Transcript
Speaker: Well, it took me a week to get here but I'm finally at Silent Hill. Ugh. You know what that means? A dramatic monologue. Ahem.
Speaker: In my restless dreams, I see that town. Setsu, what the hell are you doing? Well, hey, Dan. Did you get pulled towards Silent Hill 2? Did you just say... Oh, never mind. You do know where we are, right? Of course I do. Seaside town, video rental shops, the horrors of big business and a small community. Wait a minute. Well, we heard that you were doing the Silent Hill once and thought it would be a good idea to give you a hand. We?
Speaker: Bye, guys. What the? Where did you get a live studio audience? It's all part of the Game & View's contract. Ah. Anyway, are we ready to review some Silent Hill? Alright, but keep it down, Dan. I think the studio audience might have alerted some of the monsters nearby. I'm sure it's fine. Welcome to Silent Hill Mo -
Speaker: Should we go help him? after the intro. Welcome to Silent Hill Month.
Speaker: Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Silent Hill Month. My name is Satsunami, and joining me today is none other than the fantastic Dan P. Hello. And and the other Dan, Dan H. of Gaming Views. I'll do it on cue. Hello. Welcome to both of you. Dan number one and two, how are you doing? Very good. It's been ages since I've been on, so I thought I was banned or something. Column A, column B. Dan H, did you not tell him? No. After our last conversation, I know you said you'd only rather have me back. I didn't want to upset him. How rude. Exactly. Well, he didn't exactly say that. He just said the nicer of the Dan's. So I just assumed Dan. Well, I'm just glad I survived an intro. yeah What was the last intro you were on? Because I remember, was it the Mass Effect one where you got sent out an airlock or something for business? It was Mass Effect, I think it was a Resident Evil, wasn't there? Oh, was it Dead Space? Yeah, and Dead Space, yeah. Yeah, I seem to be on for the horror themes. That is the perfect segue to say, yes, we are indeed talking about Silent Hill, which, first of all, thank you so much for doing this episode because I'm going to be honest, I don't know how many people that I know have actually played this game because I was asking Martin, you... I was like, nah. I asked Andrew, he was like, what's a Silent Hill? And then when you guys said you were playing that, I was like, oh, thank God. They'll do. They'll do. Just grab.
Speaker: But out of curiosity, seeing as this is Silent Hill month, I've got to ask, and I'll start with you, Dan P, because I don't want to get sued. But yeah, what is your experience with Silent Hill? Are you a longtime fan? Have you just gotten into it? Tell me your story, your struggles, as it were. So look, I love the Silent Hill series, but I'm not going to say I'm a massive expert and know the ins and outs a lot. So I did play the original back on the PlayStation. I'd love to actually see that make a comeback, but I think we'd... have to be a remake so i'm not sure how user friendly would be nowadays but yeah played the first played the second on the playstation played three then the rest of skipped and then i've played the remake of two recently played silent hill f and of course townfall so you know look do i know the ins and outs of every entry no but i love the series and what it tries to do for the horror genre i have played a bit of the first one original of the second one as well and then played a little bit of the remake. I played a few hours. It didn't grab me, I must admit. I think I just had that whole, I must have really enjoyed it and then started playing it and went, I really didn't enjoy it. And I've seen the really rubbish movies. So, you know, column A, column B. Rubbish movies, you say? Well, this is going to be a fun episode. No, I'm totally with you because I'm not going to lie, I don't know when it's going to come out, but I was planning on doing one on the films and I was like, Like, this is going to be a rough watch, isn't it? Weirdly enough, the first film, genuinely, the only place I've been able to find it is... Sean Bain's basement? Yeah, well, yeah. It's quite cosy down there, off topic, but he wouldn't invite me back. That's why he's not on the podcast today. But no, the last time I actually saw it was someone had uploaded it onto the site Bilibili, which is the Chinese YouTube website. And it's like, how is it not on actual YouTube? Or why is it not on Amazon? Prime, but the latest film returned to Silent Hill was, of course, an Amazon Prime as of this episode. It sucks. I don't know if you guys have seen that one. No. Well done. My tastes have improved since the original one, I think. I'm just thinking there are content managers around the world have been saying, oh no, someone's searching for the Silent Hill films on our platform. What are we going to do? No one's searched that for years. Yeah, it's just cobwebs. Just a rusty warehouse. Oh no. But see beyond the films and all seriousness. I'm actually trying to remember the first time I came across Silent Hill because you know that way with Resident Evil where it was kind of always there you know it was such a popular staple of gaming at the time in the 90s and early 2000s and I always knew it was there but I was never brave enough to actually play it I think until the remakes to be honest which I'm sure there's a Silent Hill fan out there screaming their head off going Jesus keeps coming in in the remakes and things but am I the only one that's surprised that Silent Hill is still going. And I don't mean that in a disparaging way, but what do you guys think? Yeah, I mean, Silent Hill for me, it's always been at the periphery. It's not been something I've... Because I was just thinking they've had 18 games. Yeah. 18. If you'd have asked me how many they had, I'd say four or five. So the answer to your question is, in fact, no. No, I haven't. I didn't even know it was still going. Until today. Until F. I knew Hilf had come out last year because obviously the GCP boys did a bit on it. And so I knew that had happened. I never played. Dan, I think you did, didn't you, mate? But yeah, Townfall was the first one that grabbed me, I think. I think the problem is, is that they had that brilliant second album, right? So Silent Hill 2 was just phenomenal. And then after that, it kind of felt diminishing returns. So I think 3 was okay. 4, you know, hit and miss. And then you started getting all the other things like Homecoming. There was one on the PSP, I think. I can't remember, Shattered Memories or something. They started becoming less and less and less until you had potentially the biggest disappointment of a generation, right? you had PT come out and could have been the biggest thing. And then the rug pull there with it not coming out. And then that was 12 years ago. And then, yeah, like Dan says, you get F last year, which is okay. But yeah, I think it's, whereas Resident Evils are just churning them out and with some success until we hit five and six, but they turned it around. I think, yeah, it's what could have been with PT, I think, with this franchise. I cannot believe PT was 12 years ago. I genuinely remember that like it was yesterday. And then people, selling their PlayStation 4s on eBay with PT on it. It was like, yeah, pay 600 to 800 pounds for this PT PlayStation. It was just a crazy, crazy time. You want to hold yourself because I read today someone's actually reverse engineered the entire game, 97 % through it. I am picking that bad boy up. I'm going to play through that, I'll tell you. Kachuma's blessing our thing as well, isn't he? Yeah. I mean, that is, it's wild that they haven't re -released it because it was a free demo, wasn't it? Konami will not be lo - anything by having people play it it's just it boggles the mind but they fell out with Kojima I think the saving face for them isn't it it's an honour thing we're not going to do that as you were saying there just about the series it is one of the weirdest track records for a series because if I remember correctly it was Team Silent that worked on the first original four up until The Room not to be confused with the Tommy Wiseau film of the same name which is the film adaptation definitely go check that out Don't mix that up. But then after that, as you were saying there, it was this kind of mix of Western horror, you know, where like in Homecoming, you had this soldier running around with a gun and everything. You had these pipes and hammers and things. And, you know, it went back and forth. And it wasn't until I want to say 2021, I think, when I can't remember who it was exactly. Konami, definitely. But they turned around and they said, we are going to bring back Silent Hill in a massive way. and then they kicked it off with Ascension, which, do you guys remember this? Where it was like a kind of Netflix -esque series. It was really weird because I was looking into it. All I remember was they had a Battle Pass thing for it where it was like you could essentially unlock stickers. So when you were watching it, you could send it while it was playing and it would be things like, it's trauma and a big rainbow over it. And you're like, this is very inappropriate for Silent Hill. It sounds mad. Oh, it's insane. Genuinely, after this, I would recommend looking it up on YouTube because I was watching that and it's like, this is just, I mean, it's awful. Don't get me wrong, but it was just, it was baffling. The acting was terrible, etc. Which is why it's so weird that the year after they decided, hey, we're going to release Silent Hill 2. And you're like, what?
