Silent Hill

February 24, 1999PuzzleESRB M

Genres

Overview

About Silent Hill

Silent Hill is the first installment in the Silent Hill series of psychological survival horror video games. Unlike earlier survival horror games that focused on protagonists with combat training, the main character Harry Mason is an average man. The gameplay consists of combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving. The controller vibration is used to indicate Harry's heartbeat and will vibrate on low health. The player must regularly enter an inventory screen to check Harry's health, use items, and equip different weapons.

Story setup

Harry Mason and his daughter Cheryl are driving to their favourite vacation spot. Late that night, a figure suddenly appears from out of the darkness. Harry turns the wheel in panic, and the car careens off the road, knocking harry unconscious. Awakening sometime later, he realizes that Cheryl is missing. Stumbling out of the wreckage, he heads towards the small town of Silent Hill.

Reference

At a glance

Released: February 24, 1999
Genres: Puzzle, Adventure, Action
Play modes: Single Player
Age rating: ESRB M

Media

Screenshots

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Playing together

Multiplayer & game modes

Silent Hill offers various play modes for different gaming experiences.

Play Modes

Single Player

Content

Age ratings

How rating boards around the world have classified Silent Hill. Open a board for its content descriptors.

ACBMA 15+

Medium level animated violence, Horror theme

ESRBM

Animated Violence
Animated Blood and Gore

PEGI16

Violence
Fear

The content of this game is suitable for persons aged 16 years and over only. It contains: Realistic looking violence.

USK18

Also in our guides

Often listed alongside Silent Hill

Titles that appear in the same guides on this site. Grouped by where they show up, not by recommendation.

Coverage

Featured in our articles

This game appears in 1 article on this site.

Best Survival Horror Games

#12

The original Silent Hill still haunts any serious conversation about what the genre is capable of. That fog was not just a technical solution to hardware limits; it became the defining mood of an entire branch of psychological horror. Harry Mason controls like a frightened civilian, not a soldier, and the radio static announcing nearby creatures remains one of the most effective sound design decisions ever made. Accessibility is genuinely rough for modern players, but ignoring it entirely would leave a gap in this list that no amount of polish can fill. Genre historians, start here.

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Game data and imagery provided by IGDB.com