[[quoteright:254:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tumblr_m21ly0i5Fp1rse2wvo1_500_3516.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:254:Enter the town's latest [[IncrediblyLamePun prisoner]]...]]

'''''Silent Hill: Downpour''''', the eighth game in Konami's ''SilentHill'' franchise, follows the story of prison convict Murphy Pendleton and his visit to the best vacation town Hell ever conceived.

During a routine transfer to a new prison, the bus transporting Murphy crashes and leaves him a free man. With a security officer from the transport on his tail, Murphy - desperate for an escape route and an escape from ever-worsening weather - follows a worn-down road through the woods and into the world's least desirable holiday destination ever: SilentHill.

Once he arrives, Murphy's luck changes for the worse: as supernatural monsters begin to assault him at every turn (including two symbolic ubermonsters in The Bogeyman and The Wheelman), an otherworldly force threatens to rip his body and soul apart when he stumbles into [[GeniusLoci the Otherworld]]. He also discovers that he has more of a connection to the security officer trailing him than he ever knew - and that they each hold the key to the other's survival.

Like other games in this franchise, the town of Silent Hill takes on a unique personality that preys upon Murphy's inner turmoil. This time around, Silent Hill becomes washed out in torrential rain (representing [[spoiler:the prison showers where Murphy killed a child molester]]), and electricity (Murphy's fear of execution for his crimes) arcs across the landscape whenever Murphy travels into the Otherworld. Murphy also sees a lot of fire during his trips to the Otherworld, which likely represents his fear of Hell.

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!!Tropes specific to this game:
* AdaptationDistillation: The game takes bits and pieces from all over the series, mostly from the fan-favorite first two installments.
* AdultFear: Of the [[spoiler:"Watch out for your kids"]] variety.
* AncientTomb
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: The finale [[spoiler:puts Murphy in the shoes of Bogeyman]].
* AndYourRewardIsClothes
* BagOfSpilling: There are a couple of points in the game where you will lose your weapon and flashlight.
* BeatStillMyHeart: The Dead Man's Hand sidequest, in which you have to retrieve a dead man's still-beating heart that was savagely ripped out of his body. Emphasis on "still-beating", because the quest also employs...
** HeartBeatSoundtrack, effectively turning it into the most macabre game of Hot & Cold ever.
* BigNo: [[spoiler: Murphy]] has one of these moments in one DownerEnding. Emphasis is made on it by the "no" being repeated five times in increasing volume and frustration to emphasize the failure.
* BigShutUp: Anne Cunningham to Murphy. "SHUT THE HELL UP!"
* BreakableWeapons: Employed reasonably realistically with the different weapons having varying levels of durability that are more or less in line with what you'd expect, like vases and bottles readily shattering, chairs and wooden sticks that'll splinter into smaller and smaller pieces, and sturdier items like hatchets and crowbars. Still, you might expect certain weapons to last much longer than they actually do, like the crowbar; it's not exactly easy to snap a solid metal stick in half.
** Of course, if you wanted to, you could probably [[EpilepticTrees Epileptic-Tree]] some of it away by arguing that the town is purposely playing mind games by making those "sturdy" weapons break unexpectedly easily. [[RealityWarper Reality Warping]] and all that.
** The game kind of plays with it, especially weapons needed to progress (like an axe). You might get to break a plank or two of a boarded up door with a pickaxe before it breaks (which is odd, especially when you just found it), where as an fire axe is your safest bet on taking it down, without any breakage.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: See InterfaceScrew below; some of the loading-screen hints address you directly:
--> Are you sure you're alone?
--> STOP DOING THAT!
--> She's lying to you...
--> Was it worth it?
--> I know you are lying.
--> They know what you've done.
--> It knows you are alone.
* ButThouMust: [[spoiler: Justified in game due to the strange nature of Silent Hill. This is lampshaded after DJ Ricks reveals he has a boat but someone stole the keys, Murphy replies that he will just hot-wire it. DJ Ricks says that it wouldn't work and that the town has some strange form of reality, and that it has rules. When DJ breaks them, he is overwhelmed by screamers.]]
