Silent Hill has been in a rough spot for the last decade or so, especially with the cancellation of Silent Hills. However, the remake of SH2 might pull the series back and give it new life. Until then, let’s look at all Silent Hill main games, ranked.
Ranking Every Silent Hill Main Game
7. Silent Hill: Downpour
Downpour has a self-contained story that you can play without playing other games first. However, it’s slow-paced and overall not that interesting. In fact, Downpour and Homecoming are uneventful enough that speedrunners created a category that makes you run both at the same time, calling it Homepour. It follows Murphy and Anne, who end up trapped in a town where they’re tormented. But moving past their individual trauma is the key to escaping.
6. Silent Hill: Homecoming
Like Downpour, Homecoming is its own story. In it, Alex returns home and finds that most of his life was a lie and his hometown was full of cult activity, and even worse, his parents were involved in that cult stuff. This sounds like it should be a gripping narrative. But it’s slow and as uneventful as Downpour. The scares aren’t on the level of the early SH games. Actually, the highlight of Homecoming is its soundtrack, which has some great tracks to listen to.
5. Silent Hill: Origins
Origins has the benefit of being interesting, if not particularly scary. You experience the misfortune of taking a detour through Silent Hill. As a result, you learn about Alessa’s horrible past and what led to the nightmare world of Silent Hill being created by Alessa after she was set on fire. I enjoyed seeing the town before the first game, and it’s nice to see that Alessa had at least one person who tried to help her avoid her fate at the hands of her mother and the cultists.
4. Silent Hill 4: The Room
The Room was the last really good Silent Hill game that captured the uneasiness and oddities of the original three. Home should be a safe place, but Henry’s apartment has mysterious locks keeping him trapped inside. As the game progresses, more strange occurrences start happening in his apartment. So, when a hole opens up in his bathroom, Henry enters it because the idea of escaping is better than staying in his increasingly frightening home. In fact, this strange game might be my favorite in the series. It took risks by focusing on an apartment with evil spirit problems, which made it feel refreshing.
3. Silent Hill
The game that started it all. Silent Hill follows Harry as he’s trapped between real and nightmare worlds to find his daughter, Cheryl. However, it turns out that Cheryl is Alessa’s reincarnation, and Dahlia, with the help of her fellow cultists, lured Harry and Cheryl to Silent Hill for a second attempt at bringing their god to life. The mystery of Silent Hill and its inhabitants made the perfect rival to Resident Evil, kick-starting a series that leaves us always wanting more.
2. Silent Hill 3
Silent Hill 3 brings us back to the story of Alessa and Cheryl with their complete reincarnation: Heather. Harry had good reason for wanting Heather to avoid Silent Hill at all costs. But of course, the town drew her in because the cult that set Alessa on fire wasn’t ready to give up on bringing their god to life. This creates a new nightmare world for Heather to explore while fighting to keep herself from being a pawn in the cult’s plans. Silent Hill knew its formula and story at this point, so SH3 was the peak of the series. It executed the formula well and completed the story revolving around Alessa, letting her find peace in the end.
1. Silent Hill 2
There’s a reason that Silent Hill 2 is getting the first remake out of all the games in the series. SH2 is truly the fan-favorite title of the series. Leaning heavily into psychological horror instead of survival horror, James journeys through nightmares manifested by his guilt and personal demons. The more you play, the more you realize that James isn’t a hero.
Going into the game without knowing the story keeps you guessing about what happened. And you learn about James and Mary’s marriage along with Mary’s final days of fighting an illness. Also, SH2 has an ending where everything happened because of a dog.
And that wraps up all Silent Hill main games, ranked. As a series, SH has as many high points as it does low points. But we continue to hope for the series to make a comeback. From here, check out more content like why Silent Hill 2’s combat trailer stoked debate or a list of the best video game villains ever.
