These Are The Main Silent Hill Protagonists Ranked From Worst To Best

Yesterday marked the 13th anniversary of Silent Hill 3 and to celebrate, I thought I’d take an in-depth look at some of Silent Hill’s best and worst visitors. The protagonists’ rankings are all based on how involved the character was, how emotionally-attached players seemed to get to the character and who really became the epitome of what Silent Hill was all about. And remember, this list is only based on opinion and many other people might totally disagree with me, which is fine. Don’t be afraid to defend your favorite character in the comments below!

6. Murphy Pendleton

Murphy was a troubled young-man, wrought with a dark past and sentenced to a life behind bars. While the story in Silent Hill Downpour was broken already, Murphy’s character felt incomplete to me. I remember beating the game and throwing my controller down on the ground and saying, “I have no idea what just happened.” I could’ve been clouded by the frustration of beating a Silent Hill game in two hours too, but I just felt nothing for Murphy. 

5. Henry Townshend

Henry was the protagonist from Silent Hill 4: The Room and though I didn’t really take a liking to the game, Henry wasn’t all that bad. Despite being a total introvert in his small apartment complex in the imaginary town of Ashfield, I found him quite unlikable. He wasn’t sociable, he was quiet and didn’t know how to be sentimental. And he had the whole mysterious photographer cliche going on for him. While the guy seems nice enough, there just isn’t enough excitement in Henry’s character. 

4. Alex Sheperd

Silent Hill Homecoming wasn’t a terrible game, but it was deeply unnerving. Alex’s past, as it unraveled in Silent Hill, was extremely uncomfortable and pretty much a culmination of every cliched “bad boy” persona that ever existed. While I didn’t mind his character, I felt like the developer was trying too hard to make him a broken boy. 

3. Harry Mason

As we get to the top three, it gets harder and harder to really distinguish between the protagonists’ overall “best”ness. Harry Mason was the original Silent Hill protagonist. Brought into Silent Hill by means of a car crash, Harry awakes to find his daughter missing. While I love the originality of the plot and character development, I found Harry to be extremely annoying as a character. Just hang on to your damn kid, how have you not learned your lesson yet? 

2. Heather Mason

Heather was the only female protagonist in all of the Silent Hill games. While she seemed unsure sometimes, she did have her badass moments. Heather reminds me of myself when I was a teenager: snarky, carefree and highly temperamental. But I thought she was a tough cookie despite what she was dealing with. While she may have just become numb to the atrocities she continued to see and experience from Silent Hill, it was still a better way to deal instead of watching Alex Shepard have fits of anger while remembering his daddy issues. 

1. James Sunderland

James Sunderland is the Silent Hill OG. Coming from a game that birthed the terrifying Pyramid Head, this game made the Silent Hill series. James’ character was pitiful and terrifying all at the same time and somehow everyone felt for him. When I think of Silent Hill and what it is as a game, I think James Sunderland and Silent Hill 2.