So, I started to play Silent Hill back in May I think, and I was quickly blown away by the environment and gameplay elements. The quality of the intro clip, the short but sweet section at the beginning about the radio, which signals that a monster is nearby. The wide streets of Silent Hill, matched with thick mist, yet we still feel alone and isolated.

What I also like in these games that we play as an everyday guy. We are not soldiers, or superguy, just a guy who happened to be in this unfortunate situation. This also reflects in how you handle your melee and range weapons. You can swing wide, and our aim to far away targets are not that good, unless we find a better gun for it. All this didn't bother me, especially since the game has improved Resident Evil's combat. We can move during shooting and swinging, unless it is a heavy weapon. I personally like this much more, since I can start shooting a little bit far, and then when I am close enough and the monster is on the floor, I can do the final kick.

We have quiet a few different weapons, but this is not a first person shooter, so don't expect gazillion of different stuff. We have pistol, shotgun and rifle, each has great adventage in firepower. During both games I didn't have problem saving ammo, with using melee weapons, or simple just running away from monsters. My tactics was: if I can get around them, I just run. There are some enemies that can be tricky because they are fast, so I take care of them.

Both games have difficulty for the puzzle sections of these games. It can include randomized elements, and each difficulty setting has slightly modified puzzles. With separating combat from puzzles, everbody can enjoy different parts of survival, without getting frustrated. And there are many sites which can give you hints how to progress if you are stuck. I am not gonna lie some of the puzzles put me to the test, but I still enjoyed them, as they are very unique. I played both games on normal/normal difficulty.

One thing maybe can be added is that the games doesn't have inventory limits for items. So we can pick up everything we want. Yes, even a certain legendary looking weapon from the enemy, no matter how heavy that looks. :-)

I love this. I am not much for bodyhorror, I am more in favor more of the psychological stuff. I wasn't particularly scared most of the time in both games, but I was curious, and sometimes disgusted what I saw. Definitely recommend headphones and dark room for Silent Hill games.

The whole being alone in this town thing just works. The camera also helps sell this, as it is not a fixed camera, but very fluidly changable ones. I liked it mostly as you can direct your own horror movie. In open spaces you can change your perspective to a follower one, which let's you see the main character far behind. In tight spaces it uses nice top-down cameraview. It is not totally perfect, but it is much better than the normalized over the shoulder camera used in the past 10 years of Horizon games, RE remakes, God of War reboot, Alan Wake II and many others.

This kind of camera system adds tension and mystery to the game, because sometimes you don't know what's in front of you. Coupled with this the radio, which only gives you signal when monsters are around. I like the exploration focused gameplay, and the reward for it. The gameplay is slow and methodical.

More about this camera system from Under the Mayo:

The first two games is not connected. In the first we are playing as Harry Mason, who got into a car accident with her adopted daughter Cheryl. He cannot find his daughter, and only meets a policewoman Cybil, who helps him.

In Silent Hill 2, James Sunderland gets a letter from his wife that she is waiting for him in Silent Hill.

I am not going to spoil either story. I like the second game more than the first, but both are classic in my opinion. Second game you can't really talk about without spoiling things, it is nuanced, and I am not in a place right now, when I want to talk about it. One day maybe…

I wish we have more games with minimal handholding, and without lots of cutscenes and more focused on environmental storytelling. More focused on gameplay elements. The first two Silent Hill games are masters of creating tension, but also curiousity. Every time I sat down to play, I genuinely did not know what is going to happen. I haven't experienced this for a long while, I played Alien: Isolation in 2016. I still have some questions about the story, but maybe a second playthrough would help me in that.

I am already playing Silent Hill 3, which is connected to the first Silent Hill movie.

I have a feeling that the Silent Hill 2 remake will not turn out right, and it will set back these amazing games and stories for another decade…