Summary

Updated on July 03, 2025 by Mara Cowley: Silent Hillhas been effectively silent for many years. The franchise gained a long-awaited second breath with theSilent Hills Playable Teaser, but when that was canceled and the demo pulled from the PlayStation Store, many assumed this would be the final nail in the coffin, and that the series was just as abandoned as the fictional town.

But now Silent Hill has received another lease on life, remakingSilent Hill 2, arguably the most popular and critically acclaimed game in the series. Now is the perfect time to revisit the mist, and the characters that inhabited it, old and new.

Envy, depression, online validation, and the rocky shores of adolescent friendships…these are all sitations most young people will find themselves trying to navigate nowadays, especially in the digital age where everyone is seeking followers and likes.Silent Hill: The Short Messagestries to live up to its name, delivering a message about the dangers of these, and how envy can breed toxicity, and lead to unforeseen circumstances.

This message is conveyed through Anita, the playable character that ultimately caused her friend Maya to commit suicide due to her jealousy. While the intentions of this game are well-meaning, ultimately it is a little ham-fisted, and makes Anita a difficult character to like and relate to. Nevertheless, there are important lessons that can be learned through her struggles.

Silent Hill: Orphan

The town ofSilent Hillis shrouded in as much mystery as it is fog, and exploration will often lead to grizzly and tragic revelations, and this is especially true of the mobile game,Silent Hill: Orphan. An abandoned orphanage becomes the main setting of this title, where every child apart from 3 were murdered, one of the survivors being Karen, a playable character in this game.

As it turns out, Karen is the sister of Alessa who was manipulated into murdering the other children, but subsequently forgot her gruesome deed. However, Karen herself is not a cold-blooded killer which is something she makes apparent. She manages to survive not only the burdensome guilt of her past, and the monster Alessa unleashes, proving her resilience. But trapped in the confines of a mobile game that is not longer available, she is also one of the most forgettable.

10Mira The Dog

Adorable, Mischievous, and Playable in an Average Mobile Shooter

Despite being a dog that has very few brief appearances, Mira is still one of the most beloved characters in Silent Hill. Adorable and a little mischievous, players can’t help but love her even with the revelation she was the one behind everything if they achieve the fabled dog ending, which is no small feat.

What some players might not know is that Mira features as a playable character inSilent Hill: The Escape, a first-person dungeon crawler game released for mobile phones. Many iconic monsters from the Silent Hill series will appear, including famed series mascot Pyramid Head, but this game seems like a simple form of fanservice rather than a full title that will earn accolades.

His Personality is Largely Up to the Players

Silent Hill: Downpour

WHO CAN STOP THE RAIN?JOIN CONVICT MURPHY PENDLETON IN SILENT HILL, WHERE FEAR AND TORMENT ARE INESCAPABLE

Silent Hill: Downpourhas players controlling an unexpected character: that ofa convicted criminal, arrested for stealing a police car and taking it for a ride across borders. The game opens with him killing another criminal and is subsequently transported to another facility, the transport crashing on the way close to the eponymous town and allowing Murphy to make his escape, though he might have been better off sticking to prison.

Murphy is a largely ambiguous character, though his criminal proclivities offer a small glance into one of his facets. There are a few decisions players will have to make, such as whether to save office Anne Cunningham, which help to shape his personality This does place agency in the players' hand, and allows them some restricted freedom to create the kind of character they want to play, but it’s at the expense of having a fully-fleshed out character.

Silent Hill: Homecoming

While recovering in a military hospital from an injury gained in service, Alex Shepherd is discharged following news that his brother’s missing. He returns home to the little lake side town of Shepherds Glen, but all’s not as he left it…

…his father’s gone, his mother’s catatonic, and the town is eerily quiet. His quest for the truth leads to the ominous Silent Hill and some dark secrets.

With a plethora of weapons available Alex must battle horrific monsters and deadly puzzles to find his father and unravel the mystery behind his brother’s disappearance.

Silent Hill: Homecomingwas one of the more divisive games among fans. It saw a departure from the series with derivative monster design, very poorly handled ports, and a return of Pyramid Head, which should have been impossible given that his existence is tied to James Sunderland and his experience in the eponymous town.

