Disgusting, twisted and horrifying game that I can't stop playing (Shocka's 50th Epinion!)

___ {_tHe OnLY THing_to_fear is FEAR itself__ }

A few years ago, Silent Hill brought a whole new chapter to the survival horror genre of games, introducing a new actual 3D world and perspective into an enormous, detailed town with no loading times and the most f*cked up storyline to date involving a lost and possibly dead child, a hapless yet heroic father and a fate that couldn't be avoided. More psychological than former survival horror games like Resident Evil, it gave me more than enough frights and sleepless nights to cover it's price, and it remains one of my favourite video games ever, with some truly inspired moments of terror and forbodding horror. I'll never forget that scene in the school in the toilets, nor the horrible locker room mishap. The same for the incredibly screwed up hospital. Dear god.

{ WelCOME_BAcK . }

Now, the makers of the original are back with a vengeance.
Silent Hill 2 marks a landmark for the PS2 and the videogaming world, with the most beautiful graphics to yet grace the system, an enormously horrible storyline and lots of gameplay to be suffered long into the night.

in my restless dreams I see that town.

Poor James Sutherland has been unable to move on in his life since his young wife Mary tragically passed away three years ago. His misery forbodes him, and the arrival of a strange letter inviting him to visit Silent Hill signed by his dead wife's signature in her handwriting doesn't find him well. He leaves to go to this town, a town which holds signifance for both James and Mary, and what he finds is perhaps the ultimate sacrafice, where things will neve r bE tHE_sAME._

Upon arriving at Silent Hill, James finds the road blocked off, and has to take the long walk through the forest to get to the town. As you take control of him, you'll notice the lucious, realistic 3D graphics tinted with a blurry effect and lots of realisticly creepy fog. Running through the long and lonely woods will gather tension and an abysmal feeling of desolation and departure which soon becomes true as you come into contact with the twisted world that the town has become. Everything is blackened, old and disturbed, and the creatures that roam the streets are even worse. As James, you find yourself in a stunning nightmare driven by the characters you meet and also James himself, who must confront everyone including himself to find the reason he's been drawn to this town and why he continually suffers over his lost wife.

The graphics are fantastic in Silent Hill 2, and a huge step up from the original. While I admit I love the gritty look of the original, this just blows it away with spectacular, grim scenes of disgusting ingenuity. Normal places like everyday hotels, historical societies, hospitals are transformed into hell under the sickening effect of Silent Hill. Everything has a vicious yet beautiful and creative bent to it. The lighting is the real star of the show though; every scene is lit dimly, to be brightened by James' flashlight, revealing everything in its horrific glory. You'll walk into rooms with no light that look normal and everyday until you realise the bodies hanging from the ceiling in bizarre, rusted cages, deformed beyond belief. You'll find yourself faced with sickening, barely living monsters that wander unnaturally under dim lights from cellwindows. No more poor blocky shadow for this game; every shadow is realistically rendered and movable with the turn of James' flashlight, which accompanies him for most of the game in the nearly pitch black worlds that he is forced into. The glorious images and creatures of Silent Hill are fully rendered even more realistically than the recent film Final Fantasy, and the humans look just as real. It's extremely impressive. Even better is the water and fire effects; in the last half of the game, you spend some time wandering around knee-deep in water; each drop of each splash acts exactly like real water and you would swear it was real. It looks so stunningly realistic I'd be damned if it isn't the best water effects I've seen so far anywhere, be it movies or games. The fire is also very realistic and slightly more clever than the water, in which the rooms on fire are lit by the fire itself, brightly and authentically. It's a marvel to observe.
Something else worth noting is that the gritty blurred filter which works upon every image of Silent Hill can be removed to see the graphics in their full splendor. I like playing the game in both modes, the grit emphasises the atmosphere and is excellent for the first play through, and taking the filter off is fun for replays.

