I'm rating this separately for Born From a Wish. The side scenario is fine, not good but not bad either. It lasts all of 30 mins to an hour depending on whether or not you get lost in the beginning like I did lmao. Felt very strange going back to SH2 after playing 3 & 4, combat is so slow. They give you more ammo and health pick-ups than you'll ever need since enemies are hardly an issue. I thought the house could have been a cool area but so much of it is locked off. Nothing special overall, but it's short enough to beat in a single sitting which is somewhat refreshing.

I think this was the first Silent Hill game I actually beat (I went back to play SH1 proper after), and what an unforgettable experience it was! It's truly amazing what Team Silent were able to do in the early days of the PS2 here, with such an incredible atmosphere and look to the game. The few characters we have are all fascinating in different ways, and the game rewards multiple playthroughs (especially if aiming for different endings) to really absorb the story. The gameplay is pretty classic survival horror stuff, but I was pleasantly surprised how easy I found the melee combat to work with. Boss fights are far between but incredibly memorable. Never before had a game scared me so much but had me absolutely compelled to keep playing. An all-time masterpiece, I don't expect the remake to improve things all that much but I'll check it out.

I can, and also can't, see why everyone praises this game

The open endedness and possible interpretations of this game definitely makes it hard for me to review. I really had to sit down and reminisce on everything to try forming an opinion, and the lack of a canon ending doesn't help (I got In Water, and I feel it delivered on my thoughts about James but also makes me sad).
As it is, from my current understanding and interpretations of everything, this is a great game with a fantastic story. It's such a stark contrast from the way the narrative played out in the first game, but honestly I kinda preferred the first game's approach to storytelling. I'm not fast on piecing things together, so as it stands I've really enjoyed this story! But because of my currently limited understanding, I do fail to see why everyone calls it a masterpiece

Gameplay wise, it's still Silent Hill. 2D controls were absolutely cursed for me so I stuck with the 3D tank controls, and I felt right at home. Combining items was a good addition, no longer do you have to use items step by step. Melee combat is the pits though, it's weird but charged attacks never consistently hit for me. Setting the difficulty for riddles was an interesting option, I didn't struggle to figure out stuff on its Normal setting apart from that dumb cube puzzle. It's honestly a great setting when you compare it to SH1's puzzles like the piano and the zodiac one

Music is really good this time. SH1's soundtrack isn't bad per se, it fit the tone incredibly well (its main theme is fucking aces), but it's not like I want to go back and listen to the equivalent of a brick in a washing machine and dentist drill noises outside of the game yunno. This one is super moody this time, music plays at appropriate times and is really fun to re-listen to. And I do say appropriate at times, I dunno about you but the song that plays after the reveal of the big twist doesn't make me sad it makes me wanna bust a move like the fucking meme

Overall, great game, but I'm failing to see the bigger picture (just not in a bad way, I'm just dumb and slow)