This review contains spoilers
MagnificentMrMads Halloween Marathon #4
Silent Hill 2 is a game that I absolutely respect and can see why people love it. But at the same time I think it's a downgrade from Silent Hill 1 in some very important aspects and can definitely say I enjoy more. This is mainly because of 2s departure from horror to be more dreadful/depressing in tone, with each character handling the town in different ways. I did love this aspect with each character carving there own interesting journey through the town (James in particular I think is an all around better protag than Harry and his late game scenes are genuinely gutwrenching). All that being said the way Silent Hill (and mainly the otherworld) is handled feels a lot weaker this time around, with most of the fucked up industrial stuff being a lot more tame (ironically the fog is much more oppressive). This sadly is also the case with the monsters, as I felt besides Pyramid Head (who's more cool than scary) being not at ALL intimidating and mostly feeling like generic monsters instead of horrific beasts. Again this works in a much more dreadful tone but I just really liked what the original was going for and felt that got lost with 2.
Gameplay is mostly untouched from 1 but I will say I feel SH2s peak is much weaker than the Elementary School in 1, with the Hospital having some pretty annoying moments (such as the psuedo escort quest and dull enemy encounters). After this section the rest of the game doesnt get much better with the Prison and ESPECIALLY the Labyrinth being so unfun that I'm glad the game is incredibly generous with ammo on Normal. One of the biggest problems I had with SH2 was all of its boss fights being kinda shit, with the finale Pyramid Fight as one of the most boring I've experienced in a while.
SH2 is an imperfect sequel to a game I adore. Its story is phenomenal and the themes of grief and how people deal with it are told beautifully but so much of what I love from the original just is not here and for that I like the original much MUCH more.
7/10.
Silent Hill 2 is a game that I absolutely respect and can see why people love it. But at the same time I think it's a downgrade from Silent Hill 1 in some very important aspects and can definitely say I enjoy more. This is mainly because of 2s departure from horror to be more dreadful/depressing in tone, with each character handling the town in different ways. I did love this aspect with each character carving there own interesting journey through the town (James in particular I think is an all around better protag than Harry and his late game scenes are genuinely gutwrenching). All that being said the way Silent Hill (and mainly the otherworld) is handled feels a lot weaker this time around, with most of the fucked up industrial stuff being a lot more tame (ironically the fog is much more oppressive). This sadly is also the case with the monsters, as I felt besides Pyramid Head (who's more cool than scary) being not at ALL intimidating and mostly feeling like generic monsters instead of horrific beasts. Again this works in a much more dreadful tone but I just really liked what the original was going for and felt that got lost with 2.
Gameplay is mostly untouched from 1 but I will say I feel SH2s peak is much weaker than the Elementary School in 1, with the Hospital having some pretty annoying moments (such as the psuedo escort quest and dull enemy encounters). After this section the rest of the game doesnt get much better with the Prison and ESPECIALLY the Labyrinth being so unfun that I'm glad the game is incredibly generous with ammo on Normal. One of the biggest problems I had with SH2 was all of its boss fights being kinda shit, with the finale Pyramid Fight as one of the most boring I've experienced in a while.
SH2 is an imperfect sequel to a game I adore. Its story is phenomenal and the themes of grief and how people deal with it are told beautifully but so much of what I love from the original just is not here and for that I like the original much MUCH more.
7/10.