I got a new computer a few months ago and all my progress on my emulated games is gone. Not that I'm "that" bummed out by it, but what struck me while I was installing everything here again is that THIS is the game I wanted to play first. This one? Pretty weird considering that I don't even consider this the best Silent Hill game, and yet, it's the one I'm always looking most forward to replay because it absolutely could've been the best.

The way this game opens and how the story is set up is genuinely amazing. This is the first game in the series where the rusty and wet horror that Silent Hill is known for occurs in a place other than the titular town, and my god is it scary and fun at the same time. However, I'm going to have to be upfront here and admit that as I'm writing this review, I have only made it to its midpoint. I want to express the absurd amount of love I have for this game's first half while it's still fresh in my memory before moving the second half, which I'm only dreading to get into again. Once the characters actually make it to Silent Hill, the game becomes so lazily designed, poorly written and infuriatingly tedious that it hardly even feels like the same game anymore. I don't want to act like all of it is bad, but it keeps getting worse and worse the longer it goes on until it all spirals into one shitstorm of final boss fight. There is SO much to talk about here to make an entire video analysis just explaining why the climax simply doesn't work, but sadly I don't have the time to get into that now.

I still recommend playing this game for all that good stuff alone, but all that bad stuff waiting at the end of the tunnel always leaves a sour taste in my mouth. It really is one of the most conflicting pieces of fiction I've ever witnessed.