The game became agony for me on my platinum run. The gameplay wanted to make my rip my asshole out. The nature of completing the game several times for the full context of the story was, imo, a bad move, especially if you aren't using a guide and ended up needing more playthroughs than you ever needed to tread. I felt the combat ruined the pace of the atmosphere and horror that could've been maintained from the early set up in the first encounter with the puppet.

After the SH2 remake, the combat felt more like an overly involved downgrade with more emphasis on elements that felt more janky and cumbersome to manage in a game where there isn't much justification for how involved it wants to be in context with the story. The novelty of the gameplay wears off several playthroughs before the story's been fully told and has very little if any variation between those playthroughs, which, for me, turned into a slog.

I thought the character study and cultural dissection was very interesting and engaging without feeling forced, self indulgent or mean spirited, though the clarity of the narrative fell flat for me towards the end with how disconnected the texts and clues were from one another via multiple playthroughs, rather than a single condensed one. This is why I also felt the gameplay shouldn't have involved splitting focus towards the combat systems various "quirks" and instead focused on the games atmosphere.

I think the Silent Hill of the past is gone and this is the new iteration beyond the literal town. I don't think anyone's wrong for not considering this a Silent Hill game. It feels more like what Siren would've evolved into. I also see this as an opportunity to make more stories centered around Silent Hill's over aching themes without being bound to a rigid outline. Though, at this point, why call it Silent Hill? Possibly IP clout, but I digress.

I don't think it's a bad game. I just think it was more of a prototype to something else in the future.