But it wasn’t all bad. The graphics andsoundtrack were both excellent, and some saw potential in what the new developers could do. Another highlight of the game was its protagonist, who is one of the few playable characters that does have pre-existing combative abilities. He has his some realistic flaws, and a tragic backstory which do help to make him compelling, though he is far from being the best character.

A Heroic Character Who Once Saved Alessa’s Life

Silent Hill: Origins

THE NIGHTMARE BEGAN HERETHE ORIGIN OF SILENT HILL, THE DARK AND DEMENTED PLACE WE KNOW CAN NOW BE TOLD IN THIS PREQUEL TO THE ORIGINAL GAME.TRAVIS GRADY, A LONELY TRUCKER WITH A TROUBLED PAST, MUST SURVIVE THE NIGHT AS HE ENTERS THE FRIGHTENING TOWN OF SILENT HILL.GUIDE TRAVIS THROUGH THE STREETS OF SILENT HILL AS HE CONFRONTS HORRIFIC CREATURES AS WELL AS HIS OWN PERSONAL DEMONS.SOLVE TWISTED PUZZLES AND DISCOVER THE MYSTERIOUS SECRETS BEHIND THE EVIL THAT HAS CURSED THE TOWN OF SILENT HILL

The playable character ofSilent Hill: Origins, Travis Grady, has led a troubled life that often plagues him in the form of nightmares, but those are going to be nothing to the day terrors he experiences in Silent Hill. He rescues Alessa from a burning building which was part of a cult ritual to turn her into a vessel for their god. He is repayed for his heroics by awakening in the town of Silent Hill, and vows to find out if she survived.

As far asSilent Hillcharacters go, Travis might be one of themore selfless ones, not drawn to the town to pay for their sins or to exact vengeance, but to check if young Alessa is still alive. Unfortunately, Silent Hill is not a kind place to anyone, selfless or selfish.

Born from a wish, Maria appears to James inSilent Hill 2as he searches for his thought to be dead wife, with an uncanny resemblance to her. She is thought to be a manifestation of James’s desires or inability to cope with the guilt of his crime, but these are just theories that circulate throughout the Silent Hill fandom, but the separate scenario in which she is playable,Born from a Wish, lends some credibility to these hypotheses.

In this scenario, players will see things from Maria’s point of view, a little before the start of events. It lends more weight to her character, as she goes out of her way to help a neighbor with an impossible cause, but at the end of the day, she is still drawn to James, showing that she has little meaning outside of his shadow.

5Cybil Bennett

A Capable Cop with Boundless Courage

Cybil is one of the memorable characters from the original Silent Hill, and has appeared in themovie adaptationand a few more games, even becoming playable inPlay Novel: Silent Hill. Released solely in Japan, this game might be hard to find and even harder to play with anyone not versed in the language, but being able to play as Cybil might make it worthwhile.

The majority of the chapters are allocated to Harry Mason, the star of the first game, but Cybil is given a substantial 9 chapters, which is a retelling of the classic story but in an interactive novel formula. It’s a new and novel approach to experiencingSilent Hill, and shows how capable and badass Cybil Bennett truly is.

Silent Hill 2is the tragic tale of James Sunderland, who returns to his and his late wife’s favorite holiday destination, Silent Hill, after he receives a letter from her. Rather than being a peaceful getaway like how he remembers, he is met by a cornucopia of horrifying monsters, and thescariest of them all, Pyramid Head.

It is revealed towards the end of the game James is responsible for murdering his sick wife. This makes him not only an unreliable narrator, but the games' villain in a way. It is still tough not to sympathize with James when the revelation clearly breaks his heart.

Silent Hill 4: The Roomwas once theorized to be a game completely separate from theSilent Hillseries, with the name tacked on to garner interest. This theory was found out to be false, makingSilent Hill 4a part of the main series, and Henry Townsend aSilent Hillprotagonist in his own right. Trapped in his apartment when chains and padlocks appear on his door one day, Henry traverses through a hole in his bathroom to the other world, a twisted reflection of the outside world.

Strange events occur in these dimensions, and he hears tell of a string of murders, which match the MO of dead killer Walter Sullivan. Though an introverted lone-wolf, Henry gradually comes out of his shell, befriending and protecting Eileen and putting a stop to Walter’s killing. His is an everyday and ordinary man everyone can relate to, thrust into a situation that forces him to adapt or die.