Do you know how long I've been procrastinating my first playthrough of this game? It has been nearly a year now! You see, I REALLY like the first half of this game. It amazingly evokes the creepiness of this franchise in ways it's never been done before. I would've loved to see Team Silent making more games outside of Silent Hill, because there were clearly more stories they wanted to tell.
However, once the game reaches its midpoint, it becomes practically unplayable for me. Escort missions are fun for what they are but it doesn't belong in a game like this, especially when an unkillable dude starts chasing you with a gun. The titular room getting destroyed makes the game unendingly dreadful with barely a moment to breathe. Being able to escape from the nightmares gave the atmosphere a melancholic vibe, kind of like going to the merchant's store in Resident Evil 4, and you can't have a horror game without that calming inbetween. But you know what? I can take these problems to some degree if I wasn't forced to go through the same areas all over again! It makes all my previous progression seem wasted, the puzzles become infinitely less fun to solve, and it destroys the rising action!

I feel that all of this has something to do with Konami's intervention to turn this from an original IP into a Silent Hill game. It's like they were on the verge of sticking with what they already had in the first half, but then had to take the story in a completely different direction halfway through to make it more in-line with the franchise without the time or budget to create new environments and monster designs.

Overall, a game that had so much potential to become an all-time favorite of mine but destroyed itself with a shockingly unnecessary tonal shift.

The slimy worm monster boss was one of the most infuriating things I have ever come across in a video game. And I'm not rating this game so low just because it made me rage quit, I thoroughly believe that this is one of the laziest sequels ever made. It's the same as its predecessor but objectively worse in every conceivable way, from its protagonist, story, combat, all the way to its inventory system. I'm not going to circle jerk my disliking for this trash any further by saying that it's racist because that assessment is stupid and shouldn't be taken seriously, but just because it isn't offensive doesn't mean it's good in any way.

This game pisses me off. Why? Because this is where the LEGO franchise went downhill. For some reason, Tt games felt the need to make this a more serious entry with its own story and dialogue. I'm sorry but wasn't the whole point of these games to come across as satire? Like a fast-paced, neutered and wacky version of stories that were made for teens and adults? It makes me wonder who this game is even for, because kids wouldn't have the attention span to follow the plot nor would they continue to be invested in its dreadfully slow gameplay and adults are never going to take a game with Batman as a LEGO figure seriously. By adding voices and making it an original story, you've essentially removed the core of what made these games so charming in the first place.

I will admit though, the open world is easily the best we've ever had! Almost makes this game worth buying (except not really).