With the Metal Gear Solid series having been bid a premature farewell from Hideo Kojima, the developer looked to improve the Silent Hill series from where it was dwindling. The result was an incredible demo in the form of P.T., which was hailed as a masterpiece and enormous hype was created for Silent Hills.

Unfortunately, that game couldn’t be picked up due to Kojima’s issues with Konami, and we instead got Death Stranding as the replacement. This game was also well received by fans and critics, although there’s the feeling that Silent Hills might have done a better job. In this list, we’re considering P.T. and Silent Hills to be one and the same as we decide if it’s better than Death Stranding.

10 Aesthetics: Silent Hills

By this, we mean that when the game wanted to make us feel a certain way - we felt just that. Silent Hill has been known for hitting close to the mental trauma characters have, so watching that scary woman haunt us in those hallways felt personal.

The level design was also done well in this game, as it felt real how the protagonist was frantically searching around a house that offered him next to nothing for him to escape. Death Stranding played more like an action game rather than an experience that sucked you in.

9 Exploration: Death Stranding

It won’t be added to any lists of the best open-world games out there, but Death Stranding still got the job done to keep us interested in the exploration aspect. The intrigue that comes with the strange environment guarantees players will go out for a look around.

Silent Hills did have a shot at making itself out to be something reminiscent to an open-world, had the game taken a chance at making a larger area to explore, but it was pretty much a repeat of the same hallways, meaning this one is a no-brainer in favor of Death Stranding.

8 Creativity: Silent Hills

To Death Stranding’s credit, the game tried its best to give us a style that wasn’t seen in many offerings before, especially considering it was in third-person, but we still need to hand it to Silent Hills for being something else entirely.

This first-person horror was such that it baffled the mind just as much as it scared you out of your wits. There are many interpretations as to what every sequence in the game is meant to represent, and the many horrifying sights that we saw were all supposed to connect from in-game to the story, representing the protagonist’s psyche.

7 Variety: Death Stranding

As mentioned before, Silent Hills suffered from having to venture in the same place over and again, as the novelty would run thin for most people if you did that all the time. While the multiple interpretations did do well in bringing some players back, it just can’t compete with Death Stranding.

After all, this game had an open-world with many side missions and the main storyline to uncover. Traversing the open land brought with it numerous challenges, all of which varied from one to the other, which gives off a more diverse style of play.

6 Story: Silent Hills

It’s a testimony to how incredible the demo for this game was that we’re still opting for the story in Silent Hills over a game that’s already been released. In fact, Silent Hills’ story remains a mystery since it never actually saw the light of day.

And yet, there was something so magnetic about the mysteriousness of the setting, as fans have interpreted elements like the crying child to mean that the protagonist was looking for his infant; some others assumed that this infant was one the protagonist might have killed. There’s a whole world of possibilities here, and we’ll opt for this ambiguity since it offers so much intrigue.

5 Easier Controls: Death Stranding

Honestly, the controls for Death Stranding aren’t all that easy, but stacking it against the ones seen in Silent Hills would allow it to come away with the point here. The problem with the latter game was how fans were so helpless.

It was like we were missing something the whole time, and the controls didn’t help by being so needless for the most part. With Death Stranding having so much variety in gameplay, there are hours for players to sink their teeth into the game and learn the ropes with the controls.

4 Critical Acclaim: Silent Hills

It took Death Stranding a few good years after its initial announcement to be released, and all that hype that had been collected for so long unfortunately didn’t pay off the way we hoped. Fans had been expected reviews well above 90 on Metacritic, but Death Stranding has been barely above 80.

On the other hand, while Silent Hills wasn’t able to get to the point where it received Metacritic reviews, it did garner unanimous approval from players and publications, all of whom praised the game’s execution. Silent Hills has also aged very well, so you won’t find anyone criticizing it anymore.

3 Wider Appeal: Death Stranding

Since selling horror games to an audience is always a tall task, it’s naturally a simpler case for Death Stranding. However, the margin isn’t by much since Death Stranding has been branded as a niche offering in gaming.

But by and large, the game has been considered part of the action genre, and the open-world has easily helped in allowing Death Stranding appeal to a wider audience. It also did the game a lot of favors having A-list actors appear for the game. Silent Hills’ ambiguous style wasn’t for everybody, even though it gets people talking.

2 Longevity: Silent Hills

Those who have been fans of both series will most likely point toward Silent Hills as the game they think about more out of the two. There’s something about it that won’t let anyone forget about it even after their playthrough.

We mentioned before how the game has aged well and calls for Silent Hills to be released as a full game have become progressively louder over the years. With Death Stranding having arrived, fans are now holding on to more hope than before that Silent Hills might be commissioned. This kind of longevity in the minds of fans hasn’t been observed for Death Stranding.

1 Winner: Silent Hills

At the end of it all, there’s just no escaping the fact that Silent Hills managed to capture the interest so extensively that it’s been proven impossible to let go. The game even inspired the way Resident Evil 7: Biohazard ended up being, but we have no doubt Silent Hills would’ve been something greater.

Compared to Death Stranding, Silent Hills will always hold the cards in its favor since the latter was meant to be the original vision of Hideo Kojima, Norman Reedus, and Guillermo Del Toro. We got a fraction of their genius in that offering, but even that was enough for us to consider Silent Hills as the superior venture.

NEXT: 10 Confusing Plot Points In Death Stranding, Explained