Silent Hill Series in 2024

Thought I'd just do a thread on my experience playing these old games on PC in 2024. They mostly run fine and most of them have some fix mods on pc gaming wiki site which I've used a few. Some details are using win10, 2060 90w mobile, i5 10300h, 16gb. I usually run these off my secondary internal NVME but these games don't really need that an old hdd would be fine I just do it for convenience. I have a 120hz screen but have a 60fps global lock via NCP for wear and convenience, fans are not jet engines.

I also disable turboboost normal usage to drop temps and unneeded fan usage for little difference in real games like RDR2, CP77, GTAV and others. I disable it simply by power settings to limit it to 99% so it only stays at the base of 2.4ghz. If I need to unpack something I enable it as it goes double speed there.

So I'll just do one post about the ones I've played recently. 2, 3,4,5. None of these are steam versions they're old versions I've had for years. 4 is the Gog version. I use an xbone controller which works fine in all of them.

 

So we'll start with 2. I've had this forever, played it first on PS2, then pc version for years now.

I used the Enhanced Edition this time but vanilla is usually fine too. The default controller settings work fine for this game as well but EE may have had some fixes I wasn't aware of in there. My default vanilla game is 2.3gb and EE adds in 5.3gb for around 7.6gb game. I run these at my native 1920x1080.

I had no issues with this game from start to the "leave" finish and also played the Maria scenario fine. So there's not much to say, only the EE was used everything else vanilla. I think it was 60fps.

You can get this abandonware at myabandonware site which has both 2 and 3 rips and isos. I used my version from years ago already installed just copied the folder over to my nvme from external hdd storage. I recommend a rip version, deviate and gamecopyworld site has lots of trainers which I use one and other stuff. The ISO version you can mount natively in Win10 and 11 no need for another program.

Great game, classic.

 

SH3 I've had also for years but I grabbed a repack also and it worked fine I think it's about 4gb installed. I did grab some stuff from pcgw. Steam006's AIO fix, intro skippers, a trainer, etc This runs fine as well. I'm still early game the mall but I've played this through a few times on PC before without the AIO fix I had a few of the fixes that are likely in the AIO fix like FOV, widescreen etc I used an xinput for controller but I don't even think I needed it the games not broken just old. I didn't have that last time.

You can grab this at myabandonware free. This game like 2 and 4 unfortunately doesn't have full controller support. There is no standard 3d cam controls it's forced perspective you can shift with a button as needed. But it's fine once you get used to it. I'm pretty sure you can get enb or reshade for all of these games, never bothered they look fine and I like the grain it gives it a nice atmosphere. Pretty sure this runs at 60, might even do this without the AIO fix but why not right?

 

SH4 is the one I could never get into but this time I did and I'm in the second half with Eileen at the Water Prison second time. I am a bit bored though as the second half is just getting through what you did in the first half just escorting Eileen with new gimmicks to get through etc. I have the GOG version. It's like 3-5gb install I think.

I also grabbed an AIO fix by Steam006 and the Randomizer to enable the hauntings which Steam006 AIO also enables but I disabled it there and enabled it in randomizer. I had to go into the INI file on Randomizer and disable the cutscenes and model randomizer as it game me a weird face bug. I also disabled the random enemies not my fave to have 5x enemies sometimes to deal with.

I use a trainer from gamecopyworld so it's not tedious frankly. Uh I got the sound files but never bothered to install them.

The controls are not the best but I'm used to them now. You can get full 6 axis camera on the mouse but controller is left stick for moving forward, side to side view and the rest for various stuff. D pad works fine also. To look up down it's the triggers, reset camera is I think RB. 3rd person is fine, fixed cam with a swing option.

I'm pretty sure this is 60 also. No crashes etc

 

SH5 is the most modern one of the mainline series and I like it. It's not broken like they say on steam. The reason it's broken there is steam applies compatibility settings which mess it up. DON'T use any compatibility settings at all and you'll be fine. ALWAYS try old games WITHOUT compatibility FIRST.

This time I also tried DXVK 2.3 and it works fine, so runs in vulcan. I have run it normally dx9 and that works fine too I just like to tinker and see if it's any better in vulcan, no difference imo.

