Silent Hill

A shameless but slick Resident Evil clone, Silent Hill serves up scare after scare, delivering a challenging, nicely designed adventure game with engaging puzzles. If Resident Evil captivated you, you'll want some quality time with this thriller.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the developers of Resident Evil should be blushing after playing Konami's Silent Hill. But, hell, with so much time between new RE games, someone has to take up the gaming slack, right? And Silent Hill's bloody adventure is that game.

A Foggy Day in Silent Town
In Silent Hill, you've crashed your car and lost your daughter in a mysterious, deserted town infested with strange monsters. Playing as Harry Mason, you'll comb the streets and pick up clues to her whereabouts. The well-designed quest is difficult but intuitive, resulting in a challenging but gripping adventure.

The biggest difference between SH and RE is that Silent Hill lacks pre-rendered environments. The developers attempt to compensate with thick fog, pitch darkness, or weak lighting--but five feet of visibility just isn't enough. Fortunately, tight camera control lets you peek around corners or study a room from Harry's point of view, while SH's blood-filled battles and disgusting cadavers strewn everywhere set the mood stylishly--and will definitely freak you out.

Shocking Beat
One of SH's coolest features is its excellent Dual Shock support: The controller beats like a heart, thumping harder when you're close to death, and its responsiveness keeps you in command.

The screen display, however, is flatlined: You have to access a menu to check your health bar, which can cost you your life if you aren't paying attention. Otherwise, you'll have a blast mowing down zombies with everything from a knife to a shotgun.

Silent Evil
SH's voice acting doesn't approach RE's depth of craptitude, although each spoken line is separated by a strange dramatic pause that effectively undermines the tension and drama. Luckily, the conversations are fairly sparse. What's cool are the sound effects like the spine-curdling radio static that warns of incoming monsters and the heavy tread of your boots as you run for your life down a hall.

SH's scares are everywhere. The tension is high throughout the game and gets creepier as you delve deeper and face winged beasts, bald freaks, and devil dogs. The gothic story line and intuitive puzzles are also compelling, which makes SH a nice bridge for RE fans waiting for their next fix. Just a few flaws short of a masterpiece, Silent Hill is definitely worth a look from horror and adventure fans.

The Three Eclipse Keys:
1.Go down the alley that's marked on the map inside the house on Levin Street and look for the gate to a park. Inside is one of the three Eclipse keys.
2.You'll FInd the second Eclipse key in the trunk of this police car located in the northeast section of Silent Hill.
3.Look for the last Eclipse key at the southeast tip of Silent Hill, just around the corner of the southwest side of the street.

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