Silent Hill: The Terror Engine

Videoludica. Game culture #3

by Bernard Perron

Silent The Terror Engine , the second of the two inaugural studies in the Landmark Video Games series from series editors Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron, is both a close analysis of the first three Silent Hill games and a general look at the whole series. Silent Hill , with its first title released in 1999, is one of the most influential of the horror video game series. Perron situates the games within the survival horror genre, both by looking at the history of the genre and by comparing Silent Hill with such important forerunners as Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil . Taking a transmedia approach and underlining the designer's cinematic and literary influences, he uses the narrative structure; the techniques of imagery, sound, and music employed; the game mechanics; and the fiction, artifact, and gameplay emotions elicited by the games to explore the specific fears survival horror games are designed to provoke and how the experience as a whole has made the Silent Hill series one of the major landmarks of video game history.

Genres: Nonfiction, Horror, Games, Video Games, Gaming, Horror Thriller, Mental Health

162 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Vladimir Sechkarev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Это самый сложный текст, который мне доводилось переводить. Его и просто читать иногда непросто: это академическая работа, и стиль автора точно не назовешь легким. (В переводе мы старались упрощать насколько возможно без потери смысла.) Другие game studies я раньше не читал, так что книга Перрона стала для меня очень необычным опытом. Доволен ли я им? Скорее да, чем нет.

Я никогда раньше не пытался воспринимать игры так, как это делает автор The Terror Engine. Во-первых, хочется похвалить его подходы к деконструкции игрового опыта: цитируется теория хорроров (мне почему-то даже не приходило в голову, что такая существует) и научные исследования в ее основе, само понятие страха разделяется на несколько подвидов (каждый из них, соответственно, создается разными приемами, которые тоже подробно описываются), плюс, вводится несколько интересных понятий, с культурологической перспективы объясняющих феномен игр как вида искусства. Мне еще ни разу не рассказывали об играх таким образом – скорее всего, вам тоже. Во-вторых, интересен культурный контекст, в разрезе которого серия Silent Hill здесь изучается – например, читатель узнает, что у нее общего не только с “Чужим” и фильмами Линча, но и, например, с немецким кино 20-х годов.

Что плохо? Перрон иногда позволяет себе спорные заявления, его стиль письма порой становится слишком тяжелым, и я не уверен, что вас в принципе заинтересует его подход. Лично мою рефлексию по поводу пройденных игр The Terror Engine определенно углубила, поэтому всем советую как минимум для общего развития – но если вы начали зевать уже на введении, бросайте не стесняясь.

(На русском выйдет где-то в конце мая, я еще в твиторе про это сто раз напишу)

[Colton · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. I didn't know that talking about Silent Hill could be that boring, but this book proved me wrong. A lot of speculation on stuff that is just not that interesting nor relevant to what drew me to the series in the first place. There were moments of insight, I admit, but not worth the drag of reading every other boring line in this thing. It's like a college professor talking about video games: detached and over-academic, with lots of thesaurus words and unnecessary background history on several barely-related subjects. Just a lame, lame read.

[Alexey Matveev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Не столько научпоп, сколько кандидатская диссертация по нарративному искусству и геймдизайну, в которой автор позволяет себе то и дело включать совершенно неприличную для Учёного Человека детскую радость от видеоигр. Очевидно, что серия SH и survival horror, как жанр per se, ему глубоко небезразличны, потому что даже в этом не всегда грамотно написанном (Перрон - англоговорящий франко-канадец) тексте так и сквозит упоение от анализа города, который магнитом притягивает всё злое и скорбное, и людей, волею судеб сломанных жизнью о колено - не всегда положительных, но это лучше и подробнее объясняет сам автор.

Минусом можно, разве что, счесть обилие неймдроппинга непонятных для залётного человека персоналий и терминов из области (популярной) психологии и геймдизайна, но, опять же, невозможно попасть на эту случайно, поэтому автор допускает мысль, что его читатель равен Перрону как в умственном и "начитанном" смысле, а это - будем честны - безумно наглый поступок. Но тем интереснее при прочтении отрываться от текста, понимать, что это за тираду ты только что прочёл, и уже просветлённым возвращаться к SH: TE с мыслью: «Ах, вот что ты хотел мне сказать. Я согласен.»

P.S. Гораздо большее удовольствие получаешь, когда понимаешь, о чём речь - то есть, знаком со всем обсуждаемым материалом. Но, опять же, будем честны - если бы вы не знали про Silent Hill, то и не взялись бы за эту книгу.

[Kalin]

Reading notes:

~ Can games help with phobias?

