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: Homecoming

Developer: Double Helix
Publisher: Konami
Released (UK): Feb '09
Released (US): Sep '08

May contain spoilers.Homecoming is the latest Silent Hill game and it finally hit the UK shores in February '09 after hitting the states in September '08.

The game had been in production (which started in 2004) for quite a while before being released with trailers and screenshots show up here and there. The release date was due to be in September for the US and the UK but Konami doesn't like the UK it seems as we always have to wait longer for the Silent Hill games (the only exception being Silent Hill 3 which we got first).
It all started when Germany refused to classify it due to a scene in the game where a character is shot. It is unknown whether this was the reason for the European delay or whether it was own to translation issue - Konami never confirmed. The UK could have been given the completed US version but we also had to wait seeing we are part of the "European Market".
The game was also made to go through a big change for the Australian market before being classified.


In Homecoming we play as Alex Shepherd (above), a Soldier injured in combat who has come home to the town of Shepherds Glen. On arrival her finds the town completely deserted with only a few residents still living there. His brother Joshua (also above) has gone missing, his father Adam has gone to find him an his Mother Lillian is all alone in a catatonic state.
Alex also finds that Elle Holloway (below, left), his friend from childhood and her Mother Judge Holloway are still here. Elle who you can has been modelled off of Scarlett Johansson, is trying to find out what has happened to the town by sticking up wanted posters for the numerous people that have gone missing.
She is also in close communication with Deputy Wheeler who is also trying to find out what has been happening. With Elle's and Wheelers help, Alex sets off to find out what has happened to Shepherds Glen and his Brother.
During his rounds Alex meets three other characters. Mayor Bartlett who can be seen digging graves in the cemetery, Dr. Fitch who has gone crazy since the death of his daughter and Curtis Ackers, the junkyard owner who we meet near the games beginning and then again at the end.
Travis Grady from Silent Hill Origins and Pyramid Head (or Bogeyman) from Silent Hill 2 both give cameo appearances in the game.

The game isn't only just set in Shepherds glen however, it is called Silent Hill after all. Alex has several dream sequences that take place in Silent Hill involving the Hospital and the Hotel located in the town.
Halfway through the game Alex, Wheeler and Elle decide to go to Silent Hill for real after Lillian is kidnapped by strange men in Miner's clothes. However, Wheeler and Elle are both kidnapped by the same guys that took Lillian leaving Alex alone, again.

I've already mentioned the Hotel and the Hospital but other areas to investigate are the Penitentiary, Church, a place called Hell's Descent, the Sewers, Shepherds Glen Police Station, Shepherd's House, the Town Hall and the Cemetery (there's two in this game - one is in Shepherds Glen and one in Silent Hill).
Some areas are more interesting than the others whilst some consist mostly of battles. The Police Station for example is taken over by several Monsters that are too much to take on so you mostly have to run to get out as soon as you can. The Sewers are also full of Monsters you have to defeat with not much else to pay attention to.
The level where you're at Alex's house within the "Other World" is a very interesting one because it consists of four puzzles you need to solve in order to unlock the door to get out of there. I got pretty creeped out in this particular part of the game because Alex is not alone here, not one but a total of five Schisms are in the house with him.

The Monsters in Silent Hill Homecoming are some of the best in the whole series with a few star Monsters definitely worth noting.
Siam is a very good looking Monster which is primarily a large Man with giant clubs for arms. However, he also has the body of a female on his back who just lies helplessly with it's masculine side kicks ass. Whilst the game was in development it was Siam that interested me the most but you hardly come across him in the game and only shows up during crucial points in the game. E.g. When you have to save Elle from one and when one bashes down the Penitentiary gate.
You have the Needlers, who attack with their blade-like legs. Lurkers, who crawl along the ground laying into you with their hook-like claws. Smogs who spray toxic gasses and what's a Silent Hill game without a Dog or a Nurse Monster?