Speaker: we're going to release the remake it's going to be amazing and people were a bit hesitant because it was blooper team who apparently don't have a good track record for horror games but yeah fortunately it was a success and yeah as you were saying then we got f and we've got townfall which is quite interesting i mean we had short message as well did any of you play that was that the kind of prequel it was the free one also being sold for 70 pounds on their limited run yeah Because I thought, oh, support physical media and all that. And then it was like, that'll be £70. I'm like, for a free game? I don't think so. No, thank you. But that is one of the games that I kind of want to draw attention to before we go on to Townfall, because although most of the games are set in Silent Hill, and don't worry, I won't ask either of you to explain what Silent Hill is, because we'll be here all evening. But yeah, it's just a psychological horror game, which usually it's set in the small town of... silent hill much like country roads it's set in west virginia according to the films anyway and as i said it's a psychological horror you try and survive all these different nightmares but then as the series progressed they kind of branched out didn't they and they said yeah let's set it somewhere other than silent hill didn't i think it's psychological in the truest sense of the word because actually the silent hill certainly the ones i've played or seen they always play on a specific theme about you know some sort of damage that's been done psychologically to either the character you're playing or the person so for me it's never been about the location it's been about what sits behind that and i know the fog's a part of it but i assume we'll get to that and why but for me it's always been about the character driven psychology and not necessarily the location it's set in so i think you know it's a fallacy to say well it's not a silent hill game because it's not set in silent hill yeah i was going to say the same because i've got a real beef with this because i've seen a lot of criticism online saying well it's not a silent hill game because it's not set in silent hill and exactly what Dan has said there. For me, Silent Hill is, and yeah, this is a cheery episode, right? Silent Hill is all about repressed guilt, psychological trauma, horrific things happening, that internalisation and manifestation of it. And that's, to me, is what is Silent Hill. And also, we've got, like Dan said, 14 to 18 games, right? It's going to get quite boring if it's set in that same bloody town. Someone should have figured it out by now, right? To me, part of the appeal of, I know we're not talking about F, I did enjoy it, but the main thing I... enjoyed about that was the setting right in japan and townfall i think they did a fantastic job with where it was set as well so i think you're missing the point of silent hill games if you think it's purely about the town i think it was short message that actually made it official by saying that there was this thing they were introducing called the silent hill phenomenon and that was the introduction that oh we're gonna have this idea that as you said silent hill can be anywhere and on the one hand i can get initially why people were a bit like well what's the point but in the other hand I suppose it's a bit like well as you said it would get a bit boring if it was always going to be set in Silent Hill but I think at the same time there has to be some kind of connecting themes to Silent Hill because trust me I will be coming on to that with the Townfall review but I do agree I think it has opened up some really interesting avenues to be able to set it all over the world as you said Silent Hill F it might not necessarily be the traditional type of Silent Hill game you would think of but it's definitely memorable isn't it oh yeah you don't forget it in the heartbeat for sure I mean and the same with this one which we're going to be talking about which I have to say it wasn't really and I hate being negative here but it wasn't really well received before it came out was it do you guys remember the reception to this when it was revealed that oh it's going to be set in a Scottish town and everything and yeah all that I think we shouted it out, didn't we, Dan? I can't say I remember the general reception, but I remember you and I really... I think that might be a part of us being of an age where we're like, we don't really listen to anyone else and what they say about us. You kind of get to a point where you're like, I can form my own opinions and I don't really need to listen to the news. We've been jaded enough by the news. Yeah, jaded. That's a great word, yeah. After that, I was really excited when I saw it was set in Scotland and especially when it said it was set in a town or rather an island that was based on... Monins lovely town by the way I've actually been there twice in my life it is a lovely town nothing there to be honest other than monsters clearly other than that lovely walk because you can go down the Fife coastal walk you go down because my partner and I I think the last year the year before we walked from a town called Ellie all the way through to Anstruther and you can see the inspiration that they took from those towns into this game yeah honestly I was excited but I know as the internet does what it does they weren't very receptive to the characters the ideas they thought it was going to be a rehash of two and so on but you know what same with it any further ado while we just pull out the well i was going to say the ivy drip but that's probably going to be quite painful we'll keep that in just now yeah we will be right back of course after these messages on our portable tv welcome to chad tsunami a scottish variety podcast that discusses topics from gaming and films to anime in general interest join me your host satsunami as well as the rest of our chat tsunami team for our takes on these very important pop culture topics sir it's clearly a trap i accept your That happens three times in the film. Every time that general goes, don't do this one thing, he goes... Do you know what I'ma do? A zigzag. No!
Speaker: He does as well. She had the pointy teeth. What was that about? She looked like Bilbo when he wants the ring back. She turned into... I just want the lightsaber one more time. Parasite says, no, you will get back into your office and work. No, says the man in Zoom. your Trousers are for the working man. You're bursting into your hotel room. Honey, we need to go.
Speaker: Leave the kids. You can milk an oddish. Oh
Speaker: That's the worst thing you've ever said on any of the episodes. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you can check us out at our website, chattsanami .com, as well as all good podcast apps. As always, stay safe, stay awesome, and most importantly... Stay hydrated. Stay classy. This has been Sachin Ami. I'm sorry.
