Silent Hill

Plot synopsis:
All the plots of the installments in the Silent Hill series, except Shattered Memories, share a common setting: the foggy rural American town of Silent Hill, which is a fictitious location set in the northeastern United States: some games specifically reference the town as being located in Maine, whereas in the film, the town is set in West Virginia. The town in the film series was inspired by Centralia, Pennsylvania. The series' player characters experience an occasional dark alteration of reality called the "Otherworld". In that reality, physical law often does not apply, with varying forms but most frequently ones whose physical appearance is based on that of Silent Hill, and the series' characters experience delusions and encounter tangible symbols of elements from their unconscious minds, mental states, and innermost thoughts when present in it, manifested into the real world. The origin of these manifestations is a malevolent power native to Silent Hill, which materializes human thoughts; this force was formerly non-evil, but was corrupted by the occurrence of certain events in the area. Recurring monsters include the Nurses who are included in almost every Silent Hill game; Pyramid Head, another recurring monster who became the series mascot; and Robbie the Rabbit, an amusement park mascot. A dog named Mira is also included in many joke endings. Another recurring plot trait in the Silent Hill series is a fictitious religious cult known only as The Order. The organization has certain members who act as antagonists in most of the series' installments (such as Dahila in the first and prequel, Claudia in 3, Walter in The Room, and Judge Holloway in Homecoming), and operates the "Wish House" (also called "Hope House"), an orphanage for poor and homeless children built by a charity organization called the "Silent Hill Smile Support Society". The religion followed by the Order is focused on the worship of a chief deity, who is named Samael but was always called "God". The group's dogma is derived from a myth: the deity set out to create paradise, but ran out of power during the process; she will someday be resurrected, thus becoming able to finally create paradise and save mankind. The town's cult repeatedly participates in illegal acts: ritual human sacrifices whose purpose is the deity's resurrection, illegal drug trade, and kidnapping and confinement of children in a facility to teach them its dogma through brainwashing, while presenting the facility as an orphanage. Also repeatedly featured are various religious items with magical properties, appearing widely in the games of the series.
Three thematic elements consistently drive the narratives of Silent Hill games: the theme of a main protagonist who is depicted as an "everyman" (with the exception of Homecoming, where the protagonist is thought to be a soldier and the game's mechanics operate as such), and the everyman's quest, either a search for a missing loved one  or a situation where the protagonist wanders into the town apparently by accident but is in fact being "summoned" by a spiritual force in the town. Multiple endings are a staple of the series, with all installments featuring some, the realization of which often depends on in-game actions performed by the player. In all but two of the series' games, one of these endings is a joke ending in which the main protagonist comes in contact with unidentified flying objects: there is no joke ending in Silent Hill 4: The Room, and the only joke ending in Downpour is a surprise party for the player featuring characters from previous instalments of the franchise.
The installments in the Silent Hill series contain various symbolisms. The symbols are images, sounds, objects, creatures, or situations, and represent concepts and facts, as well as feelings, emotions, and mental states of the characters.
=== Gameplay ===
The installments in the Silent Hill series utilize a third-person view, with occasional fixed camera angles. While visibility is low due to the alternating fog and darkness, all of the series' player characters, except Henry Townshend of Silent Hill 4: The Room, are equipped with a flashlight and a portable device which warns the player of nearby monsters by emitting static (a transistor radio in Origins and the first three titles, a walkie-talkie in Homecoming and Downpour, and a mobile phone in Shattered Memories). The player characters of every Silent Hill game have access to a variety of melee weapons and firearms, with Origins and Downpour also featuring rudimentary hand-to-hand combat. Shattered Memories is the sole exception: it is designed without combat and based around evasion of the creatures. Another key feature of the series' gameplay is puzzle-solving, which often results in the acquisition of an item essential to advance in the games.

Tags: good versus evil, violence, suspenseful, gothic

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