It was Schism (above, right) who was the star of the game for me though. They are very quick and can catch up with you quite easily. You will only come across them in enclosed spaces too which means you can't sneak past them. I mentioned earlier that one of the levels has five of them all under one roof which is unpleasant for those scared of this particular Monster who can be deadly in small spaces because they use their scissor-like heads which can cut Alex in half.
I once watched one for a while whilst it couldn't see me, I was on the steps in Shepherd's house and I really didn't want to deal with it and I did stop to compose myself before killing it. I hadn't felt this way since the Doublehead in Silent Hill 4, the first Silent Hill I played.

The game also had a variety of very difficult bosses to overcome, Sepulcher, Scarlett, Asphyxia (my favourite boss) and the final boss Amnion. They were all very difficult to beat even on Normal setting because it wasn't just a case of hitting them, you needed a different strategy for each one. It takes several attempts until Alex finally manages to bring them down, it did for me anyway.

Silent Hill Homecoming has had mixed reactions from fans and critics. Critics have been quite fussy with this and general reviews have not been favourable. Metacritic.com gives an average score from the various critics in the biz which is 72/100. The average score from gamers however is 8.5/10 so Double Helix have done enough to please Silent Hill fans.

The game definitely isn't flawless:

• Music: Akira Yamaoka only composed 70 minutes of music for the game which isn't a lot saying that game play is about 5 hours long.


• Puzzles: There were never any options to reset the puzzles when you really needed it. One puzzle in the attic was one which got harder to solve the more you moved the sliding tiles. I had to leave the house then leave the garden then re-enter before the puzzle reset.


• Action Level: Silent Hill fans like to explore the various locations to find clues in the story, any freaky going ons designed for scares or to find as many health items as possible. In most cases, the Police station for example where you were being chased by 7 monsters.


• Inverted Aim: There wasn't an option to use Inverted Aim. This wasn't a problem for me but many have expressed disappointment in this.

I played the PS3 version of Silent Hill Homecoming which had some additional problems:

• Sixaxis: When an item was found you could use the sixaxis controller to turn the item round to look it over which was unnecessary. Puzzle pieces could also be moved using sixaxis but it was very sensitive meaning that you hardly had to move the controller to do it.


• Trophy's: Even though the 360 version of the game did have un-lockable achievements for it's gamers the developers failed to have Trophy's for its PS3 gamer which is unfortunate.

The game had a lot of good points though:

• Alex Shepherd: I really liked Alex as a Protagonist. I think they did a good job of making the player sympathise with him because I definitely did. I think Alex is my favourite off all Protagonists - easy on the eye too.


• Monsters: I've mentioned these already but the Monsters were a really good point. They look amazing and provide you with a challenge, especially Siam who is very strong and the bosses were the hardest of all Silent Hill bosses.


• Locations: The locations in Homecoming were very good graphically. Hells Descent was uneventful and you couldn't explore the Police station but the towns of Shepherds Glen and Silent Hill were designed well and the fog from Silent Hill 2 had returned which I liked. The Penitentiary was a nice place because you could explore it without getting ambushed.

In Silent Hill games you will sometimes come across some references to previous Silent Hill games and you did in Homecoming too, though not as much as you would do in previous games:

Silent Hill 1:

• Wheeler mentions a female police officer who went missing in Silent Hill. Cybil Bennett from SH1?


• Finding a Serum will get you the "Dr Kaufmann's Handiwork" achievement.

Silent Hill 2:

• Some of the achievements in the 360 version reference Silent Hill 2 characters. Killing a Feral will get you "Eddie's Legacy", "Angela's Choice" is given to you if you don't forgive your father and killing a Siam will get you "Shades of James".

Silent Hill 3:

• Josh owns a doll of Robbie the Rabbit who was first seen in Silent Hill 3


• Douglas Cartland is mentioned as a detective who had exposed the Cult for what it was.

