Silent Hill is one of my favorite series. It introduced me to the survival horror genre and it’s had a huge influence on my writing, particularly The Book at Dernier.

If creepy supernatural horror and twisted symbolism sound good, you should check out Silent Hill.

But with 8 games, 3 spin-offs, and an HD collection, it can be a bit tricky to know which Silent Hill game to play first.

So, what order should you play the Silent Hill games in? Let’s take a look.

Main Silent Hill Series

To start, let’s focus on the main series. Release order is often a great way to play games, since you’ll see them as they became available. Here are the main-series Silent Hill games in release date order:

• Silent Hill
• Silent Hill 2
• Silent Hill 3
• Silent Hill 4: The Room
• Silent Hill: Origins*
• Silent Hill: Homecoming*
• Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
• Silent Hill: Downpour*

^{*As with all my articles, I have included affiliate links only to the games I honestly recommend.}

However, it is not at all necessary to play them in that order. While each individual game is story-driven, most are not connected to one another.

The main exception is Silent Hill 3, which is a direct sequel to the original Silent Hill. You can play and understand Silent Hill 3 on its own, but it’s best experienced after the first game.

Silent Hill: Origins is a prequel to the first game. It, too, is best experienced afterwards… although I didn’t like Origins, and don’t actually recommend playing it at all.

And Shattered Memories (which fans often put down as not a true Silent Hill game, but I loved it) is a “re-imagining” of the first game. In a sense, it’s a unique experience, but it will feel even more bizarre and surreal if you’ve already played the original.

Silent Hill 4: The Room has a few minor connections to Silent Hill 2, but otherwise it stands completely on its own. Unlike Silent Hill 2, which is hailed by many people as the greatest game in the series, Silent Hill 4 is often criticized… but it’s actually my favorite game in the series.

Homecoming, which I consider a mediocre entry in the series, also stands entirely on its own. I believe Downpour does as well, although I haven’t yet had a chance to play it. One of my friends says it’s fantastic.

To recap: you can start the Silent Hill series anywhere, but you’ll have the best story experience by playing the original Silent Hill before Silent Hill 3, Origins, or Shattered Memories.

Spin-Offs

There are three Silent Hill spin-off games:

• Silent Hill: The Escape (mobile)
• Silent Hill: The Arcade (arcade game)
• Silent Hill: Book of Memories (Vita)

Book of Memories is some sort of dungeon crawler action RPG, which is pretty far from survival horror. It received mixed reviews… dungeon crawler fans might want to look into it, but I think it’s easily skippable.

The rail shooter, Silent Hill: The Arcade, was only released in Japan and Europe. It’s also an arcade game, though fans made an unofficial PC release. If you’re dying for an arcade rail shooter, you might enjoy it, but you won’t lose anything if you don’t seek this one out.

Now, I actually played Silent Hill: The Escape. I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s a maze game that sends you on a tedious search for the exit while fending off monsters and searching for batteries before your flashlight dies. The flashlight adds some tension… but the game just isn’t particularly fun or scary.

It’s also been removed from the App Store, most likely due to a sweep of Konami game removals last August. You aren’t missing much.

To recap: the spin-offs can be safely ignored, and Book of Memories is likely the only one you’ll be able to find anyway.

HD Collection

*deep breath* Here we go.

You might have noticed it’s rather hard to find new copies of the Silent Hill games (except for the PC version of Silent Hill 3).

You might also know Silent Hill 2 and 3 were compiled into an HD Collection for the PS3 and Xbox 360, which is much easier to find. So, is the HD Collection worth playing?

Well… yes and no.

On one hand, it’s still Silent Hill 2 and 3. The core games are there.

However, they have… some problems:

• New voice actors (though you can opt to use the originals in Silent Hill 2 only)
• Dialogue changes (weird minor changes to the script that don’t always match the subtitles)
• Some texture/font changes
• Minor scene changes
• More difficult to see what happens in one of Silent Hill 2’s most important scenes
• Changes to Silent Hill 3’s soundtrack
• Lack of Silent Hill’s iconic fog (more fog was later patched into the PS3 version only, though not to the same level as the original)
• Bugs, glitches, and other technical issues (some were fixed in the PS3 version only)

If the Silent Hill HD Collection is the only way you can play Silent Hill 2 and 3, go for it. But if you can find the originals, even used, it’s the much better option.

In Summary

Konami has disappointed its fans lately, but once upon a time they had a fantastic series called Silent Hill. Survival horror fans should try it. If you’re wondering where to begin Silent Hill, there are only a few games where order matters.

Silent Hill 1 –> Silent Hill 3/Origins/Shattered Memories

Can you start with Silent Hill 2? Yes! Can you start with Silent Hill 4? Yes! Other than the games listed above, you can easily play a Silent Hill game if you haven’t played the others. And even with Silent Hill 3, it isn’t critical.

Have any more questions about where to begin Silent Hill? Let me know in the comments!