Every Game in the Silent Hill Series

Originally released in 1999 as an attempt from Konami to cash in on growing trends among Western gamers, Silent Hill has since become one of the leading survival horror franchises, sitting right alongside forebears like Resident Evil as one of the most well-known and respected IPs in the genre. With tomorrow’s release of Silent Hill f (or yesterday’s, if you happen to have picked up the Deluxe Edition), we felt it prudent to go back and commit to a series retrospective that looked at each and every game in the Silent Hill series to launch on consoles (sorry, no mobile-only titles). Plus, with the Silent Hill franchise in the best place it’s been since its early years, thanks to the excellent Silent Hill 2 remake and the well-received Silent Hill f, there’s never been a better time to look back on the series’ history.

• Release Date — February 23, 1999
• Developer — Team Silent
• Publisher — Konami
• Review Aggregate Score — 86% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — PlayStation

The story of the original Silent Hill is an interesting one, an example of what happens when the right creators with the right idea capture lightning in a bottle. An internal team at Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo conceived the idea of creating a game that would appeal to Western players by emulating the Resident Evil franchise. By 1998, Capcom’s survival horror franchise had already cemented its popularity on the PS1 with the release of Resident Evil 2. That team would eventually be renamed as “Team Silent”, with their debut game being Silent Hill. However, rather than wholeheartedly leaning into their intention to create a Resident Evil competitor by copying its ideas, Silent Hill stood out as something different altogether.

The first game in the series establishes several important tropes and horror themes that carry throughout the rest of the franchise, with the most important being the dark and complex history of the titular town, Silent Hill. In terms of its gameplay, Silent Hill is pretty much what you’d expect from an early survival horror title — resources are limited, players have to backtrack around a large map to search for clues, find items, and solve puzzles, and the game places a premium on ratcheting up tension with regular encounters against horrific enemies. But what set Silent Hill apart then, and still does to this day, is the game’s emphasis on creating an impeccable horror atmosphere through sound design, esoteric references, and an ever-present sense of psychological dread.

• Release Date — September 25, 2001
• Developer — Team Silent
• Publisher — Konami
• Review Aggregate Score — 89% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox

Silent Hill‘s release late in the PS1’s lifespan, combined with its near-instantaneous success, paved the way for Team Silent to get the chance to make a sequel that would get to make the most of Sony’s next-generation hardware. In the fall of 2001, Silent Hill 2 arrived on the PS2, and with it came one of the greatest experiences in the survival horror genre at the time or since. Silent Hill 2 changes up just enough to stand out from the original game, but it’s still ultimately a Silent Hill experience through and through, especially as it relates to its foreboding atmosphere and ever-present sense of dread.

New protagonist James Sunderland is one of the most iconic “heroes” in the entire Silent Hill franchise. A flawed individual with a dark secret slowly eating him away from the inside, James comes to Silent Hill in search of answers after receiving a mysterious letter from his late wife, and the mystery he unravels in the process reveals more dark secrets about both James’ past and the history of the town of Silent Hill. Story-wise, Silent Hill 2 might be the best game in the entire franchise, and its gameplay is a distinct improvement over the original game, with better puzzles, more engaging and mechanically satisfying combat, and some impressive visuals for its time.

• Release Date — August 5, 2003
• Developer — Team Silent
• Publisher — Konami
• Review Aggregate Score — 85% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 2

The survival horror genre found itself in a bit of an interesting place by the early 2000s, especially with fans eagerly anticipating the oft-delayed Resident Evil 4. In the absence of a new mainline title from its friendly competitor, Silent Hill was able to make great strides by daring to release its most ambitious and forward-thinking title yet, resulting in Silent Hill 3 being both an experimental new chapter for the franchise and, for some fans, the best and most underrated game in the series. Most importantly, though, Silent Hill 3 gives players some of the answers they’d been looking for since the conclusion of the original.

In Silent Hill 3, players get to step into the shoes of Heather Mason in a story that takes place 17 years after the events of the first game in the series. Heather mysteriously wakes up in the town of Silent Hill and quickly realizes that she’ll have to jump through the typical hoops to escape, including lots of combat, puzzle-solving, and resource collecting. Along the way, she’ll confront her true past and her place as a sacrificial figure for Silent Hill’s strange esoteric cult, which leads to some of the more bizarre and terrifying story segments in the entire franchise.

• Release Date — September 7, 2004
• Developer — Team Silent
• Publisher — Konami
• Review Aggregate Score — 76% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox

Despite being the first game in the Silent Hill franchise to release as a multi-platform title, Silent Hill 4 largely failed to connect with audiences in the same way the previous three entries had. Still, Silent Hill 4: The Room is an interesting deviation from the series formula that ditches many of the prior established conventions. For starters, Silent Hill 4 is one of the only games in the series to not take place in the titular town, though there are connections to Silent Hill that are eventually established. The game also utilizes elements from other popular survival horror titles of the time, such as a new investigation mechanic and the sanity-depleting “hauntings,” to broaden the series’ horizons.

