The Silent Hill franchise is best known for its eerie and isolating atmosphere. The emptied streets, derelict buildings housing unknown terrors inside. Never-ending corridors, the walls crumbling away as your character slowly loses their psyche traversing the world of Silent Hill. Its protagonists act as blank canvases, moulded by the events inside Silent Hill. Who are we? What is Silent Hill?

On the October 19th, 2022, Konami announced that Silent Hill 2 is getting a remake after the original release 21 years ago. Two new games were also announced, these are- ‘townfall’ and ‘f’. Silent Hill fans have a lot to look forward to in the next few years of new releases. With this announcement, it is time to go down memory lane and rank every protagonist from the mainline Silent Hill games. This is not a ranking of the game themselves, but the narrative does factor into these ranking decisions.

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW

8. Henry Townsend

Silent Hill 4: The Room received mixed reviews for being quite different to the first three games. The main difference is that The Room does not take place in Silent Hill. The only links to Silent Hill are – main antagonist is Walter Sullivan (mentioned in Silent Hill 2) and Henry has previously visited Silent Hill.

Henry has no link to the Otherworld. He is an ordinary man who moved into the wrong apartment. The same as every other victim in the apartment complex, randomly chosen as one of the 21 sacraments. Henry has no past trauma and the monsters do not have any specific symbolic meaning to his psyche. In The Room the Otherworld is a manifestation of Walter Sullivan’s psyche.

Henry is a very quiet and calm character, he does not really have much to say about the events in Silent Hill 4, which as a player is very weird to experience. Henry’s sole purpose is to escape his apartment. There is no character development or a reason to really care about him. A better choice for the protagonist of this game would have been Cynthia. Harry Mason works as a better protagonist, although both characters only have one goal in mind. You align with Harry because he is a devoted father.

7. Alex Shepard

Alex is a loner. Although, he is close to Elle where he demonstrates having a very caring personality and admiration for her, Alex appears serious and focussed on the task at hand in Silent Hill: Homecoming. He is looking for his brother, Joshua.

As a child, Alex enjoyed playing pretend. His childish nature is still a part of Alex. Similar to James, everything we knew about Alex is false. His father, Adam, reveals that Alex is not a soldier, which is what we were led to believe. Alex had taken a part of his father’s identity – carrying dog tags and wearing Adam’s army jacket, perhaps used as a subconscious way of feeling close to his father.

Silent Hill: Homecoming has another twist. Not only was his soldier identity false but, he had spent the past four years in a mental institution. Another similarity to Silent Hill 2 is that Joshua died years ago. In Alex’s subconscious, Joshua is always just out of reach. He blames himself for Joshua’s death, being present when it happened, Alex went into a state of shock and as a result his parents put him into an institution.

6. Travis Grady

Silent Hill: Origins is the first westernized installment, made in America. Origins is the prequel to Silent Hill 1. Travis is heroic and considerate of other people. He saves Alessa from a burning building, targeted by Dahlia Gillespie. Alessa ropes Travis into the cultist/sacrificial storyline we first saw in Silent Hill 1. Similar to James Sunderland, the monsters of the Otherworld hide his dark past. Travis has the most tragic backstory out of all the Silent Hill protagonists. He lost both his parents at a young age, being a core part of his trauma and adolescent development.

The most notable symbolism in Origins is The Butcher (Origins attempt at replacing Pyramid Head). Silent Hill: Origins bad ending sees Travis being injecting with an unknown substance to which he has visions to killing to people. Travis transforms into The Butcher. A side of Travis may have committed terrible sins, or The Butcher is his desire to do so.

5. Silent Hill: Downpour, Murphy Pendleton

Murphy is the self-loathing, lonely man of Silent Hill: Downpour. He is very critical of his actions and wants to try his best to fix things. Murphy is a convict, incarcerated for stealing a police cruiser. Our first action as Murphy is to murder Patrick Napier. Murphy made a deal with a corrupt corrections offers so that he could attack Patrick. For this is the man who brutally murdered Murphy’s son, Charlie.

Fuelled by rage and revenge, Murphy made it his mission to destroy Patrick. But even after killing him, he still blames himself for Charlie’s death. The transport vehicle that was moving Murphy to another penitentiary crashes and he flees into Silent Hill. His spiralling psyche connects to the Otherworld, creating the Downpour creatures.

The Void represents Murphy’s self-destructing nature, the dark actions he has taken and the consuming itch to destroy oneself. As he blames himself for Charlie’s death, his self-loathing and self-pity tries to consume him. The Screamers representing Carol, his ex-wife who also blames Murphy for their son’s death. The Bogeyman, the representation of Patrick and Murphy, the destructive nature of both characters through their terrible crimes.

