Early on in this year, I beat Silent Hill 2 with my cousins, but I was busy with schoolwork, and then catching COVID in May, and just generally a lot of things happening in my life got in the way of spending the time to really get my thoughts down, because I had a ton to think about with this game.. So even though it’s been a couple months, I still wanted to get my thoughts on the game out there because of just how much there is to say about it. So here it is, my thoughts after having completed Silent Hill 2, and having plenty of time to reminisce and learn a little bit more about the game, how it was developed, and how it works.

It was interesting playing this one after having played the original, as the first one doesn't get talked about nearly as much as this one. In some areas they are extremely similar, with some similar UI and mechanics. In some areas they are markedly different, to the extent that even having played through the first one (which I feel does deserve more credit than it gets sometimes), and being somewhat familiar with some of what the game entails, I was surprised by how those previous expectations differed from how the game ended up.

I think the most striking thing for me was how both games handled the concept of Silent Hill. For one thing, even though they are both unmistakably Silent Hill, there are a lot of differences as to what that means in each game. The first game felt to me like it involved being in the actual town itself a lot more, feeling more populated as you got to meet some of the citizens of the town and their cult traditions, and with lots of enemies hunting after you. The nature of the surreal happenings seem to be manifestations from the psychic power of a girl named Alessa Gillespie, and the citizens you meet seem very surprised by what has been happening recently, and as our protagonist Harry Mason lingers more in Silent Hill he delves deeper into her creations and the messed-up backstories of the town and what the people who live in it do. The soundtrack can get very Reznor-y, very industrial and disorienting and uncomfortable, which is also represented in how the Otherworld is very industrial and rusty, very mechanical and torturous. In his own way, Harry is also subconsciously drawn to the town, but not over anything he did, but because of the presence of his daughter Cheryl and what he doesn’t know about her, and a car crash is what thrusts him suddenly into Silent Hill and left to figure out the nature of this strange town.

Silent Hill 2 unmistakably follows in the footsteps of the first, but much has changed between the games and the emphasis is very different. The very nature of the town itself seems to have changed, now being an omnipresent entity that conjures a subjective reality for the individuals who find their way here, very different from the first game, possibly as if what Alessa did to the town has taken a life of its own now. Unlike Harry who just wanted to find his daughter when Silent Hill turned out to be different from the resort town it used to be, as soon as we meet James he seems to be a broken man, returning to the Silent Hill he used to visit (but now completely different) willingly because of a mysterious letter saying that his dead wife is waiting for him in their “special place,” and referring to a promise. Considering that he even sought out his wife who had been dead for three years, and seems so willing to continue despite warnings of danger and doesn’t even try to leave, it gives the impression this is a man who doesn’t really have anything else left. He doesn’t even seem to travel in much of the main town itself. Where Harry found himself in the residential area and then managed to get to the economic center of town, James has to get to Silent Hill by a hikers path and spends much of his time near the road that leads to the more tourist-oriented part of town Harry visited. A lot of the places James visits feel more like the outskirts of town, more out-of-the-way business like a bowling alley and a nightclub, entering apartment complexes instead of houses, visiting the more historical tourist spots that generally don’t attract as much attention as the more consumer-oriented resort area. This is reflected in the map, where you can just only barely see Lake Side Amusement Park, the only visible area on the map from the previous game, which you don’t even make it far enough into Silent Hill to get to. It’s ironic, Harry was a tourist that ended up right in the middle of the town and its citizens’ dark secrets, whereas James is returning to Silent Hill but only ends up as a tourist, wandering on the fringes, seemingly completely abandoned. Even the enemies in the overworld don’t give as much difficulty, being easier to get away from than the dogs and pterodactyls and hopping creatures of the first game. And the soundtrack is notably different from the first, both of them being absolute masterpieces in their own way. The first one was more mechanical and threatening, whereas the more I’ve relistened to the second soundtrack, most of it is actually very soft, melancholic, and ethereal. The combination of the soundtrack with a Silent Hill that has generally less threat and a stronger emphasis on isolation creates a very different vibe, especially when thinking of the locales in the game, where it’s not so much the rusty NIN-scapes of the first go-around, but instead decrepit, sad, lonely places who have been abandoned by whoever had a function for them. The first game was like a gradual descent into a nightmarish hell, but the second one is more like wandering by yourself in a gauntlet you conjured for yourself, occasionally more dark and disturbing, but mainly with a lot of melancholic ambience. The first game’s soundtrack reflects Harry’s primal fears in his quest to save his daughter, while the second game’s soundtrack reflects James’ barely lucid attempts to process what has happened to him.

