I bought SH1 in college, when I was living in an apartment block next to a volunteer fire department. This volunteer fire department had a siren that they blew whenever they wanted the team to assemble. So I got through the alleyway at the beginning of the game, heard siren in-game, said “hey that’s spooky” and saved at the diner.
And then the god damned volunteer fire department siren woke me up that very night. My adrenaline was redlined, I couldn’t fall back asleep, and had to have all the lights on in the apartment until morning. I put the game away and said I’d finish it once I wasn’t living next to that goddamn VFD any more.
Dug it out a few months after I was in my new place and beat it. I’d assumed it was just some weird Resident Evil clone with better monsters, but I was actually queasy at the end of the game. That’s actually my favorite part of SH1. You think you know what’s going on with White Claudia and all the zombies in town and the twist is it’s a cult instead of the Umbrella corporation. Then it takes a hard left. Silent Hill 2 launched shortly afterward and I bought it immediately. I NEEDED more Silent Hill in my life.
This time, I thought I knew what I was getting into. When I got to the hospital I realized that my radiant heat system made the same awful popping/dragging noises as the nurses in the hospital. This woke me up and freaked me out, just like the VFD siren, but I powered through it anyway. I had to know how the story ended. I needed to know literally anything new about the town. It was getting towards winter and the radiator woke me up most nights. One night I heard the radiator, woke up in a panic, sat up in bed, and the floor opened up under me. I was sliding down this chain-link panel directly into a bloody, yawning abyss. Everything was bathed in red light. I flipped out, crawled all the way up to the head of the bed and flipped the light switch on, which woke me up for real. I’d freaked out so bad that I’d moved the mattress halfway off the bedframe and then slid down it onto the floor.
Still beat it, but I decided to take a break from horror games after that.
I bought SH1 in college, when I was living in an apartment block next to a volunteer fire department. This volunteer fire department had a siren that they blew whenever they wanted the team to assemble. So I got through the alleyway at the beginning of the game, heard siren in-game, said “hey that’s spooky” and saved at the diner.
And then the god damned volunteer fire department siren woke me up that very night. My adrenaline was redlined, I couldn’t fall back asleep, and had to have all the lights on in the apartment until morning. I put the game away and said I’d finish it once I wasn’t living next to that goddamn VFD any more.
Dug it out a few months after I was in my new place and beat it. I’d assumed it was just some weird Resident Evil clone with better monsters, but I was actually queasy at the end of the game. That’s actually my favorite part of SH1. You think you know what’s going on with White Claudia and all the zombies in town and the twist is it’s a cult instead of the Umbrella corporation. Then it takes a hard left. Silent Hill 2 launched shortly afterward and I bought it immediately. I NEEDED more Silent Hill in my life.
This time, I thought I knew what I was getting into. When I got to the hospital I realized that my radiant heat system made the same awful popping/dragging noises as the nurses in the hospital. This woke me up and freaked me out, just like the VFD siren, but I powered through it anyway. I had to know how the story ended. I needed to know literally anything new about the town. It was getting towards winter and the radiator woke me up most nights. One night I heard the radiator, woke up in a panic, sat up in bed, and the floor opened up under me. I was sliding down this chain-link panel directly into a bloody, yawning abyss. Everything was bathed in red light. I flipped out, crawled all the way up to the head of the bed and flipped the light switch on, which woke me up for real. I’d freaked out so bad that I’d moved the mattress halfway off the bedframe and then slid down it onto the floor.
Still beat it, but I decided to take a break from horror games after that.