Silent Hill is back after a break of over a decade. But with several new Silent Hill games in the works, perhaps it’s time to revisit the series. If you’re wondering how to play the Silent Hill games in order, here’s what you need to know.
How to Play the Silent Hill Games in Order
Before I go any further, there’s one thing you need to know about the Silent Hill games, and that’s that some are a little hard to get hold of. Several have been delisted/retired, and while you can get Silent Hill 2 on the Xbox via backward compatibility, it’s based on an earlier build. In fact, the “Silent Hill HD Collection” infamously contains a sign where the text is Comic Sans. Also, while the version of Silent Hill 2 in that collection has new and old voices, Silent Hill 3 only has new voice-overs.
You can also jump back and forth between some of the games. Silent Hill 2, for example, works alone. But Silent Hill 3 all but requires knowledge of the original Silent Hill.
However, if you want to play the Silent Hill games in order, here’s the “correct” order for the main series:
- Silent Hill
- Silent Hill 2
- Silent Hill 3
- Silent Hill 4: The Room
- Silent Hill: Origins
- Silent Hill: Homecoming
- Silent Hill: Downpour
- Silent Hill: The Short Message
Origins is a prequel, but, like Silent Hill 3, it’ll make a lot less sense if you’ve not played Silent Hill. It’s tempting to label The Short Message as a spin-off, but it still feels like a main Silent Hill game, albeit a shorter one.
Related: Is Silent Hill: The Short Message on Xbox or PC?
Silent Hill 4: The Room was the last game to be created by the Japan-based Team Silent. A couple of members of Team Silent worked on The Short Message, but up until that point, most Silent Hill games were handled in the West.
There are also several spin-offs/side games, which are of questionable canon. Here are those games in order:
- Play Novel: Silent Hill
- Silent Hill: The Arcade
- Silent Hill: Orphan
- Silent Hill: Orphan 2
- Silent Hill: The Escape
- Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
- Silent Hill: Orphan 3
- Silent Hill: Book of Memories
Orphan, Orphan 2, Orphan 3, and The Escape are all mobile games, which, while worth checking out for curiosity’s sake, aren’t all that brilliant, so far as I’ve played them. I’ve yet to play the Vita-only Silent Hill: Book of Memories, but it’s a pretty big dungeon-crawler-style departure from the main games.
The one spin-off/remake you absolutely should play is Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, from Sam Barlow, the creator of Immortality. It takes the original game and reimagines it as a frosty tale about… well, I’m not going to spoil it. Just play it.
And that’s how to play the Silent Hill games in order.
Silent Hill: The Short Message is free to play on PlayStation 5.