Keeping the entirety of Silent Hill 4 set within a single apartment building allowed for the game’s designers to get creative with the themes and messages of each room or area that protagonist Henry finds himself in, and the mid-game switch of the titular Room being a place of healing and respite to the source of the deadly “hauntings” is a nice touch that forces players to switch up their strategy. And, in keeping with series tradition, Silent Hill 4: The Room features 4 different endings for players to unlock, with only one of them coming close to what you would consider a “happy” or “good” ending.

• Release Date — November 6, 2007
• Developer — Climax Studios
• Publisher — Konami
• Review Aggregate Score — 78% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — PSP, PlayStation 2

The release of Silent Hill: Origins would mark an important turning point for the franchise. Not only was the title the first entry in what would be a long string of handheld-focused titles, it was also the first game in the franchise to be worked on by a studio other than Team Silent; something that would soon become the norm for the series. Origins was also an important title in the franchise for bringing players back to the town of Silent Hill after The Room‘s deviations from tradition, and its place as a prequel set years before the events of the original game gives players some noteworthy insight into the dark and violent history of the area.

In Silent Hill: Origins, players take on the role of troubled truck driver Travis Grady, who, after rescuing a girl from a burning building, finds himself stuck in the fog-ridden streets of Silent Hill. He’ll cross paths with several familiar faces from the first game in the series, all while having to combat otherworldly threats and needing to survive regular trips to the “Other World” where the town’s evil is laid bare. In terms of the series’ overarching lore, Silent Hill: Origins ends up being a hugely important game, giving us some insight into how the darkness that’s manifested itself in the town came to be.

• Release Date — September 30, 2008
• Developer — Double Helix Games
• Publisher — Konami
• Review Aggregate Score — 71% (Mixed or Average)
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Around the same time that Climax Studios was working on Silent Hill: Origins, development began on a new entry in the series for home consoles. Released in the fall of 2008, Silent Hill: Homecoming is the first and only game in the series from Double Helix Games and also the first game in the series to release on Valve’s Steam service. Despite some interesting additions to the series’ lore, both critics and fans were ultimately mixed on Silent Hill: Homecoming, with the game’s emphasis on combat (owing to the protagonist’s place as a former special forces soldier) feeling out of place for the franchise, and the other elements not quite meeting the highs of the series’ past.

• Release Date — December 8, 2009
• Developer — Climax Studios
• Publisher — Konami
• Review Aggregate Score — 79% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — PSP, PlayStation 2, Wii

By this point in the franchise’s history, the Silent Hill series had taken a noticeable downturn from the glory days of its early years, which Silent Hill: Shattered Memories went to great lengths to try and course-correct. The first entry in the franchise for the Nintendo Wii, Shattered Memories is a lot more than just an attempt to shoehorn motion controls into a Silent Hill game. Technically, Shattered Memories is a reimagining of the first game in the franchise, and it does a commendable job of honoring the source material of the original Silent Hill while also putting a clever spin on it through the use of an alternate universe that gives the freedom to introduce new characters and change certain plot points.

For the most part, Climax Studios delivered on the “Silent Hill 1.5″ premise that Shattered Memories was aiming for, with both the combat and puzzle-solving elements noticeably improved from what was on offer in Silent Hill: Origins, and the game’s story once again helping to flesh out the franchise’s lore. The biggest knock against Shattered Memories is that it’s honestly a bit too short, which says a lot about the general quality of the product when fans are left simply wanting more.

• Release Date — March 13, 2012
• Developer — Vatra Games
• Publisher — Konami
• Review Aggregate Score — 68% (Mixed or Average)
• Platforms — PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

After a more action-heavy series entry with Homecoming and the reimagining of the first game in the series with Shattered Memories, the Silent Hill series was ready for a return to form of sorts, and that’s precisely what Vatra Games intended to deliver with Downpour. The events of Downpour bring players back to the town of Silent Hill proper in the shoes of escaped prisoner Murphy Pendelton, who seeks shelter in the iconic Silent Hill prison and quickly finds himself shifting between reality and the “Other World.” And with players back in the role of just an “everyman” style of protagonist, Downpour feels much more like a classic survival horror experience than some of the action-heavy Silent Hill games preceding it.

At the time of its launch, Downpour was held back by technical issues and a general lack of polish, despite both players and critics lauding its return to the slow-burn psychological horror that the Silent Hill series is known for. It would end up being the last new mainline game in the series before an attempt at a complete reboot.

• Release Date — March 20, 2012
• Developer — Hijinx Studios
• Publisher — Konami Digital Entertainment
• Review Aggregate Score — 70% (Mixed or Average)
• Platforms — PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Concurrent with the release of a new mainline game and a handheld-only spin-off, Konami put together an HD collection of the first three games in the series, dubbed the Silent Hill HD Collection. While it was great to have Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, and Silent Hill 3 free from their previous console exclusivity and available on then-modern hardware, the ports themselves leave a lot to be desired. Technical issues related to trying to upscale these games to HD resulted in the collection being a mixed bag, and the choice to re-record voice lines and brighten up the visuals of each game ultimately contributed to their atmospheres being less effective.

