Even as a horror fan, horror games can be incredibly stressful. Only after I've finished playing one do I start to appreciate the thrill of it all, and in spite of the delay, it's enough to keep me coming back these stories over and over again. However, Silent Hill 2 isn’t a thrilling type of horror. It’s exhausting, it’s grey, it’s confusing. The gameplay isn’t interesting, it’s usually just wandering around, trying to make what little progress you can like navigating an unfamiliar room in the dark. The story is unrelentingly bleak, so don’t expect villains to overcome or wrongs to right, there aren’t any positive emotions you get to walk away with when playing this game. If the criteria to judge a game is in the pleasantness of its interactivity, this game gets a failing grade, but that was never the intention of this design. Most narrative-focused games tell their stories like a movie with interactive setpieces, but this one does it with every single detail. The depressive atmosphere, the confusion you feel, the design of the enemies, they’re all just as much a part of the story as the cutscenes. The feelings of the depressed and isolated protagonist are conveyed so thoroughly that they begin affecting the player, and the small decisions they make are incorporated into the character, subtly changing the story to line up with the player’s outlook. The narrative presentation is flawlessly comprehensive, no opportunity was wasted, a quality that few games have ever achieved. This type of story won’t resonate with everyone, but anyone who cares about interactive narratives needs to experience why this game is still the gold standard.