Using Max Payne and Half-Life against spiders phobia, Max Payne and Unreal Tournament for heights phobia, and Unreal Tournament for tight spaces phobia, the Cyberpsychology Laboratory of the University of Quebec in Outaouais has shown that video games can help overcome those fears.

~ What does diegesis mean?

The world in which a story takes place, made up of everything that the characters who live in that world can experience. For example, the music played by musicians appearing in a film is said to be diegetic, and can be heard by the other characters in the film, while the film’s soundtrack and credits, which the audience sees and hears but the characters cannot, is said to be nondiegetic.

[SabCo T. · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, kinda sad but – this was suggested to me by someone who saw it and told/gifted it to me as a psychological analysis of the SH games, not a cinematic/literary analysis [which is what this book is]. Not that it wasn’t interesting but… was very much a letdown. It possibly had to do with this starting off on the wrong foot and not being able to even itself out again but also just… meh.

This kinda immediately put a damper on how I was going to [not] enjoy this book. Despite the fact that I really tried to be stoked about it… it was stuff I already knew. I’ve read and studied aspects of all kinds of literary horror, from Lovecraft to King so I was familiar with nearly all of what the book pointed out. Pretty much same with a majority of the cinematic dissection. I have multiple friends in various fields of cinema and I’m usually the one who suggests the SH games to them.

The only real thing that kept me going through the book was my love for the SH series. This book primarily focuses on the first few games. And when I say that I mean: Silent Hill. Silent Hill 2, and Silent Hill 3.

Silent Hill: 0rigins gets a few snippets here and there as does Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, and a few bones are even thrown in for Silent Hill: Homecoming.

But Silent Hill 4: The Room? It got maybe a single page’s worth of a mention at the very end of the book. Literally the last few pages of the last chapter. That part bothered me. There’s always been a lot of back and forth on if The Room was originally even supposed to be a SH game before it was forced into one but the fact of the matter is, well, it is. And I liked it a hell of a lot more than I did Homecoming. [Also sidenote, the book was written before the atrocities of Downpour, the awful ‘HD collection,’ the stupid ‘Book of Memories’ game, and well before the rise and fall of Silent Hills and how Konami is a PoS and now one of the most despised game companies out there]

Even with how much this series means to me, and how I always played the various SH soundtracks while I read it as ambiance… it was boring. Really, really boring. Multiple times my eyes would kinda glaze over and my mind would wander off from boredom and when I finally focused back I had completely lost where I was and would have to re-read some portions multiple times.

Also, maybe the hard cover copies were better, but the pictures printed in my copy were awful. I didn’t mind so much that they were black and white, but they were printed so dark that even when my face pressed close to the page and eyes squinted, I could barely see what was in some of the pictures. Annoying especially when the picture was there and being used to point out examples of what the current chapter was about and all it was, was a black square blob.

Really I guess this book is either good for cinemaphiles, those who don’t quite understand the SH games, or maybe just SH memorabilia collectors. I’m going to keep it in my collection but otherwise, really wasn’t my favorite.

I give Silent Hill: The Terror Engine 2/5 Bloody Lead Pipes

To our great pleasure, let’s hope Silent Hill, the survival terror games, will be an endless nightmare.”

[Welp. That’s not depressing at all for fans of the series. The SH games and Konami have now become a shitty kind of nightmare.]

[Alessandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Update Apeil 2021:
Re-read this after nearly 10 years with way more experience when it comes to the Silent Hill Franchise (having played SH1+2 myself and seen playthroughs of SH3, SH: Origins and SH5: Homecoming) - it‘s definitely even more interesting for people who are familiar with the games as it offers you alternative views on aspects of the games and insight on why some parts are as scary as they are.

_________________
I read this book, because I'm interested in games since I'm a child. I have to admit that when I read it I only have played the beginning of Silent Hill 2. But I knew a lot about the games - or at least I thought so.

For me this book was more then just enjoyable. I loved to read it and learn things I haven't known before. Sometimes it tends to get boring, but I still really liked it and I probably will read it again.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Первый "серьезный" текст про игры, который я читал. Это невероятно сложная и комплексная работа посвящена моей любимой серии Silent Hill. Правда обилие ссылок на различные эссе может отпугнуть читателя. Но как первая книга game studies, которую стоит прочитать на русском языке - лучший вариант.

[Andrew Petty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Im learning I suppose

[Voidroze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Меня заранее предупреждали, что это не совсем то, что я могу ожидать от книги, но...Лично мои ожидания оправдались целиком и полностью. Книга о том, как, почему и зачем нас пугают игры, зачем это делается, и почему это хорошо (!)

