One of the best things about Silent Hill is its use of many types of suspense and atmosphere. If you have a
vibrating controller, it will vibrate when your
heart beats, or when a
monster attacks you. In a toilet you hear a child's sobs, but there is nobody there. Every now and then some really
weird sounds or music start and fade up to a frightening volume, but you don't always know why. Is there going to be something really scary in the next room? Most probably. The game alternates between the
Overworld and the
Underworld; at first Harry thinks the Underworld is just a
nightmare and not
reality, but then he witnesses reality
become a nightmare. In the town's school, when you are in the Underworld, the walls are covered with
dead bodies hanging and covered in
blood. You're in the hospital. Everything seems vaguely normal and you've searched all the rooms. You try to go out the door but Harry says you should explore a bit more. So you get back in the elevator. There's an extra floor button! You go to the apparently non-existent 4th floor. Something's wrong. The walls are covered with blood and strange traingular signs. It's all dark. The windows are blocked up so you can't see outside. You can't go down the elevator but you can go down the stairs, but now that's all different as well. And there's all these
zombie nurses with knives trying to kill you... This is a game to be played at night with the lights off to get the full effect, but the full effect might be too severe for you...
be warned...
Silent Hill also has a lot of literary references in it. There are four plates you have to collect which are named after characters from
Alice in Wonderland. Also, three keys you have to collect are called "The Lion", "The Woodman" (sic) and "The Scarecrow", from
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. As well as that, all the streets in Silent Hill are named after authors as far as I can tell.