Terrifying Survival Horror Games

[Lost Dragon]

As soon as Team Silent were no more, the end was in sight for the Silent Hill i once knew.

 

I liked Origins and SM was a nice distraction, even if it had started off as a stand alone game of it's own, but Homecoming onwards? no....

 

These just weren't Silent Hill games to myself, but then The Room wasn't either.

 

Konami just taking projects, having them reworked and rebranded as they needed the name to give brand awareness.

 

 

On a side note:

 

I tried Clock Tower on PS2, could not get into it.

 

Ditto Forbidden Siren on PS2, yet picked that up again on PS3 and rather enjoyed it.

Edited April 12, 2016 by Lost Dragon

[CatPix]

I liked Downpour much more than any of the other non TeamSilent games.

It's not quite right, but... It's "Silent Hill, as understood by European fans of the series" which is way closer of a real Silent Hill than any other ever went...except shattered Memories but meeh, they took the canvas of the original game so easy peasy on them for that.

Plus I never managed to escape the very first "escape". No matter how long I try, I end up in the same hallway, cornered and killed, so after 40 minutes redoing the same passage with no glimpse of something different, the game returned on the shelf.

[Lost Dragon]

I completed shattered Memories on PS2 before recently going back and trying it again on PSP.

 

How the hell i ever put up with those 'escape' sequences the 1st time round just baffles me now, as i just gave up early on, with the PSP version, as they were doing my head right in.

 

Origins i do have a soft spot for, but as you say regarding SM, when you've the canvas of the original Silent Hill laid out to work from, things are easier than starting from scratch.

 

NTSC SH was 1 of the very 1st games i imported for my chipped PS1 (along with Einhander, MGS, Xenogears and Parasite Eve) and so glad i did as the watered down Pal version lost too much in key areas..i want my skinless babies back.

 

Also i guess all that talk of a new Forbidden Siren on PS4 was just that...talk?.

 

 

Never heard any more of it since the annoucement.

[CatPix]

From what I heard, the PAL version only lose skinless babies monsters, but I heard that it got exclusive newspapers articles explaining a bit more of the Silent Hill sotry than the NTSC versions? Not sure tho, I read about that long long ago.

[Lost Dragon]

Pal version has a plain title screen, NTSC has a background image, we lost the 'Grey Children' and had the teddy bear-esq 'Mumblers' instead which looked stupid.

NTSC version missed a newspaper article, detailing a little about Alessa's past.

You had to of read all the documents scattered around the game, for it to appear mind.

Article text itself:

"Investigation stalled. "PTV" dealers still at large. Suspicious deaths continue. First the anti-drug Mayor, now a narcotics officer dies of a sudden heart failure of unknown cause.

Fire broken out in town. 6 homes destroyed. Charred body of Alessa Gillespie (7) found in aftermath. Cause of fire currently under investigation. Investigations show source as basement of Gillespie home. Blaze now believed caused by malfunction of antiqued boiler."

Think after so many years and very limited nature of text, this is hardly a spoiler.

[CatPix]

I always found the picture in the NTSC title to be cheesy

The plain nature of the PAL ttile with the fog is a much better mysterious-looking and inviting opening. It's even one of the first pictures we saw of Silent Hill 2 later : derelict letters in the fog.

The options menu floating on that lack of BG looked a bit odd however.

 

About the title screen, the Japanese one looks like this at least in the demos :

(haven't find a let's play of the Japanese version)

This Image is also found in the game data.

So the PAL title screen might have been reworked from this title, and not the common NTSC one.

 

And as a side note, the design of the PAL CD is much better :

That rusty scorched effect is just awesome

Edited April 13, 2016 by CatPix

[Centurion]

Alone in the Dark really made a strong impression on me back in the day. I only had PC speaker sound on my old 286 and that game somehow utilized it really great. Had never played anything like it at the time.

 

I'm not huge into the SH genre, but have recently been playing a lesser known From Software title on the PS2 called "Kuon". It is a Kwaidan ghost story set in the Heian Pariod of Japan. It's very influenced by the Resident Evil style of gameplay and is very creepy. It's pretty cool.