I never really gave the Silent Hill franchise a chance until now. I had been made to believe that it was a series about a spooky, foggy town with some spooky monsters inhabiting it and our hero trying to survive. Little did I know that it was much, much more than that. Silent Hill 2 is a horrifying, yet beautiful tale about trauma, regret, suffering, and how we deal with those feelings.
Everything in SH2 is purposeful. The environments, the various NPCs you meet, and the even the enemy designs reflect the mental state of James and his past. Is it all real? Or is it all in his head? That is up to the player's interpretation, but either way, everything is designed around James.
The ending system in this game is pure perfection from a narrative standpoint. How the player treats James and NPCs affect the ending given. All of the endings are intriguing and share different messages to the player. Besides the obvious joke endings, each one reflects how one deals with trauma and regret in a beautiful and meaningful way.
The gameplay itself hasn't aged the best, admittedly. It is still perfectly playable in 2022 (especially with the amazing fan-made Enhanced Edition for PC), but you definitely feel like you are playing a game from 2001. Regardless, it is still incredibly engaging. Puzzles are fairly simple but still require some brain power to solve. This is also the perfect opportunity to praise this games' puzzle difficulty settings. I have legitimately never seen a game do this and I am baffled that this didn't take off more in more games, as not only does it tailor the experience to whatever the player wants from the puzzles, but also gives the player a new experience even on subsequent playthroughs.
Overall, this game is a work of art. Yes, it's scary. But its also very thought provoking and meaningful. It is the type of substance that you never really receive in modern day horror games. It is really a shame that Silent Hill has been so dormant as of late, especially when considering the absolute amazing heights that this entry provided. Consider me a Silent Hill fan from now on.
Everything in SH2 is purposeful. The environments, the various NPCs you meet, and the even the enemy designs reflect the mental state of James and his past. Is it all real? Or is it all in his head? That is up to the player's interpretation, but either way, everything is designed around James.
The ending system in this game is pure perfection from a narrative standpoint. How the player treats James and NPCs affect the ending given. All of the endings are intriguing and share different messages to the player. Besides the obvious joke endings, each one reflects how one deals with trauma and regret in a beautiful and meaningful way.
The gameplay itself hasn't aged the best, admittedly. It is still perfectly playable in 2022 (especially with the amazing fan-made Enhanced Edition for PC), but you definitely feel like you are playing a game from 2001. Regardless, it is still incredibly engaging. Puzzles are fairly simple but still require some brain power to solve. This is also the perfect opportunity to praise this games' puzzle difficulty settings. I have legitimately never seen a game do this and I am baffled that this didn't take off more in more games, as not only does it tailor the experience to whatever the player wants from the puzzles, but also gives the player a new experience even on subsequent playthroughs.
Overall, this game is a work of art. Yes, it's scary. But its also very thought provoking and meaningful. It is the type of substance that you never really receive in modern day horror games. It is really a shame that Silent Hill has been so dormant as of late, especially when considering the absolute amazing heights that this entry provided. Consider me a Silent Hill fan from now on.