• Release Date — October 16, 2012
• Developer — WayForward Technologies
• Publisher — Konami
• Review Aggregate Score — 58% (Mixed or Average)
• Platforms — PS Vita

By 2012, the Silent Hill series had mostly stuck to the survival horror style of the first game in each of its mainline entries, while leaving the more experimental genre spin-offs in the world of mobile gaming. That changed with 2012’s Silent Hill: Book of Memories, which released on the PlayStation Vita as a new type of game for the franchise. Developed by acclaimed studio WayForward, Book of Memories is an isometric dungeon-crawler set in the Silent Hill universe that features Diablo-style ARPG combat and attempts to tell a new story set within the confines of the franchise’s lore. It’s not without merit, but Book of Memories‘ fun ultimately wears thin fast, and its contributions to the series are threadbare at best.

• Release Date — August 12, 2014
• Developer — Kojima Productions
• Publisher — Konami Digital Entertainment
• Review Aggregate Score — N/A
• Platforms — PlayStation 4

After years of silence (pun intended) from the Silent Hill franchise, PS4 owners were summarily shocked to find P.T. available for download in the summer of 2014. A “Playable Teaser” for the rumored collaboration between Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro on a new mainline entry in the Silent Hill series, P.T. almost immediately held the gaming world in its sway with its absolutely terrifying reimagining of the franchise. Kojima’s first-person pivot for the series presented some of the most frightening moments of any Silent Hill game, and that was just within roughly 15 minutes of gameplay, setting expectations high for the full game. Unfortunately, we’d never get to see that promise come to fruition.

Despite the great statement of purpose that the P.T. demo presented for the future of the Silent Hill franchise, the full game (Silent Hills) was ultimately canceled, a victim of the growing divide and eventual divorce between Konami and Hideo Kojima. It’s hard not to wonder what might have been, because with a demo as good as P.T. is, you can only imagine how groundbreaking Silent Hills would have shaped up to be. Especially when you consider the Resident Evil franchise was able to reinvent itself in first-person just a few years later.

• Release Date — January 31, 2024
• Developer — Konami Digital Entertainment
• Publisher — Konami Digital Entertainment
• Review Aggregate Score — 53% (Mixed or Average)
• Platforms — PlayStation 5

After a decade of no new entries in the Silent Hill franchise, the series made its return in the early weeks of 2024 to get its name back on players’ minds ahead of the much-hyped remake of Silent Hill 2. As part of that marketing strategy, Konami released a short standalone experience called Silent Hill: The Short Message, and it honestly had the opposite effect. Rather than get players even more excited for Bloober Team’s remake of one of the series’ best games, Silent Hill: The Short Message was a reminder of Konami’s mishandling of the franchise over the past decade, with uninspired gameplay and story elements that raised concerns over the quality of the Silent Hill 2 remake. Thankfully, the gulf between The Short Message and Silent Hill 2 couldn’t have been wider.

• Release Date — October 8, 2024
• Developer — Bloober Team
• Publisher — Konami Digital Entertainment
• Review Aggregate Score — 86% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 5

Two years after its initial reveal in the fall of 2022, Bloober Team’s remake of Silent Hill 2 arrived on October 8, 2024, immediately cementing itself as one of the best survival horror remakes. Similar to Capcom’s approach to remaking the classic Resident Evil games, Silent Hill 2 keeps the main story largely intact but updates the visuals and gameplay to be more in line with modern standards, which, in the case of Silent Hill 2, meant a complete overhaul of the combat mechanics. The result is that Silent Hill 2 is still the same great game that players remember, but its encounter design is far more engaging and satisfying, to the point where you’ll be actively seeking out fights with monsters rather than purposefully avoiding them.

That’s not to say that Silent Hill 2 is perfect or better than the original, because it does have some issues when it comes to its pacing and its need to pad out the experience. Truthfully, Silent Hill 2 could have benefitted from some surgical trimming to make the experience feel tighter and more cohesive, but it’s still such a great remake of a beloved classic that it set the stage for what feels like a bright future ahead for the Silent Hill franchise.

• Release Date — September 25, 2025
• Developer — NeoBards Entertainment
• Publisher — Konami Digital Entertainment
• Review Aggregate Score — 85% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Following the success and critical acclaim of Silent Hill 2‘s remake, all eyes were on the next mainline entry in the Silent Hill franchise, Silent Hill f. Thankfully, it seems like NeoBards Entertainment has not only delivered but helped usher in what feels like a new golden era for the Silent Hill series with one of the best mainline games outside the numbered entries. Silent Hill f takes some daring risks when it comes to series tradition, including featuring a new setting and a stronger emphasis on combat, but they’re risks that land when it comes to how the experience feels like the logical step forward for the franchise.