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Speaker: to the
Speaker: but some things to rest
Speaker: said we can put things right this town would listen to me but it's the right thing not just for them from the whole town then you know what you have to do and be careful they're all so hungry
Speaker: And we are back. So which one of you wants to summarise what this game is about? Dan, you summarise stuff a lot better. I'm still trying to figure it out. I think you've already said, right, so the game is set in a remote Scottish island. You wake up in the sea, I think, initially, and you play as a character called Simon O'Dell, who is essentially trying to figure out why he's there and what is happening. He wakes up, he has an IV drip in his arm connected to a bag that's strapped to his shoulder that is seemingly keeping him alive. And as you go through this, you use your CRTV, which you find, this little handheld TV device. which I think is a replacement for the radio signals you get in the original Silent Hill games to track and locate enemies around you. And I think broadly the game, I mean, not how I played it, but broadly it's supposed to be played stealthily. The CRTV also serves the purpose of providing you with clues to locations, which I think is a genius bit, by the way. I absolutely love that. And you meet several other characters throughout your journey, one of which is a local nurse, one of which is the CEO of a corporation. And you're essentially unraveling the mystery of what is surrounding. the town why it's encased in fog and where everyone's gone yeah and i think one key thing is just like sort of silent hill too and i'm not sure about the others that ceo guy you get a message telling you to go back because people need to help or that he needs to go back to help make people understand why that's the calling and that's another kind of theme through some of the early Silent Hill games as well anyway so you know people there's your link the Silent Hill phenomenon it's trauma and the fog and the body horror monsters and there's probably many it's not a Sunshine and Roses game that's for sure yeah I was gonna say that's a harsh way to describe Scotland ones to come on guys
Speaker: I absolutely love Scotland and nothing against Scotland whatsoever. Although I'm not going to that island. Just on like a side note. So my wife, who I've said on our pod a number of times, isn't really a gamer, but sort of has to watch or listen to the games I play. I was saying to her for a couple of weeks, I'm really looking forward to this scary game, this horror game that's coming out. And I started playing it and she's like, it doesn't look very scary to me. And I was like, yeah, it's coming. And it's also, I'll repeat that statement. I said, it's all about repressed guilt, trauma and horrific sort of body heart. And she goes, oh, charming, you know. And that's what Silent Hill is. And like Dan said, I think for me, the way this game starts off with it being in like that isolated or sorry, deserted Scottish town for me, especially as it is like a UK town, hits home even more. I think that's what really appeals to me is that it is a little bit more closer to home. I think that is what makes it so unnerving, to be honest, because I don't know about you guys, but whenever I play a horror game, there's certain elements where you see the tropes like, oh, spooky monster. there's little spooky walls but as soon as you see something that's semi -relatable to you you're like hold on a second why is that movie why do i recognize this and it was like that going through saint amelia's the island you're on and you go through and honestly between the post office the guide dog statue you know the ones that you the donations are for the guide dogs there was that one where i don't think they even make these anymore as you know the ones you put the penny on yeah it spins around yeah you let it go and honestly people listen to this must be like what the hell was that we said this and i said to dan at the time the brilliant thing they did with this game is if you can look a lot of the buildings you can't go into but they've still got detail if you'd see like a lot of the shops will have missing cat or missing dog notes in there and things like that and like adverts for the local community center that kind of thing and it just really helps build up while it's deserted town that it was a proper community driven little village and i think part of this stroke of genius of this game it's really easy See you. for any game whether it's a horror game or any genre to go well i said it in the near future or i said it in the 80s that seems to be the two hard choices you get right it's like if you want it around the 21st century it's either 80s or near future the stroke of genius in this game was to set it in the 90s and it lends this physicality and weight to the world and that's not a pun but you know what i mean that everything has its place and its place is beautiful in the world that it's put you know your example of the houses is one the notes in the window the cars there's a specificity to that world and its exact position in time. And that grabbed me immediately from the first moment I saw that playthrough, I think, Dan, because I wasn't as taken with the trailer as Dan was. Dan was very excited. And I was like, yeah, it looks all right. And then I watched the playthrough and went, it just looks, because it showed an early section where you first track down Zoe's first recording with the donor box in the house. And it was like, you know, as I sat and watched that, I was just like, this is brilliant. the guy goes and gets an electric credit card yeah and i'm like oh my god that is such a 90s thing and they've just played with that world beautifully but like you said even the crtv we all saw those and the phone boxes even the phones in the houses but the thing for me and this isn't specifically a 90s thing now because they're still doing but it's a very much a british thing it's like in all the houses on the little coffee tables they've got those crossword those puzzle magazines yeah and it's just a beautiful little touch that's the thing though and I think it's something you were saying there, Dan, that it's like they didn't have to do this. It could have been very surface level. It could have been very much like, as you said, when you do the 80s, it's like, oh, there's a Rubik's Cube. Oh, there's a video, you know. Oh, right. But it's like when they did things like the video store as well. I mean, I remember global video back in the day. That was wild seeing that. As you said, the phone boxes as well. It's just every single detail. In fact, the one that really got to me and I had to pause the game. This is probably the one that's. psychologically hit me the most was see the red toy car where it's like the red toy car but it's got the yellow roof on it oh the cheek home -mobile yeah because it's like you don't have to go out into that garden because I don't think there's anything there but it's just you've got a worldly gig there and then beside it you've just got the overturned car and I was like this is definitely as you were saying it's definitely someone who understands what the 90s was all about it understands the UK because I was on another friend of ours joey from the game club but i was online with him when he was playing this and you could tell how british this game is when one of the puzzles involves an allotment yeah very british that's what it's home in every time you got taken back to saint amelia's and even the pharmacy and everything and the bit that did creep me out was kinder towards the end before you get into the ceg headquarters and everything it was that community town which definitely reminds me of those cold war -esque towns that are just nothing but concrete and very blocky quite brutalist architecture but it was just vivid to see and think oh my god I've seen places like this which I know sounds so weird to say but as you said it was just it was so British especially from the Scottish perspective I was like there's probably still towns that look like this to this day but every time you got to go through and explore the houses and everything that's where it shone for me personally like I got the yeah the art direction was fantastic the other world or their version of the other world i would probably and this might be controversial but i would say it was less interesting what did you guys think of that yeah agreed that was going to be my overriding comment loved the town the other world felt a bit boring bit simple it was but when i reflect on how it links back to the story and i don't know how much we're going to spoilers on this yeah spoiler warning from here yeah yeah but where it plays back into the story and where that story takes the player you kind of then you know it was like turning around and going oh where there was just normality now there's pipes everywhere bathed in red in the other world when you reflect on it and look back you go right i understand why that thing was like that thing and i think it was very clever in the way that did that i mean i'm saying this like i really really enjoyed this game it's not on my game of the year list i have to admit but there were certain things in there that i think they did incredibly well you know and i applaud them for because yes the other world's sections were equally frustrating and much less interesting than the standard world i agree but it's just kind of going well actually thinking back to it they did some quite clever things i think they could have done a bit more it was only the very last kind of chapter the puzzles you know with the levers etc where i think you're right it very much taps into the core story it's probably