There were some differences in Homecoming that set it apart from other games of the series. A star rating isn't given at the end of the game which is bugbear of mine. The star rating was a way of showing the player how well they've played.
Memo's that Alex come across are not stored for you to read another time but any clues these memo's give are stored in Alex's journal.
Speaking of which, the journal could have been used better. In Project Zero 2, Mio would write things of interest as she went around the Lost Village. It would have been interesting if Alex did the same.

The game, despite some problems with game play that I've already mentioned was definitely not as bad as the critics have said - not at all. I think it's one of the best. OK, Team Silent (Silent Hill 1,2,3 and 4) did a better job with atmosphere but Homecoming had a good storyline nonetheless. Alex was extremely like-able and the scene when Deputy Wheeler was attacked by Asphyxia had me gripped.
There's no doubt in my mind that this game was highly influenced by Silent Hill 2 but I did prefer Alex to James and the Monsters in Homecoming were much better than those in SH2.
It didn't have as much atmosphere as Silent Hill 3 but it had better story, better Monsters and a more like-able Protagonist.

9/10

Better than Silent Hill 2 for me but it wasn't on par with Silent Hill 4: The Room.


9/10...Too Nice?
Alex Shepherd...One for the Ladies?
Was anyone else disturbed by Schism or just me?

Ones I'm Waiting For

Alan Wake

Remedy Entertainment have been very secretive about this game and have hardly released anything about it. Alan Wake was even announced before the PS3 and Xbox 360 came out but it's only now that eager fans are getting what they want.
Alan Wake was to be released on both consoles until Microsoft bought the rights for it, therefore making it a PC and Xbox game only.
Screenshots were released in 2006 when the game was first announced but two years have passed so the game probably looks much different now.

The game is based around Alan Wake, a famous mystery writer. Suffering from a major case of writers block, his wife has brought him to Bright Falls to help him get his creative flow back.
Things go wrong when his wife disappears and the events of his last book, which he doesn't remember writing, start to occur to make things worse.

What we know:

- The storyline is all we know really. Remedy doesn't like to give things away it seems.

- The trailer shows a guy in a red coat, a Jon Lovitz type, who Alan calls Harry. We don't know why he's there and who he is but I'm sure I heard somewhere that he said he was Alan's manager, I could be wrong.

- In the trailer Harry mentions a Dr Hartman. "Dr Hartman was right. You are crazy". This leads you to believe that he must be a shrink.

Unfortunately, we don't yet know anything about the game play. Will there be monsters like in Silent Hill? What kind of weapons will there be?
The video section of the website shows a further two videos are going to be revealed - hopefully these will be game play videos, let's hope.

Remedy are saying that a release date won't be given until the game is finished so we don't have one yet. It seems they don't want to make the same mistake as other developers who give a release date before knowing when the game will be completed.

The official website can be found HERE

Official Trailer

Silent Hill Homecoming

This game has already been released in The USA and Japan but the UK has to wait until February '09 to get this game. Konami never gave us an official reason but it could be a matter of reasons.

1) Censorship - Germany in particular have expressed concern over the violence contained in the game. News of the German release delay came out before the news that the UK would also have to wait...Are the whole of Europe having to wait until Germany are satisfied? Will we have to make do with the censored version as well? News of the German delay can be found on this LINK

2) Translation - Europe speaks a lot of languages, that's a given so the game has to be translated to over 20 different languages. It seems the UK, who speaks English and in fact came up with the language have to wait with the rest of them. Sure, we could import since the PS3 and XBOX 360 are region free, but why should we have to pay for the delivery charges?

3) Sods Law - We had to wait for Origins and now we have to wait longer for Homecoming. Maybe Konami just doesn't think much into pleasing it's European Market. It's not all bad I suppose. The game has been banned entirely from Australia apparently due to a specific scene within the game.

