Yes I have beaten, by popular opinion, the superior horror game that beats Resident Evil because its Psychological Horror.




(Spoilers)


The only moment I got scared the most was in Silent Hill 2's Toluca Prison, what got me was the Invisible Prisoners chanting something which spooked me and the Hangmans Noose in the Backyard of the Prison which I thought there was going to be a Boss fight because it was a wide open area, but I got a unkonwn scream and a horseshoe. And the Labyrinth maze where Pyramid Head's Lair is (which I stole his big, giant sword)


But that was the only time I got really scared, my opinion is that it was the same scary experiance I experianced with the Scary Resident Evils like the Remake so Silent Hill is not really superior to Resident Evil nor is it inferior.

Also my criticism against it is that its a little easier compare to Resident Evil because there is no limited inventory, and melee weapons like pipes and katanas are overpowered, which explains why they made it breakable in later Silent Hills.

In the end it was an eerie yet emotional experiance, now if only Silent Hill 4: The Room is released for PS2 Classics on the Playstation Store. Its avaliable in Japan only sadly :(

Not a word about SH3? It's much scarier than 2 to me.

Silent Hill 2 isn't scary, actually. At least not for me. It's still one of the best stories told.

btw. the scariest one for me was SH4. Because of limited inventory, as a one thing. Why limited inventory is a good thing? Well, because in SH 2 and 3 you could store shitloads of ammo and weapons, so none of the monsters was scary. Also, I just was running around amongst them anyway, saving ammo for boss encounters.

Thank you for the Spoilers Head up. I'm not being sarcastic, thank you.

I've stopped reading after seeing the spoiler alert, good that you're learning from your mistakes ^^.

Silent Hill 3 was good to, but a was little more easier thanks to the katana.

SPOILERS






But damn in my first playthrough the final battle against God was challenging because I had 5 shots for my shotgun, less than 50 pistol rounds, and only 1 ampoule to heal me and cannot believe I beat the final boss in those conditions.

Also what threw me off as silly imo is why are the monsters here symbolizes Vaginas I mean I get that Heather is carrying God herself, but damn is this series trying to scare me from sex? Which it did not.

To be hones i don't think silent hill 2 is supposed to be scary. It should make you uncomfartable a few times ( and i did according to your story) but that's about it. It's more of an emotional story about a man who lost his wife and against all reason starts to search for her in silent hill even though he knows it's a wild goose chase.

Silent hill 3 on the other hand is a bit different. I think this one actually tries to be scary. The 4th one is a bit of both and way underrated.

Monsters in SH series always have symbolic meaning. They always are referring to a main character somehow. (look at "bed monster" in SH2 for example). Or nurses, being referrence to Alessa.

IIRC, it's not about the weapons but about the enemies. Ghosts in SH4 are immortal and can only be pinned down using special swodrs, which are always in limited supply. You can unpin the buggers to reclaim the item, though.

The more powerful ones do break, yes. I'm not sure about one thing right now, though. I think there's also a bottle which upon breaking actually does more damage, not sure about it though. I loved the fact that a ghost that you pin down in an ealier level is gone for good and won't reappear in later levels. This added some gravity to the choice which ghosts to use the swords on.

Not everyone is affected by psychological horror. The Ring scared the shit out of me and two of my friends, and I still get genuinely creeped out if I stay the night at someone else's house and there's a TV in the guest room, just waiting to turn on and spew out an evil ghost girl. But then I watched it with another friend and his family and all they did was chatter and make stupid jokes all the way through. If you can't really imagine being in that situation (a situation which undeniably would be maddeningly scary) then there's nothing it can do to affect you. Resident Evil isn't really remotely scary, less so as it went on, but there are like pragmatic things to be fearful of, gaming things, like running out of ammo or being one-shotted and having to redo the last area.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

I love Silent Hill because of the really interesting psychological backgrounds to many of the characters, like how the location of Silent Hill is based on their mind, their fears, their guilt. Pyramid Head is a manifestation of James' guilt over killing his wife. If you do certain things in the game, you get an ending where he leaves with the woman who mysteriously resembles a slutty version of his wife (he was annoyed that his wife wouldn't have sex with him as her illness worsened, and found himself attracted to the nurses in the hospital, hence the nurse monsters) and she starts coughing. James saying "We'll have to do something about that cough...", which has dark overtones since what he did about his wife's cough was to smother her with a pillow. Keep studying the knife in your inventory and eventually James kills himself in the ending. Do other things, and it turns out the whole thing is the work of crazy aliens (a running joke in Silent Hill endings). There isn't really anything else like that in gaming, and very little like it elsewhere.