a bit nostalgic i think if you look at some of the other games and what they did with the other world it just felt like it could have done a bit more look overall still brilliant game for me and it's, you know, up there in my games of the year so far. But yeah, it's just, it really is a game of two halves, as they say. I think thematically, just touching on something you both said there, the pipes running through the town was very emblematic of the CG Corporation rooting themselves into the community because the whole purpose is that it's this community, they're very isolated, they're off the mainland of Scotland and then this American company, where have we heard that? four comes in and you know says we're gonna enrich this town and we're gonna get all these resources and things is very still wakes the deepest which is a great game but after matt i kept seeing the parallels between the two i thought oh it's hard isn't it because an oil rig is a very niche kind of situation there's not many games set around them but yeah i think the whole thing obviously is very echoes or certainly emblematic of the piper alpha which was you know a horrific disaster off the coast of scotland in i think it was in the 80s i mean it was certainly in my lifetime because i remember it and i think there's a lot of parallels between what happens here and what happened there in terms of the disaster itself and the game clearly is making a point of corporate accountability as you go through and that fascinated me the way that story went and how that did that i thought was very very good it was very clever it's the gameplay i didn't connect with as much but the story and how it told it i thought was absolute pure genius but you're right i think it is absolutely about that corporation getting its roots into the town and digging in and that town almost being unable to survive without the support of that influx of cash and money that the corporation brings because without the corporation basically operating within the town and when the accident actually happens in the game i think it's 96 people yes it hurt which what a coinkydink it takes place in 1996 and that's the number they land on and that is something we'll come back to but this is something that has devastated this community and they are so so much so that tourists aren't coming into the town they're having to use the hotel as basically a triage center for anyone who's a little bit better to treat them over there and everything all the tours are cancelled all the shops are shutting down and when it comes to the other world you know it's like all the pipes that have rooted themselves blocking your way you know it's deciding where you go and something i find interesting is thinking back to silent hill 2 for example where everything is decaying and rusty in the other world and everything. Whereas in this one, it feels as if they're just... poured a bunch of concrete over everything which initially i thought all right okay spooky haha but then you realize how unnatural it feels as you said there's literally a puzzle where you go through an allotment and that's the kind of area where i think according to the game the settlers who first landed and made the land fertile by planting the trees and everything that's where they planted the trees and to have it all just covered and you know this just unnatural concrete and everything it is just quite jarring to see that contrast for a place that should be, you know, green and beautiful. Yeah, and that's what I was going to say. And that's the clever thing. And linking to what Dan said about with the story and the other world, I've seen people also say that this holds your hand too much in the story. And yeah, I actually like it's one of the best explained stories, I think, in the series. But you still need to do a bit of your own looking around, digging around. Because as you said, it's like the village you first rock up in, it's quintessentially British houses, the little pathways, alleyways. But then when you go to the company village, like you said, said it's more apartment based it's more what's the word clinical it's more clinical you've got the more modern shops there as opposed to the little corner shop and the little convenience store that game doesn't throw that out to you kind of there's a tiny little bit where you're looking at a model map at the end but that's for you to kind of pick up that difference and i saw that was jarring like you said you've got this quintessentially little scottish town and then you've got this modern trying to be like a city within a town yeah just on the other world i don't know about you guys because i mean i only really thought about it while I was terrified out of my mind trying to hide from an idiot but when you're in certainly towards the latter section when you're in there in the other world you notice that actually a lot of the things that are covered in concrete are the hospital beds and my mind is then going this is about covering up
Speaker: This is about the corporation trying to bury the fact that people died, that these things happened. And so, you know, that pouring of concrete, it was symbolic of what was happening in the story outside of this. I don't want to say real life, but you know what I mean. It's not real because it's a game. And that, I think, is the perfect place to jump on the characters because I think we all kind of share the same consensus about the gameplay, which, trust me, we'll get onto. But yeah, as I was saying, we've got three characters. So we've got Simon O'Dell, who is... Basically, the inspector who has been brought in to see that everything's hunky -dory from outside. We've got Richard Shaw, who is the CEO of the company that runs CEG. And then we've, of course, got Zoe Ellis, who is a nurse on the island. And what I found interesting, and this is something that I mentioned at the very beginning, was that when the game was coming out, that a lot of people were confused that the main characters were, you know, like American and English. and everything and there wasn't really any main characters that were Scottish and the more I thought about it as I played the game it made complete sense because would you guys say that that ties into the central theme of those three being outsiders to the community and kind of linking into that narrative 100 % yeah coming in and ruining that town yeah because my initial reaction when we saw the trailer was oh great they've Americanised the main character it's in Scotland let's throw a yank in which is common for pretty much any game that's made outside the UK. But you're absolutely right. Then playing it, you're absolutely spot on. This is about outsiders coming into a close -knit community and pulling it apart from the inside. Not intentionally, but pulling it apart from the inside, which is what happens. Because, I mean, with Richard, it does feel, again, the stereotypical evil capitalist, as we are putting in these routes, saying we're going to enrich the community. And it's something that I think he says towards the end, where... he's talking to Simon and he says, this town would be nothing without me. And it's like, well, they seem to get along all right before. And I get what he means in the sense of, oh, he's providing all this energy and things, but then obviously he's doing that by cutting costs and everything, which then leads to the, I think it's the SWDP disaster. Yeah, they tell him a lot, but that doesn't mean he can wipe them out. That's not kind of the scale, you know? Oh, absolutely. But that's exactly it. That's his mindset. Oh, well, I'm giving you three Greggs down the road. You should be grateful. Hold on a minute. That is a very corporate mentality, very top of the tree mentality to go, I've given you a job, you should be grateful, which is madness when you think about it, you go, no, but I earned that. I work for that. You're not giving it me for free. To me, that's the only jarring part of the story. But I guess, look, you can't make this corporation sim and see the business build up over the years. It's just he comes in and he is a proper movie villain, you know, almost caricature of, yeah, money, money, money, and everyone be damned. And it's just about me. And do you know what I mean? I guess you can't get away from that. But that doesn't surface towards the end, right? That's what I mean. It's quite jarring. Yeah, because throughout the story, you're almost sympathizing with it and going, oh, my God, this guy was trying to do the right thing. thing and then she's a clever yeah very clever switch and then you're like oh no he's not he is a bad guy yeah because it's him so you need to make them understand only you can do it it's like right maybe so i'm the bad guy and this guy's making me pay that's what i'm thinking about yeah i'm with you i'm with you yeah and then you get the old switcheroo as you said you're like are we the baddies we might never know that was a fun game but you're completely right it's also quite interesting to see that your character as well isn't completely morally clean because it's something i was mentioning before about 96 victims of that was that simon is the only one that survives that i was watching a video on it today that somebody pointed out was when you go to the other world in this game and there's 96 tally marks on some of the doors and what's interesting is i mean you know how tally marks work where you know you've got one two three four and then it's like the fifth one so they're all grouped together groups of five but the beauty of that is thematically again is that the last one is of course standing on its own so the others are grouped much like the workers they're all local people of that community who have just been torn apart and they're