I use Radiance trainer to cut down on hassle as well. The AIO fix is just editing the games var.cfg file to unlock FPS and other things, it's really not necessary. I installed it to an empty folder to see what it is. The game doesn't need any fancy fixes for most of it.

The one thing I noticed was the sound which is only mostly in one side of the headphone. I don't remember that from my last play in 2020 so I may try to fix that. The sound AIO mod is huge and only an exe which can't be installed to an empty folder so you can't see what it's doing changing. Haven't applied it yet. My last play might have been in win7 though, but not likely I think I switched to 10 in 19 or 20. So maybe Win7 is more compatible there. So maybe I'll try Win7 compatibility instead of Vista I tried before see if that fixes the sound.

This one has modern 6 axis cam for controllers default and I didn't have any problems w the default controller config. It doesn't have the native buttons so you have to get used to it or apply the AIO which I think has it.

Great game and I played it to finish on PC back in 20 as I still have the saves to prove it on here. The AIO also changes the save loc which I don't like btw. All in all it's a fine SH game, has the music, atmosphere and such of the series. I like it better than 4 from that POV but 4 is a more horror game than 5 is with the hauntings and flying ghosts and such to contend with. This one is a bit more mainstream family heritage and secret society type game that has Shepherds Glen town play similar to SH2 which is my fav so it's a nice similar feels. But for absolute horror 4 is really one of the best.

I think if you can find it NON-steam you're better off frankly. The bad rep it has from that is due to steam itself getting in the way.

So that's it. My order of favs goes 2-3-5-4 and like I said 4 is no slouch and the most horror of the bunch imo but needs proper gamepad controls and also the second half repeat of the same levels gets really old. I'll push through eventually but 5 is so much more qol and SH2 like that I'll probably do that til I'm end game.

 

Coming back I was only getting 30fps in SH5 even changing the var cfg file to 60, the refresh rate to 120hz worked but not the fps to 60. So I installed the AIO fix from pcgw link and yeah it fixes it, it's way more zippy as well I think he adjusted the input sensitivity which the game doesn't have in normal menus and it's way better. Also the AIO fix fixes the audio which is great. The audio big fix didn't do that it was the AIO fix that did it.

So wow it works great now. Totally recommend the AIO fix for SH5 on the pcgw page. Just make sure you note it changes the save file location from the public documents folder to the games folder in engine/savefiles which all the other SH games do by default so that's actually MUCH better to have saves located where the game is located. Easy to find and when I drag this fixed version over the old version on the hdd it will all be there, no hunting for save files locations etc.

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Silent_Hill:_Homecoming

 

Note that I had to remove vulkan due to the fixer using a modified version of dx9 but it works great. Even the old trainer for v1.0 from years ago still works and I think the fixer added a bit of sharpening which is nice it seems to look a bit better but that could be placebo or something.

 

And finally the sound big fix file seems to turn elements of the audio way too high that don't seem to scale with the in game volume which is a killer where you have a lot of sudden happenings and suddenly the sound volume is painful it's so loud. I'm using headphones so it's terrible. I uninstalled the big fix sound files mod so we'll see next bootup I'll report back. I've had none of that w the other SH games as it's just vanilla sound.

 

Nope it's exclusive to cutscenes and semi-cutscenes when new monsters come at you mini bosses. Blows my ears out I have to take off the head phones quick. Going to see about that.

 

Ok so the only fix I can see is opening vol mixer and setting sh5 to 25% then adjusting the rest of the sounds way up, but what a pain. Why cutscenes play at full blast is another one of those SH5 mysteries I guess.

 

I powered through and finished SH4 in about 11hrs30mins. I got the Mother ending where you save Eileen but your room is still haunted since I never bothered to figure out how to purify the hauntings and such. It's def the most horrorful game in the series the others are mostly psych horror not too nasty looking stuff and such. This one could really use a remake after 2-3 which are better overall games. They're better due to more interesting worlds and in 4 you have to escort eileen through the previous worlds you went through which is a lot of backtracking and also managing eileen since she can't go down latters and such so it bogs down at times then when you have to leave her you've got to go find her again to then go a certain way so she can follow.

Eileen could have teleported or something idk to cut down the management aspects and they could have come up with 4 new worlds to then make it more new game play instead of just a modified second half of the game that was much less interesting. In the other games the backtracking isn't as tedious and it's always to get to new places with items you got before. Like SH2 I'm not going to replay just for a different cutscene at the end, easily just read about or watched online.