For me too. It's the only SH game that I stopped playing at some point because it made me feel too uncomfortable. Many people complained about SH4 not being scary at all because all the locations were comparably bright and people considered the enemy designs ridiculous. But honestly, the ghosts scared the shit out of me. Their looks, the sounds and additionally these scary fellas were invincible. It's remarkable how each player's individual wiring dictates what they consider eerie or scary.

Yeah, this was amazing. Immortal enemies, and later in the game, there were chasing you through entire levels. Nowhere was safe.

Also, your room. If you didn't have enough candles, your aparment stopped being the only place where you could rest and heal. Even your room, the only place where you could save was hurting you and trying to kill you.

Also, I find this enemy one of the best enemy designs ever:
http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101026142426/silent/images/5/5a/Henry_vs._TwinVictims.jpg


Plus, the main antagonist is interesting. I don't buy all this Gods, Samaels etc shit from SH mythology. What I do get, is personal nightmare, that is lasting even long after you're gone.

Btw. I know this is generic japanese horror stuff, but I had nightmares after that part:

http://cf.juggle-images.com/fit/white/600x600/wg-silent-hill-4-the-room-2.jpg

I would say Amnesia is the Spiritual Successor to Silent Hill in terms of Psychological Horror judging from what I have seen. And I have been frightened by Silent Hill, the game was scarier inside the dark buildings than the Foggy streets. When I enter a knew dark I always walk and ready my weapon until its I know its safe.
Like yatzhee said, Japanese horror is superior to western horror video game wise:

Japan horror is Silent Hill.

Western horror is Left 4 Dead.

Hell even Japan can make western style horror scarier with Resident Evil Remake.

Yeah, I was referring to the "generic japanese girl with long black hair covering her eyes" that is not scary, because it's in almost every japanese horror film ever made.

BUT still. The way the bitch moves, sounds, that you know you can't kill her (unless you have a certain item), was scary as hell.

I've played 1 - 4 and Homecoming. Silent Hill has never really scared me. First experiencing those few rare cheap jump scares maybe make you flinch by instinctual reaction. Silent Hill 3 had a few more of those than the others. I think most people who enjoy the SH games don't really consider them scary, the word I most hear is "disturbing". No doubt some find it scary though, just the majority seems to say that isn't why they play SH games. Personally its more the atmosphere it creates and the sense of discovery I enjoy. The parts I like the most isn't the "grr argh monsters" but the exploring abandoned buildings to find clues about your character and what their version of Silent Hill wants from them to further the story.

I didn't enjoy Silent Hill 4 as much as the others (won't say why incase spoilers) but others consider it a favourite so its all subjective of course. In development it apparently didn't start as being a SH game so it was a departure in many respects, so that may be more in your favour here. As mentioned it does have a limited inventory as in Resident Evil so you may enjoy that aspect of it. I think compared to Resident Evil, Silent Hill does have more limited Ammo pickups though so it perhaps has that going for it.

As far as horror in general goes, I think the only thing that really scares/disturbs me is intangible threats which makes your imagination work overtime. People either think Blair Witch Project is the lamest thing ever or scary for example. Silent Hill, Resident Evil etc. for me there is still a tangible threat in the form of the creatures (SH) / zombies (RE), they're there wandering the hallways and I can beat them with a pipe.

But I find the creatures in SH interesting since each creature is a manifestation of the main character and as you learn more about who you are playing you understand more why they see those things. I think one reason SH2 is recommended by most SH fans is because that point was elaborated upon even more with 4 different people in Silent Hill who each saw something different. Then as you progressed through the story you came to understand why each character saw what they did.