all united under being a part of that community but simon stands alone and you know he has the opportunity to go back and say oh yeah that was messed up the corporation could have done more and of course what does he do nah he comes back and says There was nothing they could do. It was just this terrible engineer that messed everything up. And I think the engineer came out and went, no, no, no, no, hold on a second. It is just quite heartbreaking when you come to that realisation that you're supposed to be coming in to help this community. But then again, it ties into that idea of, you know, the kind of saviour or like a Western, the man with no name coming from a maid to rescue the poor, backward citizens who don't know anything clearly. then of course yeah you find out that if anything they definitely didn't need these guys the only one that i feel as if is relatively absolved is zoe to be honest because how do you feel her story fits in with simon and richards because obviously they're intertwined but do you feel as if she's a core part of that trio as well firstly with simon i guess the thing he has got is i mean we said spoilers right yeah i feel like he had no choice because he's only alive because of richard's intervention right so I think the guilt there and the blackmail there of forcing him into supporting him because he kind of said you're only alive and you've only got that heart because of me but with Zoe for me anyway you're right I look at her and she's the most interesting character one because I don't think they could really give away too much about Simon throughout the game till that last chapter so he don't get too much about him but Zoe you just really feel for her along the way and I think she symbolizes and I think the fact that she She is also English, makes it even more of an outsider. And she's almost like the real innocent victim of this and that whole survivor's guilt. And what's that imposter syndrome that she was suffering? Because one of the best performances for me, and I said to Dan on a walk, is the guy that you call on the phone. You know, her supervisor or the doctor, that supervisor. Dr. Glenn. Yeah, the most sarcastic patronizing. Those phone calls with him. brilliant and we kind of all have felt that at some point am i good enough okay you know can i do this and that to me is what she's surviving i mean who's gonna have prepared them for a mass event like that and yeah i think she to me is the most interesting character out the game because i kind of like feel for her in absolutely everything she's going through and everything she saw yeah she's an interesting character she was the least complex of the characters but at the same time for me in my initial playthrough the most confusing in terms of how she tied into the story so there's a bit at the end of the story significant spoilers where you open the door to a room she's in and the ceo for all intents and purposes blows her away with a shotgun right i mean that's what you're supposed to think has happened and i'm kind of going why any evidence she had against what had happened was slim to none and based on whatever simon had told her i said so circumstantial at best and yet there's this theme with zoe where she seems caught in every step that you move through so even when you're searching some of the houses like you go and find the heart piece you don't find the heart so the box that the transplant would be transported in but it transpires that the heart is the heart from one of her patients who she was caring for so it was actually the heart that was given to simon was from one of her i think it's mr stewart was one of her patients and so that's the heart that came that and was given to him so she's now suffering with all this guilt as dan said she was thrown into a situation that she was incapable of coping with just being a district nurse she wasn't trained for any of this stuff the accident happens you know all of these casualties come flying in she's supposed to deal with them as a lone person on an island with maybe the support of this arsehole doctor which we've all had one of those i'm sure and then so she's got this crushing guilt over but it wasn't until i got through the story that you kind of start putting those pieces together which is i guess is a good thing but playing through it i was really struggling to understand why am i this isn't a god of war lauf i think why am i playing as a nurse in this situation do you know what i mean i was really struggling to Plus, why can't I pick up a plank of wood, right? That was the other thing. I'm a guy and I can hit creatures, but I'm a girl and I can't. She saves lives, Dan. Do you think it was the Hippocratic Oath? There was a thing that was stopping them from taking down flesh bags.
Speaker: I think the crazy thing is, it's not until you get into the hospital where she can actually pick up a thing of wood. And you're like, the NHS has really gone downhill, hasn't it? But that's the thing in my head, though, and this is a story I've built as well, is that because I think she treated Simon. So it's almost like the only person that she helped survive is the one who was also trying to cover it up. And to me, that's almost like damned her even more in her mind. And as well, the scene where you actually get it. to the clinic and everything and you have to actually pretend to be a doctor which i have to say the reason i say that is because i felt more like scrubs because i kept getting the things wrong it's like that doesn't seem like a good heartbeat and then i kept getting that and i was like oh okay but at the same time it's like all of the disparaging comments by the doctor i think she's probably experienced that throughout her career but i actually wondered whether or not that was just amplified in her mind at times that she was not always but she was thinking that this person was saying oh you're stupid and everything what I would say to that is possibly but having been in some medical situations I know that can also definitely 100 % be the attitude that comes from some of the medical stuff like I said I have to say again that performance by you've got to remember it's just a voice on the end of a phone as well you don't see the character you know where you're on the phone and it goes if you're the low can press one if you're doctor press two and then it goes if you're just a nurse press three and it's the way he says it and then It's like something, something. And if you don't understand and you need me to explain it to you again, press three. It's just an incredible because it kind of put you in her shoes. And I was actually thinking, God, you're such an ass. I will turn this game off. Hang the phone up. I think what I loved about it was all of these events have already happened and you're trapped in this loop. So for her, that playback of when you first start playing as her and she goes to Mr. Stewart's house and she can't find him. And when you do eventually find him, he is, and he opens his chest. Then you kind of replay it and you go, well, she's stuck in a loop. When that originally happened, she was overloaded. She was overworked. She didn't get to him in time. He'd already died and she actually found him when he was. dead in real life before the story and therefore it's her guilt of not saving him and yet using his heart to save simon all of these things play into this whole elaborate story of it and the more you piece it together the more it makes sense but it was just at the time for me i was like i just can't understand it and now i reflect on it you're like oh no it does make sense and it's very clever very very clever yeah and that's why i really feel sorry for her because i was waiting for the negligence piece to come around so i was thinking why is she in silent hill yeah or in this instance So did she kill people through negligence? I was waiting for that story beat to come along and it didn't. And that's why I say I kind of really feel sorry for her. She's almost like the victim here in the sense of why she's been dragged into this town. It's just her own guilt and internalised trauma. But that's the point of the game, right? The game is about trauma, self -inflicted or not. And her trauma, self -inflicted and blaming herself is what's trapped her in this loop. And of course, that ends up leading to, depending on your decision, in the game it leads to one of three endings with this trio of characters see before i go on to spoil that what ending did you guys get i got the bad one
Speaker: Yeah, I think anyone who plays through first time is going to get that right. I mean, I definitely was because the weighting of that decision is definitely about not killing things. That was never going to happen with me. I will get that ending every single time. And Satsu, after the video you sent out, don't tell me you got anything other than a bad ending. I mean, who hasn't teabagged a couple of Silent Hill monsters on their tape? It's fair. It's fair. As long as they're not the ones that are twitching on the path, you're probably right. Yeah, that whole sequence when you play as a Richard and you get the shotgun, I played it like Call of Duty. Oh my God, yeah. That's exactly what it felt like, didn't it? Yeah, that was Silent Doom. Do you know what? The only thing, though, I regret about not having taken a bit of time in that is I've since seen it online that those enemies you come across there, they've got photos pinned to them. Yeah. And I'd never spotted that when I played it, which I was really disappointed. point about so I am going to play through this again they're easier to spot if you shoot them when they're on the floor Dan And you're not teabagging them, yeah. Listen to us. We're all going to be in the next Silent Hill game, aren't we? Well, no, I think it's actually you don't regret all that. That's the problem. So you won't be. We'll be in Silent Hill, Dan. These guys are evil. Evil residents, you say? Let's call it biohazard. Before I go on to the endings there, sorry, I've just got to take a side tangent here. But see the designs of the monsters. Although they were relatively limited. Again, going back to that word of the episode, the map. I did love the fact that all of them represented a part of the town, whether it was the ones with the big axe on their heads, which were the more industrial type. workers or you had the ones who were of course probably patients at the hospital who had the IV drips coming out of them