* CallBack[=/=]EasterEgg: Several references to previous ''Silent Hill'' games appear:
** The music tracks [[VideoGame/SilentHill1 "Silent Hill"]], [[VideoGame/SilentHill2 "Magdalene"]], and [[VideoGame/SilentHill3 "Please Love Me...Once More"]] can be heard playing on radios at certain points in the game.
** The Centennial Building has pictures of the [[VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming "Welcome to Shepherd's Glen"]] sign and the Shepherd family house.
** Elsewhere in the same building a book mentions a member of the Shepherd family who was among the first settlers of Silent Hill.
** Perhaps the biggest one, you can find [[spoiler:[[VideoGame/SilentHill4 Henry Townshend's apartment room, complete with chained door]]]] in the south part of town.
** The red "Void" which periodically chases Murphy is similar to the [[FanNickname Red Light of Death]] from ''Silent Hill 3'', which stalked Heather through a winding fun house. More so, the chase sequences it instigates are basically lifted from its predecessor, ''[[SilentHillShatteredMemories Shattered Memories]]'', right down to the player being able to throw down obstacles and glance backwards at his pursuer.
** [[spoiler:Pyramid Head]] as well as [[spoiler:two Bubble Head Nurses]] makes a cameo in the joke ending. [[spoiler: Heather Mason, James and Mary Sunderland, and Laura]] make an appearance as well.
** A painting of "Demon Samael" (i.e. the Incubus final boss from the first game), also in the Centennial Building.
** One particular building (which you can't enter) will offer a horribly familiar [[SilentHill2 metallic scraping sound]] when you pass by it.
** Quite early in the game you will find that ever-present wheelchair tipped on the side with its wheels still spinning. [[spoiler: Turns out it's somewhat of a subversion as it's actually {{Foreshadowing}}...]]
** A much appreciated aversion; While the stages are more open and sprawling than they've ever been, the amount of broken [[LockedDoor Locked Doors]] you'll encounter can be counted on one hand. Instead, doors that you can't go through are very clearly boarded up entirely, i.e. you no longer need to roam around testing every single door to find out which ones are unusable. And among the doors that are locked but ''can'' be opened, most just require you to break the lock with a metal item.
** Portraits of Alessa can be found hanging on walls all over town.
* CardboardPrison: A quite literal one in the Monastery Otherworld.
* ChekhovsGun: The police badge found by the first set of clothing that Murphy changes into behind the motel. Although Anne seems to understand the significance of it after Murphy encounters her [[spoiler:following the train ride]], it isn't until the very end of the game that is is explained what it means: [[spoiler: a mourning badge worn after the death of a fellow officer, representing the death of Frank Coleridge at Sewell's (or Murphy's) hands.]]
* ClockTower: ''Downpour'''s version of Silent Hill seems to be prominently sporting one. [[spoiler:After the Centennial Building otherworld, you end up hanging from the clock face.]]
* ClosedCircle: Par for the course in Silent Hill. This time, done in subtle MindScrew and OhCrap type moments: [[spoiler: When fleeing from the Void the first time, if you approach an open space in the wall, it may shut an iron door in front of you, leaving you to pass right by the Void. And when approaching an obstacle, it may melt away in front of you, as if it's letting you go on ahead]].
* CreepyDoll: One of the monster varieties in the game. Only these appear to be of the sex doll variety.
* [[CatScare Crow Scare]]: Frequently and somewhat [[TVTropesWikiDrinkingGame egregiously]] used in the earlier stages, though they do taper off in favour of other, more unsettling types of horror.
** Makes a return in the Centennial garage, should you choose to [[spoiler: inspect either of the cars]].
* DealWithTheDevil: [[spoiler: Sewell]]'s habit of performing tit-for-tat favors for the prisoners under his watch. Officer Coleridge warns that these "favors" never work out well for the inmates.
-->"I know you're a man of your word, Murphy. You be a straight shooter with me, [[VillainsNeverLie I'll be a straight shooter with you]]." ''([[DramaticGunCock cocks revolver]])''
* DeathFakedForYou: The ending "Forgiveness" has [[spoiler:Anne declaring to the police that Murphy died to let him escape.]]
* [[spoiler: DefiantToTheEnd: Murphy, in the "Execution" ending.]]
* DiegeticInterface: The state of Murphy's health is discernible only through the number of wounds on his back.
