in their hearts (for example, James Sunderland, Angela Orosco, Eddie Dombrowski) were "called" to the town where they witnessed the supernatural (for example: monsters that symbolize their hidden personas and subconsciousness, an alternate dimension known as the Otherworld).
In other instances, people who are related to the town in some aspect or way are also called to the town and can also see the oddities. For example, Harry Mason's daughter is half of a little girl's soul who lived in Silent Hill, while Henry Townshend visited Silent Hill many times to take photographs.
Gameplay
Common features in the Silent Hill games include survival horror and action-adventure elements, exploration of detailed and disturbing environments, in-depth puzzles and riddles, eerie sound effects and music provided by the series composer, Akira Yamaoka, and a complex storyline revealed through numerous cinematic cutscenes and in-game notes. Each game unfolds like a movie with several possible endings; the player's choices during the game determine which ending is shown.
Psychological and emotional themes are included in many of the games. For example, many monsters in the series represent different things related to the characters themselves. Many characters often go through character development through the games, such as James realizing the truth about Mary or Heather beginning to learn about her past and who she is.
Video games
Main series
- Silent Hill (1999)
- Silent Hill 2 (2001)
- Silent Hill 3 (2003)
- Silent Hill 4: The Room (2004)
- Silent Hill: Origins (2007)
- Silent Hill: Homecoming (2008)
Remakes and reimaginings
- Silent Hill: Play Novel (2001)
- Silent Hill: Mobile (2006)
- Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (2009)
Spin-offs
- Silent Hill: The Arcade (2007)
- Silent Hill: Orphan (2007)
- Silent Hill: Orphan 2 (2008)
- Silent Hill: The Escape (2008)
Films
- Silent Hill (2006)
- Silent Hill 2 (TBA)
Comics
- For the main article, see Comics.
See also
| Silent Hill Games | |
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| Main Series | |
| Remakes | |
| Spin-offs | |
| Production | |
| This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Silent Hill. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Silent Hill Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
