Silent Hill Questionnaire - The Results.

SILENT HILL 2 AND SILENT HILL 3 THE MOST POPULAR BY FAR WITH FANS...

This year marks ten years since the first Silent Hill game was released back in 1999. Five games have followed but has the series kept its charm? What are the highlights of the series? Who are the best characters? I wanted to find out.

So, around a month ago I created a Silent Hill questionnaire and asked members of the Gamespot and Playstation forums as well as readers of this blog to fill it out for me.

I asked who fans thought were the best and the worst of the series as well as asking them which game best fulfilled the key horror characteristics. Sixty people responded and these are the results. Let's start with what fans thought were the worst...


The Worst:

Least Favorite Support Character:
Runner Up: Eileen Galvin 17%
LOSER: Elle Holloway 33%
Others in this category: Angela Orosco (12%), Maria (12%), Cybil Bennett (10%) , Douglas (9%), Lisa Garland (3%), Other (3%).

NOTE: The other characters which were chosen under the 'Other' option are Dr Kaufmann from Silent Hill and Laura from Silent Hill 2 with 1 vote each.


Least Favourite Antagonist:
Runner Up: Claudia Wolf (27%)
LOSER: The Butcher (37%)
Others in this category: Dahlia Gillespie (17%), Walter Sullivan (14%), Pyramid Head (5%).



Least Favourite Protagonist:
Runner Up: Henry Townshend (29%)
LOSER: Travis Grady (31%)
Others in this Category: Heather Mason (17%), Alex Shepherd (14%), Harry Mason (5%), James Sunderland (5%).



Least Favourite Overall Silent Hill Game:
Runner Up: Silent Hill: Origins (26%)
LOSER: Silent Hill 4: The Room (32%)
Others in this Category: Homecoming (19%), Silent Hill 3 (14%), Silent Hill (7%), Silent Hill 2 (2%).




The Winners:

Best Monster:
Runner Up: The Doublehead (14%)
WINNER: The Nurses (29%)
Others in this Category: Grey Child/Mumbler (10%), Lying Figure/Patient Demon (10%), Mannequin (9%), Other (7%), Siam (7%), Numb Body (5%), Victims (3%), Carrion (2%), Insane Cancer (2%), Schism (2%), Air Screamer (0%), The Dogs (0%).

NOTE: The other Monsters which were chosen under the 'Other' option are the Rompers from Silent Hill with one vote and the Closers from Silent Hill 3 got three votes making them tied with the Numb Bodies.


Favourite Supporting Character:
Runner Up: Maria (21%)
WINNER: Douglas Cartland (22%)
Others in this Category: Cybil Bennett (12%), Eileen Galvin (12%), Other (10%), Lisa Garland (9%), Elle Holloway (2%).

NOTE: The other characters which were chosen under the 'Other' option are Laura from Silent Hill 2, Jasper from Silent Hill 4, Deputy Wheeler with 1 vote each and Eddie from Silent Hill 2 with 2 votes. Douglas Cartland received an extra vote under this category because somebody gave an explanation to their choice.


Favourite Antagonist:
Runner Up: Walter Sullivan (20%)
WINNER: Pyramid Head (63%)
Others in this Category: Claudia Wolf (12%), Dahlia Gillespie (5%), The Butcher (0%).




Favourite Protagonist:
Runner Up: Heather Mason (27%)
WINNER: James Sunderland (37%)
Others in this Category: Harry Mason (17%), Alex Shepherd (7%), Travis Grady (7%), Henry Townshend (5%).




Favourite Overall Silent Hill Game:
Runner Up: Silent Hill 3 (17%)
WINNER: Silent Hill 2 (53%)
Others in this Category: Silent Hill (15%), Silent Hill 4 (5%), Origins (5%), Homecoming (5%).




Which Silent Hill Game?:

Which Silent Hill game is best for...Atmosphere:
Runner Up: Silent Hill 3 (25%)
WINNER: Silent Hill 2 (41%)
Others in this Category: Silent Hill (20%), Silent Hill 4 (8%), Homecoming (3%), Origins (2%).



Which Silent Hill game is best for...Monsters:
Runner Up: Silent Hill 2 (24%)
WINNER: Silent Hill 3 (39%)
Others in this Category: Homecoming (15%), Silent Hill (14%), Origins (5%), Silent Hill 4 (3%).




