Silent Hill and Scary Technology
Often cited as some of the scariest video games ever, the Silent Hill series played a huge part in establishing the survival horror genre. The most effective survival horror games give players limited items to survive in horrific scenarios. While members of STARS or the BSAA in Resident Evil were well-equipped for battle, the Silent Hill games focus on untrained civilians in an increasingly psychological horror setting. Without any combat training, the playable character must use whatever other resources are available to survive in Silent Hill. These resources are often technological in nature, such as the radio, and examining how Silent Hill employs such features reveals how these games carefully utilize technology in crafting the ultimate horror experience.
As will become evident below, the early Silent Hill games often present analog technology as almost supernatural and prone to spooky malfunctions. The later games, up to and including PT, use more and more digital technology capabilities to increase the paranoia and fear of the gameplay experience. These games position the town of Silent Hill as a place where repressed emotions become manifest, and the enemies in the game very obviously reflect this. As such, it makes sense that the survival tools available in the games also have symbolic meaning.
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Like most survival horror titles, the Silent Hill games limit the amount of ammo and weapons available, and carefully managing this lack of resources is essential to surviving the game. Survival horror games employ a variety of different tactics to compensate for the lack of available resources. In the Silent Hill games, the broken radio
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