** There ''is'' a health statistic viewable in the menu. Murphy's physical appearance still makes for a passable estimate, but the occasional case of CriticalExistenceFailure would take the viewer by surprise.
** The light from his torch also becomes clouded with a bloody filter the more damage he's taken.
* DrivenToSuicide: JP Sater jumps off a cliff [[spoiler: no matter what you say to him.]]
** [[spoiler: Murphy tries this in one of the bad endings. [[GroundhogDayLoop It doesn't work.]]]]
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:DJ Ricks doesn't last long once you finally meet him.]]
* DropTheHammer: The Bogeyman drops a ''very'' big one made from a metal rod with a concrete block at one end. [[spoiler:Then ''you'' get to use it to fight Anne.]]
* EarlyBirdCameo: Of the vocal sort: "Revenge is a long and treacherous road, isn't it, Mr. Pendleton? Where do you suppose it ends?" is heard in the opening. We don't find the voice's face or its significance until fairly late in the game.
** Another vocal one, so subtle most may miss it. Just seconds after the Void's first appearance, a voice says "Murphy... RUN!". In either of the good endings, [[spoiler:Frank Coleridge, who Murphy refused to kill, tells Murphy the EXACT same line (tone and all).]]
** [[spoiler:The Wheelman]] also makes several blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearances before either [[spoiler:it]], [[spoiler:Frank Coleridge]] or any of Murphy's backstory have been introduced.
* EmpathicShapeshifter: [[spoiler: The Bogeyman changes his appearance underneath the gas mask to match the viewer's idea of evil. In Murphy's case, he sees both Napier and himself. To Anne, she views Murphy as the Bogeyman.]]
* EndlessCorridor: When you first flee from the Void, you go down a short corridor. You approach the corner, then the corridor ''extends forward, doubling in length''. It continues to extend forward as you flee the Void, then just randomly stops. An unusual example in that the corridor BECOMES 'endless' as you go through it, instead of being endless from the start.
** A more standard example comes after you escape the Void the second time, and you go up a staircase. But no matter how much you go up, it never ends. In fact, in order to move on, [[MindScrew you need to go 'down', where eventually a door will appear, putting you back in the kitchen.]]
* FanDisservice: [[FatBastard Napier]], in only a towel at the very beginning. Seriously...
* FanNickname: A couple monsters developed some fan nicknames, before their real ones were revealed. We have a platinum blond monster with a plastic sheen to it, this one is called Barbie (real name: Doll). Another one is a monster that is able to speak to Murphy, though always with a snide tone. Because of its monocle and somewhat snooty appearance it was labeled Aristocrat (real name: Monocle Man).
** The Doll is also prone to being called LadyGaga. The resemblance between the Screamers and {{Skrillex}} have not gone unnoticed either.
* FlushingEdgeInteractivity: There's a lot of toilets you can flush in the game. None of them do anything.
* GasMaskLongcoat: The Bogeyman.
* GeniusLoci: It wouldn't be Silent Hill if the town wasn't actively trying to kill you in some way.
* GetIntoJailFree: [[spoiler:Pulled off by Murphy so he could kill Napier.]]
* GhostlyGoals: The gramophone sidequest, where a family who appears to be stuck in limbo urge you to [[spoiler: burn the picture of the father who murdered them]].
* GlasgowGrin: All the non-boss enemies except for Dolls have their mouths mutilated in some fashion.
* GoodAngelBadAngel: Officer Coleridge is the good angel to Murphy, giving him as much respect as his own family and motivating him to apply for parole, while Sewell is Murphy's bad angel, giving him the oppotunity to have revenge on Napier. Officer Coleridge honestly cares about Murphy but Sewell only wants him to take revenge [[spoiler: so he could use Murphy to get Coleridge for trying to have him charged with corruption.]]
* GroundhogDayLoop: The "Full Circle" ending heavily implies that Howard Blackwood, JP Sater and Bobby Ricks were all [[HeroOfAnotherStory Heroes of Another Story]] but somehow failed or did something terrible, and became permanent residents of Silent Hill, trapped in their own loop. Said ending results in Murphy having this happen to him - meaning you'll have to play the game again to see another ending. Something similar happens to Anne in the "Reversal" ending.
