"Silent Hill has been a really big part of my life for several years now. I remember getting really into actually playing the games after The Room came out, and boy was I hooked instantly! 


I've played the original through to Downpour and I love each one of them. Origins is my favorite, though I'm the first to admit it has its flaws. What I enjoy most about the series is that it has a little something for everyone. For those of us who love to ponder theories for hours on end these games give us a lot to think about. The characterisation is great, and I personally really enjoy the indirect story telling via notes that is a common thread across the series. There's plenty of challenge for those who like to do 10 star and speed runs. The music is delightful for audiophiles and the visuals still look great on the original games to this day. Another fun aspect for me is that the clothing from the games is usually pretty realistic. (That can also be a challenge in itself to faithfully recreate pieces whose rib-knit is a certain size, or whose pockets are folded just a certain way). As a cosplayer, I love the attention to detail that the programmers put into the character maps. For example, Richard's dress shirt has no pockets on it. The only type of men's dress shirts like that are the custom tailored ones, and if you think about it, that matches his character's personality so well! Regular dress shirts would just not be good enough for Richard Braintree, right? That is the kind of thing you find in this series all over the place, from items, to clothing, to locations, and I really adore it. 

I am a huge stickler for accuracy with the costumes I make, and because I'm a perfectionist I'm never completely satisfied with my work for one reason or another, especially because I tend to make horribly beginner errors like parting the wig incorrectly or putting my holster on the wrong side of the costume. Surprisingly, I have found that making accurate Silent Hill costumes can be a real challenge. Many people assume that you can stroll into a thrift store and find the right piece of clothing because most of the characters wear every day casual clothes. This works for certain characters really well, but for others I have found that it is actually a lot harder and either takes many fruitless trips to thrift stores, or the realisation that I somehow have to make a mock M-65-esque jacket because the real ones are missing the front pockets that James' has, and then I went and botched the patches on it after I put all the work into making the jacket itself sadly, so that whole project was just frustrating! Sometimes (most of the time?) things just don't turn out as I envision them in my head. 

The process is just so different from being able to just make something because I don't have to worry about the grain of the fabric, or how the jeans are distressed. If I want to make something from an anime series like a uniform, all I have to do is dash off to a fabric store and buy cotton sateen for the blouse and kona cotton for the skirt, whip it out, and it is done. In contrast, if I want to make tomboy Dahlia's pants from Shattered Memories, I have to either hunt in thrift stores for the impossibly correct shade of khaki pants without too many pockets on them until I go mad, or I have to make cargo pants from absolute scratch and then paint the camo print on there so that it matches the game render.  For adult Cheryl, I can't just buy a brown plaid shirt. I have off white fabric waiting to be carefully turned into plaid. The fun thing about it is that it is always a challenge and a learning experience, but the unfortunate thing is that if it is done well, the pieces look like store bought clothes in the end, and are thus largely unimpressive to most people. Shoes are probably the toughest thing to do correctly, but my best friends who got me into the hobby taught me well when we were all just kids discovering this this wonderful nerdy endeavour. They showed me how shoes really make or break a costume, so shoes need to be given the same consideration, if not more, as the rest of the outfit. 

 To date, my favorite costume is my Maria. It's not perfect, nowhere near it, but I was still happy about how it all came together, especially the makeup because that is something I struggle with. I also was proud of it because it was fairly tough to make. I hand crafted each leopard spot, and on the back of the skirt it matches the render file almost 1:1. Plus, I had an awesome James to cosplay her together with!  I have been really spoiled to have the opportunity to cosplay with a friend of mine who has been into the series since the original game came out, so that's been a great experience as well.  I love the hobby, the fandom, my fellow extremely talented Silent Hill cosplayers, and I will be continuing to slowly check off costumes I have planned to make. When I'm done, and if I get to everything I want to, I'll have cosplayed the majority of female characters in all the games, including some of the different versions of the ones from Shattered Memories. Right now I've got fabric for a lot of my planned work and have a lot of costumes in various stages of progress too.


