Silent Hill 2

In my restless dreams, I see that town...

Released: 2001
Platform: Playstation 2, X-Box
Players: 1
Rating: M (Mature)
Playable Character: James Sunderland, Maria
Summary: (from the back of the game)
The Silence is Broken...

James Sunderland's life is shattered when his young wife Mary suffers a tragic death. Three years later, a mysterious letter arrives, beckoning him to return to their sanctuary of memories, the dark realm of Silent Hill. Now James must go back to that special place to uncover the truth, unaware that the answers he seeks may require the ultimate sacrifice.

Review

This was the first SH game I played, and it amazed me. I had never played such a frightening, confusing, intense game that made me regretful every time I had to save and leave it. And once it was beaten, I was even more awed. It was so psychological, and its twists and turns were complete surprises. I can't praise it enough.

Though it stays true to the original Silent Hill at its core, SH2 takes a much less supernatural and more psychological look at the effects of Silent Hill on a human being. Yes, there are still monsters to shoot and demons to kill, but the real draw here is the unique storyline. There are movies that take this sort of story and don't do half as well with it as SH2 did.

A little less scary than SH1 (mostly due to the fact that you spend less time in gory Silent Hill than in SH1) I, personally, consider this the best SH game. It's consistently scary gameplay and several, more than satisfying endings. If any of the SH's were adapted into movies, I'd hope for this one.

Getting into the control/graphics aspect, again, the controls are kind of hard to get used to, (especially in 3-D mode, though there's an option for 2-D) but ultimately workable. The graphics are good in-game, and the CGs excellent. There are four modes, "Hard", "Normal" "Easy" and the new "Beginner" which somehow allows you to go through SH without battle monsters, and on the X-box version (which I have), an alternate sub-scenario featuring Maria, which just adds to the story and its background.

Summed up? Excellent game in all aspects. A little hard to understand stand-alone (you won't really understand exactly *how* all this comes to be unless you've played SH1) but still do-able. Also, great replay value.

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