Speaker: them and everything there is one but don't worry i'll save him till the end that guy yeah that guy that guy shakes fist you had the as we're talking about there the widowers who had the pictures attached to them and then you had the ones that crawled across the ground and initially you think oh yeah just spooky silent hill monster but it's not until you look at the story that you realize this is how dehumanized this community has become this is how the ceg view it at least in the other world's sense, that they see them as these, oh, these monsters who are trying to stop us from, you know, doing this and that. And it's like, well, no, these are people, you know, they've got lives and everything. They had hopes, dreams, and you have essentially robbed it due to your own laziness. And let's face it, incompetence by Simon's part, he could have easily stopped it. And I think in one of the endings, he tries to, but that kind of gets into time travel -esque rewriting. It's like, let's not touch time travel. Bravo and Silent Hill, please. I think I looked at it slightly differently. I think Silent Hill for me, the monsters have always been manifestations of your guilt or fear. And so I think it was really relative. Pretty much the only monsters, if you want to call it that, that he encountered were the widows. So his guilt and fear is about the men on the rig. And they would have primarily been men in the 90s, I guess. I'm not trying to be sexist. The widows are manifestations of the women who were left without husbands. That was, you know, his manifestation of guilt. That's why you encountered them as him primarily. And then for Zoe, obviously, it was the patients with the IV more than anything. So for her, it was her guilt and fear of losing a patient to a heart attack or whatever it was that, you know, Mr. Stewart died for. And for Simon, it was a blend of all of the above because he felt the weight of everything that had happened because he had essentially lied. And this is why I think everyone who plays it, you have to finish it because initially, I'm not going to say disappointed, but if you think Silent Hill 2, especially the enemies in that are so memorable and so iconic. But the minute you complete this game, it all makes sense. And you think, yeah, that could only be those enemies. If they then started to throw in anything just for the sake of more body horror or just to put a scary enemy, it wouldn't work. As you said, they all just fit in perfectly with each character. Oh, Richard's mostly him though, weren't they? That was the thing. Not the enemies, but the bodies on the floor. I love a good time loop body. I just love it. The minute I started seeing him, I was like, all right, I like this game now. He's dead everywhere. He has failed so many times. many times this is a whole michael morecock thing where the books i used to read as a kid and you kind of go oh my god this is parallels that are happening throughout the ages or throughout time and you're now seeing yourself dead and you're picking up the ammo i love that bit i was like i'm in for this now took that long because i have to say when i first saw the bodies i was like oh my god it's the weight of my own actions oh ammo yeah where's the shotgun shells and that instantly disappeared i was like come on where's the shotgun shells and when there was a body without any ammo i was like you Second me. just walked away i was like god damn it but apparently see for the different endings and dan you made a very good point earlier that apparently if you have more kills than discoveries and i think discoveries includes the phone numbers the different
Speaker: scenes and things then you get the bad ending where Simon kills Richard both in Silent Hill and in reality when he wakes up from hospital the kind of neutral ending is where I think you get an equal amount of kills versus discoveries which means that Simon appears back at the operating table with Zoe and the good ending apparently is if you get more discoveries and kills which is never going to happen with me Richard ends up killing simon and the hospital which it feels weird to say that that's the good ending but oh it's the justice ending yeah the one you're talking about yeah we want the sci -fi ending though that's the one we want no i want a dog ending the justice ending i think you're right the justice ending is just reflective of the fact that he kills simon in anger because he won't do what he's being asked and then obviously as a result richard then has to account for his crimes because there's no one to cover up and he's just killed someone in cold blood But also the fact that you get the abandoned ending first, I think is natural unless you know about this mechanic going into the game. And I think it's, again, perfectly apt because you as a player are just looking out for yourself, right? And you could argue that's what Simon did in his life, right? He went with good intentions, got in the accident, needed that life -saving operation and then had to do what he was doing to protect himself then. But you're going into it as a player and you're not thinking, all right, I need to save these. You're not thinking that these are potentially the inhabitants of this place. You're just going out and swinging planks like a good 'un, right? I am. You are, yeah. I mean, to be fair, Dan, even if someone told me there was a scoring system behind it, I'd still have done it. And then put a shotgun in my hand. Mistake. Just the doom music playing in the back. Anything that's got the word or amounts to the word evil in it, whether it's Resident Evil or Silent Hill, which is based on evil, I'm going to have a shot. I grew up with Evil Dead. You put a boomstick in my hand, it's just what's going to happen. Grew up with a shotgun. It was a rough neighborhood. Council hasn't violent. I have to admit, in terms of gag endings and everything, I thought the dog ending was... It was actually quite surreal, because did you see this, Dan? I've not seen it yet. I haven't watched it. I've read about it. I haven't watched it. I do want to watch it, though, because it sounds hilarious. So I immediately watched it, and it feels like something out of Gmod. Genuinely, you'll know what I mean, because it's like the facial expressions and everything, and it's so weird, but it's like the guide dog donation box comes up and tells them to talk things out over a beer, and they go to the bar. and I'm not doing it justice it's like you watch it going even for the dog ending in Silent Hill 2 this is weirder but this is why I love these games though because as serious as they are and as serious as they've been made that they put an ending like this in I think it's brilliant speaking of endings before we wrap up there is one thing we have to talk about and I hate to end on a bum note but let's talk about the gameplay because I'm going to be honest I feel as if this is somehow the weakest part of the game because this game was developed by I think some people who worked on Alien Isolation and you can definitely tell that because it's like one of the first Silent Hill games that's first person and everything and what did you guys think in terms of gameplay? I am not a huge I think I've just probably articulated it quite well I'm not a huge stealth fan and then this is one of the reasons I never really played Alien Isolation and not just stealth you know I like Metal Gear Solid I like it when you're not significantly underpowered but you have enough that you can do something about a situation if it happens and i definitely definitely definitely do not like and enjoy the whole nemesis mechanic it drives me insane if i can't fight back no matter how unfair i kind of take a bit of umbrage and this game does that at several points and i have to admit it frustrated the hell out of me had i been playing on anything other than easy yes we do a podcast i play games on easy mode i'm not sure i would have stuck with it genuinely because it annoyed the hell out of me that thing i'm kind of the opposite that i really enjoyed the gameplay i don't really do stealth