* HandshakeRefusal: When Murphy and Howard first meet, Howard introduces himself and offers his hand to Murphy. Murphy actually takes a few steps back.
* HarbingerOfImpendingDoom / HellIsThatNoise: It isn't explicitly stated, but the dedications are apparently an indication of monsters. DJ Bobby Ricks receives calls to his radio station[[hottip:*:Implied to be coming from Silent Hill itself]] asking him to play songs with dedications to Murphy, which he obligingly does. When Murphy hears these dedications, there are seemingly always monsters nearby. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPWfcIVuxJA#t=7m31s When Bobby finally meets Murphy]] and begins to discuss his plans to escape Silent Hill, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPWfcIVuxJA#t=9m45s he gets another call for a dedication... for himself.]] He doesn't react well, and his next line to Murphy is "They're coming."
* HeroicBSOD: A small understated one:
--> '''Murphy''' "I... I can't believe he jumped"
* HeroStoleMyBike: Murphy stole a police-car and proceeded to lead the cops out on an extended car-chase, [[spoiler: all to get himself jailed together with Napier]].
* {{Hobos}}: Just the one, he provides you access to the subway network in exchange for favours.
* HollywoodDarkness: Frequently averted.
* HumanoidAbomination: The monster designs are decidedly more humanoid in contrast to previous entries.
* HumanShield: Well, maybe not ''human'', but the cages you throw in front of The Void to stall it all have some... thing clearly biological and living inside.
* HyperspaceArsenal: Averted with weapons. Unlike in previous entries in the series, Murphy can only carry one weapon at a time. If he finds a gun, Murphy can holster it and carry a melee weapon. Played straight with regular inventory items.
* InfantImmortality: ''Downpour'' turns [[AvertedTrope dancing on this tropes' grave]] into a sport. In fact, [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse with one]] [[DeadToBeginWith possible exception]], ''every'' kid either shown or referred to in-game ends up dead before the end, making it somewhat of a [[CentralTheme running theme]]. Examples include:
** [[spoiler:Charlie Pendleton's]] death and defilement.
** In the sidequests, a father who axed his wife and children to death in a fit of rage, and a mother who is heavily implied to have indirectly caused her severely autistic daughter to drown.
** A past accident in the Devils Pit that claimed the lives of eight children.
** A young autistic boy who succumbs to [[MedicalHorror archaic mental procedures]].
** And a most disturbing [[SubvertedTrope subversion]]; Murphy is tasked to find a rhyme that's explicitly stated to repel the Bogeyman, and when said baddie approaches a little kid, Murphy attempts to save him by reciting it by memory. [[spoiler:The Bogeyman snaps his neck before Murphy can finish reciting it]].
* InstitutionalApparel: Murphy's a freshly escaped con and starts out wearing a prisoner's jumpsuit. Later in the game, he can find a different outfit, and another if he does the "Stolen Goods" sidequest.
* InsurmountableWaistHighFence: At times you might see certain spots around town that Murphy probably could feasibly reach without too much effort but are nonetheless off limits to the player. Usually you can sort of think of it as an unspoken implication that Murphy is automatically filtering out those unremarkable places for the player, although there is an instance where Murphy explicitly looks at a potentially viable pathway that's blocked by a foot-high tree trunk and proclaims he "can't go this way."
** Aversions also exist where Murphy actually forces his way through certain trivial obstacles, such as smashing off padlocks and hacking through the loosely boarded door.
** Also worth mentioning are those mysterious chasms and towering fences which are ''truly'' insurmountable and block off entire roadways.
* IronicEcho: [[spoiler:The "Execution" ending, when Sewell asks him "Any last words?"]]
-->'''Murphy''' Yeah, I'll see you in hell, ''cupcake''.
* InterfaceScrew: In the latter half of the game, every once in a while the loading screen quotes will change from your standard "Press X to jump" advice into... something a little more sinister:
--> It's in the room with you. You just can't see it.
--> Why are you lying?
--> They know you’re alone.
--> Just give up...
--> You can’t ignore it forever.
--> They never really loved you anyway...
--> We are all slowly dying.
** They have no obvious connection to anything in-game, and no explanation is ever given.
* JiveTurkey / LargeHamRadio: DJ Bobby Ricks.
