Silent Hill is one of Konami's best properties and one of the most important video game series ever conceived. It solidified the genre of psychological horror in gaming since 1999 and really experimented with stories and creative direction in future installments. Ultimately, this started a phenomenon where developers unashamedly tried recreating Silent Hill's original twisty formula.
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PostsThe Silent Hill series, as a whole, has some solid entries that are just unbeatable, but it also lost its footing along the way with canceled projects and some less-than-stellar entries. Luckily, these developers made games with direct inspiration from Silent Hill that ended up being more Silent Hill than even Silent Hill.
Updated on October 20, 2024, by Dennis Moiseyev: The Silent Hill series remains ever iconic and absolutely cannot be topped, especially the first four games from Team Silent. However, that doesn't mean certain developers can't try. Once in a blue moon, a horror game comes along that absolutely screams Silent Hill with its setting and gameplay. There's plenty more of that added here and with discussions from the developers themselves.
14 Song Of Horror
Song of Horror is a 2019 survival horror game that could easily pass for something developed in the early 2000s; not for its graphics, but rather the gameplay. That's because, during a 2015 interview with Use A Potion!, developer Protocol Games shared that "both the first Resident Evil and the first two Silent Hill games have influenced Song of Horror's inception."
Song of Horror is an homage to the genre greats that inspired it. The atmosphere, fixed-camera angles, and puzzles joined together with a Lovecraftian horror entity and 13 playable characters across different horror locations truly harmonize into a 'song of horror.' The game also gets its name from the cursed music box that serves as the premise for all the horror that's unleashed.
There are also some Easter eggs in Song of Horror connected to the Silent Hill games that you should be on the lookout for, as pointed out by Reddit user Blookhaven.
13 Tormented Souls
Tormented Souls
Released August 27, 2021 Developer(s) Dual Effect Games Publisher(s) PQube Engine Unity Platform(s) PC, PS5, PS4, Switch, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One How Long To Beat 9 Hours Powered by Expand CollapseLike Silent Hill, Tormented Souls will hook you with its story right away. Your protagonist, Caroline Walker, mysteriously wakes up in the bathtub of a strange hospital built into a mansion called Winterlake. The enemies are grotesque, the puzzles and inventory UI instantly remind you of that old-school design, the fixed-camera angles are there, and the game offers many twists, the most interesting being its use of mirrors.
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Posts By Luke AckroydIn an interview with Bug Done, Gabriel Araneda Quijada, who co-created Tormented Souls with his twin brother, Germán Araneda Quijada, said their intention was "to get a Silent Hill atmosphere with a Resident Evil gameplay," something evocative of the classic horror titles he and his brother enjoyed. It's safe to say that they've done that effectively, and it's even more impressive considering they were complete newcomers to game development.
12 Siren Series
Siren
Released April 20, 2004 Developer(s) Japan Studio Publisher(s) Sony Computer Entertainment Platform(s) PlayStation 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 How Long To Beat 20 Hours Powered by Expand CollapseSiren, or Forbidden Siren, is a horror game series from the 2000s that was conceived by none other than the legendary Keiichiro Toyama, the creator and director of the original Silent Hill; and you can learn more about how Siren and Silent Hill have both inspired Toyama's 2024 title, Slitterhead, in our interview with him by TheGamer's Editor-at-Large, Axel Bosso.
Instead of taking place in the US, Siren is set in Japan, specifically in the fictional village of Hanuda, where monsters called shibito roam. The location has a similar horror ambiance to Silent Hill, also characterized by thick fog and a siren signal. One of the mechanics that distinguishes Siren is 'sightjacking,' where you can see from the enemy's perspective. You also follow multiple characters. While these games may not carry the same legacy as Silent Hill, they're still absolutely worth experiencing.
11 Lake Haven - Chrysalis
Lake Haven - Chrysalis
Released January 18, 2023 Developer(s) Encrypt Games Publisher(s) Encrypt Games Platform(s) PC How Long To Beat 2 Hours Powered by Expand CollapseDespite its unique approach to psychological horror and survival horror, the Silent Hill series has always taken its inspiration from David Lynch, ever since the first game came into existence. This was expressed in multiple interviews by the original creator, Keiichiro Toyama, such as one in 2021 with Video Games Chronicle where he mentioned that Silent Hill's "conflict in human nature was inspired by David Lynch's work," as was the siren mechanic.
Now it all comes full circle with Lake Haven - Chrysalis. The game's retro PS1-style graphics and classic design take direct inspiration from the early works in the genre, like Silent Hill, and its narrative is heavily influenced by Twin Peaks. This is a short prologue chapter of Lake Haven set in the titular town, in which you play as detective Zeke Reynold on a mission to locate a missing woman named Eleanor.
10 Hollowbody
Hollowbody
Developer(s) Headware Games Publisher(s) Headware Games Engine Unity Platform(s) PC Powered by Expand CollapseHollowbody is like classic Silent Hill if it was set in a dystopian cyberpunk world. Dread XP spoke to the game's creator and founder of Headware Games, Nathan Hamley, in a 2022 interview. He stated that, even though there's an added sci-fi element, "the game definitely leans more on the psychological horror side of things" and also aims to place you in an experience equally new to you and the protagonist, which is where that Silent Hill influence comes through.