In retrospect, I’m so in awe of what the game accomplishes, but to be truly honest, it’s really been the weeks and months reflecting after the game, and after researching more deeply into it and its development that I truly started to grasp what makes it so brilliant. I will admit that (and probably my autism has a lot to do with this) I have a tendency to come up with weirdly rigid and completely off pre-conceptions of what things are supposed to be like before I experience them. So I could recognize early off that this was following heavily in the footsteps of the first game, but there were some decisions that I found curious initially. Why was there so much less incentive to actually explore the town? Why does it feel like I spend more time in fewer locations, covering less ground? Why are a lot of these enemies way easier to deal with (especially with the option of a new control scheme that I preferred)? Why do we spend a lot less time with the Nurses and Pyramid Head (who is definitely important but much more of a minor character than I would have figured) than their fandom prominence would suggest? The initial questions of someone coming in with certain expectations. I definitely thought it was amazing as I first played it, but true understanding of what really made it an all-time best took a little longer to digest as I thought back on it, some of which I’ll get to in a bit.

I’ve already given an outline of aspects of the game in how they contrast to the first, but it’s time to go a little more in detail, starting with the story. Taking place after the first game, but in a way that’s unclear what has happened between then and now, James has returned to Silent Hill, in the already-mentioned quest to discover why he would receive a letter from his dead wife saying she is waiting for him in their “special place.” Parking his car and continuing on foot, it’s clear that for James, answers are more important than anything else in his life right now, including his safety, as it becomes apparent early on that Silent Hill is a hostile and mysterious place now, filled with weird monsters, and of course, the ominous, foreboding presence of an entity that came to be known as Pyramid Head. He comes across other people who have made their way to the town, each approaching the town differently, as their experience with Silent Hill seems to have a lot to do with whatever baggage they bring to it. Eventually James comes across something very surprising, a woman who seems almost identical to his dead wife Mary aside from a different personality and more provocative wardrobe, whose name is Maria, and she seems to know stuff that only Mary would know. As they continue to explore Silent Hill searching for Mary and a young girl named Laura who says that she knew her, they encounter many distorted and unsettling enemies, and a lot of strange and paradoxical happenings start to revolve around Maria. And James’s further interactions with the other people who arrived to Silent Hill deteriorate as they struggle to deal with the issues plaguing them. He starts to question what really even led him to the town. He ends up at the hotel where they visited when they last came here, returning to their “special place” and discovering just why he was really brought back here. Ultimately he ends up having to directly confront his relationship with Mary and Maria, with the final outcome dependent on which ending you get, which I’ll get more into soon.

The storytelling was already pretty solid in the first Silent Hill, but it really expands here into doing some super compelling things. While the first game was also a masterpiece in its own right, its story does draw more from existing cliches, especially with the town that’s more than it seems and secret cults and demonic rituals and such. And Harry is a bit more disconnected from the things that happen, kind of an observer who ended up in the middle of the forces the town is dealing with, just trying to get his adopted daughter back, and the story never really gets more into their relationship beyond that. In Silent Hill 2, the focus is a lot less external and much more personal, and it manages to flesh out an ultimately more original narrative. Almost everything that happens in the town in the game has to do with James being there. The monsters reflect what James has been dealing with and his subconscious thought processes. It ends up being more narratively distinct from the first in how it really centers around James as a character, how he relates to his dead wife and the lookalike of her he comes across, and how he comes to terms with them. It really delves into themes of how the human psyche deals with sex and death, those themes being abstracted into the reality James experiences. It’s really well-paced in a way that makes the town feel very lived in, spacing out the more narratively crucial moments with a lot of opportunity for atmosphere and exploration. The tone is expertly handled, interweaving the different emotions James must be feeling, occasionally more viscerally disturbing and hard-hitting but with a lot of low-key ambience for reflection as well.