* JumpScare
* KarmaMeter: The game keeps a hidden tally of points, which increases or decreases based on whether you kill or spare defeated monsters and at certain points where you have to make moral decisions. Whether your score is positive or negative [[spoiler:combined with your decision at the very end of the game]] determines your ending.
* [[spoiler: KarmicDeath: Sewell is heavily implied to be shot by Anne in one of the endings.]]
* LastMinuteReprieve: It's debatable whether or not wandering into Silent Hill was preferable to the alternative.
* LetsPlay: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5ofoIeb8wI From]] ''WebVideo/TwoBestFriendsPlay''.
* LightAndMirrorsPuzzle: While it ''is'' a puzzle that does involve both lights and mirrors, it's not an entirely straight example; The lights are floodlights used to chase and trap monsters into cages, while the mirror (here a flooded floor) shows the [[MirrorUniverse entirely different plane of existence]] said monsters and floodlights reside on.
* LighterAndSofter: Insane as it may sound about a game which opens with a serial pedophile killer, SilentHillDownpour is a game where things are significantly less malevolent. There's less gore, less extreme reactions, and a lot of people seem semi-justified in their actions. [[spoiler: Killing your child's murderer is less severe than your wife, after all.]]
* MagicalNegro: Blackwood.
* TheManInTheMirrorTalksBack: [[spoiler:Officer Coleridge]].
* MakeMeWannaShout: The Screamers.
* MinimalistCast: There's less than a dozen characters populating the entire town, present day. All the dozens of houses, hovels, and residential areas are completely abandoned IN THE OTHERWORLD, in the real world the town is still thriving. However, between flashbacks, humanoid monsters, and the various well-fleshed out ghost personalities and backstories, it feels a little less desolate.
* MirrorMonster: In the mirror sidequest, should you fail.
* MissingTrailerScene: Trailers released while the game was still in production featured footage not used in the game such as a boss fight with Monocle Man (in the finished product he was reduced to a one line cameo) and a scene where Murphy accidentally shoots an inmate thinking he was a weeping bat.
* MultipleChoicePast: Your actions determine [[spoiler:whether Murphy killed Coleridge or was framed for it by Sewell. It's very similar to how ''TheSuffering'' let you determine whether Torque was a murderer or framed by your actions.]]
** [[spoiler:They also determine whether or not you killed Napier and, in one ending, it was actually ''Murphy'' who killed Charlie.]]
*** [[spoiler: Which ties nicely into the idea that the town itself is sentient reality warping entity. If Murphy refuses to learn that violence and vengeance are wrong, then it {{RetCon}}s him into being a murdering nutjob.]]
* MultipleEndings: ''Downpour'' continues the tradition.
* MyGreatestSecondChance
* MythologyGag: Devil's Pit was run by the ''[[VideoGame/SilentHill1 Gillespie]]'' Coal and Iron Company.
** which is all the more interesting when you consider that in Silent Hill Origins, Dahlia Gillespie burned her house down with her daughter in it.
* NeckSnap: The Bogeyman does this to [[spoiler:the little boy you meet in the monastery]].
* NightmareFace: Monocle Man.
* NotQuiteDead: If you go for a PacifistRun and only knock out enemies, there's a slight chance that they will [[ParanoiaFuel get back up again and attack you from behind]].
* NotWhatItLooksLike: As Murphy kneels over the dead body of [[spoiler: the boy The Bogeyman killed mere seconds ago]], a little girl walks in on the scene. Naturally she peels off as fast as her legs will let her.
* ObstacleSkiCourse: Well, Obstacle ''Slide'' Course, but there's a few of them in the Otherworld sequences.
* OffingTheOffspring: One of the side quests [[spoiler: involves a missing little girl. Her mother made a route home for her from school by tying ribbons to posts, which she would always follow without hesitation due to her severe autism. You eventually discover that the mother had gotten so sick of living with the girl's condition that she'd deliberately altered the route so she'd walk right off a pier.]]
** [[spoiler: Murphy himself can end up as one in the worst ending.]]
* OhCrap: Three in the span of one minute: When Murphy turns on the gas on a kitchen stove, it sparks and catches fire, and he reacts with "Oh Shit!". And when he pulls the fire alarm, the world around him distorts into the Otherworld ("What the hell IS this!?"). And when the room is filling up with water, he notices it approaching an open breaker box...
