History VideoGame / SilentHill1

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In addition to being the only ''Silent Hill'' on the original UsefulNotes/PlayStation, there are several oddities in this game:

* DropTheHammer: Emergency Fire Hammer. Less a mallet, more like [[http://lparchive.org/Silent-Hill-1/Update%208/8_16_32_17.jpg spike on a pole]].

* ArmedAltruism: In an act of coolness, Cybil offers Harry her gun.

* BrandX: All over the place, the most famous of which is the Vestal Gigastore ([[DontExplainTheJoke vestal as in vestal virgin; get it?]]). There’s also Queen Burger, Fedy-X Espresso parcels, Poston Market, the [[SignsOfDisrepair (S)]][[MeaningfulName Hell]] station with the nautilus shell icon, the Circle 8 convenience store with its 7-Eleven motif, and the AEC restaurant that was apparently inspired by A&W.

* NintendoHard: Compared to later games in the series, most parts of the Otherworld are extremely hazardous, with the volume of enemies pumped up to ridiculous levels. This is particularly true of the city streets, where darting from building to building is your only viable way to stay uneaten. Decidedly not the case with puzzles, as aside from one tricky [[SongsInTheKeyOfLock music-based riddle]], most are fairly straightforward and simple compared to the hair-pullers later games would feature.
** Part of the reason for this too is the rather unintuitive nature of the health gauge, which shows Harry's portrait and a colored moving line effect behind it. Granted, while you can USUALLY tell if you're in danger of dying as it goes from a slow-moving green (healthy) to a fast-moving deep red (near death), it's not a particularly good indication otherwise of just how damaged Harry is, which can sometimes lead to either wasting supplies when Harry isn't as injured as the player thinks, or he may be even more damaged than the player thinks and dies to another hit simply cause the player couldn't easily gauge his health. Thankfully later games are a bit more intuitive with their health indicators.

While its release coincided with the survival horror [[FollowTheLeader boom]] initiated by ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'' three years prior, ''Silent Hill'' offered a uniquely atmospheric, suspenseful and [[PsychologicalHorror psychologically centered]] experience during a period when many releases in the genre relied on the {{jump scare}}s and ZombieApocalypse-style action of its spearhead title. The game's production team, most prominently its writer and director Keiichirō Toyama, later produced Sony's ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}'' series, which also relied on a more psychological storyline.

Single father Harry Mason and his young daughter Cheryl are driving to the resort town of Silent Hill for a holiday vacation. Suddenly, Harry swerves to avoid a girl standing in the road and crashes his car. When he regains consciousness, Harry realizes he has crashed on the outskirts of Silent Hill, and that [[MissingChild Cheryl has left the car]].

''Silent Hill'' is a 1999 SurvivalHorror game published by Creator/{{Konami}}, and the first game of the ''Franchise/SilentHill'' franchise.