Which Silent Hill game is best for...Plot:
Runner Up: Silent Hill 3 (9%)
WINNER: Silent Hill 2 (76%)
Others in this Category: Silent Hill 4 (7%), Silent Hill (5%), Homecoming (3%), Origins (0%).



Which Silent Hill game is best for...Tension:
Runner Up: Silent Hill 3 (25%)
WINNER: Silent Hill (29%)
Others in this Category: Silent Hill 2 (24%), Silent Hill 4 (12%), Homecoming (7%), Origins (3%).

With Shattered Memories due for release later this year, I also asked who would be buying this game at release:

73% said they will be buying the game,
3% said they definitely won't be buying the game and
24% were unsure.


Summary:

Surprise Surprise, Silent Hill 2 is the most popular game in the series winning more categories than the other games. James Sunderland was the fans favourite Protagonist by far and Pyramid head thrashed the competition in the Best Antagonist category.

On the other end of the scale, it was also no surprise to see the unpopularity of Silent Hill 4 and Origins who sweeped the Worst categories. Luckily for Silent Hill 4, Walter Sullivan's and the Doublehead's popularity saved it from being at the bottom of the list, even though it was voted the worst game of the bunch.
Homecoming also proved unpopular despite the fact that Alex had a small amount of backing - Even though he was joint second from bottom with Travis in the Best Protagonist poll, Heather Mason proved to be more hated in the Worst Protagonist poll which did surprise me.

The surprises for me were how unpopular Dahlia Gillespie was. She didn't get the large amount of votes I thought she would and Lisa Garland didn't get much approval either which I found surprising as I always thought she was a fan favourite.
Probably the biggest surprise of all is Douglas Cartland winning the Best Supporting Character category. He only just beat Maria from Silent Hill 2 but I didn't expect him to get more votes than her or Lisa from Silent Hill.

The game that fans seemed to be undecided about was Silent Hill 3. It was runner up in the Best Game category but it recieved more votes in the Worst Game category so maybe Silent Hill 3's results would have been much different if 100 replies were recieved.


Results I was dissapointed by:

I really did think that Walter Sullivan would give Pyramid Head a run for his money but even though Walter came second in the Best Antagonist category he was 25 votes behind. On top of that he was only 2 votes behind Dahlia in the Worst Antagonist category. Shame on you - Seriously though, I did get some feedback on the Gamespot and Playstation forums where people said they had a hard time choosing between the two.

I was also dissapointed by Silent Hill 4 getting more votes than Origins in the Wost Game category. Is it really THAT bad because Origins was only just tolerable to me.

Silent Hill's poor showing wasn't a surprise to me because it's been the general feeling of fans since it's release in 2004 but the things I felt put it ahead of the rest hasn't been proven here. I thought it had one of the best Plots for a game but Silent Hill 3 beat it, I also thought it had better Monsters than Silent Hill 3 and Origins but it got the least votes in this category.


So, what do you guys think? Are you dissapointed by any of these results? Any surprises? To see the graphs of these results click HERE.

If you took part in my survey, any feedback regarding the questions or the choices I made available would be appreciated.

Silent Hill 2

Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Released (UK): Nov '01
Released (US): Sept '01

May contain spoilers. After being told so many people that Silent Hill 4 was garbage I decided to see how the game compared to previous instalments. Many people said Silent Hill 3 was the best of the bunch so I set off to buy that but I couldn't find it anywhere. Amazon didn't have it, neither did Game or Gamestation. I tried HMV but they didn't have it either but they did have Silent Hill 2. I was going to try them all anyway so I bought it and took it home to play that night.

In this game you play as James Sunderland who you find staring at himself in mirror of a public restroom. He looks stressed and once you lead him out of there you find out why.

You hear a lady's voice narrate a letter whilst James looks out over a lake. The letter asks James to meet the letter writer at their 'Special Place' in a town called Silent Hill where she says they had visited before.

James admits that this letter was written by his wife, Mary but he also says that Mary died two years ago from a disease. Creepy, huh? James doesn't know which special place she means "This whole town was our special place". We have to actually make our way to Silent Hill first so let's get a map and hop to it.

This games major flaw is the amount of travelling you have to do and it isn't always obvious where you're supposed to go. At first you're just following a trail but once you reach the town you're entering a maze. Some roads are blocked and you'll start getting restless trying to find to an unblocked route. A blood trail and the steps of a shadowed figure lead you on for a bit longer but then you're on your own.

