How old were you when you played the first silent hill?

[Hazardsfury]

I believe I was 10 when I first played it, at my brothers house first time I had ever played a survival horror, I remember having to stop every so often because I was too scared.

[The Chauffeur]

Thirty fucking six. Get in.

[Grieving Sparrow]

What effect did it have on you, and or does it still have on you. Is it scary? Or plain ridiculous?

It made me jump, but no matter how scared I got, I'd still keep playing. Silent Hill is my game of choice in survival/horror games.

I was at my best friends house and I was 11 I believe. I have been a huge survival horror junkie ever since.

Although I watched my first horror film when I was 7 and have loved horror ever since.

*back on topic* The first time I played it I was so intrigued with the story to the endings, to how terrifying it was. To this day the Silent Hill series as a whole is still my favorite series of games in survival horror.

[RivenZero]

I was 9 turning 10 I believe. My older brother and I shared a PS1 back then. It was 2000 and I had considered myself pretty brave. When I was 8 my brother let me hold the game guide while he played through RE2 for the first time so I thought I could handle Silent Hill. I had no idea. Resident Evil is all jump scares but Silent Hill is psychological. It was around the time I had finally reached the school for the first time. I shut the system off not even half way through that section.

I recently played through the first Silent Hill on my PSP and it still holds the most suspense.

[Detox]

I must have been 14 or so. Scared the absolute shit out of me the first few times and I had a really hard time playing the game alone for more than an hour or so. I've beaten the game probably 20 times over now and it still has some startling/unsettling moments for me...

[Axiomatic]

I was 8 years old when I first played it. Now, I'm 21 and it's still unsettling, tense and taxing on me.

[lostmemories99]

I bought it on Amazon several months ago, so 18 years old is my answer.

[Starnut518]

i was around 15 when i first actually played it. it was pretty scary,

[The Master]

Never particularly been into this genre of games before, but my girlfriend is really really into them, so I figured I'd start way back at the beginning. Still only halfway through the school in SH, and I'm 25.

[Silent Fantasy]

The first game reason still feels like it can be the creepiest for some reason. SH3 is the biggest mindfuck for me (well, either it or SH4), yet thinking of Silent Hill right now and remembering it, it seems creepier, though none scare me anymore(sad days). Must be the graphics, sound, and pacing. It's funny how the game using the least does the most in the series...well, for me anyway.
I can still remember it not letting me sleep for a week when I was 10.
And it looks like I wasn't the only one to make the mistake of thinking I could handle SH just because I could handle RE2 back then. I was a stupid kid. Momma wasn't proud.

[chounokoe]

I was 14 when I first played it. I had gathered some "experience" having watched the big brother of a friend playing Alone in the Dark and had gotten seriously hyped for horror style games after Resident Evil (which I got at 13 in 1997) and Resident Evil 2 (which I managed to get a copy of before it was taken off the market in Germany in early 1998). So I got myself an American copy on release and I think I stopped playing when I reached Midwich for about a week. I was so sure that after RE2 there would be nothing that could scare me....priding myself with having read some Lovecraft and some Stephen King, but probably not even understanding a third of what I was reading.

I think it was this game though which brought me to start getting into the horror genre proper. I played it about 3 or 4 times over the next 2 years, each time noticing new stuff and starting to read up on name drops I found in the games.
When SH2 was announced it was the reason for me to start saving up for a PS2.

[MaverickT16]

I was very young, about 9-10. My parents owned it and didn't think much of it. I gave it a spin and liked it. My first Silent Hill and my first horror game in general.
It desensitized me to a lot of things Come to think of it, my parents never really cared for the age ratings on games.

[Dr-G0nz0]

I was 12. I remember getting the game months and months before anyone else, because I got the US version.
It scared the hell out of me, but I was so fixated by it I had to try and complete it. lol

I also didn't play the first SH game in it's PAL form till I was about 22, and only played it becuase my friend told me they changed the children with knifes--in the school--into these stupid bear things with claws. It was changed because it was too disturbing at the time. It was a terrifying revelation, because these children with knifes were a horrid' thing to go up against! lol These bear things were awful in comparison....

[Postcode]

I was 21, I played through the entire thing in one day with a group of friends. Although it was definitely scary the main feeling I had afterwards was of being disturbed by the story and what had been done to Alessa. Zombies and monsters, etc can be scary but this was far worse to me.

Having played it again over the last week, 13 years on it was definitely still a fear-inducing experience. The worst part I find is how it affects your perception of reality when you've been playing it for a while. I find that I start looking at real places as if they're a screen from the game, walking into an empty room in real-life for example feels slightly eerie, as if it looks like a camera-angle from the game. I'm not sure I've expressed that as well as I could, but perhaps you understand what I mean, unless I'm the only it affects like that. The story didn't disturb me as much as it did the first time, but of course I knew what was coming and thus could not be shocked by the plot revelations. This time I more felt sad for the characters involved (with a couple of exceptions, obviously).

[zeo]

I was 14 and amazed.

[DinoNerd89]

I think i was like.. 13 or so? Was kinda confused by some of the puzzles at the time, but otherwise, found it to be quite horrifyingly scary, and intense, which was and is still my kinda thing.