[Marina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw another review describe this book as a "college professor writing about Silent Hill", as if it was a complaint. Well, that's exactly what this book is. It's an examination of Silent Hill's themes and scares from a cinematic, ludic and literary standpoint, which examines several of the games concurrently (prominently Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3, and Silent Hill: Origins) and provides countless interesting analyses of these games.

The Silent Hill series has quickly grown to be one of my favourite video game series, with the first and second games being among my favourites of all time - and let me tell you, that's a tough list to crack. This book is a critical examination of what makes these horror artefacts so scary, and why, today, there is still nothing scarier than the cold confines of Brookhaven Hospital, or the flickering TV set in Room 312, or Midwich Elementary School's locker room. This is a fantastic book for anyone academically interested in the series that changed my outlook on how things (especially games) can and should attempt to scare you. I am, admittedly, biased because of my love for Silent Hill, but Perron does an admirable job of collecting a lot of interesting stuff about the games and explaining why they're so damn good.

I miss you, Silent Hill. Please come back.

[Gerd · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a free kindle offer, and as such I do not want to be too critical.
Essentially it did for the most part what I expected from it, which is providing me with a trip down memory lane.

However, I feel it falls short of being overly informative, there are a few tidbits of information that where new to me, I wasn't for example aware that SH2's initial reception was less enthusiastic than it deserved for its formidable storytelling (infact, aparently early reviewers grated on it being so story focused - interestingly he spares out the inital brouhaha SH3 received after it became known that the maincharacter in this game would be Heather) and hadn't see Ebert's less than glowing review of the SH movie before (though, not much surprise there, I think Ebert is in general not fond of Horror movies).

The promised evaluation of the SH series in terms of movie theory is, well, flat.
He talks some about camera angles and movement, about setting up suspense, about SH's relation to other movies, but there's nothing much to it that we haven't read before, and it tells us in the end very few about SH specifically.

My personal verdict, if you're a fan and can get it for free, it's worth a read but do not expect to learn much new from it, or to get some unexpected views.

[Adrian Solorzano · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was not expecting such an in depth study of the masterpiece series that are the first four games of Silent Hill. The level of philosophical examination, symbolism and cultural impact is at times jaw dropping. It's essentially a whole semester of the understanding of the Silent Hill series.
An important work in game theory, psychology and essay/research genre.

It's "dry" because it's an intellectual work instead of just an entertaining read.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

And some people work to do the games and deliver them to the audiences all over the World and than the government taxes the people who work to pay generous wages to leeches like Perron who sometimes come up with a book in order to get to the next level of governmental pension for life. Immoral, but this is how life goes.

[Jeffrey]

zzz .... is how I feel about this book.

There were one or two times when things got interesting, but such episodes were too far in between, and I just couldn't be bothered to get through the last two chapters. Shame, 'cause I thought this was going to be a cool read, but it ended up just boring the hell out of me.

[Orlando · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting look at the way Silent Hill was crafted from artistic and technological points, and less of a in-depth discussion about the themes and characters and such. Could have used a bit more proof-reading: several times I noticed misspellings of character names, or getting the games in which certain things happened mixed up. It's also rather dated at this point: originally published in 2006, the author had a lot of games and media at the time, and I believe it had been updated to include SH media up until 2009, but with the popular P.T and the astounding hold that demo had over so many games, I'd kill for another update that explores the artistic and technological processes used in the same way as Perron wrote here.

[Никита Самсонов · Rating 4 out of 5]

Оооо, это стало настоящим открытием! Так как я обожаю хорроры, то выход данной работы просто не мог пропустить и купил в первый день продаж😍

Это моя первая книга в документальном жанре, которая рассказывает путь создания и становления такого феномена как Сайлент Хилл.

Оказывается на японцев из Konami оказал сильное уличение фильм Лестница Иакова и я могу подтвердить что в нем есть эта атмосфера, которую все любят в тихом холме.

Книга охватывает период с 1999 по 2012 год, и это тоже хорошо так как новые части только в разработке(если верить слухам)

Я highly recommend прочитать данную книгу, так как она просто невероятно прекрасна! Истинное наслаждение и спасибо большое всем, кто сделал этот реальным в России!

[John Doe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Silent Hill. Навстречу ужасу. Игры и теория страха - книга проблемная. Основой недопонимания служит практически нулевой анализ автора, заменённый почти случайными цитатами других людей по совершенно другим причинам. Выводы из пустоты, замена аргументов утверждениями и т.п.
По окончании, да и в процессе, не происходит сличения опыта прохождения читателя с автором. Странный человек со странным восприятием, который видит то, чего нет, и не замечает очевидных ошибок своих выводов, подводя мнения специалистов разных областей под собственные бредни шиза.

