Genuinely terrifying horror games are few and far between, butSilent Hillwas one of the first franchises to keep people awake with its psychological terror stemming from the gripping narratives andinnovative monster design present in each entry. The early entries are timeless classics still being discovered by legions of new gamers.
The series made its return in 2023 and 2024, which came after a long hiatus following Konami’scancelation of the promisingSilent Hills, a collaboration between famed horror director Guillermo del Toro andMetal Gearcreator Hideo Kojima. Let’s take the opportunity to look back on the series byranking all gamesfrom the worst game in the series to thebestSilent Hillgame.
Updated on June 17, 2025, by Mark Samut:Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake is finally available, and just in the nick of time for Halloween. As the initial trailer garnered a lot of criticism, the project was written off by a lot of people. However, the tide gradually changed as Bloober showed off more and more content, resulting in a promising debut. However, is it the best Silent Hill game?
Play Novel: Silent Hillhas not been included due to being a Japanese exclusive.
Also known asSilent Hill Mobile, theOrphangames represent Konami’s franchise at its most obscure, and they can be rather hard to track down in this day and age (they cannot be legally purchased, at the very least). Playing like a point-and-click adventure rather than a conventionalSilent Hillgame,Orphandoes a surprisingly good job of capturing the main entries' atmosphere and intensity, all the while some pretty great puzzles for the platform.
At this point, Konami will probably never revive this trilogy, dooming the games to be nothing more than footnotes released during a time whenSilent Hillwas beginning to struggle. However, they are perfectly enjoyable for what they are trying to be, and a remastered trilogy could do well on modern phones or even PC.
Due toOrphan’s inaccessibility, the trilogy has not been officially ranked, especially since the above points are primarily based on hazy memories from more than a decade ago.
15Silent Hill: Ascension
A Different Type Of Experience
Being the first of several returningSilent Hillprojects, it is easy to say that this proposed renaissance did not come out of the gate swinging.Silent Hill: Ascensionis a streaming event whereviewers' votes influence the way the plot unfolds. Overall reception has been negative, with many wondering why the series even takes place within theSilent Hillcontinuity.
It is a novel idea, but the frequency of episodes makes it hard to believe that choices really matter that much. If anything, the decisions will not come to fruition until later on down the line. Ultimately, it is one more lackluster piece ofSilent Hillmedia to add to the pile.
In the spirit ofP.T.,Silent Hill: The Short Messagewas announced at a Sony State Of Play and quickly released at the same time. As the name implies,The Short Messageis aquick horror experiencethat mostly revolves around a growing narrative and a few quick puzzles.
Players will not find intense combat encounters or labyrinthine maps like in the older games. Its story tries to go back to the roots of the series as it explores similar themes of psychological trauma and guilt that older games likeSilent Hill 2tackled. It is difficult to complain about a free game, but it is also impossible not to compare it toP.T.,a standard that, by all accounts, it fails to live up to.
IfBook of Memorieshadn’t beenSilent Hill, it might not have been as big of a success.A dungeon crawler for the PS Vitawasn’t what people wanted from the survival horror series. While most appreciated the nods to the franchise’s history, many felt the gameplay lacking when compared to its contemporaries in the genre.
It is also by far the longestSilent Hillgame, so anybody prepared to leap better strap in for a lengthy experience. In terms of popular franchises spanning more than two decades, one could do a lot worse than the weakest game in the series, even though it shares very little in common with the mainline entries. Fortunately, it is all uphill from here.
After a couple of entries took the series slightly off track,Downpourtried its best to recapture some of what made the classics so iconic. Most reviewers acknowledged this effort, praising the more open areas encouraging exploration, but lobbied complaints at other facets of its design like combat, enemies, and performance.
While it managed to succeed in one area, it failed where the originals soared above expectations.Silent Hill 2and3were particularly masterful games in terms of technical performance, andDounpour’sframe rate is poor enough to interfere with players' enjoyment. Beyond that, the main story has potential due to following a prisoner, but Murphy never really blossoms as the protagonist.
While a compilation, it deserves to mention how wrong porting old games to modern hardware can go.Silent Hill 2and3manage to run significantly worse on the PS3 and Xbox 360 than on their original platforms. The developers received an incomplete source code, meaning bugs fished out and fixed by the original developers were once again present.
With the limited development time available to them, there was no way for them to fix all the flaws, leading to the compromised final release. Even after patches,the HD collection is largely inferior to the original versions.One should only play it if they have absolutely no alternative. Unfortunately, it is not so easy to grab older copies and play them in an optimal manner, since they all come from the pre-HD era.
10Silent Hill: Homecoming
A More Physically Competent Protagonist Lessens Some Of The Tension
Silent Hill: Homecomingwas Double Helix Games' first project and the first mainline entry in the franchise to be tackled by a Western developer. The results were mostly positive. Though it didn’t rack up magnificent scores,Homecomingdid decent enough to prove a non-Japanese developer could handle the property. It was also the first in the series to feature a fully controllable camera. Some violent scenes caused the game’s delay in certain territories due to the offending sequences needing edits.
While not a far departure from its predecessor,Homecomingemphasized combat a lot more, which fits the narrative since Alex, the protagonist, has a military background. In terms of pure gameplay, this is one of the betterSilent Hillgames, although it is not as consistently scary as the best entries in the franchise.
The fourth numbered entry in the franchise was a large departure for the series. Though it bears the franchise’s name, it doesn’t actually take place in the titular town. Additionally, the gameplay puts a larger focus on combat rather than puzzle-solving.
Don’t mistake it for an action game, however, since the world is still brimming with tension and unease. This change in direction was appreciated by some and loathed by others. Though far from the most celebrated entry on the PS2, one could do a lot worse when it comes to horror games on the console.
The prequel to the first game marked the original time a game directly connected with another’s events. Translating popular franchises to Sony’s first handheld was difficult,considering the PSP’s single analog stick, butOriginsdid its darnedest to make it work while providing a fairly faithful adaptation ofSilent Hill’s core formula.
Although the transition was not completely smooth,Originsis a more than respectable portableSilent Hillexperience, and it is far easier to recommend thanBook of Memories. That said, the combat is pretty underwhelming, even by the franchise’s fairly low standards. The story, on the other hand, was praised as a treat for fans of the series due to its connections to the premier entry.
Shattered Memories’main draws were the questions and tests taken in a doctor’s office between chapters. The player’s answers and performance in these sections affect the following chapter.
This was the most praised aspect of its design, along with its utilization of the Nintendo Wii’s motion controls, something which many third-party developers never quite got right. The low sales numbers of the Wii release prompted PS2 and PSP ports, which removed the motion controls while keeping the rest of the experience intact. All three versions are worth playing in their own right, although the original Wii version is the most unique and memorable.
