The best game ever made. There is never a week that goes by where I don't think of this game whether it be James and Mary's terrible situation comforted by their deep love for each other to Mary's reading of her letter given to James before she passed. The story is something I didn't expect at all from a horror game and I didn't expect it to be so touching. The characters and events are so human that it hurts to see them turn out the way they do by the end of the game.

Adding to this is the fantastic music, ambience, and sound design by Akira Yamaoka as well as the terrifying monster design and art by Masahiro Ito, Team Silent worked hard to guarantee such an immersive experience and fantastic story.

Akira Yamaoka perfectly creates music/ambience that gives a soothing yet lost feeling and it's reflected here with songs like White Noiz, Forest, Heaven's Night, etc. Then there's the amazing sound design for the monsters like the Lying Figure which make disturbing screeches as they slither around and when getting hit.

Masahiro Ito creates monsters that not only symbolize and reflect characters so well, like Angela and James, but monsters that stay memorable due to their striking design like Pyramid Head, Abstract Daddy, and the Mannequins. Compared to the first Silent Hill, the monsters and environments featured here are so different that it's insane how well they symbolize so much with designs not seen before. Then there are environments that transition from everyday places that've been abandoned to surreal paintings, you never know what lies behind each room or passage way the deeper you get into the game.

Nowadays there's tons of "walking simulators" but I don't think none have done it like Silent Hill 2, this game influenced tons of other horror and non-horror games with it's psychological horror and themes while having been influenced from works done by David Lynch and Francis Bacon and especially by Jacob's Ladder.

This is all while having combat that has little to no thought behind it. Even with combat so terrible, it no way affects how great this game is because of the tragic story it creates with characters like James, Angela, and Eddie who are flipping between their wit's end and what needs to be done throughout the game.

I could go on and on about this game but I'll stop here. I will never stop recommending this game to anyone and everyone I meet, even with how scarce it is on modern platforms, but hopefully the remake will soon remedy this problem.

Really good game, apart from the fact that I played the xbox version, and apparently the lighting was designed around being played on a CRT TV (which I do not have), so the game was so incredibly dark on my TV at certain points (even with max brightness) that it was borderline unplayable lol. I had to use a walkthrough for basically the whole thing bc otherwise I would never have even known where most of the items I was supposed to pick up actually were since most of the screen was basically pitch black for like half the game. I'm aware it's supposed to be pretty dark to create a good atmosphere, but probably not quite this dark lmao

Man I love that scene where James sais "It's over John Silenthilltm : I understood your symbolism!" and then Pyramid Head kills himself.

(played the Enhanced Edition)
Yeah I can see why everyone is crazy about that one. The atmosphere and ennemy designs is immaculate, the story really good and allows a lot of different interpretations, even if its fans tend to push it really far. Gameplay was pretty enjoyable too, the tank controls being less of an issue that I thought (the only game with similar controls I ever played is Resident Evil on gamecube and maybe MGS Twin Snakes, and I remember having a lot more trouble for these). Silent Hill is a truely fascinating place to explore, wich is easily this game's greatest achievement.

I will say, however, that it's way less scary that I thought it would be. If anything, I'd say it's almost more funny, with ennemis jumping out of bushes like if there was a trampoline hidden inside and the voice cating wich is really something. But then again, people will argue that Jame's deadpan deliveries are a representation of how much he's dead inside or something so what do I know?
This game's surprisingly easy too. I played it on normal difficulty, and if the puzzles were quite challenging, combat was never and issue thanks to the very abuntant ressources and really slow ennemies. Bosses are the only exception : while they aren't the most mechanically interesting, they at least pose a challenge.
I wouldn't mind if it was at least a bit longer too.

Oh and the Maria episode is neat