For personal reference more than anything else.

Second time playing through this after the first time four years ago. Played on Xbox One with the HD Collection version. Beginner action difficulty and Normal riddle difficulty. Got the 'Rebirth' ending. Also played 'Born From A Wish' on Easy.

The first time I played this game I came out of it seeing it less as a game and more of an experience, thinking that I had no issues with it and basically considering it perfect. This time around though I found that I did have issues and didn't think it was perfect anymore but I felt that I was able to appreciate it a lot more compared to when I first played it. I also saw it more as a video game but there were multiple moments towards the end where I was genuinely so surprised to look down and see a controller in my hands as I was so completely invested and had just forgotten that I was playing a game.

This is a very good game, I think this way at least more to the story, audio and presentation. Admittedly some story and character stuff did go over my head but I didn't really mind that and it just made me want to have a look and see what other people think or see what theories there are. The music is also great with a quite a few songs that were really good and captured the feeling the game was going for, although there were a couple I weren't entirely sure on.

But the main thing that got me was just how brilliant certain sections in this game were due to a mixture of the design of the locations and the sound design. The game is already creepy enough but the prison has got to be one of the creepiest sections I've ever played in a game before, where I genuinely felt relief when I heard the static from the radio meaning one of the monsters were nearby as at least they were something I recognised and found almost comforting in a weird way as opposed to the incredibly unpleasant looking prison and all the strange noises it housed.

And then there's the hotel which is already a great location but it gets so much better once James has his revelation and the hotel transforms into this dilapidated and desolate building that for a short while I felt almost trapped in with so many locked rooms and the guest rooms that the majority of kept looping sending James back to the same areas. Throughout a lot of the second half of the game it just kind of got to me how horrific of an experience this all was and what James must be going through in his head (or what Silent Hill deemed fit for him after his actions (I don't really know which it is in all honesty but I think it's one of these two)) to create this.

My biggest issue with the game though is the gameplay unfortunately, while I played from start to finish on the aforementioned difficulty options today, I actually started playing yesterday with the action difficulty on Normal, this was a pretty bad decision on my part. I don't really like the combat of this game and the way I saw it, lower difficulty meant less hits that each enemy would need to take and it meant that I could spend less time doing the combat. I think I may have gone a bit too far and should have just put it on Easy as while I wasn't too bothered about the normal enemies, the boss fights were going down in about 10-30 seconds which hurt the impact of them I think. As for riddles, I was actually fine with most of them but the coin one at the beginning I had to look up as I found it a bit too difficult. I also was initially having problems with the movement (and I nearly stopped playing because of it), but then I realised that I didn't have to play with tank controls and instead could change it to '2D Controls' in the options which felt a lot better. Overall though I think the gameplay while being my biggest issue, isn't actually a massive problem as I was able to change things more to my liking.

The characters were good, although I did find Laura kind of annoying and I also was sort of mixed on the voice acting (I played using the original voices) as sometimes I was really into how normal the characters sounded and how they felt like real people when they spoke, but then there were quite a few times where the voice acting just sounded straight up bad and it sort of took me out of it, especially as I can't usually tell when acting of any kind is good or bad. The different characters each having their own story and all going on their own journey just like James made them more compelling, especially considering that they don't all get a whole lot of screen time and it also gave me something to chew on during less story-heavy moments in the game where I could think about them and sort of how 'Silent Hill' as a place actually works.

Something to note here is the fact that I played using the HD Collection which has a bit of a reputation. I didn't really remember having many issues on my first playthrough and this time it was mostly the same. I think the game sort of stopped for like a second two or three times and it also was a bit too dark for me to see in certain areas but other than that I didn't actually have any real issues. One of the biggest things is how this version affects the game on a visual and atmospheric level and considering that I came out of this game, loving how it looked and feeling very freaked out at times or creeped out most of the time, I don't really think it was that bad. I'm sure if I played the original versions I would have a better time but I think the game is able to carry itself and the experience it wants to share with the player, in spite of any potential problems this version brings.

I really liked Born From A Wish as well, it was interesting and had me on edge a lot of the time even if it was a telling a sad story. The story was good and I enjoyed the role Maria played in it but I did have issues with Ernest. I didn't really trust him at all and I didn't even believe that he was actually who he said he was and part of that was down to the voice acting, its already pretty bad I think but actual quality of the sound really didn't help things. I noticed it with Maria a couple of times as well, either the microphone was cheap or the voice actors were too close to the microphone and I think for Ernest it was done on purpose because he's talking from behind a closed door but it still didn't sound right even for that. I also wasn't keen on the puzzle as it felt like it didn't really work with how you solve puzzles in this game. Great little whatever it was though that only took me 45 minutes.

In the end this is truly a special game and I'm so pleased to have had such a great experience on my second playthrough of it. I've come out of this game feeling far more excited about exploring this world than I ever had before and I'm also way more interested in playing more games in the franchise as while I've played a bit of the first four games I've only finished 2 & 3 before so I'm looking forward to playing through more.