Im very conflicted on this game
I think this game is aesthetic perfection and original, ahead of its time in terms of subject matter and cinematography, I justdon't know if this is the correct medium to tell a profound story. sure, its subject matter is profound, and it's handled with grace and ellegance, but I just can't say it's a very fun game to >>play through. map progression here is far too cryptic on a first playthrough, and it takes a lot of getting used to. maybe this is my fault, because it's so different from other games and other games have dumbed me down to the point where I would never expect an outside-of the-box solution for certain things. I don't mind spending 20 minutes figuring out a puzzles, which are the most enjoyable aspect of the game beside it's atmosphere, however the way to progress through the game has had me looking up guides up up until i realized that this is just the way these games are and i should be thinking about out of the box solutions, which quickly became puzzles in of themselves. I realized this about halfway through the game, but it made the first half a bit of a nuisance for me. There are a lot of unintuitive roadblocks such as putting a damn juice box in a garbage chute in order to progress to the next area, and this is far from the only example. Some of them are doors that blend into the environment such as the entrance to the Motel. I can't put to words how frustrating it is to have to pause my game, pausing the stellar atmosphere, and breaking my immersion in the process because there is seemingly no other way to move forward. However it was also incredibly rewarding to piece some of these things together, of course a melting wax onto a horse-shoe with a lighter was the only way to make a makeshift handle for a certain door!
As far as it being a horror survival game, I have to laugh at the people who swear up and down this is not a combat focused game, especially when there are frequent BOSS FIGHTS and enough ammo drops to comfortably take out every monster you run into. This is one of the weaker examples in the entire SH series where it feels like the horror survival aspect was just tacked on because they didn't just want to make a walking simulator. it's not exactly an action shooter like resident evil 4 but you have loads of ammo and more than plenty of heals at all times and there is no meaningful strategizing when it comes to ammo and heal preservation. I know this is only something nerds care about but Resident Evil 1-3 all do a far better job of making a game feel like an actual game with well thought out item management and an ENGAGING gameplay loop. And at the end of the day, since this is the medium they chose to tell this story with it's kind of incomplete imo with somehow has worse combat than the first entry.
I don't like boss fights in a game that is not built around engaging in combat, but as a last ditch effort means of defense, so it makes me question why they are even included when they are mostly awful. The most notable one for me is the first Pyramidhead boss fight, in which you just run around him in a circle, and shoot mindlessly. It's an intensely boring sequence which sucks any and all suspense out of encountering Pyramidhead, and maybe should've been a more subdued looming presence relegated to only appearing in cutscenes up until the end.
I genuinely see the charm and I like the Characters, with the exception of Angela who is voice acted awfully. This is not necessarily an issue with other characters like Maria or Laura or Mary. The characters do have more depth than in Silent Hill 1. The implication that the town is essentially a sort of purgatory is such a viscerally interesting concept, and it's lead to lots of fan speculation. I love open ended games and this is by far one of the best examples of it.
SPOILER ALERT:
I have to talk about the letter at the end of the game from Mary. We heard a snippet of it in the intro and in the trailers but hearing the full thing after learning what James had done was just devastating. The only part in the entire game where the voice acting isnt (some might say deliberately) bad is in the final and complete letter from Mary to James, the weight it was delivered in is the finest voice acting I have ever heard in any piece of media let alone videogames. It was so sincere and profoundly delivered and was written in such a heartfelt and genuine way that I couldnt help but have tears well up in my eyes
I think this game is aesthetic perfection and original, ahead of its time in terms of subject matter and cinematography, I justdon't know if this is the correct medium to tell a profound story. sure, its subject matter is profound, and it's handled with grace and ellegance, but I just can't say it's a very fun game to >>play through. map progression here is far too cryptic on a first playthrough, and it takes a lot of getting used to. maybe this is my fault, because it's so different from other games and other games have dumbed me down to the point where I would never expect an outside-of the-box solution for certain things. I don't mind spending 20 minutes figuring out a puzzles, which are the most enjoyable aspect of the game beside it's atmosphere, however the way to progress through the game has had me looking up guides up up until i realized that this is just the way these games are and i should be thinking about out of the box solutions, which quickly became puzzles in of themselves. I realized this about halfway through the game, but it made the first half a bit of a nuisance for me. There are a lot of unintuitive roadblocks such as putting a damn juice box in a garbage chute in order to progress to the next area, and this is far from the only example. Some of them are doors that blend into the environment such as the entrance to the Motel. I can't put to words how frustrating it is to have to pause my game, pausing the stellar atmosphere, and breaking my immersion in the process because there is seemingly no other way to move forward. However it was also incredibly rewarding to piece some of these things together, of course a melting wax onto a horse-shoe with a lighter was the only way to make a makeshift handle for a certain door!
As far as it being a horror survival game, I have to laugh at the people who swear up and down this is not a combat focused game, especially when there are frequent BOSS FIGHTS and enough ammo drops to comfortably take out every monster you run into. This is one of the weaker examples in the entire SH series where it feels like the horror survival aspect was just tacked on because they didn't just want to make a walking simulator. it's not exactly an action shooter like resident evil 4 but you have loads of ammo and more than plenty of heals at all times and there is no meaningful strategizing when it comes to ammo and heal preservation. I know this is only something nerds care about but Resident Evil 1-3 all do a far better job of making a game feel like an actual game with well thought out item management and an ENGAGING gameplay loop. And at the end of the day, since this is the medium they chose to tell this story with it's kind of incomplete imo with somehow has worse combat than the first entry.
I don't like boss fights in a game that is not built around engaging in combat, but as a last ditch effort means of defense, so it makes me question why they are even included when they are mostly awful. The most notable one for me is the first Pyramidhead boss fight, in which you just run around him in a circle, and shoot mindlessly. It's an intensely boring sequence which sucks any and all suspense out of encountering Pyramidhead, and maybe should've been a more subdued looming presence relegated to only appearing in cutscenes up until the end.
I genuinely see the charm and I like the Characters, with the exception of Angela who is voice acted awfully. This is not necessarily an issue with other characters like Maria or Laura or Mary. The characters do have more depth than in Silent Hill 1. The implication that the town is essentially a sort of purgatory is such a viscerally interesting concept, and it's lead to lots of fan speculation. I love open ended games and this is by far one of the best examples of it.
SPOILER ALERT:
I have to talk about the letter at the end of the game from Mary. We heard a snippet of it in the intro and in the trailers but hearing the full thing after learning what James had done was just devastating. The only part in the entire game where the voice acting isnt (some might say deliberately) bad is in the final and complete letter from Mary to James, the weight it was delivered in is the finest voice acting I have ever heard in any piece of media let alone videogames. It was so sincere and profoundly delivered and was written in such a heartfelt and genuine way that I couldnt help but have tears well up in my eyes