Every Silent Hill Protagonist, Ranked

The Silent Hill franchise is best known for its eerie and isolated atmosphere. The empty streets, abandoned buildings that harbor unknown terrors within. Endless corridors, walls collapsing as your character slowly loses their psyche traversing the world of Silent Hill. Its protagonists act as blank canvases, shaped by the events within Silent Hill. About us? What is Silent Hill?

On October 19, 2022, Konami announced that Silent Hill 2 will be 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 coming years of new releases. With this announcement, it’s time to remember and classify all the protagonists of the main Silent Hill games. This is not a rating of the game itself, but the narrative does factor into these rating decisions.

8.Henry Townsend

Silent Hill 4: The Room received mixed reviews for being quite different from 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: the main antagonist is Walter Sullivan (mentioned in Silent Hill 2) and Henry has previously visited Silent Hill.

Henry has no ties to the Otherworld. He is an ordinary man who moved into the wrong apartment. He the same as every other victim in the apartment complex, randomly chosen as one of the 21 sacraments. Henry has no past traumas and the monsters have no specific symbolic meaning to Henry’s psyche. In The Room, the Otherworld is a manifestation of Walter Sullivan’s psyche.

Henry is a very calm and collected character, he doesn’t really have much to say about the events in Silent Hill 4, which as a player is very rare to experience. Henry’s sole purpose is to escape from 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 the better lead, although both characters only have one goal in mind. You align yourself with Harry because he is a devoted father.

7. Alex Shepard

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

As a child, Alex liked to play pretend. His childlike nature is still part of Alex. Just like James, everything we knew about Alex is false. Alex’s father, Adam, reveals that Alex is not a soldier, which is what we were led to believe. Alex had taken on a part of his father’s identity: wearing dog tags and wearing Adam’s military jacket, perhaps used as a subconscious way of feeling close to his father.

Silent Hill: Homecoming has another twist. Not only was Alex’s soldier identity false, but he had spent the last 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 out of his reach. Alex blames himself for Joshua’s death, being present when it happened, he went into shock and his parents had him institutionalized as a result.

6. Travis Grady

Silent Hill: Origins is the first Westernized installment, made in the United States. 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 draws Travis into the cult/sacrifice story we first saw in Silent Hill 1. Like James Sunderland, the monsters of the Otherworld hide his dark past. Travis has the most tragic backstory of all the Silent Hill protagonists. He lost his parents at a young age, being a central part of his adolescent trauma and development.

The most notable symbolism in Origins is The Butcher (Origins’ attempt to replace Pyramid Head). Silent Hill: Origins’ bad ending sees Travis being injected with an unknown substance that he has visions of to kill people. Travis transforms into The Butcher. One 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 lonely, self-loathing man from Silent Hill: Downpour. He is very critical of his actions and wants to do whatever he can to fix things. Murphy is a convict, jailed for robbing a police car. Our first action as Murphy is to kill Patrick Napier. Murphy made a deal with corrupt correctional deals so he could attack Patrick. Because this is the man who brutally murdered Murphy’s son, Charlie.

Driven by anger and revenge, Murphy set out to destroy Patrick. But even after killing him, Murphy still blames himself for Charlie’s death. The transport vehicle that was transporting Murphy to another penitentiary crashes, and Murphy flees to Silent Hill. His spiraling psyche connects with the Otherworld, creating the creatures of Downpour.

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

Downpour’s lessons are important as it tells us that revenge is not the answer. Murphy got out of control, his obsession with avenging his son. Once Murphy accepted the loss of his son and that killing Patrick would not bring Charlie back, Murphy defeated the Bogeyman version of him.

4. Cheryl Heather Mason

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is possibly the most unique concept in the Silent Hill franchise. In Shattered Memories, you play as Harry Mason, following a similar beginning to Silent Hill 1, where Harry wakes up after crashing his car and his daughter, Cheryl, is missing. You play the game looking for Cheryl. Every character we meet is a past memory of Harry. The reveal of Shattered Memories is that Harry isn’t real, we’re playing as a manifestation of him through Cheryl’s memories.

In Shattered Memories, Harry Mason died when Cheryl was 7 years old. Unable to properly process and mourn his death, Cheryl’s trauma manifested itself in the creation of a vivid memory of Harry, who we play for the entirety of this installment. He had suffered so much trauma at a young age, similar to Travis, that he was unable to overcome the trauma and instead consumed her. It is the sad story of a daughter who lost her father. Whether he was good at it is debatable but unimportant to her, Harry was referring to the absolute world.

3. Heather Mason

Heather is one of the most interesting characters in the Silent Hill franchise, as she is in fact the daughter of Harry Mason. 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 with Heather. Her story is tragic. Her beloved father was taken from her, and she is forced to return to a twisted world that remembers her, but she doesn’t.

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

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

2. Harry Mason

Harry Mason, the perfect first lead in a horror franchise, 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 monsters and his determination to find his daughter. You can really imagine putting yourself in their shoes. Unlike most of the other protagonists, the only trauma Harry has suffered is to his head after the car accident.

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

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

1. James Sunderland

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

The obvious number 1 spot. Nothing comes close to Silent Hill 2’s storytelling and James Sunderland’s character development. As you traverse the empty post-apocalyptic city in search of your wife, you’ll meet other characters along the way. James is passive and calm, he seems to want to help everyone he meets in the city full of monsters. To the players, James seems like a nice guy. While he’s not super assertive or particularly heroic, you want James to succeed in his mission and get out of Silent Hill with his wife.

Arriving at the Hotel, the players realize that James is not who he seems. What was once a man you supported, turned into a monster. The revelation is that James sacrificed his sick wife. Her Silent Hill experience is a punishment for his actions. His denial of this terrible deed has consequently led to his version of Silent Hill. A mind gripped by guilt, his psyche manifesting in the monsters that roam the misted streets.

Pyramid Head, made himself into 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 the anxiety surrounding Mary’s illness. The Lying Figures, writhing in pain, bound by straitjackets and the Mannequins, an abomination of legs, symbolize James’ pain and sexual frustrations.

It’s one of the best twists and turns in horror game history. This twisted and tragic story of 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 Silent Hill Games in Release Order