silent hill 2 is a game so un-apologetically driven by aesthetics and fucking with the players expectations. at many points in my playthrough i was shocked by how well team silent managed to unnerve me through pure atmosphere and the always insane environments (very awesome level design!!), with always good puzzles (a few too esoteric imo). Another shocking thing is that despite how inspired some titles are by silent hill theres still so many little things that make james sunderlands journey fresh and exciting.

A lot of people complain of SH2's bad combat system but i personally think its charming, and fits well for the title. Its so perfectly clunky and the animations are so smooth that they make up for any misgivings..

I think it is safe to say silent hill 2 could not be made at any other time period than when it released, the fmv cutscenes manage to look so uncannily beautiful paired along with an absolutely haunting industrial soundtrack; mixed with delightful ballads and guitar of course.
mary's undying love for her time spent with james resonates with me to a hurtful extent, all of the dialogue from this game sticks in my head for days at a time.

Maria is very t girl coded but dont tell anyone