The characters are all really solid, each one makes an impact in their own way and none are forgettable. James perfectly embodies the mood that Silent Hill gives off in this game, dejected and deflated, coming on his own to a hostile, abandoned town for the only thing that really seems to be on his mind right now. So many other people wouldn’t have even bothered driving out to the town, but James is exactly the kind of broken person who would still go through with it, even with all the threats sent his way. I saw a video where his voice actor, Guy Cihi, says that towards the end of his difficult first marriage he had dealt with his own suicidal feelings that helped inform his performance, which I think I can feel in the very melancholic way he speaks. Maria is a fascinating enigma, sometimes an idealized version of Mary, sometimes hostile and condescending. The way her character ends up toying with James’ emotions really adds to the unsettling feeling of the general uncanniness. Angela’s instability makes her very pitiful, I was really concerned for her, which makes it all the more of a gut-punch how her demons seem to consume her. Eddie’s complete apathy to everyone else and off-kilter desire for vengeance adds to the sense that the town constructs subjective realities for its visitors, playing off of and potentially worsening their mental states. Laura can be aggravating in how she makes things harder for James, but really comes across as the innocent, naive soul that does not see the same things the adults with more baggage do, wandering the town as if nothing were really out of the ordinary. And of course Pyramid Head, who doesn’t ultimately have to actually be around a lot of the time, to still be this imposing surreal presence when he arrives, who has become an icon of the series precisely because he embodies what makes it distinct, a corrupted form of a human being with just enough odd touches that reflect the strangeness of the games. And while the voice acting is very of its time, I really liked it. I thought the performances were very fitting for the characters, especially in their uncertainty. I’ve noticed that sometimes I genuinely prefer the style of some older dubs to the way newer ones are done because even if older ones tend to be more amateur and less professional, sometimes there’s a genuine distinct personality they’re able to tap into that a more “professional” approach sometimes doesn’t, going for something that meets standard expectations but doesn’t add a truly unique, personal voice to the character. Basically, I think the cast they got did a lot to really humanize their performances.

But while the story and its characters are amazing, what truly makes Silent Hill 2 what it is, is its gameplay, the subjective experiencing of its narrative, the kind of storytelling that couldn’t be done in the same way if it was a book or a movie. And probably the most brilliant aspect of its gameplay was something that I wasn’t even aware of as I was first playing. Like many games, Silent Hill 2 has multiple potential endings, and usually games with multiple endings have set paths to align yourself with to aim for, and the most binary of them will have a good ending and a bad ending. Silent Hill 2 doesn’t explicitly ask you to pick a path to get your ending. There are no dialogue trees or morality bars. You get the ending you get based on how you played in totality. As I was playing, my cousins would often tell me to go ahead and check my picture of Mary or other weird little actions, and I was so confused by these little rituals, wondering what the point of it was. As it turns out, the game’s evaluation of what ending James deserves depends exactly on little gestures like these, whether you looked at Mary, whether James took care of himself, whether he tried to protect Maria, etc. Your playstyle is being judged by the game to determine what kind of person James is, his story is an incomplete template, it’s up to what kind of James you are that the rest of the context is filled in. When I first read up on this, I was blown away. I had no idea this had even been happening. The game had been examining how I was playing to determine my fate without my knowledge. This alone gives massive props to Silent Hill 2 for such an ingenious element of immersion.