At this point you have a weapon (wooden plank) and a Radio that doesn't seem to work. Where do you go from her though? The idea is to go to Rosewater Park but when you follow the road there, it's blocked. I walked around for ages until I came across a Caravan with a message inside "I'll wait at Bar Neely’s" - a clue at last, 20-30 minutes in. Once at Bar Neely’s we find ourselves on a roll and eventually we're at Woodside Apartments.

The game finally gets going now and the spookiness creeps in. The music in the Apartments is the main addition to the atmosphere (Akira Yamaoka is a genius) but the lack of light is also a factor.

The Apartment building is one of many areas you come across. Once out of the building you reach the Park, Brookhaven Hospital, the Historical Society and Prison then finally the Lakeview Hotel.

All of them have their moments: The hospital has the gloomy atmosphere. The Prison has noises coming from empty prisons and the labyrinth. Your weapons are taken away from you for part of the Hotel level and then the Apartments have Pyramid Head (below).

Named by most Silent Hill fans, favourite Survival Horror baddy of all time, Pyramid Head is a monster created by the Town to taunt James throughout his mission to find his dead wife. The first time you see Pyramid Head, he's standing behind a fence in the corridor of the Apartment building. He's bright red and definitely unmissable - I remember feeling quite excited when I saw him. The game was finally beginning to get good.

Other monsters of the series have become pretty standard within the series. The Lying Figure (aka Patient Demon, Straightjacket) we see again in Origins and the movie. The Nurses are also a fan favourite and they've featured in every Silent Hill game (though they look rather different in Silent Hill 1). Other monsters include the Creeper, Abstract Daddy, and the Mannequin, who despite having very feminine features (long slender legs) have a masculine scream, they also look very good against the dark environment giving a more freaky appearance. There's also the Mandarin, a big thing that clings to the grate ceilings with their feet, but why they're here is beyond me. You only come across 'em once and they're of no danger to you.

Is James the only person in this town? No, he's not. He comes across several people in Silent Hill, all of which have their own reasons for being there.

Angela Orosco is the first you come across, in the cemetery during you trek towards the town. She says she's looking for her mother but as the game progresses you find out little more disturbing things about this woman (who looks older than her 19 years). Then you meet the bratty little Laura briefly after she steps on your hand. Eddie Dumbrowski is rather complicated because he doesn't tell you why he's there directly - you have to follow the various clues the developers scatter throughout the game (notably his conversation with Laura at the Bowling Alley. Then you have Maria. Ah! Maria - the guys all love her. James meets her in the park and confuses her with his wife and she does look a lot like her except for a couple of things. She's dressed more provocatively and is very flirtatious.

Like Pyramid Head she is also a creation of the town and is there to torment James as much as possible. However, James doesn't see this because he's attracted to her (she looks like his wife) and likes having her around.

There are several endings in the game and if you have the Directors Cut/Greatest Hits version, there's even more:

1. Leave
2. In Water
3. Maria
4. UFO
5. Re-birth
6. Dog

There are several things you have to do or avoid in order to get these individual endings such as listening to conversations in full, being nicer to Maria and collecting items. Leave is the generic ending however and if you just play the game oblivious to all of the extras, you will get this.

Due to all these endings there is a lot of replay value for this game. On top of this you have a seperate choice of difficulty setting for the puzzles as well as the gameplay which also changes your experience. The hard riddle settings will really get your brain working because they can become quite hard (especially the coin puzzle - watch out for it).

Overall the game is good, not brilliant but good. The game didn't have the same amount of tension that Silent Hill 4 had despite Pyramid Head's wandering around. The monsters didn't appeal to me as much, though the Mannequins were the highlight of the bunch - they weren't around for much of the game.

The storyline was compelling, a letter from a dead person is quite thrilling don't you think? I didn't like the supporting cast very much - Laura is everything I hate in a kid and Angela Orosco was the most boring person I had ever come across, ungrateful too.

Akira Yamaoka did a very good job with the music he's become very well known for and really created the tension the game probably wouldn't have had without it.

After playing the game I still wasn't inclined to believe that Silent Hill 4 was the poorest Silent Hill game but it was still an enjoyable experience.

8/10

However, during playing this game I managed to get my hands on Silent Hill 3 from a Marketplace seller on Amazon.co.uk.

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