I also noticed this one ran at 30fps and from the comments on pcgw if you apply the 60fps mod it results in game breaking bugs. Konami or GOG could have at least patched that in themselves when that version was released in 20.

 

5 can get a bit tedious frankly, the biggest good things are lots of sh2 style walking in the fog and the good camera vs. the mostly fixed cams of the other games. 4 is good horror but isn't too SH despite the story tie in or whatever I'm not into the lore that much if it's obvious that's fine but I'm not going to go through it much. There's no obvious tie there.

Any game that needs you to lookup what next has bad game design and 3 and 5 are the two worst ones in this aspect. In 2 it's just natural so you don't need to lookup as much, same with 4 as you're just doing modified versions of what you did in the first half. 5 I'm kind of stuck due to a bug introduced by the trainer which locks enemies in place. In the church an enemy opens a gate for you but I blasted it and it couldn't move so I'm kind of stuck I'm not sure if I boot back up it will respawn. Eh the church is the second to last level and I don't know that it's too interesting an ending and such, may just call it good frankly.

The puzzles in 5 are badly designed also, the family crest one is really terrible and almost everyone has to look up the soln which is bad game design. It's a horror story game with lite puzzles not a hardcore puzzle game. Ridiculous. I get the occasional crash and at some points transitioning it goes into a stutter fest even with the megafix so you have to reload. The save points are way too far apart also, why you can't save anywhere you want is also bad. You only get about 6 save slots also, in 4 you get 30 but most of these SH games were made for ps2 consoles and they never bothered to update certain things for the more open flexible pc gamer.

 

3 which I'm also playing here and there is also a bad game design as far as what's next. So you have to either wander around w that atrocious camera and look or the map shows nothing new so it's easy to just get stuck. I think I need to find the nutcracker for the walnut which has a jewel inside of it then put it in the moon door there. Of course a child could smash a walnut by stepping on it but vg logic. So weird having a gun, other tools but you need to find a nutcracker for a walnut, ridiculous. I'm just not into 3 as much this time around, played it a few times. It is the second best one after 2 of course but is kind of tedious to me also.

2 and 4 were really ones I either never played to the ending like 4 or 2 I haven't played in years. We'll see if the 2 remake is any good, likely the focus will be on combat so it will be an eerie game but faster and more action oriented than the original. The 6 axis camera will be welcome for me, I don't hold on to the past that much. Similar to the DE versions of GTA 3d trilogy, liked them better they had so much better QOL and looked better.

True RS kind of shat over the classics there with the change in atmospherics in SA and 3. 3 was dank and dark, but the DE version looks like a mario colors thing. SA instead of having he ps2 original color tone also looks like a mario color game and they oddly put in reflections on the cars and such which feels out of place frankly. There are only 4 weather types in SA DE as opposed to more in the original game and such. The models in SA look really weird like the hands are gruesome to look at and the faces have been massacred.

 

Yeah I tried to load up an earlier save in SH5 to get to the Church again so the monster would open the door and the earlier prison save bugged out and I had to remember to not have one hit kill for the boss because all of them have some sort of ending animation where you have to go right up to them and use a hand weapon. Makes no sense of course, a gun can do the damage up to that point but somehow you have to finish them by hand, it's really stupid.

So the prison boss bugged out and froze, just loading that save resulted in a slideshow, then I tried to reload and the game crashed. So I'm done with SH5 deleted gone. I was at the end of the church and about to enter the final bunker part so it's not a big loss and no more agro from this game is a bonus.

So I loaded up SH3 and still can't find the dumbAF nutcracker for the walnut to put the jewel in the moon door. The camera angles are the worst in this game because you're in enclosed hallways with branching off and such it sucks. And Heather walks really slow, games a slog and I doubt I'll finish it this time around. I just don't have the patience for it. SH2 was really why I even came back to this series and it didn't disappoint, by far the best one.

4 was a nice bonus to this series replay. Great game too just needs some qol really and it's the least SH feeling game of 2-5, there's no foggy streets or cemetaries and is too gimmicky with the room to be a proper SH game which is mostly about cults and SH and surrounding. This wasn't about that just some serial killer and apartment dwellers and some mother goddess. 4 shouldn't have been a SH game and really isn't one just in name only.