The lessons of Downpour are important as it tells us that revenge is not the answer. Murphy spiralled out of control, his obsession to avenge his son. Once Murphy accepted the loss of his son and how killing Patrick would not bring Charlie back, he defeated his version of the Bogeyman.

4. Cheryl Heather Mason

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is possibly the most unique concept on the Silent Hill franchise. In Shattered Memories you play the game as Harry Mason, following on from a similar beginning to Silent Hill 1 where Harry awakes from crashing the car and his daughter, Cheryl has vanished. You play the game searching for her. Every character we meet is a past memory of Harry. The revelation of Shattered Memories is that Harry is not real, we are playing as a manifestation of him through Cheryl’s memories.

In Shattered Memories Harry Mason died when Cheryl was 7 years old. Unable to process and grieve his death properly, Cheryl’s trauma manifested into creating a living memory of Harry who we play as for the entirety of this installment. She had suffered so much trauma at a young age, similar to Travis, that she was unable to overcome the trauma and instead it consumed her. It is a sad tale of a daughter who lost her father. Whether he was a good one at that is debatable but unimportant as to her, Harry meant the absolute world.

3. Heather Mason

Heather is one of the most interesting characters of the Silent Hill franchise as she is in fact Harry Mason’s daughter. Or rather, a reincarnation of Alessa/Cheryl (seen in the ending of Silent Hill 1). The premise of Silent Hill 3 is that the past is trying to catch up to Heather. Her story is tragic. Her loving father taken from her, she is forced back into a twisted world that remembers her, but she does not remember it.

Heather is a strong, confrontational character. She has the same drive and determination as her father Harry, who even in what feels like an impossible situation to get out of, she fights to survive and avenge her father. Heather has a fear of mirrors and fire. Symbolic to her buried identity of Alessa- Dahlia’s attempted murder of Alessa through arson, seen in Silent Hill: Origins, and Heather feeling like an imitator when she sees herself. It’s moments like these linking her subconscious directly to the part of her identity that is Alessa.

This symbolism works so well because Heather is a teenager girl struggling with her identity. We, as players, can relate to this identity crisis. In this extreme case, Heather’s is realising that she is a reincarnation of Alessa. Heather’s struggles with her identity align us to her, and we can relate to her feelings of being false, not belonging, grieving for her father and the powerful emotions we feel as teenagers.

2. Harry Mason

The perfect first protagonist to a Horror franchise, Harry Mason is a father desperate to find his daughter, Cheryl in a town filled with monstrous abominations. Harry is a character you can root for, shown by his bravery against the monsters and determination to find his daughter. You can truly imagine putting yourself in his place. Unlike most of the other protagonists, the only trauma that Harry has suffered is to his head after the car crash.

Instead of Silent Hill being the product of his psyche (instead it is of Alessa’s), Harry seems to be the guy who is just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ignorant and confused to the world around him, we learn the story through his eyes, therefore we believe what he believes. Even upon learning that his daughter is in fact Alessa, a woman who split her soul into two (one becoming Cheryl) during a sacrificial ritual, Harry still continues to try and save her.

For the first game of a horror franchise, Harry is the best kind of character we could have asked for. There is no deeper complexity to his character, no hidden agenda or secrecy. He is just a father who will do anything to save his daughter.

1. James Sunderland

You receive a letter. It’s from Mary. Your late wife. How is this possible? She tells you to find her at your special place in the town, Silent Hill.

The obvious number 1 spot. Nothing comes close to the storytelling of Silent Hill 2 and the character development of James Sunderland. As you traverse the emptied, post-apocalyptic town searching for your wife, you will run into other characters along the way. James is passive and calm-natured, he appears to want to help everyone he meets in the monster-filled town. For the players, James seems like a likeable guy. Whilst he is not super assertive or particularly heroic, you want James to succeed in his mission and make it out of Silent Hill with his wife.

Upon reaching the Hotel, the players realise that James is not who he seems. What was once a man who you rooted for, became a monster himself. The revelation is that James euthanized his sick wife. His experience of Silent Hill is punishment for his actions. His denial of this terrible action has consequently led to his version of Silent Hill. A mind trapped by guilt, his psyche manifesting into the monsters which roam the fogged streets.

Pyramid Head, self-made as a monster to torment him. Maria, the woman you meet along the way who looks just like Mary, being repeatedly and brutally murdered acts as a constant reminder of James’s actions. The Nurses, a manifestation of James’s sexual desires and anxiety surrounding Mary’s illness. The Lying Figures, writhing in pain, bound by straitjackets and the Mannequins, an abomination of legs symbolises James’s pain and sexual frustrations.

It is one of the best twists and developments in Horror game history. This twisted and tragic story about a man’s love for his wife will break you in its final act. It is storytelling at its finest.

Looking for more Silent Hill content? See related: How to Play the Silent Hill Games in Order of Release