The zombies are scary too, sometimes they take a lot of bullets sometimes they go down quickly just so they can get up and gang up on you. I tried to butcher the bodies with my knife only to realize it gets worn down. I love also how the characters get bloody and dirty over time and how they sometimes say "the fuck?" when they encounter something weird. Puzzles are there too. Not badly difficult or require a lot of back track but they present a challenge. Voice acting is also great. Game got really grounded and griddy.
The game balancing and design is so on point in this remake. The idea they went for is to create a believable world where Zombie are genuinely unpredictable & a threat like they are to the rest of Raccoon City's inhabitants.
Zombies don't have a formula for elimination like the old games, They're designed not to be a trope anymore and that the limited resources in the game provide a good old fashioned strategic challenge. After all, If this was real, You'd be lucky to find any ammunition lying around let alone take weapon top ups for granted just because it's a game and this is one of the rules of the medium.
I am hoping Konami at some point do a remake of the original Silent Hill, but do an actual proper job.
Never played it when it originally came out, and couldn't play it now as although I play Amiga games occasionally, PS1, PS2 games now just look incredibly dated and just outright awful.
We can cross our fingers that Konami have an awakening and recognise that in the west especially, They'll me leaving silly money on the table for not revisiting their prize franchises such as Metal Gear,Silent Hill & Castlevania and doing them a proper service.
As an aficionado of retro games, even i can agree with your sentiment that SH1 hasn't aged as well as the PSX Resident Evil games but at the time when gamers had nothing to compare 3D games to, It was an instant cult classic and a pioneer of the genre. Resident Evil had a more comfortable, Cinematic Hollywood tone to it but Silent Hill was an unapologetic, Underground horror that relied on mood and tension which influenced Survival horror for years to come.
However i would definatley suggest trying out Silent Hill 2 if you can, Certainly hasn't aged poorly at all, The worst you could say about it is the tank controls by modern standards but in the context of the game and it's fixed camera angles, It's easy to adjust to and makes sense.
Silent Hill 2 is considered to be the best in the franchise, A true masterpiece and an artistic triumph
SH is still depressingly horrific. Also visuall ps1 wise its groundbreaking how they used the fog and the darkness+lighter combo.
It truly was a genius design choice as it was wasn't even intentional, It was merely to cover up the very apparent lack of draw distance which ironically became the series visual trademark.