Of course nothing in this game would work if it wasn't for two things: the storyline and the characters. Fortunately, both work into each other to create a simply wonderous little tale full of interesting and horrifying characters. James meets several people also wandering throughout Silent Hill, trapped like himself. Most interesting of these is Maria, a woman who resembles his wife in every way but her hair and clothing. Strangely sexy, she joins him on his search for Mary, and soon becomes a major part of the storyline as James struggles to protect her from the things in Silent Hill. Younger girl Laura has been drawn to Silent Hill; only 8 years old, she was a friend of Mary's in the hospital - but what dark secret does she hold? The mysterious Angela and her sad story occasionally crosses James' quest, but how can she have anything to do with James and his plight? Finally, Eddie is a smaller character who somewhat resembles a fatter, less intelligent version of James, but his uncontrollable insanity soon turns him on the people of Silent Hill, and nothing can be done to save him. The story progresses as James searches Silent Hill and interacts with the characters. Each character plays a part in revealing the story of Silent Hill 2; which, like the original, isn't completely explained, left open. This is a wise path to take, as it leaves the many different endings open to interpretation and also allows the player to take on new locations to alter the ending. The plot comes forth also through searching through the various documents and writings throughout Silent Hill; some of them are directly rated to the plot and what's going on; others are just creepy ghost stories about previous horrible occurences that befell the town and it's occupants. Some of them are downright creepy, others just really bizarre. Strangely enough, Silent Hill 2 doesn't make any reference to the former, leaving it in a nice little universe of its own, which I like.

The monsters in Silent Hill 2 are similar to the original, but less varied and much worse, in both appearance, movements and attacks. Disgusting monsters like men in straightjackets completely covered in grotesque skin, struggling towards James are morbidly horrifying, completely deformed and twisted to observe. Monsters like two halves of a person walk on two legs while the upper two flail wildly, as if panicing - ugh. Dead nurses drag themselves and a big rust-stained metal bar towards you, attacking quickly. Worst of all, none of the monsters have a face or make human sounds or do anything which really identifies them as human, which makes them godawful to stumble across.

The sound is wonderful; as mentioned, the monsters screaming and moaning is inhuman and sickening, which is excellent. The voice acting is a stunning step up from the original, and while it isn't perfect, its the best in a Survival Horror game so far. The sounds of swinging gates, torenting rain, scraping blades are all beautifully atmospheric. Like SH, Silent Hill plays much like a horror movie, occasionally using sharp, creepy music to build up a moment, but most of the game is in complete silence. This amplifies each moment you stumble upon something horrifying, and works wonders. The tap of James' shoes on the differing ground is all you'll here for a while until you stumble upon a still living half corpse suspended from the ceiling in a demented box. The radio is brought from the original too, which makes static and builds suspense to when a monster is nearby. Some prefer to keep it on so that they can be ready and be scared for when the next horror approaches; others keep it off so they can hear the wonderful sounds of the creatures as they corner them. I'm torn between both, but I'd recommend anyone playing on hard mode to KEEP THE BLOODY THING ON. The amount and sheer force of the creatures is bad enough without slight warning.

Even with all of this praise, I must talk of some of the problems in the game. Areas are nice and big, but often too big and spaced out. Although the hospital scenario is fun, it all became too much for me to play since you spend too much time going from door to door just to find out which rooms you can go into, whereas there is about 100 different rooms to check out and only 20 of them are open. Surely making the hospital smaller with more of the rooms carrying significance would have been the way to go? It doesn't make much of a difference though, as its only a small portion of a large game. Other problems are smaller, such as some of the irrational puzzle solutions that have you spending two hours looking for something inside the hotel when it's actually in the fountain outside for no reason. Or trying to go somewhere new but can't due to the fact that you were meant to drop the cans of drink in the garbage for no reason (sorry I spoiled this for you, but if you play the game it'll help you out, as the other puzzles are well thought out instead of just annoying, like these are).

