The appeal of the series is fairly obvious to me. It has deep psychological themes, children becoming demons, and a great combat interface.* Perhaps the most obvious source of appeal is the atmosphere. It is dense with a horror deeper than Resident Evil startle scares. Resident Evil is about widespread terror resulting from the outbreak of a virus; Silent Hill is about facing one's own demons. Those demons come in many different forms (including the real kind).
*One of these things is most certainly not true. There is a reason that the title "Resident Silent Hill Control Scheme Specialist" is one to be paraded about. He even finished Silent Hill 4: The Room.
While I have not seen the very first of the Silent Hill games to completion, I have seen the rest of them.** One particular theme that I've found runs through all of the games is that individuals' experiences in Silent Hill serve as a coping mechanism. The unfortunate characters who enter Silent Hill are not experiencing their first tragedies. No, the rust-stricken walls and blood-laden rooms are not the first horrific events in their often dysfunctional lives. These folks have often experienced tragedies involving family members, and many of their memories are repressed. I will stick by my guns on this no matter what others' plot analyses decide: Silent Hill is a very twisted, psychologically challenging environment in which individuals inadvertently deal with their past tragedies.
**For the sake of fairness, I will exclude 4: The Room from all of my plot/themes analyses, for I can't really, erm...remember much about it. And it doesn't take place in Silent Hill. But by all means, if Ron wishes to endure the hellish control scheme of it in my presence for the second time, by all means, I will give it a second chance. But it still doesn't take place in Silent Hill.
MEGA HUGE ULTRA SUPER SPOILER ALERT OF GREATNESS +2 OF HOLDING
I'm not going to withhold anything in the following paragraphs. Endings will be ruined. Demons will be birthed. Items which can not traditionally fit in bags WILL BE HELD IN BAGS.
'Grats to the identifiers of D&D references.
I will try to keep the stories light. The games are very, very depressing, and many of them are littered with sad notes.
BEGIN SPOILERS REGARDING STORY ELEMENTS OF SILENT HILL
Seriously. I'm serious.
LAST WARNING! DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER UNLESS YOU WILL NOT EVER PLAY THE GAMES! Or, um, already have played the games. And such.
Also, some of the images used may be pretty gross or moderately disturbing.
Okay. Silent Hill 2 starts off on a depressing note. The main character, James, receives a letter from his very dead wife, Mary. WHOA. Since we know that doesn't happen IRL (especially since Maria's a little lacking in the "L" department), we're all like, "Doubleyou-tee-eff," right from the get-go.Alright, so perhaps I shouldn't make this quite THAT light-hearted.
Anyway, Mary's letter instructs James to meet her in Silent Hill, where they spent some amount of time together. In the span of eight hours or so, we find out what quality of time they were spending there. Regardless, James puts on his ugliest green coat (the one Mary must have just loved) and turns the car north. Or south. Or Dennis. Or some direction.
During his trek through Silent Hill, James meets Pyramid Head, the comic relief. Slash, murderous, armor-laden, HUGE SWORD (and later, spear) wielding maniac. PH is pretty much there to remind James of his terrible repressed memory. See, as it turns out, James killed Mary after she suffered from her regressive disease for three years. During that time, James watched helplessly, unable to cure his wife. While the method of her death isn't discussed (or isn't remembered...), I'm a fan of the "pillow over the face" theory. It should be noted that all of the other enemies in the game (save for the "father" boss) have a feminine likeness, stressing both the sexual repression of having a disabled wife and James' activity in his wife's death. It should also be noted that PH is almost always introduced while exploiting or killing one of the "female" creatures.
More parallels are drawn between James and PH as James interacts with Maria, a figment of his imagination. The perfect woman; she looks like Mary, but acts however James wants. Well, he does control her to a degree, but perhaps subconsciously. It becomes apparent that she isn't technically real when she dies not once, but twice (thrice if you count the end boss). Both times--you guessed it--at the hands of Pyramid Head. He watches in pain as he suffers the death of his wife's likeness twice, finally discovering that he WAS Pyramid Head to his real wife. At the end, James kills a monster version of Maria (perhaps even with PH's sword, if he chooses) (pictured). I believe three endings (discounting the infamous UFO ending) can be achieved. James remembers that he kills Mary in all of them, the difference is his level of remorse. In one ending, he is remorseful and loved Mary; in another he drives his car into a lake; in the most bothersome, he runs off with Maria.In one way or another, James "deals with" his dark secret during his stay in Silent Hill. Is it a coping mechanism? Is the horror supposed to help him cope? Do the horrific surroundings make light of the visitors' sins? Or once one discovers a terrible truth about the visitors (in this case, that James killed his wife), do their sins make light of the horrific environment that is Silent Hill? I theorize that much of the twistedness of Silent Hill (especially Pyramid Head) exists to show the visitor what they have done in a very different light.
A guilt-riddled, rust red light with a hellishly bloody afterglow.
(Silent Hill 3 and Origins will be saved for later.)
