Gameplay takes place in two parts: a framing, first-person psychotherapy session with an unseen patient, and an over-the-shoulder perspective of Harry's journey through Silent Hill, which is periodically interrupted by environmental shifts where he is pursued by monsters.

The game's developers avoided integrating combat into the second setting's gameplay, centering instead on a weaponless player character attempting to rescue himself from powerful opponents, as they considered this to be more fear-inducing.

[13][25][26][27][28] Book of Memories utilizes an overhead isometric view, follows a different storyline, and features returning creatures from the series' fictional universe, as well as cooperative gameplay.

[29][30] According to series producer Tomm Hulett, Book of Memories' gameplay is largely different from that of previous installments, focusing on cooperative multiplayer action rather than traditional psychological horror.

Silent Hill: Ascension is a Choose Your Own Adventure-style interactive game where viewers can vote on the direction of the story in real time, giving them agency in how the singular canon progresses, similar to other horror contemporaries such as Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and the 2020 continuation of Ben Drowned.

Drawn inside, Anita soon finds her sense of reality shattered as she encounters bizarre, otherworldly spaces haunted by a twisted monster.

An interviewer once asked: In response, Masashi Tsuboyama and Akira Yamaoka stated: In a sense this is true because the game began life as simply Room 302.

Locations included a burned, debilitated hotel, the Doyle Asylum for the mentally ill (which once housed Dahlia Gillespie), the Orphium movie theatre, a meat packing plant, catacombs, and the Order's lair.

[52][53] The opening scene was similar to the final game's, except Travis Grady (modeled after Norman Reedus during development)[54][55] pulls his truck over to stop Mister Twilight instead of Alessa.

Meanwhile, Michael Kaufmann, who works at the hospital, is studying a drug called White Claudia and believes it is linked to the strange events occurring in Silent Hill.

Climax began a project called Brahms PD, a spin-off to the main franchise, featuring an amnesiac police detective searching for his partner as the protagonist.

In addition to the shooting gameplay, the game was to include transition sequences featuring sessions with a police psychiatrist, making it "the world's first truly interactive psychological horror."

[32] Konami later released a statement confirming Reedus's departure but clarified that the series would continue to be developed, with no mention of the current status of Silent Hills.

[71][72][73] The film Return to Silent Hill, developed by Christophe Gans, ultimately served as the catalyst for Konami's decision to revitalize the brand.

Konami invited HexaDrive to a meeting around 2019, alongside several competing studios, asking them to create a pitch demo for a Silent Hill 2 remake.

He later reiterated this in an interview with JeuxActu, elaborating that the third film project would be part of a "relaunch" of the Silent Hill brand, accompanied by new video game.

While some of the development planning is more reminiscent of a Japanese village, indirect influence comes from two factual American towns in particular: Cushing, Maine[b] and Snoqualmie, Washington.

Characters in the series experience delusions and encounter tangible symbols of elements from their unconscious minds, mental states, and innermost thoughts when present in it,[81][82] manifested into the real world.

The origin of these manifestations is a malevolent power native to Silent Hill, which materializes human thoughts; this force was formerly non-evil but was corrupted by certain events that occurred in the area.

[102][103] The player characters in every Silent Hill game have access to a variety of melee weapons and firearms, with Origins and Downpour also featuring rudimentary hand-to-hand combat.

Despite the profit-oriented approach of the parent company, the developers of Silent Hill had significant artistic freedom because the game was still produced in the era of lower-budget 2D titles.

Eventually, the development staff decided to ignore the limits of Konami's initial plan and to make Silent Hill a game that would appeal to the emotions of players instead.

[110] The story of the second installment, Silent Hill 2, was conceived by CGI director Takayoshi Sato, who based it on the novel Crime and Punishment, with individual members of the team collaborating on the game's actual scenario.

[112] He said that the development team intended to make Silent Hill a masterpiece rather than a traditional sales-oriented game, opting for an engaging story that would persist over time—similar to successful literature.

[109] The games are known to have drawn influence from media such as Jacob's Ladder, Phantoms, Session 9, Alien, Stephen King's The Mist, and the art of Francis Bacon, largely through cultivating a technique of inducing fear through more psychological levels of perception.

The evil spirit-dispelling substance Aglaophotis, which appears in the first installment and Silent Hill 3, is based on a herb of similar name and nature in the Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism).

[121][122][123][124][125][126][127] The musical pieces range in genre from industrial to trip hop to rock, with some tracks featuring vocals by voice actress Mary Elizabeth McGlynn.

Praise for Silent Hill 2 was particularly aimed at its dark, cerebral narrative and storytelling, its exploration and handling of mature themes and concepts such as mental illness and domestic abuse, its sound design and musical composition, and its atmospheric and frightening tone and direction.

Silent Hill 3 was well received by critics, especially for its presentation, including its environments, graphics, and audio, as well as the overall horror elements and themes continued from past installments.

It was adapted and directed by French film director, producer, and writer Christophe Gans, who is a big fan of the Silent Hill game series.