Well, it's like this. I have a motion tracker, and I can hear where the Alien is at all times. I can hear if it's above me, behind me, and I can tell where it drops down by watching the vents in the ceiling of each room. I basically know where it is at all times.
In Clock Tower on the Super Nintendo, I don't know where Scissorman is. I just know he's coming when the very creepy theme starts playing. Then he can appear anywhere. In showers, under beds, in closets, behind curtains, etc. The Alien kills me right away. Scissorman comes at you slow and makes the anxiety build and build. Also, the atmosphere is different. The station is lived in and there are large story breaks where the Alien is gone. The mansion in Clock Tower feels like a nightmare.
Silent Hill, on the other hand, is this dark claustrophobic space filled with monsters. They all look and sound completely unknowable. Everything is dirty and gross, and is psychologically built to prey on anxiety. Not only that but much of it doesn't make sense outside of thematic reasons and can't be predicted.
By keeping the Alien to vents and hallways, it's easier to predict. If they had given it the ability to crawl on the ceiling and blend in with machinery, it would have been a lot more unpredictable.
They opted for the Terminator route, where it just keeps coming over and over and can't be stopped except by story and plot. Well, okay, but then I can sneak by it and if I fail I'll reload a save. I can't explain the difference, but somehow it didn't click as a scary thing, but as an enemy to strategize around.
