The horror classic- Silent Hill 2! Spookstober rolls on as I played what is arguably the greatest horror game of all time... how does it hold up? Pretty okay!
It's tough to judge this one fairly because I am already pretty familiar with the game, having seen many MANY people on the internet discuss its intricacies to death. I was aware of the big 'twists' for the story, I've seen the enemies and themes dissected a dozen times, I've seen many of the cutscenes and enemy types... but honestly I still really really liked it!
The game itself is solidly barebones - you've got your standard survival horror bits of collecting health packs and a few weapons and scrounging for bullets to take down some supernatural baddies while you attempt to explore a place/solve some puzzles. Resident Evil~y right? Well yes, but the moment-to-moment kinda sucks where Resident Evil does not. The camera attempts to be a "movable" fixed camera and it is... offensive in many places, functional in others. There were MANY hallways where I literally cannot see a whole foot in front of me because the camera WILL NOT FLIP AROUND ME. And there's enemies here, I know there are! The radio crackling to life around enemies is a fucking genius idea and I technically had it 10 years ago but whatever. Anyway camera aside the shooting is basic as hell as are all the weapons but 1 (Buster sword! That you can't really use because it's too big - perfect lol) but they ultimately get the job done. There are some puzzles as well and I don't recall having too much difficulty with them and while I DID enjoy the brain-teaser-ness of them, I do think I like the RE style puzzles of weird/creepy aesthetics and progression gating, though at least backtracking Silent Hill 2 is at a minimum unlike RE.
But the gameplay isn't what were here for right? Nah man, we're here for that STORY! James Sunderland is real sad because his wife died 3 years ago (or was it a week ago..??) but he received a mysterious letter from her! She's waiting for him in their "special place" at Silent Hill... so James goes back and meets a few other crazies who are also called to this place for reasons that slowly become apparent as you meet them again and again on your journey. Each of the folks you bump into have various sad stories that evolve and relate to James' own, with lots of neat revelations about the town along the way but no REAL answers are provided in any of the endings. I'm told the other Silent Hill games have explicit references to cults and such who operate in Silent Hill but this game stays away from that almost entirely - and I kinda like it actually? The focus is on James and his loss - and it works damn damn well.
Lastly we'll cover the 'art' of the game - it looks pretty great actually. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot of the town to cover, you basically go from apartment to hopital to a crypt thing then to the final area of the game. Running around Silent Hill proper and seeing lots of little places to explore would've been a lot cooler I think but I imagine they had a shoestring budget to work with so this is what we got. The music and monster noises are perfectly creepy and somber the entire time. Enemies look gross and weird and of course Pyramidhead (overused now, but that's not this game's fault!) is a fearsome foe.
All in all this is an excellent horror game focused more on grief and sorrow rather than monsters going BLAHGHHFHH at you. James' tale and the stories of the other characters are moving and heartbreaking and the dialogue while sometimes a bit stilted is always heartfelt. Even more than 15 years later and already knowing much of the beats of the game I still dearly enjoyed it.
It's tough to judge this one fairly because I am already pretty familiar with the game, having seen many MANY people on the internet discuss its intricacies to death. I was aware of the big 'twists' for the story, I've seen the enemies and themes dissected a dozen times, I've seen many of the cutscenes and enemy types... but honestly I still really really liked it!
The game itself is solidly barebones - you've got your standard survival horror bits of collecting health packs and a few weapons and scrounging for bullets to take down some supernatural baddies while you attempt to explore a place/solve some puzzles. Resident Evil~y right? Well yes, but the moment-to-moment kinda sucks where Resident Evil does not. The camera attempts to be a "movable" fixed camera and it is... offensive in many places, functional in others. There were MANY hallways where I literally cannot see a whole foot in front of me because the camera WILL NOT FLIP AROUND ME. And there's enemies here, I know there are! The radio crackling to life around enemies is a fucking genius idea and I technically had it 10 years ago but whatever. Anyway camera aside the shooting is basic as hell as are all the weapons but 1 (Buster sword! That you can't really use because it's too big - perfect lol) but they ultimately get the job done. There are some puzzles as well and I don't recall having too much difficulty with them and while I DID enjoy the brain-teaser-ness of them, I do think I like the RE style puzzles of weird/creepy aesthetics and progression gating, though at least backtracking Silent Hill 2 is at a minimum unlike RE.
But the gameplay isn't what were here for right? Nah man, we're here for that STORY! James Sunderland is real sad because his wife died 3 years ago (or was it a week ago..??) but he received a mysterious letter from her! She's waiting for him in their "special place" at Silent Hill... so James goes back and meets a few other crazies who are also called to this place for reasons that slowly become apparent as you meet them again and again on your journey. Each of the folks you bump into have various sad stories that evolve and relate to James' own, with lots of neat revelations about the town along the way but no REAL answers are provided in any of the endings. I'm told the other Silent Hill games have explicit references to cults and such who operate in Silent Hill but this game stays away from that almost entirely - and I kinda like it actually? The focus is on James and his loss - and it works damn damn well.
Lastly we'll cover the 'art' of the game - it looks pretty great actually. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot of the town to cover, you basically go from apartment to hopital to a crypt thing then to the final area of the game. Running around Silent Hill proper and seeing lots of little places to explore would've been a lot cooler I think but I imagine they had a shoestring budget to work with so this is what we got. The music and monster noises are perfectly creepy and somber the entire time. Enemies look gross and weird and of course Pyramidhead (overused now, but that's not this game's fault!) is a fearsome foe.
All in all this is an excellent horror game focused more on grief and sorrow rather than monsters going BLAHGHHFHH at you. James' tale and the stories of the other characters are moving and heartbreaking and the dialogue while sometimes a bit stilted is always heartfelt. Even more than 15 years later and already knowing much of the beats of the game I still dearly enjoyed it.