I came out this game a changed man. The themes it explores are very profound and very well done. The game shows you everything instead of telling. The world itself even tells you a story with the constant changing of different character's silent hills'. For example James Silent Hill consists of Mariah to remind him of his sins alongside Pyramid Head to punish him. James is forced to relive his sin, he repressed due to trauma over and over again. James is the only one to see these monsters, and even sees Mary's clothes on the first Mannequin. Even with this trauma he relives through he truly cares for the other main characters Eddie and Angela. The moment James learns of his sin is one of the hardest cutscenes to watch, the pure despair of reliving that trauma and knowing he killed his wife. The cinematography and the camera angles only helped this moment, alongside Laura being there. James tries to convince himself he did it out of mercy, but eventually succumbs and admits he did it because he was so angry with the life that was robbed of him thanks to Mary's disease. James seeing his wife's mood change so rapidly trying to cope with the grief of having a terminal disease, only further worsened his mental state. James realizes he no longer needs a punisher in the form of Pyramid head and faces his sins head on. The pyramid head's kill themselves after which unfortunately foreshadowed my own fate, in the ending I received. In the ending I got the final moment James sees Mary like this almost brought me to tears, even with all the sleep deprivation I truly felt sad James went out the way he did. Brought to silent hill to kill himself, convincing himself he came because of a letter that doesn't exist. I hope to get the other endings, even if none of them are canon to understand more of James' character. I loved Harry and I'm glad James met my expectations and just went way over them. James is truly a complex protagonist and is the definition of Morally Grey. Eddie is forced to see blobs of meat everywhere and people laughing at him. Eddie keeps killing as he did in the real world, tired of being a reject and undergoes extreme psychosis. Eddie's twist was very well done starting him out as a joke character and slowly revealing his intentions with a body present at every encounter. Whom he denies killing. Angela (I'm so embarrassed I kept forgetting her name) is a very profound character and the one I feel the most for. Angela a victim of trauma from her father seen by the use of Abstract Daddy, and her reaction to James getting near her. Angela is looking for her dead mother in Silent Hill, a person that can maybe heal all the wounds she has. Her Silent Hill is constantly on fire forced to remember what I can only assume is her mother's death. Just like James she holds on to the hope that her Mother is here going though hoops and hurdles and holding out hope. Unfortunately she ends up giving up her pursuit after meeting James a final time. James meant well and tried to comfort her, but she's a broken woman. She knows James won't take care of her, heal her wounds and stay with her. With this final bit of hope lost we see her silent hill and she undergoes self immolation. Many think James could see her silent hill for a second, but it is implied we saw her silent hill through her eyes like we did with Eddie as the player, and James just felt the heat. Laura's silent hill is free from monsters and instead filled with these letter's from Mary her old friend. A child does not have any sins to punish, but the town of Silent Hill still only reminds her of the friend she lost. Silent Hill even puts her with the murderer of her friend. The depression of such an incident seemed to trigger her connection to silent hill. It brings me to tears seeing her draw a cat, as she seems to have done when she met Mary. She hides a lot of trauma through her veil of childhood innocence and is in Silent Hill to fulfill the wishes of her late friend and honor her wishes. Even with such a "bad ending" It fits what we've seen with the Gluttonous dying (Eddie) alongside the Seductress (Angela) and Finally the Opressor (James). These three are highlighted even in the patient files in the Hospital. The game revolves around these three and their trauma and how it's expressed in their silent hills. I'm sad to see James gone, but it thematically fit, with his sins collapsing on him. I hope these other endings will allow me to see how James handles his trauma in other ways and maybe even come out alive, and free of his sins.

I'm really glad to have talked about these characters, but this discussion would last forever therefore I'm moving onto the music. Akira Yamaoka is a master of his time. His work on the SFX of this game and the Music really makes the experience so much better. The sound design is genious and a great way to keep tension high with random sounds playing at random intervals alongside some Jumpscares to release this tension. For example, the dogs at the beginning of the game that never come out as you're running in the lake. The player is tense and scared of the unknown and what really lies in this town. It's a great introduction to the town. For an example of a Jumpscare, after traversing the silent hill memorial society, you come to a bathroom and are finally free from all the monsters for now. There is no radio static and just James in the room when suddenly a random noise plays and releases all this built up tension from running around the Jail and hearing the grotesque sounds of the lying figures. The player is truly scared, and it makes them fear what else can come from the area, the jumpscare not only releases the tension but makes you anxious as you're not done yet. Moving onto music, theme of Laura is the best thing to go along with the intro. The feeling of hearing the guitar start up after Maria's line about the VHS tape. Akira Yamaoka busted his ass for one week to perfect this theme and it payed off. I couldn't tell you how it makes me feel as I do not know much about music theory, but ask people the emotion they feel and you'll be met with various answers. The guitar strums in between are my favorite part. This song only already made me want to check out his work. I'm glad he's worked on various titles I love and am happy he's still creating. White noise (track no2) is so comforting and yet makes me feel melancholic. This entire soundtrack is just full of emotion and passion and it truly moves me. I hope to buy this ost, as to support Yamaoka. Akira Yamaoka could not have done a better job and I'm glad of all he's done for team silent.

Finally onto Gameplay. Starting off the game let's people who don't like tank controls included with the 3d controls can play in the 2d controls setting and move with the analog stick. The control scheme is pretty simple and can be figured out with button pressing and/or the manual. The only thing I felt the game could have explained is stomping, but it's fine. It was introduced in it's predecessor either way and can prolly be found through button mashing. There are various memos that explain the monsters behavior, and the first fight is an excellent way to introduce combat and let you get a feel for it before throwing you into it. It forces you to fight and get used to it so you can pick your battles later. The survival horror mechanics are there with saving ammo being essential and deciding whether you want to give up health and/or ammo. If you're good enough enemies can be run through without consequences. The camera angles are quite good and make me feel like something is always watching. They don't reveal too much and forces you to have your radio handy or risk a monster encounter you didn't expect. Bosses are a resource check and force you to come up with some interesting strategies with their mechanics. Eddie on his 3rd phase will rush you if you have a gun, and hide if you have a melee weapon and use a revolver. Knowing this you can switch to a rifle and then back to a melee weapon to get around this and it's peak gameplay design. Players who experiment are rewarded, with the ability to stunlock bosses like pyramid head and eddie with certain weapons.I wasted all my resources on the final pyramid heads yet still beat the final boss thanks to a stunlock with the lead pipe. The game is as hard as you make it especially with the difficulty setting, and I strongly advise against choosing hard combat on a fist playthrough. It will be worth it to prevail after experimentation, but can lead to frustration to some. I want to end off gameplay with the puzzles. These puzzles are genius,, I played on hard and figuring out some of these were a treat (ex. Henry Matilda and Scott (Hours Minutes Seconds) and VV2 being roman numerals) while others really had to make you think (ex. Hospital pin code being "T" ( Hint : Draw the letter and use the numbers from where the line starts and ends)). I unfortunately had to get some hints to figure some of these out, but I'm glad I didn't use a guide. These puzzles reminded me of my time with zero escape and it was fun to write things down and try to make sense of it.

I want to say that this game truly did change me and these characters had me emotionally invested the whole way. It dealt with some heavy themes, some even hitting close to home and overall was one of the best games I've played and sits in my top 2 alongside Metal Gear Solid 2. I'm glad I got to experience this game thanks to a friend. Please play this if you haven't and feel free to discuss your thoughts. "In my restless dreams, I see that town. Silent Hill."

After Getting every ending as of April 27, this game will always have a special place. I'm so glad James got better.