Silent Hill Video Game Series

For the development of the original Silent Hill and the next three installments is responsible Konami-associated development group Team Silent. Japanese composer Akira Yamaoka was engaged to work on the music for almost all the games in the series, since the creation of the Silent Hill 3, he also began to play an important role as their producer.

Yamaoka worked on the next two installments - Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (which is a reboot of the first title) – made by independent British studio Climax Group, based in Portsmouth, Hampshire. On the other hand, Silent Hill: Homecoming, was handled by American studio Double Helix Games. The eighth official installment of the series - Silent Hill: Downpour - is, in turn, a project of the Czech studio Vatra Games. This part is also the only title in the series for which the soundtrack wasn’t composed by Akira Yamaoka, but by American composer Daniel James Licht.

The action of each installment takes place in the titular Silent Hill - a mysterious, deserted town, shrouded in thick fog and haunted by various abominations. The main characters of the series are individuals heavily traumatized by life, who end up in Silent Hill for a specific purpose, most often driven by the need to find a particular person. Their denied traumatic experiences, hidden fears, and lusts often come to life in the reality of the ghostly city, taking on monstrous, grotesque forms. The exception is the first installment of the title, in which the monsters that appear aren’t the creation of the protagonist himself, but of another key character in the series.

Locations are assigned to two realities - a foggy one and an alternative one. Also present in the games are a few moments in which the normal world is visible (the exception being Silent Hill 2, in which the main character is surrounded by fog from the beginning to the end of the game). Not all parts of Silent Hill however, take place exclusively in the region of the titular Silent Hill. Sometimes the protagonists begin their journey in another city, only at a later stage of the game finding themselves in the actual hellish world. In Silent Hill 3, where we also have the opportunity to take control of a female character-Heather Mason-for the first time, the action takes us to a completely unknown area. A similar theme was also used in Silent Hill: The Room, Silent Hill: Homecoming, and Silent Hill: Downpour.

Although more modern titles no longer aroused as much excitement as the first installments of the Silent Hill, fans still kept a close eye on Konami's actions. After a period of silence, Sony unveiled a trailer during the 2014 gamescom trade show P. T. (Playable Teaser) trailer for the next game in the series - the Silent Hills. The FPP psychological horror, played inside a spooky apartment, has rekindled interest in the brand. Innovative computer game developer Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro, director of such films as Pan’s Labyrinth or The Shape of Water. Actor Norman Reedus was also involved in the development of the title. Unfortunately, a tumultuous conflict between Hideo Kojima and Konami resulted in a split and the full version of the Silent Hills never saw the light of day. However, the roughly 30-minute playable teaser became the inspiration for many later horror games.

Besides the main games in the series, minor productions using the iconic locations and monsters were released, including mobile spin-offs such as Silent Hill: Orphan or the only one intended for slot machines Silent Hill: Arcade. A title that allows multiplayer gameplay, on the other hand, is Silent Hill: Book of Memories, developed by WayForward Technologies studio for the PlayStation Vita portable console.

One of the noteworthy fan productions is also a standalone mod created on the Source engine -. Silent Hill: Alchemilla. This mod allows gameplay from a first-person perspective and is primarily focused on solving a series of puzzles. Some of the characters from the series were also introduced into the game Dead by Daylight. A new killer in Dead by Daylight: Silent Hill is Kat (or Pyramidhead - the series' iconic monster, first introduced in Silent Hill 2), and the new survivor is Cheryl Mason (or Heather from Silent Hill 3). This installment of the game also introduces a new map, covering Midwich Elementary School.

After consecutive years of solid downtime, the brand gained new life with the announcement of five games in the series. In October 2022, during a Konami-organized stream, the official trailer for the remake of the second installment of the series ( Silent Hill 2) was released for the first time. The refreshment of this cult title was undertaken by Bloober Team, working closely with both concept artist Masahiro Ito and composer Akira Yamaoka. Another intriguing item also turned out to be Silent Hill F by NeoBards Entertainment studio, the action of which was moved for the first time to the Asian continent, more specifically to Japan. In addition, trailers were also presented during the show Silent Hill: Townfall (developed by NoCode studio) and Silent Hill: Ascension (designed with multiplayer gameplay in mind). The only title unannounced during Silent Hill: Transmission, about which information began to leak in quick succession, is Silent Hill: The Short Message, intended for PlayStation 5 consoles.