Homecoming is going to be the fifth instalment of the game (Origins not counting as it's a prequel). It's based around Alex Shepherd who has gone back home, after leaving the Army, to Shepherds Glen after news came about of his younger brothers disappearance. When he returns home he finds the whole town in a mess and his Mother in a catatonic state. She went crazy after Joshua, her younger son's disappearance so Alex goes about finding him. His investigation around Shepherds Glen leads him to a nearby town called Silent Hill where he intends to find out what has been happening.

Konami were quite generous in the information they gave out regarding this game. Trailers and screenshots were released, giving us a chance to look what the game is going to look like.

What we know:

- We know that the cast of Monsters includes new as well as old - Siam (Right) is one of the most impressive, and the monster that got my attention. The Nurses return (it wouldn't be Silent Hill without them would it?) and they've been busy advertising the game, modelling on the popular Play Magazine front cover.

- Pyramid Head is going to be in this game. He was spotted walking around the town in one of the trailers released but how does he fit into this game when he was a manifestation of James Sunderland’s character in Silent Hill 2?

- We know that a female character is in the game, Elle, an old friend of Alex's who can be found on the official website. The official trailer (below) shows a truck driver, Travis Grady from Origins and screenshots so some kind of police officer, who remains nameless to us lot that haven't played it.

- The games has also taken on the appearance of the movie. In the previous games, we never actually saw the real world turn into the nightmare world but in this game, we will. The two realms will merge in real time, wall paper melting off of the walls and such.

Since this game has been released in the US, we know that the game has proven successful with Silent Hill fans but the critic’s reviews have been mixed. Metacritic gives the scores received from various magazines and websites, then giving a critics average. The worst score given was 60% from GamePro and the most promising score was 90% from the Official Playstation Magazine (US). The average however was 7.2/10, the sites users giving it 8.1/10 proving the game has been quite well received generally.

The official website can bee seen HERE

Official Trailer (YouTube)

Fatal Frame IV: The Mask of the Lunar Eclipse

Fatal Frame IV was announced, to the UK at least, earlier this year (2008). The game has been developed by Japanese developer, Grasshopper Manufacture. The news was both good and bad for fans because even though a new game is coming, it's coming on the Nintendo Wii. Previous games have been released on the Xbox and the Playstation 2, PS2 being the only console to have all of the first three games.
The game was released earlier in July over in Japan but for a while there was no news on a release over in the west. However, news came out earlier in December of a European release due early 2009. America is still to find out whether they will get the game or not.

Ten years ago, five young girls were kidnapped and held hostage in a mysterious mansion in Japan. They were all saved by a detective on the hunt for the criminal who had taken them. Several years later, two of the girls died under mysterious circumstances but the remaining three, now 17 years old have returned in order to find out more about what happened all those years ago.

What we know:

- There are four main characters in this game: Ruka Minazuki(F), Misaki Asō(F), Madoka Tsukimori(F) and Chōshiro Kirishima(M).

- The Wii remote and nunchuck will be used to aim the Camera Obscura and the torch that the character holds. How the camera will work however, remains to be seen.

- Ghosts include what looks like a female nurse and little boy, who is especially creepy - reminds me of the boy in the film, The Grudge.

We know nothing else regarding this game but news on game play and characters should be released soon if a European release is going to be the rumoured February '09. The official website and the official trailer are in Japanese but they shed some light into what the game will look like.
The game actually looks really good for the Wii and the ghost especially look really realistic, even more so than the ones in The Tormented.
Hopefully an English version of the website will be released real soon.

The official website, in Japanese, can be found HERE.

Trailer (Subtitled)

I'm really looking forward to all of these games. Silent Hill and Fatal Frame are two of my favourite Survival Horror games and both look like a good edition to each series.
Alan Wake is the one I'm looking forward to the most. However, it's a new addition to the genre and could be a huge sucess based on how it looks. People are getting restless waiting for it but good things come to those who wait.
I'm a geek, and I know this Why? I bought my Wii and Xbox 360 especially for Fatal Frame IV and Alan Wake so they better be really, really good.