[Dani Saad · Rating 2 out of 5]

More than a book, most of the time it feels like you’re reading a paper. It does contain some interesting facts and analysis of the Silent Hill saga that hardcore fans will be able to appreciate. On the other hand, it’s surprising how someone writing a whole book about Silent Hill can fail to understand its plot and even go as far as to try to reconcile game plots that simply contradict each other - due to them having been developed by different studios (a fact widely known and even acknowledged by the author).

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a philosophical tone and is well-suited for fans of Silent Hill who are familiar with every aspect of the original trilogy of games. It contains numerous references to characters, plotlines, and scenes from the games. Without this knowledge, it may be challenging to understand the author's perspective and envision the situations described.
Additionally, since the original book was published in 2012, it does not include any information about the Silent Hill 2 (remake, 2024)

[Дарья Рязаева · Rating 5 out of 5]

Отличная работа по gamestudies, хоть местами и изобилует самоповторами. Русский перевод очень приятный, читается легко, особенно если источники, на которые ссылается автор уже знакомы. Отсутсвует методология по которой автор анализирует серию, но как доскональный разбор очень заходит. (Плюс можно подчерпнуть себе пару источников для дальнейшего исследования)

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greatly written, albeit using a lot of terminology, but otherwise a thought provoking read about what the horror genre is all about (in videogames, movies and to an extent print).

I wish a new version including PT/Downpour and all other new SH media was released. Here’s hoping 😄

[Myles · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting analysis of the Silent Hill games 1-Homecoming from a cinematography point of view. Unfortuantely, the author continually compares Silent Hill to Resident Evil, which is an exhausted argument and is the same as comparing apples to oranges

[Nathaniel Darkish · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this very academic deep-dive into the Silent Hill series. Definitely not for everybody, but this book appealed to the most literary horror nerdiness in me.

[Denis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Хороший анализ основных частей серии Silent Hill с т.з. нарративного дизайна и восприятия ужаса. Отличный вход в game studies.

[Danny Hoffswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little bit redundant at a certain point. Also it considers western Silent Hill games to be on somewhat the same level as the Japanese entries and it is so untrue.

[João Crispim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just spoiled dark entries I haven't played yet (Homecoming) and it didn't captivate me as much as I wanted, I still liked it. 3.5 stars

[Joshua Hair · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. It’s dry and analytical. I thought it would be fun but it really wasn’t, even for a fan of the lore.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

More or less what you would expect from an academic analysis of silent hill (in particular 1,2, and 3)

[alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Начну с того, что я являюсь большим фанатом серии Сайлент хилл, много раз проходила с 1 по 4 части и когда увидела эту книгу на прилавке ОЧЕНЬ захотелось купить, ожидания были большие. Но на деле все оказалось не так радужно. Примерно половина книги невероятно скучная, с кучей цитат других людей, сносок, и не рассказывает ничего нового. Другая половина это просто пересказ сюжетов трех частей… Еще не понравилось, что про четвертую игру серии было не написано толком ничего, хотя она явно достойна внимания. Книга разочаровала, но прочитать можно.

[Adolfo · Rating 5 out of 5]

„Silent Hill: The Terror Engine“ ist das erste Buch dieses Jahres 2023, das ich gelesen habe und oh, Mann war es gut! Dieses Buch handelt sich um die Geschichte des Survival Horror, von „Sweet Home“ bis „Resident Evil“ und vor allem in „Silent Hill“. Man lernt ebenfalls hier die Grundlagen des Horrors in Videospielen und dazu nimmt das Buch Verweise von anderen Autoren. Diese Eigenschaft hat mir am besten gefallen, weil ich mehr Bücher und Autoren gerade lesen möchte.

Außerdem schreibt der Autor des Buches auch über die Faktoren, die das Videospiel so eine furchterregende Erfahrung geworden haben. Seit ich ein totaler Fan von diesem Genre bin, mir hat dieses Buch wirklich gefallen und habe ich mehr gelernt, zum Beispiel über dem Einfluss des Films auf Silent Hill, besonders der Film „Jacob’s Ladder“. Auf die gleiche Weise erklärt der Autor die Bedeutung von Sound im Videospiel und man weiß schon, dass Akira Yamaoka ein Meister dieses Zweiges ist.

Zum Ende würde ich sagen, dass das Ende des Buches mir nicht wirklich gefallen hat, weil ich keinen Abschluss gefunden habe, der Autor hat nur über den Film und Comics, die sich auf Silent Hill basieren sind. Trotzdem finde ich, dass alle Leute die Silent Hill liebt, müssen das Buch lesen, weil Silent Hill ein besonderer Platz ist.