* OrphanageOfFear: A letter you find in the Monastery written by a child states that they're being "[[FunetikAksent hert]]" and the medicine they're given "makes them feel sick all the time". The letter comes with an angry note writtten by a supervisor, demanding that every sent letter must be screened and censored by her from now on. In other notes written by her she refers to the children [[EvilMatriarch with nothing but disgust.]]
* PacifistRun: You can go through the entire game without killing any enemies, though you'll still have to knock a few down to proceed. There's even an achievement/trophy for doing so.
* PaedoHunt: Murphy arranging to [[spoiler:murder his son's killer, Napier]].
* PapaWolf: [[spoiler:Murphy Pendleton]].
* PointOfNoReturn: DJ Ricks' boat. When you enter it Silent Hill and all its sidequests and items are all LostForever until you start over.
* PostFinalBoss: [[spoiler:After taking the gigantic FinalBoss off life support in the game's climactic battle, you have one last fight with Cunningham. She falls in only one hit, and you can take a lot of damage, but you also move very slowly, which can make it difficult to catch up to her as she shoots and sends Prisoner Juggernauts after you. If you happen to lose, you get a special ending.]]
** [[spoiler: Or three hits from the hammer shockwave attack that the Boogeyman used on you]] if [[GuideDangIt if you can figure out how to perform it.]]
* PrecisionFStrike: Murphy's verbal reaction whenever enemies appear out of nowhere in front of him (specifically from the ceiling).
* PreOrderBonus: Different retailers are offering different weapons for pre-ordering the game, which can then be accessed by inputting a code (included on your receipt for the game) into one of the lockers around town. [[spoiler:Naturally, all of the codes were up on the internet before the game had been out even one day.]] Using a code opens all the lockers, though, so you can only have one set of bonus weapons each time you play through the game.
* ProperlyParanoid: A sidequest tasks you to clear a haunting by arranging a room till it matches its MirrorUniverse counterpart. But if you fail to do it in the proper order, a monster only visible in said mirror will spawn. When you complete it, you will find a psychiatrists case file on the previous owner of the house, driven totally mad by having to do the same routine of rearranging the room every day, "[[YouHaveToBelieveMe or else the monsters in the mirror will hurt me!]]".
* QuickTimeEvent: Occasionally show up, though not to the extent that ''Homecoming'' had them, and all but a few of them only consist of waggling the left stick.
* {{Revenge}}: This is a major theme in the game.
* RevengeBeforeReason: Murphy [[spoiler: and Anne.]]
* SanitySlippage: After his first Otherworld experience, Murphy says this in an offhand comment: "...I'm losing my mind". Considering Silent Hill, we can't blame him for initially thinking that.
* SceneryPorn: Surprisingly for a [[SceneryGorn Silent]] [[OminousFog Hill]] game, The Devil's Pit in particular feature many meticulously rendered mountain-scenes. And not just them either: the entire game has a LOT of little details in its environments, including but not limited to the SceneryGorn elements. Hell, there's even a lot of detail in the areas where Murphy can't afford to stop and take a good look around (ie being chased by The Void in the Otherworld)
* SelfInflictedHell: [[spoiler: Anne in the "Reversal" ending, Murphy in the "Full Circle" ending]].
* ShockAndAwe: The Otherworld's water and electricity motif, which includes the likes of an engulfing fog of electricity that pursues Murphy.
* ShoutOut:
** The bus crash and Murphy's subsequential escape is more than a passing nod to ''Film/TheFugitive''.
** WordOfGod states that the water slide sequence is a homage to ''Film/TheGoonies''.
** The reward for complete the Cinema Verite side-quest is the [[Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun Golden Gun]] from the ''Film/JamesBond'' movies. The caption even says "Just like in the movies."
** One of the rooms Murphy can investigate is Henry's room, chains on the door and all, sans Walter's note.
* ShowsDamage: Murphy's health is determined by the state of his clothing and the injuries on his back.
* SoundtrackDissonance: Andy Williams' "Born Free".
* StylisticSuck: The fighting style in this game is slow and weighty, and most enemies have major, ''major'' advantages. Like the earlier games in the series, this is an attempt to preserve a sense of helplessness and fear between Murphy, who is ''very'' scared, and the player.