Speaker: games but for me Silent Hill seems to be an exception I really loved it look I what's the word pacifism went out the window halfway through the game for me as well let's be honest right but I kind of loved how this game made me feel I said this reminded me of when I played Silent Hill 2 the first time round it really brought me back to that but agree with everything Dan said about that nemesis enemy I hate them usually and this wasn't an exception yeah and that nemesis enemy which of course putting off all this time is indeed called the way which made me audibly groan when the achievement came up and i was like oh yeah of course of course it's called the way that is probably and again i'm not the only one to say this but that was my least favorite part of the game entirely i don't mind there being an enemy that you can stun and everything but i think the ai forum is just completely broken oh god yeah every time you had c in the cupboard even if he was halfway across the map sudden would spawn outside of the room and they wouldn't leave it took ages to leave and I've seen videos of people show them they come out and then the weight comes back and they get into the room I got stuck in a cupboard dude for 20 minutes no game should have me stuck in a cupboard for 20 minutes that's not a fun gameplay no but it's an achievement for being in there for a minute isn't there I think I got it but not only was I in the cupboard and not only was the weight coming into the room the other minor enemies kept trying to walk into the same room so they got stuck in this looping pattern where the weight would try and walk out of the room while the other guy was coming in the room and they just got stuck in this loop and i was like i can't actually get out of it i had to reload the game and i was like this is so broke two things for me about the way one is yeah i think the ai was super enhanced but also the first time you made it because yep it's more than once that area feels like if i remember right it's quite small and it's like a square but it's not massive so like you're both saying the ability to outrun it or to out hide it is really hampered because you're not in two bigger to easily hide from it. And that's the thing that frustrated me. And also I said to Dan a couple of times where I tried to distract with a rock and then clip the edge of the corner I was hiding behind. All I have to say is, Dan, so you said that I forgot to tell you about this while I was playing through. Just so I could be prepared for this podcast, by the way, I did a six hour stint to finish this game. So thank you, Flare Gun, firstly, against the weight, because that was the only way I managed to do it. I didn't even bother hiding from him and I just shot him every time and ran away. But at one point, I shot him with a... flare gun and I'm not lying it went between where his arm and head are literally went through to the other side of the room and he turned around and went oh is that you and just came over and battered me and I'm like how does that happen his hip boxes are even out well I posted this video on TikTok and I can't remember Dan if I sent it to you but there was a moment towards the end where I had to run to the elevator and when I ran I could hear the music sting and everything I was like oh god oh god oh god who's gonna get me and I turned around and he was there but I pressed the button just as he was about to get me but when I pressed the button he was still standing there but he didn't attack me and the lift went up and he was still stuck and his model stretched out and everything and then disappeared underneath the floor and I was like well it's good that the elevator actually works in this game but then when I came back down again he was waiting there and he popped through the floor but he didn't hit me or anything it was so strange I snuck by him and I was like what is this game? it was so just again it was jarring but it's like an olympic runner isn't it it bloody books it down the hall when you're like come on the first time you get caught you're like oh what a terrible scare and then after that you're like come on man come on the worst thing for me was that puzzle the first time you meet it you've got to get a couple of blood bags haven't you two or three yeah i thought i'd done it so i'd get back up and i thought brilliant then i'll get to the puzzle and realize i'd missed one and so i had to go back down and do it again i almost Ripped the controller up at that point. Yeah, I don't blame you. This is going to sound terrible as like a gamer and everything, but I was playing on story mode as well. Same here, same here. Yeah, it was unbearable. Ironically enough, I know, the unbearable weight of the weight. It just, it wasn't a fun experience. So I was just using a guide in the background because I'm like, you know what? Life is too short. I'm not running in circles. Tell me where to go. What did it say for this bit, the weight? Good luck. Basically, yeah. There was a bit where it'd be like, oh, this. guy's at this bit and the weight's over there and I'm standing there and the weight's right in front of me stuck in the lift and I'm like yeah I've messed up here but that's the thing I don't like about this game as well because I don't mind stealth mechanics if they're done really well but the stealth mechanics did feel a bit underbaked in this and especially see those bloody IV monsters where it's like it came out their chest they had a honing beacon on the player because did you guys get that as well where it was like they noticed you halfway across the map yeah they're very alert yeah they were very alert but they were so i don't know how long that iv drip was but i can get halfway across the map i'm like come on i have to be honest i didn't really get hit by one of the iv drips until very late in the game because more often than not when i saw them i put a bullet in them yeah no you'd see them on your crtv and then i'd hunt them and i'd go two shots and they're dead it's fine i'm okay with that i mean i didn't even like the gameplay loop see with the axe head ones where it's like you hit them twice or once and then they would counter you and then you don't even have time to block them it was just a pain in the backside but how did you guys find the boss fight at the end it was okay it wasn't the best boss fight it was a bit like you know when like a marvel movie and they go we have to finish with a big cgi thing it was like that it was like i didn't really feel that story needed look i appreciate that they gave me the opportunity to take my frustrations out on the thing that had been driving me insane oh yeah and then when you see your own eye in his face at the end you You go, oh, oh, oh, okay. But yeah, I mean, it was a bit mid, to be honest, the whole fight. It was just like, I just hit it until it falls over and then pull out the, I assume it was one of the things that you hang the IV bags off, wasn't it? That you just pull out of them. And it was just like, yeah. Could have been a cut scene. Yeah, it could have been. Yeah. Or can I fight the big thing in the sky? That looks more fun. That's what I thought they were building up to. And then I was like, no, you have to fight. Oh, wait. I was like, oh. I'll tell you what that reminded me of. Dan, you might want to block your ears. for five seconds sure that reminded me of Mass Effect that reminded me of the Reapers really oh yeah those long legs coming down and chucking the bodies it reminded me of a Reaper I think they were supposed weren't they supposed to be the drilling arms from the platform I think that's what they were supposed to be wasn't it yeah because it's like you don't see the platform or that creature until the end and it is it's just like this kind of square platform with all the bodies in it and yeah throughout the game when it switches to the other world outside all the bodies bodies dropped from it and everything which i thought was a really cool visual but the other thing i thought of was stranger things and i was like it was very strange yeah the red fun and yeah which i thought please tell me they didn't get inspiration from that but i mean there's always so much you can do with a squid creature because speaking of reapers see if you get the ufo ending they have that outside okay yeah all i'll say is it does look a wee bit like a reaper definitely go google that
Speaker: ah but Dan's going to play it now. You said it's a Mass Effect. Dan's back in there tomorrow. I mean, the only way other thing I want to bring up, of course, is just the Easter eggs, of course, that they've got throughout the game. As we were saying, the 90s aesthetic is on point. But one of the things that I forgot to mention was, you know, the red squares, both on the telephones or rather on the phone boxes. And when you go through the emails as well, you have to use floppy disks as well. Remember those? Oh, yeah. Fun times. I love that. Yeah, I love that. Kids these days don't even know what the save button's modelled after. I could tell Dan on a walk, I got excited when I saw those old floppy disk boxes that you used to store them in. I was thinking, that really brought me back, that did. You know, I have to say, I was like, is there a mechanic where I can just blow on the floppy disk and hope for the best? It's like, no, it's corrupted. It's like, of course it is. Of course it's corrupted. But yeah, sorry, as a summary for your thoughts, is this a game that you would say is a good addition to the site? Silent Hill franchise and B, is it a good game that you would recommend to others this spooky season? I can safely say it's my favourite Silent Hill game. I can definitely say it's my favourite Silent Hill game that I've completed because it's in a category of its own. Would I recommend it? Yes, I think I would. As a solid entry into Silent Hill, I think if you like those games, I think give it a go. It's unique in its own way in terms of the first person perspective and I think it's got a beautiful aesthetic to it and I think it's lovingly put together and crafted around a certain era. i think It does some things really, really well. I think the sound design, actually, which we didn't touch upon, is flipping great as well. I really enjoyed that. It wasn't, how did you put it, Dan? There's a feeling of, a sense of dread. Dread, yeah. Draped across the whole thing. And I think that's a spot on analogy in terms of how it made you feel while you were playing, particularly playing with headphones. Is it scary? Not really. Scary games don't really bother me, but it didn't feel particularly scary either playing throughout. I think there was probably a couple of jump scares. I mean, one, something fell on me from a