“We’re waiting for you…”
– Silent Hill: Sinner’s Reward
The Silent Hill franchise has been known for their very strong emphasis on story telling, but how does a Silent Hill novel fair?
Silent Hill: Sinner’s Reward is a graphic novel is written by Tom Waltz, who also penned the upcoming ‘Silent Hill: Downpour’ and with artworks provided by Steph Stamb. Now onto the review:
In ‘Sinners Reward’, we are introduced to our main character, Jack “The Pup” Stanton, a professional hitman for the Irish Mob. The story begins with our main character Jack driving with his lover Jill, his ex boss’ wife. From here we learn that Jack stole the wife of his boss, Finn, and the two are on the run to escape everything. Although we all know plans like this never go smoothly. Soon enough, after stopping on a nearby bar, Jack ran into Finn’s goons and also got a hold of Jill in the process. All of these events leads our hero on his quest to find his girl, and also redemption to our little town of Silent Hill…
Like a traditional Silent Hill narrative, things go awry from this point on. Jack enters Silent Hill and notice how quiet and empty it is but soon enough, Jack starts to witness bizarre creatures and a lot of things that didn’t made sense to him. To make things worse, he is seeing things; people that are supposed to be dead and his girl running around with a nurse outfit.
Like most Silent Hill games, the strongest part of the novel is the narrative. The story flows smoothly and bit by bit, we learn about Jack’s past. His story is shown to us in brief flashbacks all throughout which connects to his current situation. In the climax, everything came in full circle and all the things that didn’t made sense in the beginning we’re explained. The artwork provided in the novel also helps a lot to get that Silent Hill feel to the story. You will feel the tension in some parts as our characters are faced with moral decisions along with the grotesque creatures of the town. Also the creatures appear in the story for a particualr reason that you have to find out for yourselves when you get the chance to read the novel.
Along with all the good stuff, there are also some familiar things and easter eggs to be found in as you go through the pages of the novel, along with additional artworks on the end pages of the book. The only complain i have with the novel is that it felt a little short in my opinion although it was a short sweet experience for me. Another thing that bothered me is the appearance of a certain figure which felt too forced. In the end I was left hungry for more…
Final Opinion
Sinner’s Reward is actually worth checking out if you are looking for a short twisted ride in the little town of Silent Hill. The story is sometimes heartfelt too and will leave you satisfied with an ending worthy of the Silent Hill name. If you are a Silent Hill fan and have a few extra bucks to spend, go ahead and buy the novel.
(8 / 10)
Great
(8 / 10)
