Silent Hill
I was only 10 years old when I decided to convince my parents to let me rent Silent Hill for the original PlayStation. They warned me it was scary and that it would probably be hard to play. I didn’t care. I wanted to play it, and my parents couldn’t convince me otherwise. What a mistake that was.
The intro scared me. The opening scene scared me. The way the fog hid everything scared me. And then I reached the very early section where you walk into a dark alley and tiny, knife-wielding monsters that I assumed were kids leap out and attack. I screamed, turned on the lights, and watched the ensuing cutscene. I might have played a few more seconds afterward, but I don’t remember anything beyond that. For years, I assumed I had played a few hours of the game. But looking up walkthroughs, it turns out I barely made it 20 minutes into Silent Hill before running away scared.—Zack Zwiezen
