Resident Evil 2 confirmed the genre was sticking around, and this spawned other titles like Parasite Eve and Capcom's own Dino Crisis.
The other major survival horror series from this era is Silent Hill, with the original game debuting on PS1 in 1999. In contrast to Resident Evil's b-movie storytelling, Silent Hill put a greater emphasis on psychological horror and subtext - in addition to featuring genuinely terrifying monsters. Silent Hills, but a falling out between Kojima and Konami saw this project cancelled and the removal of its acclaimed demo P.T. from the PlayStation Store.
Silent Hill received a remake with 2009's Silent Hill: Shattered Memories in 2009. This Wii title took the basic premise of the first game - where Harry Mason's daughter goes missing in the titular town and he must track her down - and completely reinvented the story. The game made use of the Wii's remote, which doubled as Harry's flashlight as he explored the town, which was now prone to freezing over instead of transforming into the hellish Otherworld. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories periodically featured sections with a therapist asking psychological questions, with players answers' altering the world, which could make enemies look more twisted or affect how the environment itself appeared.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories was later ported to the PlayStation 2 in 2010, and while it lost the functionality of the remote and occasionally suffered framerate issues, it was still a solid port; Shattered Memories also received a PlayStation Portable version. The game itself is an atmospheric and engrossing ride, with a surprisingly emotional twist ending. That said, fans take issue with the fact it isn't terribly scary. Harry is safe from attack when the world hasn't frozen over, and the only type of enemy that appears during the occasional chase sequences are more irritating than frightening. Still, it takes the psychological horror formula of the series and gives it a unique spin.
Since it arrived relatively late in the PlayStation 2's lifespan, the Silent Hill: Shattered Memories port tends to be forgotten about. It appears Konami didn't print many copies of this port either, as trying to track down a PS2 copy of the game can set players back around $70 or more through eBay or Amazon. The Wii version of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is really how it was meant to be played, but the PS2 port still makes for a great, underrated survival horror title.