I must make special mention of the reprising character in Silent Hill 2, who James identifies as Pyramid Head. Simply put, this is the most wonderful character I have ever viewed in a videogame; it is simply the word "Disturbing" put into an image, and this is that image. Pyramid Head's body somehow resembles a human body, with a large pyramid pointing at all different sharp angles, rusted with blood and blackness, where his head should be. No eyes, no face, no nothing. Pure emotionless grim. His body is grimly decorated with dark stains and metals; his arms slowly dragging the most enormous knife/cleaver thing I have ever seen. He is absolutely horrifying. The first time you good look at him, it's out of the blue as you wander into an apartment and suddenly 'it' is there, in the kitchen, doing something unmentionable to a 4-leg monster. My first thought was panic, as was James', who hid in a cupboard and watched as 'it' drops the dead monster, walks over unnaturally as if shaking in terror and aching in pain, and stares straight at you, making bizarre twitching hand movements. James panics and fires a few rounds off it, to which it barely even reponds and slowly walks away; and you're left scared ****less in the apartment with the disembowled 4-leg monster. From then on, it wanders around Silent Hill with its own agenda, mostly involving mutilation of all a manner of things, living or dead. Like Nemesis from Resident Evil, if you see him, the first thing you'll do is run like holy hell, since it's basically completely invincible, and you will see him a lot. It's not a fun thing to do, either, suddenly walking into him in a previously empty room as he lifts his enormous weapon and instantly kills you with one quick attack. Pyramid Head makes Nemesis look like a pansy. Searching Silent Hill, you'll find out more about this character, particularly in the depths of the historical society where you'll wish to god you hadn't found his little lair. One particular picture of him remains potent in my mind, in which he stands emotionlessly with a large spear while his 'subjects' appear in a morbid black behind him with the words "Misty Judgement" beneath. Ugh. This character has even given my nightmares, which I simply do not have, ever. Bravo for Silent Hill 2. You've disturbed me.

Surprisingly enough, Pyramid Head still isn't the most disturbing thing about Silent Hill 2. They save the best for last, and I thank my holy hell I wasn't playing this particular scene at night - in the dark - alone like I normally prefer to play, since it really creeped me out good and I'm pretty sure it'll scare you as well.

Silent Hill 2 is an immensely scary and fun game, which any horror fan will enjoy, particularly if they enjoyed the first. It's psychological horror in every sense of the word; playing this for prolonged periods will let it get into your head, and it's pretty nasty. Unlike the 'jump' scares in RE games, this is just all atmosphere and creepiness, and it's not for children. The mature rating is well deserved, both for the disturbing elements but for all of the gore as well. If you buy it, try to play it in the dark, in the middle of the night, completely alone as much as possible, as you'll get the full brunt of it then and it'll really suck you in. Or, if you turn pansy, you should just leave the light on and cry.
I recommend this game to everyone, but I must note that despite all of this praise it cannot top the original Silent Hill, which was a slightly higher work of genius and a newer fresher entry to the genre - even with the improvements, such as the graphics and controls, it still can't top the events suffered by hapless Harry Mason. But PS2 fans for whom this is the first visit to Silent Hill will enjoy this more than the rest, as everything is just excellent, despite some of it feeling slightly rehashed. I'm not sure about you people in the US, but in Australia we get a Special Edition Boxed set with a "Making of" DVD which contains an awesome 'Making of SH2' featurette, an art gallery and some trailers for other games including MGS2, as well as a collectible sticker and a nice little box to keep it all in. For us, it's a must buy. For everyone else, buy it and get scared ****less. X-Box owners will soon have the chance to own the new edition Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams, which has a new playable minigame - but PS2 gamers, don't be annoyed at missing this; the minigame is very short (despite rumours of it being 6 hours long, it can be completed in under 9 minutes) and doesn't add much to the game itself, it's more of a gimick, and transcripts of it can be found on websites such as gamefaqs.com. For now, I'm off to be hacked to pieces by Pyramid Head, have a Happy New Year!