In terms of how the game plays in the moment, it’s a lot like the first game. Combat is stripped-down and basic to reflect the everyman perspective, there isn’t much to it and it’s a bit clunky, which is very adequate and appropriate for James. His ability to move around is also pretty basic and modest, properly matching the energy of this man. With less prominent bosses and enemies that are easier to manage, as well as easier movement when compared to the first game, surviving in the game is generally easier, but the focus ends up shifting more to the experience of it all. So in a sense I feel like this almost pushes the game slightly more in the direction of walking simulator, as much as that concept would have existed at the time, while still being much more interactive and evaluative than the average one. Puzzles are still an aspect of the game, though I remember them also not being as prominent as they were in the first one. Like the first, the story revolves around focusing on clearing out one area at a time, with exploring the town at large in between, though comparatively you explore less of the town and focus even more on the specific areas. Ultimately I get the impression that compared to the more game-y original, the sequel ends up going in a more experiential direction. Slightly downplaying the more genre elements of what is expected of a survival horror game in order to more strongly emphasize immersing the player as James Sunderland, rather than the more puppeted relationship the player had with Harry Mason. And I think it ends up working in favor of the game, establishing a more first-person association to the events that are happening instead of a third-person one.

Of course, the stylistic elements of the game are also crucial to what makes it the game it is. This game’s atmosphere is so rich and immersive, it excels at engrossing you in a certain state of mind whenever you play. The graphics are amazing for the time, and I still adore the game’s aesthetics and presentation. The cutscenes are phenomenal, really well-directed, well-animated, and striking. The motion-capped performances of the actors are well choreographed and laid out. The character designs and models are super memorable and distinct, perfectly fitting the personalities they’ve been attached to. The locations are all lovingly detailed and convey a strong sense of once having been lived-in places. Watching some of the behind the scenes for the game, they talked about how the environments were designed to be both repulsive and attracting, something I had picked up on myself, that despite being an inherently creepy and off-putting place, parts of it are almost “comfy” in the weirdest of ways. And of course we have to get into the audio. This soundtrack appeals to me so much, with its generally ambient and ethereal soundscape, inspiration from trip hop and industrial, combination of engrossing atmosphere and strong melodies, densely layered with impeccable production, perfectly switching between different styles and keeping it all cohesive. I’ve relistened to it over and over in the months since beating the game, and I could easily do so again without getting tired of it. Honestly one of my favorite soundtracks of all time, across all mediums. And the general sound design is impeccable, very memorable and appropriate. All these stylistic elements given such care and craft and humanity come together to create a game that is such a complete package, and a truly inspired vision.

I struggle to even consider anything I would really think truly wrong with the game, or at least much worth mentioning. Bosses are adequate for the game but leave something to be desired, it’s not really the type of game that lends itself to complex bosses, but even the first game pulled this off generally better I feel. Combat is also more on the adequate line which does feel very appropriate, but it makes some bosses feel especially clunky. The final boss showdown feels a bit anticlimactic compared to the first game’s one, which I was not actually a big fan of fighting either but it felt more impactful. Enemies probably could’ve been a little bit more threatening. I would’ve appreciated some incentives to explore a bit more of the town proper, as spatially I felt like I wasn’t drawn into that area as much, which leads the geography to feel a little bit weirder than the first game. Some more slightly branched off content like the first one would’ve been cool, though I wonder if it would’ve distracted too far from James’ primary quest. It’s a little too easy to get disoriented when rowing the boat towards the light if you lose track of where you are. And the one puzzle that involves rotating the room, I think the concept is fascinating, but I had such a hard time trying to wrap my head around it in practice, would’ve helped if it was easier to visualize what I was doing. Off the top of my head these are the only things I can really think to gripe about, kind of a few scattered things and they don’t ultimately bring down the overall experience that much.

Silent Hill 2 will now go down as one of my favorite games of all time. Even now I’m still gripped by its characters, its story, its soundtrack, and the imagery of the surreal zone of Silent Hill. It masterfully puts the character in the shoes of James and asks you to determine what kind of James he is and what it really was that brought him back here. And it puts you in a unique atmosphere that no other series could properly replicate. Even all these years later it manages to impress and be relevant. I highly recommend it to anyone who seems interested.