You can check out more of her incredible cosplays via the links:
Anne Cunningham, SHSM Dahlia, Cybil Bennett, SHSM Lisa, Lisa Garland, Nurse Eileen, Maria, Judge Holloway, 
Casual Lisa SHSM, Elle Holloway, Mary, Eileen.

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I'm pretty sure that everybody has heard of the Singin' in the Rain at some point in their lives. I remember seeing it once on television when I was younger and I loved it. Gene Kelly's fantastic and singing just wowed me, and it has always been stuck in my mind. 

There is a point to this opening, but I'll come back to it later.

For me, the Silent Hill series has been a hate/love affair. I played a demo of the first game when I was six years old, I played through the school section and it gave me nightmares. It also gave me an irrational fear of buildings at night. I got into the series when I played SH1 again in 2011, and I fell in love. The story, atmosphere, music, just everything was perfect. It was something I had never experienced in my then eleven years of gaming (I was fourteen at the time). 

I played through every subsequent entry after that, and I fell in love even more. I eventually found out that a new game in the series was being developed under the codename of Silent Hill 8, later becoming Silent Hill Downpour. I remember rushing out of school on the day it came out. I picked up the game along with the HD Collection, and quickly rushed back to my house. I put the game in, sat back, and watched the intro. I knew I was in for an interesting experience. Two weeks later, I was still playing.

Downpour follows the story of Murphy Pendleton, a convict at Ryall State Prison who is being transferred to Wayside Maximum Pentientiary due to his history there. The bus transporting the convicts crashes outside Silent Hill, and so begins Murphy's journey of acceptance and redemption. Downpour's storyline is well-written and engaging. Murphy is a very sympathetic character, you really feel for the guy when you find what happened to him, and why he ended up in prison. David Boyd Konrad does a fantastic job at bringing this character to life, and this helps make us connect with Murphy even more. 

The supporting characters are also very well-written with my favorite being Frank Coleridge, a prison officer who develops a friendship with Murphy and does his best to help him secure his release by recommending him to the prison parole board. He is very well voiced by Leer Leary.

Downpour's gameplay is from the usual third-person perspective, and follows in a similar vein to the previous entries in the series. You explore the town of Silent Hill, and try to escape the horrible abominations that are lurking in the town. Pretty much the usual then. Downpour does have a few tricks up its sleeve. 

Weather plays an important part in Downpour (considering the name, I think that's obvious). Heavy downpours will occur at random moments which will increase the number of monsters in the area, and make them more aggressive. This really makes the game more tense, knowing that at any moment, it could rain and bring the monsters out in groups.

Side Quests make a welcome addition in Downpour. Throughout the town, you will find notes, documents and buildings to enter that will initiate side quests. Some of the Side Quests contain some of my favorite moments in the game, and one even got to me on a deep, personal level. You get some pretty nice rewards for completing these so they're worth doing.

Downpour features some of the best licensed music I have heard in a game. Silent Hill still has a functioning radio station and you can listen to it by turning on any of the radios you find throughout the town. The songs do a great job of acting as a metaphor, and they connect very well to the story. (I wanted a Lover, I needed a Friend by The Coals is easily the best one in my opinion.) There's even a few apperances by Silent Hill's Greatest Hits.

I adore the atmosphere in Downpour. That feeling of loneliness and isolation is beautifully crafted, thanks to the excellent sound design and art style. Walking through the forests leading into Silent Hill is one of the most peaceful yet tense experiences I have ever had in a game.

I could go on and on about makes Downpour amazing but the bottom line is that I love the game. I love it. Remember at the start of the article, I talked about how Singin' in the Rain wowed me and stayed in my mind. Downpour gave me that feeling as well, and it has never let go. 

Now if only Murphy Pendleton could have an umbrella and bowler hat...