Games

Silent Hill: Every Playable Character Ranked

Published

2 months ago

October 8, 2024

Christoph Rediske

Key Takeaways

Table of Contents

Silent Hill 2’s remake gave the franchise a new lease on life.
Silent Hill: The Short Message explores the dangers of envy in the digital age.
Silent Hill’s female characters, like Heather and Maria, play pivotal roles in the series.

Updated on October 8, 2024 by Mara Cowley: Silent Hill has been effectively silent for many years. The franchise gained a long-awaited second breath with the Silent 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.

Silent Hill: Best Female Characters In The Series, Ranked

Throughout the long-running history of Silent Hill, there have been more than a few women who have made their mark on the series.

But now Silent Hill has received another lease on life, remaking Silent 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.

12 Anita

A Stark Warning of the Dangers Envy Can Breed

Systems

Released: January 31, 2024
OpenCritic Rating: Weak

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 Messages tries 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.

11 Karen

A Strong Character in a Forgotten Game

Silent Hill: Orphan

Systems

Released: 2007-11
Developer(s): Gamefederation Studio

The town of Silent Hill is 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.

10 Mira The Dog

Adorable, Mischievous, and Playable in an Average Mobile Shooter

Platforms: Mobile
Release Date: December 23rd, 2008
Developers: Konami Digital Entertainment

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.

Best Dogs From Video Games

Dogs are animals with a ton of symbolic meaning. They stand for loyalty and friendship, which often makes them valued video game sidekicks.

What some players might not know is that Mira features as a playable character in Silent 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.

9 Murphy Pendleton

His Personality is Largely Up to the Players

Silent Hill: Downpour

Systems

Released: March 13, 2012
Developer(s): Vatra Games

Silent Hill: Downpour has players controlling an unexpected character: that of a 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.

8 Alex Shepherd

One of the More Capable Characters in Regard to Combat

Silent Hill: Homecoming

Released: September 30, 2008
Developer(s): Double Helix Games

Silent Hill: Homecoming was 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 and soundtrack 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.

7 Travis Grady

A Heroic Character Who Once Saved Alessa’s Life

Silent Hill: Origins

Systems

Released: November 6, 2007
Developer: Climax Studios

The playable character of Silent 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 as Silent Hill characters go, Travis might be one of the more 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.

6 Maria

Her Playable Scenario Sheds More Light on Her Existence

Silent Hill 2

Released: September 24, 2001
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty

Born from a wish, Maria appears to James in Silent Hill 2 as 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.

5 Cybil Bennett

A Capable Cop with Boundless Courage

Platforms: Game Boy Advance
Release Date: December 23rd, 2008
Developers: March 21st, 2001

Cybil is one of the memorable characters from the original Silent Hill, and has appeared in the movie adaptation and a few more games, even becoming playable in Play 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 experiencing Silent Hill, and shows how capable and badass Cybil Bennett truly is.

4 James Sunderland

A Tragic Protagonist

Systems

Released: October 8, 2024
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty

Silent Hill 2 is 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 the scariest 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.

3 Henry Townshend

A Relatable Character Forced into an Unrelatable Scenario

Released: September 7, 2004
Developer(s): Team Silent

Silent Hill 4: The Room was once theorized to be a game completely separate from the Silent Hill series, with the name tacked on to garner interest. This theory was found out to be false, making Silent Hill 4 a part of the main series, and Henry Townsend a Silent Hill protagonist 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.

Solit image featuring Pyramid Head, Scarlet and Alessa from various Silent Hill games.

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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.

2 Harry Mason

The First Protagonist was Not a Fighter, but Proved Himself Nonetheless

Silent Hill

Systems

Released: January 31, 1999

Harry Mason is the legend of Silent Hill. Appearing as the main character of the original Silent Hill back in 1999, Mason was a devoted family man. He adopted a daughter named Cheryl and dedicated his life to take good care of her. He lost Cheryl during their vacation-gone-wrong to the town of Silent Hill, and he was determined to find her.

It’s also worth noting that, while Silent Hill characters like Cybil Bennett (a cop) and Alex Shepherd (a former militia) were competent combatants, Harry Mason was only a small-time writer and loving dad, but his lack of combat skill is what makes Silent Hill a challenging game to finish, and makes him a more compelling character to play. Though he may be overshadowed by his adopted daughter Heather, Harry still deserves praise for his all-around excellent character.

1 Heather Mason

The Most Badass Silent Hill Protagonist

Silent Hill 3 is a continuation of the first game, years down the line. The first Silent Hill ends with Harry taking home the reborn baby of Alessa/Cheryl, giving her the name Heather to try and protect her from her past. Now all grown up, Heather is pulled into the nightmarish other world of rust, monsters, and cults, as The Order once more tries to use her body as the means to bring back their god.

Tomboyish, tough, courageous and outspoken, Heather became the favorite of many fans and its clear to see why. Though still young, she exhibits exemplary levels of bravery, able to stand uo for herself and to the monsters, but a softer side is shown when interacting with her father, and returning home to see his body. This well-rounded character so far remains the best to emerge from the Silent Hill franchise.

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