Do you need to play sh1 to enjoy this?

[Big Sword]

Title, only Silent Hill I know (and love) is the movie adaption.

[Vagrant]

No.

[Ricback2]

No, play It afterwards.

[Mirona]

no. sh1 only plays in the same area and also establishes a bit of lore. lore which is almost fully irrelevant to this game. sh2 stands alone for itself. sh3 on the other hand is linked to sh1.

you can go and enjoy sh2 here on steam without any prior knowledge needed

[Dude Guyman]

No. Silent Hill 2 is basically a stand alone spin off.

Silent Hill 1 > Silent Hill 3 is a direct sequel though. So SH1 should be played (or at least studied/researched) before SH3, but SH3 is perfectly enjoyable without playing SH1 anyway.

[Noobie]

I am deeply saddened you love the silent hill movie and never played a silent hill game. Please play this game asap so you can understand why i am sad

[FruitBat Man]

The movie adaptation is a weird mixture of silent Hill 1 with a sprinkling of pyramid Head which doesn't exist inside sh1.

The movie is what it is but it is a gross cutting room floor version of the game. The characters are so wrong it's not really good to me. Visually it's pretty awesome. But they couldn't have messed up the story worse.

But to be fair a direct movie adaptation of the game would have left audiences confused and or turned off. I won't spoil anything but Dahlia is not the same.

The too long didn't read answer, no you don't have to play the first to understand two. In fact if you're a lore junkie it will leave you more confused.