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Posts By Matt MckeownHollowbody's environments, monsters, and story elements will have you believing that you've never left Silent Hill. The game follows a black market shipper named Mica, who's searching for her missing partner in a place known as the 'exclusion zone,' a ruined area that's unlike the rest of society. Your melee weapon here is also a wooden club with nails similar to James' weapon in Silent Hill 2; plus, there's a dog.
9 Cry Of Fear
Cry of Fear
Released February 22, 2012 Developer(s) Team Psykskallar Publisher(s) Team Psykskallar Engine GoldSrc Platform(s) PC How Long To Beat 8 Hours Powered by Expand CollapseCry of Fear has one of the strangest stories of how it evolved into a Silent Hill-inspired title. It started innocently enough as a mod for Valve's Half-Life by Team Psykskallar. However, somewhere along the line, it became something else entirely, influenced by the horror-scapes, atmosphere, and monsters of Silent Hill to instead be its own free multiplayer FPS horror game.
Silent Hill doesn't utilize a first-person perspective as often in the series — the ill-fated P.T. and 2024's The Short Message being the main entries to go that route — but there's a mechanic that Cry of Fear has in common. And that is the rusting effect altering the game world brought on by the nightmare sequences, which manifest from the protagonist.
There's also a boat section in Cry of Fear that further serves as an homage to Silent Hill 2, where the protagonist is paddling the boat from the same camera POV as James Sunderland.
8 Dementium: The Ward
Dementium: The Ward is the first-person Nintendo DS installment of Silent Hill that never came to be, and it's now also available on the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PS5. In 2015, former Renegade Kid developer and now founder of Atooi, Jools Watsham, wrote on Twitter that Dementium: The Ward was originally pitched as "something that could have become a Silent Hill DS game."
Upon first glance at the gameplay, you can totally see where the influences reflect. The enemies stalking you throughout the hospital are ghoulish and feel like they're part of the same universe, with some incredibly brutal and strange designs that put sharp teeth in place of stomachs and faces. The vital signs UI for the health bar is another classic survival horror element.
7 Detention
Detention
Released January 12, 2017 Engine Unity Platform(s) PC, PS4, Switch Developer RedCandleGames Publisher Coconut Island Games, RedCandleGames How Long To Beat 4 Hours Powered by Expand CollapseDetention is praised by many as the Taiwanese point-and-click answer to Silent Hill, and it even similarly received a live-action movie adaptation in 2019 that was as favorable among audiences. Red Candle Games' Yao Shun-Ting even admitted in an interview with New Bloom Magazine that the team "looked at a number of famous horror games such as Silent Hill" for Detention's game design and narrative.
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PostsThe neat context of Detention is its historical backdrop of 1960s Taiwan, a period of martial law in the country after the Second World War (also known as the White Terror). As the name suggests, it's set in a school that looks like it's undergone an eerie transformation containing lots of puzzles and a disturbing atmosphere that's unrelenting.
6 Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut
Lone Survivor
Released March 27, 2012 Developer(s) Superflat Games, Curve Studios Publisher(s) Superflat Games, Curve Digital Engine Adobe AIR Platform(s) Nintendo Wii U, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 How Long To Beat 4 Hours Powered by Expand CollapseLone Survivor is an indie pixel art horror gem made by lone developer Jasper Byrne, who's also a musical artist and the composer of Hotline Miami. What's particularly special about this game is Byrne being outspoken about his motivations for developing it, which all stem from the survival horror masterpiece Silent Hill 2.
It all started with his retro NES demake of Silent Hill 2 cleverly titled Soundless Mountain 2, and Lone Survivor was the next step in his vision. The creative inspiration was not only rooted in Silent Hill 2's world design and narrative elements but also in expanding how Silent Hill 2 does endings. Byrne was fascinated by how "the endings are determined by these secret things that you don’t really know," as shared with Dread XP (i.e. the Leave, Rebirth, Maria, Dog, UFO, and In Water endings).
Lone Survivor also has a 2022 remaster called Super Lone Survivor, with new improvements and a 4:3 aspect ratio style.
Bloober Team's Silent Hill 2 Remake features two new endings in addition to all the original ones.
5 Visage
Visage
Released October 30, 2020 Developer(s) SadSquare Studio Publisher(s) SadSquare Studio Engine Unreal Engine 4 Platform(s) PC, PS4, Xbox One How Long To Beat 9 Hours Powered by Expand CollapseUnlike the other games here that are inspired more by the direction of the classic Silent Hill games, Visage is a direct response to Silent Hills P.T. This is, of course, the infamously canceled first-person psychological horror Silent Hill entry from Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro starring Norman Reedus (who reunited for Death Stranding).
In a 2017 interview with IGN, Visage's developer SadSquare proudly proclaimed, "Silent Hills' Playable Teaser was the first thing that inspired us." And it's clear from the setting, jump scares, and level design. They even included an area representing an alternate dimension of what's supposedly Hell, nodding to the Otherworld and a little of Boo'ya Moon from Lisey's Story.