lamppost that I wasn't. expecting that's the one that my soul left my body at that one yeah yeah but yeah i definitely recommend it to play for me personally it was uh i think we've come up with this phrase and used it a lot recently wolverine it was a good game not a great game but certainly one i wanted to see through till the end and that's high praise for me because i'm not often one who if i'm really into a game i will finish it and i did with this one mainly because you're doing a podcast but thank you for your sacrifice you're welcome for me i really love this game look is it the perfect game no but i think this is just such a solid game as i've said look it reminded me of when i played silent hill 2 for the first time as dan just said there this isn't a scary game so don't go in there expecting it to be like a full -on gory game it's not but it's i think if you allow yourself just i think the first three chapters just to soak up the town and what the devs have put into it that's not obvious in your face storytelling you'll get more out of it yeah i would recommend this and like i said i really enjoy it so there's just two other things i forgot to say i wanted to shout out that stand in my mind i'm sure this probably happened to all of us but when you first realize you can lock a door in one of the shops i was trying to lock the door and one of the enemies kept opening it before i could lock the door so there was just a period of about a minute where i'm shutting the door and this enemy's opening it and it's just his door opening and closing so i don't know if anyone that just stuck in my mind it's just a bizarre comedy sketch but the other thing i really love the puzzle with the discs and the time travel like ah yesterday it was great tomorrow that was great because also not just because it's a clever puzzle but the house you're in changed So you can see it's almost the effect of what that disaster has had on that town. Because I think the yesterday is a normal house. The today, there's stuff in boxes, I think, or it's starting, it's bare. And then the tomorrow, it's all empty, isn't it? And I think that's such a clever little thing to have done. It needed more of those style of puzzles, I think. And I've heard a lot of people complain about how some of the later puzzles were really weird or didn't gel or complex. i didn't
Speaker: find that i think they were you know once you got into kind of maybe it's because i was playing not in sittings like towards the end i played six hours you know what i mean straight and so you get into that mindset where you're like oh i know how you're thinking i get how you're thinking now for me you know the big tower with the pipes for me that was like that just became what's that pipe game that you pipe dreams and pipe dreams yeah it's a pipe dream this is the big version of that i was just running around lapsing the thing going does that one connect to yeah that one connects to that one so that was fine the only weird one slightly no I'll tell you which one annoyed me. You know the one where you've got to flip the levers? That's the only one. I was waiting for you to say that. That one? Do you know what it was? I got it. As soon as I saw the diagram, I was like, right, oh, look, there's levers. Do you know what it was? I didn't follow that there were arrows pointing in the other way. I was like, how is that light still within the right place? And I was like, oh, shit, I've done it the wrong way. I actually said to you, this was before I finished it, this has probably got the least obtuse puzzles in a horror game. A lot of the solutions are right next to where. you have to be and yeah that pipe one is the only one that gave me a bit of grief it took me a while to clock what you had to do but then yeah I did the same thing I'm like hold on I've done it why aren't you doing it do I have to reset the first one so no yeah because there's a bloody little arrow telling you to work the other way arrows everywhere the one arrow I needed The only one before that is, see the one where it's like all the symbols on the console? Yes. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, what happened next? This happened. I'm like, oh, okay, thank you. I feel as if you're just padding this out. Yeah, it was. Just as the weights watching you in the bottom being like, are you winning, champ? It's like, no, no, I'm really not, guys. I'm really not. I do think that, see, in terms of atmosphere and everything, and see especially environmental storytelling, because this is something, again, this is my. last point that i forgot to bring up but see things like when you go to save and everything then you can put in different numbers into the phones and there's some of them they've got the voicemail everything and you can also go to the computers and you can read the emails and things to see what people are saying you can see how the doctors and the fellow nurses and things like that are trying to get zoe back into the practice you can see all the bills that have accumulated that she just doesn't care anymore she wants just leave the island entirely it's just it's done so well and it rewards you for going out your way to explore and pick these kind of things up Again, I could have done without the wait. I feel as if that is the only downside of this game. It's a real detriment. I don't know if I would necessarily say this is the Silent Hill game that you should start off with. I'd probably say Silent Hill 2, maybe, or the remake, as it were. But if you're looking for a less scary way to get into the franchise and you're a fan of first -person horror, then this is definitely the game that has a great atmosphere. It's got a great build -up. The story's not overly complex. complicated but you know to be honest does it really have to well some silent hill fans are sharpening the pitchforks there but i think it's relatively straightforward which i mean you're allowed one silent hill game that doesn't have to be overly complicated don't you yeah and one that explains things in a way that's logical to understand because i think that's been my pain with some of the others getting into them it's like i don't understand why i'm playing this what are you driving me towards because you're being really esoteric about the thing you're trying to tell me whereas this one was a bit like every turn you're almost like i didn't consider it handholdy i played wolverine it was more explanatory as you went through the game which i appreciated and as i said then you get through the game and actually you're like things start connecting the dots start joining up and you're like oh now i get why that was that that made me feel clever after i'd played it whereas most games just made me go am i stupid for not understanding this am i not traumatized have i not suffered enough trauma in my life to be able to understand what's going on i think this is the most accessible one like i said when i I thought about Resi 9 probably be if you've never played them. I think Resi 9 is a great game to get into. Yeah, I agree. I think if you go back right back to the start of this, where we said a lot of the games, they're quite old now. And so I think if you play this and enjoy it, some of the older games might not come across too great. I think it's actually what you said about the remake. Yeah, but I do think this is the most accessible game. And I would potentially say start here because it's a great experience. And then it might tempt you because I think if you play some of the other games out. outsider 2 might not be a great experience nowadays i think they could all do with a remake really standalone as well isn't it it's compartmentalized as a silent hill game this one because i think they're supposed to be releasing the first one soon the remake of the very first game but they're really dragging their feet with that much like simon and the prologue they're just meandering along going yeah yeah we'll get to it and you're like oh yeah fun but honestly to any pandalones listening if you haven't checked out townfall it does have its minor issues but But to be honest, it's worth checking out, as you guys said as well. I don't want to speak on your behalf, but I'm sure you agree that definitely go check it out. But on that note, to both of you, thank you so much for coming on, talking to me about Timefall and, yes, suffering through the weight of your gaming. You're most welcome. Cheers for having us, yeah. Yeah, thank you. Where can the amazing Pandalorians at home find your content over in Gaming Views? Daniel, please. Oh my God, I deserve it. find us on gaming views on the all good podcasts you can find us on youtube at gaming views pod you can find us on the web at gaming views pod .com and whilst you're there you can browse our store which has lots of lovely merch and you can also find our app which will let you track upcoming games what he said And yeah, if you want to catch more episodes of Silent Hill Month, as well as other episodes that the two Dans and I have done in the past, then of course you can check us out on our website, chattsanami .com, as well as all good podcast subs. I also want to thank our amazing Pandalorian patrons, Robotic Battle Toaster, Ghostay and Cryptic1991. Thank you so, so much for supporting the show. And if you would like early access to episodes, exclusive bonus content, as well as Dans... sex over.
Speaker: stream of flaying through this game for legal reasons that last one's a joke then you can check us out at our patreon page at patreon .com forward slash chat tsunami but until next time thank you all so much for listening to this episode of silent hill month as always stay safe stay awesome and most importantly stay hydrated but not town fall hydrated get out the water