* SurvivalHorror
* TermsOfEndangerment: Sewell addressing Murphy as "cupcake."
* ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight: For a game that actively deals with the death of children, naming the recurring baddie "The Bogeyman" was [[MeaningfulName probably not an accident]].
* TownWithADarkSecret: Guess. [[spoiler: However, this is the second game to suggest that the town itself is sentient, the first being Silent Hill 2. The town seems to captures people, putting them through test to determine if they are worthy of redemption, if they succeed they achieve some sort of closure, if they fail they die. When DJ Ricks tells Murphy about his boat and its missing keys. Murphy replies that he will hot-wire it, DJ Ricks responds that it wouldn't work and explicitly says that the town has some weird form of reality and that it has rules that must be followed. The town then demonstrates what happens when you try to break them, by sending a group of screamers to grab Anne and DJ Ricks but leaving Murphy unharmed.]]
* TrappedInTVLand: The Cutting Room Floor sidequest.
* VideoGameCaringPotential[=/=]VideoGameCrueltyPotential: How nice or mean you are basically determines your ending:
** You can ignore Anne or try to save her when she's about to fall down the hole;
** You can console or taunt JP when he's about to jump;
** You can kill or spare enemies that you knock to the ground;
** And finally, [[spoiler:Bogeyman!Murphy can kill or spare Anne after defeating her]].
* ViolationOfCommonSense: For some of the side quests, the only reason the player would even know to do them is because Murphy jots the objective down in his notebook.
** Upon finding a dead body with the heart torn out, Murphy somehow decides he'd better go searching for the heart in the creepy underground labyrinth so he can jam it back into the body.
** After finding an urn full of someone's ashes, along with a photograph of a spot in town, Murphy speculates that the place was meaningful to the couple who lived there and decides he should take the ashes and scatter them at that spot.
** Despite he himself running around the whole town grabbing all kinds of loose items, at one point he finds a stash of stolen goods and decides that he's supposed to return these particular items to their rightful owners.
** After encountering some police cars inexplicably being driven around by monsters, Murphy decides to try to get rid of those cars by seeking out the police dispatcher and calling all the cars back. While it does makes logical sense on some level, it's still a rather strange solution to think up given the mysterious, supernatural context of the game.
* VulnerableConvoy: The prison bus transporting protagonist Murphy Pendleton and other inmates from Ryall State Penitentiary to Wayside Maximum Security Prison takes a tumble ''and rolls off the road'' into woodland. Murphy wakes up and escapes the wreckage on foot, eventually arriving in Silent Hill.
* WakingUpAtTheMorgue
* WeirdnessCensor: Played with, The Postman is seemed oblivious to the strange occurrences of the town and continues his route. [[spoiler: because he is a manifestation of the town and has been present since before 1867.]] DJ Ricks has been continuing his job as a Disc Jockey despite the town being in near ruins.(Note:just in the otherworld, the real world is fine and functional) [[spoiler: DJ Ricks however, is actually very aware of the monsters but is playing along out of fear. He states it as "This town has rules." He tries to contact Murphy several times to help him escape but it backfires.]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: No mention of DJ Bobby Ricks is made after the attack at the radio station.]]
** [[spoiler: But you can here some rather monsterous radio broadcasts while travelling the Otherworld that imply it didn't go well.]]
*** [[spoiler: If you use your UV light on the ground, it's implied that he was taken to the Otherworld with blood marks on the ground towards the mirror in the separate room on the same floor.]]
* WhisperingGhosts: Frequently, sources including but not limited to [[spoiler:Frank Coleridge]].
* WideOpenSandbox: Not quite a giant sandbox, but you have more areas to explore and some side-quests to complete; think "original ''Silent Hill''" and some of its optional areas, as opposed to the more linear areas of later games.
* WrittenSoundEffect: A truly bizarre example. In the Monastery Otherworld there is a prison-hallway made entirely out of cardboard that contains a life-sized string-puppet version of the Bogeyman, LittleBigPlanet-style. A little cardboard SpeechBubble with the appropriate sound-effect written on it appears whenever it swings its hammer.
* YouKilledMyFather: [[spoiler: The whole reason Anne Cunningham chases after Murphy. Whether he did it or not depends on the ending you get.]]