Silent Hill has appeared in the restless dreams of horror fans for almost three decades now. The foggy town and its various iterations, plagued by the Otherworld, continue to define the mechanics and ambience of psychological horror to this day.
Each Silent Hill game contains a relatively standalone story, tied to whatever character the Otherworld has decided to bring to its doorstep. However, the lore of Silent Hill develops across games through returning characters as well as memos, posters, and other small details. Despite its fill of contradictions, some of which are only natural for games with multiple endings, there’s a larger story lurking in the background of each protagonist’s path to atonement (or madness).
If the release of Silent Hill: Townfall has sparked your curiosity about how the timeline all fits together, we’ve got you covered.
How Many Silent Hill Games Are There?
Approximately 18 Silent Hill games have been released since the franchise debuted in 1999.
Four Silent Hill games were originally developed by Team Silent between 1999 and 2004. Subsequent games, including plenty of spinoffs, were developed by a variety of studios across Japan and North America.
Konami has also published four Silent Hill games for mobile devices: The Orphan trilogy and Silent Hill: The Escape. These have some murky connections to the rest of the franchise. For simplicity’s sake, we are not including these on the full timeline, but there’s still some lore in those for anyone trying to get the full Silent Hill picture.
We also won’t be including the Play Novel, which reimagines the original game, or the interactive streaming series Silent Hill: Ascension.
Which Silent Hill Game Should You Start With?
Where to start is really a matter of what drew you to the series and whether you’re interested in the original gameplay. If you’re looking for a taste of the series on modern consoles, Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake is a faithful recreation with some quality of life improvements.
If you’re interested in Silent Hill for lore reasons, there’s no harm in starting at the beginning or even with the original Silent Hill 2. Unless you still have a PS1 and can somehow get your hands on an original copy (very cool, if so), your best bet here is looking for emulation guides.
Every Silent Hill Game in Timeline Order
The first four Silent Hill games are considered the “major canon,” with subsequent spin-offs and standalone games making references to the original story, but also creating some contradictions. Some games are directly connected, some loosely reference one another, and others are pretty much entirely their own thing.
Still, we have a rough sense of when these games take place, and it’s up to you how they fit into your understanding of the Otherworld.
1. Silent Hill ƒ
The timeline of Silent Hill games actually starts with one of the most recent installments. Silent Hill ƒ takes us to the town of Ebisugaoka in the 1960s, marking the first time the series was set in Japan.
While some loose connections to the lore of the American Silent Hill are revealed through memos and documents, Silent Hill f’s characters, locations, and “version” of the Otherworld are entirely distinct. You play as Hinako, a teenaged girl living in fear of her own future and family, with a unique approach to save states and endings enhanced by writing from Ryukishi07.
2. Silent Hill: Origins
Silent Hill Origins is a prequel that, despite releasing later, directly connects to the original Silent Hill and Silent Hill 3 as part of the “Alessa Gillespie” arc. It also marks the start of some inconsistencies and, despite its direct connection to the mainline games, is debated in its place as canon.
The story, which by in-game logic takes place around the late 70s, follows the truck driving Travis after a crash brings him to Silent Hill. There, he slowly discovers the cult-driven secrets of the town while reckoning with his own traumatic childhood. It’s specifically the “Good” ending from this game that leads into the original Silent Hill, quite literally paving the way for the character of Cheryl.
3. Silent Hill
The original Silent Hill, naturally, stood on its own two feet. It introduced us to the opaque fog that, while serving a practical purpose around real-time generated environments, became the series’ atmospheric staple.
In the late 80s (if you go by Silent Hill 3 logic), a mysterious car crash leads Harry Mason to the eponymous town of Silent Hill. There, he searches for his now missing young daughter, Cheryl, while encountering the original strange cast of characters and nightmares of the Otherworld.
While the canon on this is a bit iffy, we can now think of it as continuing from the “Good” ending of Silent Hill: Origins. And, of course, paving the way for everything else.
4. Silent Hill 2
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