I'm probably opening a big can of worms here, but am I right in assuming that the vast majority of SH fans tend to gravitate towards the games that were done by Team Silent? Which games where those? 1, 2 and...? I know the fanbase's reaction with later games is really hit or miss depending on the game and player.

I was able to scoop up Silent Hill 2 for a five spot and my copy of Silent Hill for the PS1 was kind of lonely all by itself.

play through #2 several times. each time you will understand a bit more about the plot that you missed the previous play, plus you will be able to get thru in 1/3 the time.

I played SH2 when it came out on PC, so some years back. I then proceeded with SH3. After that SH1, since the third game is tightly connected to the first one, and I wanted to deepen my understanding of the plot. The last game I played was SH4 (The Room), which I found to be the weakest. Haven't played any of the newer ones.

So, this was some years back (The Room came out in 2004), but I've recently started this "cycle" again. First went with SH2, afterwards SH3, which I'm currently playing. My plan is to stop after SH1, since I don't feel very strongly about the fourth game.

If I had to choose, I would go for the second one, which goes more into the psychological direction than the other ones (which are still psychological in nature, but have a more "supernatural" component).

Yep, I think 2 is easily the most rewarding. The combination of 1 and 2 sums up the best of the series. They pretty much all have something to offer though and Shattered Memories in particular was a real treat - so very different.

I'd say the first 3 are must-plays.

2 is one of the best games ever created, with what is still the best story I have ever seen in a videogame, and most other mediums.

If you like the first 3 you could try some of the other ones.
I didn't like 4 very much, but Shattered Memories and even Origins were very good (nobody seems to agree with me on Origins though).
Downpour wasn't bad either, but Homecoming can go to hell.

In a bad way.

This, totally! Well worth the experience all across the board.

My overall ranking of the series is 1 > 2 > 3 > the rest. I played SH4 but never made it through (it's not "Silent Hill" at all, as far as I'm concerned, although the soundtrack is dope), and only dabbled with Origins (got bored). No comment on Homecoming or Downpour or whatever else is out there. All that said, I love the story/gameplay of the first, the atmosphere and despair of the second, and the combat/graphics of the third. All I have to say for the third is that hospital. Goddamn!

Didn't like Shattered Memories on account of it's obstacle-course nightmare levels. Everything else was great, but those sections felt badly conceived and dissonant from the rest of the game. The transition from reality to nightmare was telegraphed in such a way as to undermine any sense of tension the game might have otherwise thrown at me. I doubt I'll ever revisit it.

Homecoming missed the point in every single way. Never before had the series been as ham-fisted and riddled with obnoxious storytelling tropes, and I'll bet the same goes for Downpour.

My favorite? Hard to say. I loved the demonic imagery from the first game, but the second was a masterwork of narrative conveyance that has yet to be challenged, let alone bested, in the medium of video games. I haven't played enough of 3 to comment there, but I'm looking forward to the day when I can pop that sucker in.

Downpour was probably the closest to the original 3 we'd gotten in years and definitely the best of the post trilogy games. Where it fell down was the developer's inability to strongly tie the otherworld to the main character beyond 'oh, I've been to prison' tripe. It also suffered from the obstacle course scenes which I didn't like from Shattered. To top it off, there was zero tension because it auto-saved every few minutes. Why should I care if I die if I'm going to regenerate a few feet away with no consequences?

Play the first 3, in order.

4 is serviceable if you can just forget that the game has the name Silent Hill in the title. If anything it's worth playing just to hear the ridiculous noises all the enemies make. The second visit into the hospital with the burping nurses. Oh my god that was hilarious. There's that long downward stairwell and I managed to get one of the nurses to enter its dying state as it was sliding the down stairs; burping merrily all the way. My brother and I lost it laughing

Here's my opinion on the ones I've played:

SH1: Great for its time, and pretty much everything but the graphics hold up well.  If you're going to play a bunch of them, do this one first.  It's difficult to go back to after getting used to the improvements in the later ones.

SH2: Generally seems to be the favorite among fans - this was one of the earlier horror games I ever played (and one of the first games I played for my PS2) and it stuck with me as being absolutely brilliant years later.  Great stuff.

SH3: I don't understand why there's negativity toward this one.  It has some of my absolute favorite moments of the entire series (one involving a mirror is BRILLIANT).  Definitely play 1 first since the plot ties directly to it and will resonate more with you if you know the characters.

SH4: Found this one to be an absolute chore to play through.  Enemy designs took a dive, there's repeating areas where things are even less scary the second time, and the plot is kind of nonsense.  Disappointing after the first three.

SH Origins: Played the PS2 port of this, which turned out rather nicely.  I'm with Amazingu on this one (actually agree with everything in that post, generally) - this is the most underrated game in the franchise.  The problem is that it doesn't really set out to do anything NEW.  It's a solid SH game that's inoffensive and enjoyable, but does little to stand out to be better than 1, 2, or 3.  Feels the closest to the original trilogy though.

SH Homecoming: Awful.  There are game-breaking glitches that can force you to restart if you don't have a save to go back to and try to avoid them.  It also degenerates into the torture/gore-porn style of horror that seems popular in movies lately.  Way less psychological and way more "hey let's drill through somebody's face on screen - that's certainly scarier than the unknown!"  Ugh.  By far my least favorite of the ones I've played.

SH Shattered Memories: I LOVE this game and consider it one of the Wii's best.  It really goes beyond what video games normally attempt to do story-wise, and it's a damn shame so few people played it.  I've played through it a couple times with different people watching and watched others play it - it's a great audience game (with my friends most horror games are, though) and you see different things in every playthrough.  All that said, though, it is a VERY different take on Silent Hill, and it's extraordinarily difficult to compare it to the rest of the series.  It's best viewed as its own entity.