How do you start collecting Silent Hill games?
The core shelf is four games: Silent Hill on PlayStation, and Silent Hill 2, 3 and 4 on PlayStation 2, with the Director's Cut or Greatest Hits form of Silent Hill 2 preferred because it carries the Born from a Wish scenario. These are the games everything else comments on. Prices have climbed for a decade on the strength of the series' reputation, and Silent Hill 3 in particular, the last of the original run with a modest print history, is the known pressure point in Western markets.
The HD Collection warning belongs near the top of any buying advice: the 2012 PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 collection of Silent Hill 2 and 3 shipped with technical problems, altered visuals and fog density changes that fans documented exhaustively, and a partial patch fixed only part of it. It is playable and cheap, but it is not the document; a collector should know they are buying a compromised edition and price it accordingly.
Region is this series' great divider, as the covers page in this shelf explains: Japanese editions carry different cover art, sometimes different content trims, and are usually cheaper, while Western editions carry the childhood covers and the premium. Homecoming inverts the pattern by having no Japanese console release at all. A mixed shelf is the norm and the honest representation of the series' two homes.
The Western era games, Origins, Shattered Memories, Downpour and the rest, are the affordable layer and the most format varied: PSP UMDs, Wii discs, Vita cards. Shattered Memories on Wii is the climber of the group. The Play Novel, the comics and the Japanese guides and soundtracks extend a games shelf into a documentary one without requiring trophy money.
Condition checks are format standard with two series specific twists: PlayStation 2 Silent Hill discs are heavily bootlegged and repro printed in some markets, so verify disc art, manuals and case furniture against known copies, and the big Japanese guide and art books should be checked for the obi strips and bonus posters that complete copies carry.
