An atmospheric, deep, tense experience. It's absolutely baffling that this game came out only 2 years after its predecessor. The graphical leap is amazing. Everything just falls in place in this game. The environments are detailed, the music is beautiful and atmospheric, the ambience adds so much tention. The implication is sometimes more effective here than the actual scares.
The story is leagues above the first game. It's still lauded as one of the best in the medium and I would have to agree. The one thing holding it back is the sub-par voice acting. There are some standout performances here, but I wasn't impressed. That's basically the only thing I expect to be better in the upcoming remake.
It's a wonderful, thoughtful game that set the standard for its genre that is yet to be matched. Every horror fan should give this one a try.
The story is leagues above the first game. It's still lauded as one of the best in the medium and I would have to agree. The one thing holding it back is the sub-par voice acting. There are some standout performances here, but I wasn't impressed. That's basically the only thing I expect to be better in the upcoming remake.
It's a wonderful, thoughtful game that set the standard for its genre that is yet to be matched. Every horror fan should give this one a try.
4 Comments
I acc found the sub-par voice acting to add to the uncanniness in an unintentional but genuine way. Like they simply don't belong. However, I am also a SH2 die hard, so maybe I should just jump into a hole and keep my mouth shut y'know.
@wreith Yeah, after thinking it over I can definitely see that. These people are lost and messed-up. James literally risks his life for a letter from his dead wife, it's pretty obvious that he would speak in a unnatural way, stilted and numb. Not even going to mention Angela, I think her voice acting works the best here. I would be lying if I said it didn't bother me the first time around, but after some consideration I definitely see the point. These people SHOULDN'T be well-versed socially. They shouldn't be able to communicate effectively. They're messed-up people meeting other messed-up people. And it definitely adds to the dreamlike atmosphere this whole game has. Certainly fits better than the sub-par voice acting in SH1.
@trago Totally. When I first heard James and Angela talking in the graveyard I was like "...really? we sure that's the best take?". But by the end, anything but that would've been weird. Definitely a happy accident though. Reminds me of a quote from Zero Punctuation long ago, where he talked about Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and how Dr Jekyll was unable to recreate the concoction that turned him into Mr Hyde because there was some unknown ingredient missing he didn't know about. SH2 is a lot like that, where it's this weird concoction created from ingredients that not even its creator fully knows about, and to try and replicate it would always fall short.
NOWITSREYNTIME17
5 months ago