sega fan
06-08-2009, 12:17 AM
Have you ever played a game, "Survival Horror" or otherwise, that just stayed in your mind. To this day, it still terrifies you to play it. For me, It'd have to be the original Silent Hill. Back in 1999, around October to December, my family went to Blockbuster to rent movies or a game. I don't remember too many details at the Blockbuster, being I was only the tender age of 5, but I remember my sister heading straight to the Playstation department and looking for a specific game. She was a big fan of horror when she was a teenager and she heard about Silent Hill at school. So, walking with her through the aisle, we found Silent Hill. My sister lifted the game's retail case and picked up one of the rental cases behind it and then went to the check-out line. I do indeed remember seeing the game's cover alone in the aisle after my sister left, I remember being intimidated by the negative shot imagery of Harry Mason and the red sketchy lettering on the cover. To this day, when I see the cover of Silent Hill, I psychologically go back to being that little boy wondering what this scary case had to mean (about the game that it encased).
Then I remember being home, my sister took the Playstation from the living room and hooked it up to her old Phillips Magnavox (which we still have to this day, it never broke). Then I remember me laying on her bed, and my sister and her friend were sitting on her floor and all I remember after that was just seeing the first 30 minutes of Silent Hill play out.
It started out innocent enough, man looking for his daughter. "Just some adventure game, it has to be." my sister assumed aloud. Then it got steadily more and more screwy from there. We were greeted to the scene where Harry catches a glimpse of his daughter in thick fog and sprints after her. He takes a left through an open gate. This gate leads to a sleek alleyway that has a large splatter of blood at the entrance. After a few twisting and turning hallways, the famous Silent Hill siren (that is going to haunt me until the day I die) sounds and I see the text crawl by at the bottom of the screen. I couldn't read it at the time, but it states "That's Strange, It's getting darker.", Harry soon after lights a match, "...... Better then nothing, I guess." I was already getting a tad scared but I kept my mouth shut. My sister precedes farther to find a bloody medical stretcher and a rusty creeking wheelchair resting in a pool of blood. Atmospheric music set in and got gradually more stressful, the use of blood got more frequent on the walls and then.... an image that WILL haunt my subconscious until I die. There was a skinned to the bone, crucified man, with all the entrails spread all over the grime encrusted floor, then Harry got attacked by skinned alive but still alive, Knive wielding undead children. Harry then wakes up in a Cafe' and is alright.
Everyone in the room sighed in relief. To this day, as a 15 year old boy, I cannot play the first Silent Hill (or probably any Silent Hill for that matter). It's on my mind recently because my girlfriend and I are talking about it more and more. We want to play through it together. Also, It'll be ten years this winter that Silent Hill traumatized me. I'm even afraid of foggy days and I have to wake up early for school, that game put one hell of a dent in my life. Now, I want to ask anybody reading, has any video game ever done this to you?
Then I remember being home, my sister took the Playstation from the living room and hooked it up to her old Phillips Magnavox (which we still have to this day, it never broke). Then I remember me laying on her bed, and my sister and her friend were sitting on her floor and all I remember after that was just seeing the first 30 minutes of Silent Hill play out.
It started out innocent enough, man looking for his daughter. "Just some adventure game, it has to be." my sister assumed aloud. Then it got steadily more and more screwy from there. We were greeted to the scene where Harry catches a glimpse of his daughter in thick fog and sprints after her. He takes a left through an open gate. This gate leads to a sleek alleyway that has a large splatter of blood at the entrance. After a few twisting and turning hallways, the famous Silent Hill siren (that is going to haunt me until the day I die) sounds and I see the text crawl by at the bottom of the screen. I couldn't read it at the time, but it states "That's Strange, It's getting darker.", Harry soon after lights a match, "...... Better then nothing, I guess." I was already getting a tad scared but I kept my mouth shut. My sister precedes farther to find a bloody medical stretcher and a rusty creeking wheelchair resting in a pool of blood. Atmospheric music set in and got gradually more stressful, the use of blood got more frequent on the walls and then.... an image that WILL haunt my subconscious until I die. There was a skinned to the bone, crucified man, with all the entrails spread all over the grime encrusted floor, then Harry got attacked by skinned alive but still alive, Knive wielding undead children. Harry then wakes up in a Cafe' and is alright.
Everyone in the room sighed in relief. To this day, as a 15 year old boy, I cannot play the first Silent Hill (or probably any Silent Hill for that matter). It's on my mind recently because my girlfriend and I are talking about it more and more. We want to play through it together. Also, It'll be ten years this winter that Silent Hill traumatized me. I'm even afraid of foggy days and I have to wake up early for school, that game put one hell of a dent in my life. Now, I want to ask anybody reading, has any video game ever done this to you?