 

Now that I only have sh3 going on and the others are done and gone I am to the really terrible subway section of sh3, total maze and a major hallmark of bad game design is having to go online to get a guide to what next or where next. 3 is just not a well designed game in that respect, SH2 you sort of naturally always knew where to go and it flowed, also you were given tips to where to go next but not the exact route or what was in between. Much better game than 3.

Even in the mall it was a chore to find where to next and the stupid vise you can easily miss to break open a walnut is nonsensical. A child of 7yo or so could just break a walnut by jumping on it and this teenager can't? Really stupid. SH3 is way overrated in this series and heather is very annoying, trannee body as well. No hips large upper body etc

It's just that the others aren't that much better, 4 has little of a SH game in it frankly, it's an odd duck of a typical japanese gimmick horror, like the ring video tape thing, crowbarred into the SH series. 5 isn't too bad and def feels more SH than 4 does. I liked 4 but it took a while and half the game is obnoxious backtracking with a gimp to escort. 5 is so badly made from a perf pov, there are a lot of load screens for nonsensical things like going from kitchen to a little backyard outside or going from outside to the basement and similar stuff that didn't need loading screens, slideshow sometimes, crashes etc I never got any of that with 4 at least.

 

And as to where to next and such where it flowed 4 and 5 were much better than 3 also. I usually put 3 behind 2 in my best Sh games list but idk this time I liked 4 and 5 better than 3, game flowed better, both of those had better cameras and movement.

Just the annoying subway in SH3 all looks the damn same thing, there's nothing interesting to look at there, so why the hell even put that stupid level in there but padding? The mall isn't much better either. 4 also has a subway section but it's much more interesting with having to go through the maze of cars to get to one side or the other.

So I'll look it up how to get through that stupid subway section in 3, I vaguely remember having to jump down into the track and head back up somehow to the bergen street side or something.

 

Ok so once you finally get out of the subway it's fairly easy to find your way to the office building and I had to consult a guide a few times for that, so now at the hospital and the dark side of it where it all looks like hell vs. the regular before like in 2. Just need to remember of lookup the hanging man and the altar sequence.

I do get tired of playing it after an hour or so though, the terrible camera, wonky old controls and obtuseness of it. For instance in the hospital there's a keycode you can only get by finding a polaroid camera and then putting together the idea you needed to take a pic of some moved cabinet which has a blood trail behind it. The keycode somehow is scrawled in blood on the back somewhere. I'm not sure how you're supposed to deduce that that's neeeded and where the keycode is located, for the third level door.

Now any normal 15-16yo would either be able to move it enough to see or be able to slide behind it to see but for the gimmick to work you can't do normal things, basically that's always the case in this and other games. Videogame logic is warped, some stuff is fine for ease of gaming, no one or most don't want to have to sleep 8hrs in game or cook and eat or go to the bathroom etc but a lot of it is nonsense. Locked doors with chains and padlocks can be shot off with a gun which you do have but you have to go find some wrench and such in a dank subway. Eh just too old for this nonsense really. Try to finish sh3 tonight.

 

SH3 still looks fine 21 years later. And for that long it plays fine despite the old school cameras and movement. Sure the textures are dated but it's not always a bad thing in dark environments with the standard grainy-filmy look of the game. Some of the places look pretty striking, like the closet in the hospital basement I mentioned above, when you come out of it and view the tiled wall next to the elevator it looks amazing with your flashlight shined on it idk why it just does.

I think if Konami weren't so focused on pachinko machines they could have remastered all of the 4 mainline games pretty easily even today, even easier than the capcom remasters of the first 2 games. Starting with RE2R they remade them with new assets and such. 4 actually mostly looks WORSE than 3 and the style of cutscenes in 2 is still very evocative and sylized to be not that retro looking tbh. 5 needs the bare minimum really, actually just needs a bunch of bug fixes and none of the overused loading screens. Obviously 1 is archaic and needs a full remake but 2 was the best one and most loved so that's why it's getting a full remake this year.

AI texture upgrades to the first 4 and modern camera and options with proper aspect ratios and you're mostly done. The original sound is fine, maybe a better remix or more accurate sounds to weapons and such.