Silent Hill 2
PlayStation 2
Silent Hill 2 was the first game I ever played for the PlayStation 2. I waited a year or so to get a PS2, as I usually do whenever a new console comes out. A girlfriend of mine actually got me the system for Christmas, along with Silent Hill 2 and Metal Gear Solid 2. It was a Christmas of video game 2s apparently.
I wasted no time in putting Silent Hill 2 to good use. I had been a major fan of the original game for the PS1. I'd played games like Resident Evil 1 and 2 before, so the idea of a scary game wasn't something new to me. But Silent Hill took things to a different plane. The game was not only scary and suspenseful, but disturbing as well. The deformed babies, the rusty "alternate" worlds, the static from the radio, the demonic enemies with their funny walks, plus the fact that everything was usually so dark or foggy that you could barely see 10 feet in front of you... the whole atmosphere of Silent Hill saturated me with fear. The game just had this uneasy, dreadful feeling associated with it that would settle in whenever I popped it in to play. It was a nightmare inducing game that legitimately scared me out of my mind. It had taken survivor horror to an all new level.
So obviously I was excited for the sequel. Not only was it a follow up to what I considered the scariest game ever made, but it was also my first PS2 title. Silent Hill 1 was great, but I could only imagine what could be done with the game on the new hardware.
I quickly learned that the original was no fluke - Silent Hill was still scary as fuck. Before I had even encountered a monster in the game, I was scared shitless. I remember long nights spent exploring the apartment complex towards the beginning of the game. I was often too scared to play more than an hour or so at a time. And Pyramid Head... don't even get me started on him.
Eventually I did finish the game, and probably played it a few more times before I retired it from my game rotation. It has sat on the shelf collecting dust for 10 years now. I've played a few Silent Hill games since then. I loved The Room, was so-so about 3. I played one Silent Hill game for the PS3 that was more action based, and I hated it. But ever since I had started doing this blog, I kept thinking to myself - you need to review Silent Hill 2. Play Silent Hill 2. Play it! It's been so long.
The timing needed to be right. I needed to set aside a weekend for myself where I could play it at night with little to no interruptions. And the right time finally came this past weekend. I was cocky and thought to myself that I could beat the whole game in one night, but that didn't happen. Short attention span and all. It actually took me 3 nights to complete - playing about an average of 2 or so hours per night.
While it definitely was not as scary as it was back in the day when I had played it for the first time, there is no denying that it is still a terrifying game.
For those of you not familiar with Silent Hill 2, I'll recap the story. A man named James has received a letter from his dead wife, beckoning him to return to Silent Hill and find her where she has been waiting for him. Understandably confused, James comes to the city and quickly finds himself caught in its supernatural web.
Everything about the place is just "off." The road has been blocked off, causing him to leave his vehicle at a rest stop and enter on foot. Everything is covered in a dense fog. Growling noises and other sounds emerge from the fog. I played this time around with headphones on, something that I didn't do when I played the game initially. I definitely noticed a lot more audio cues that would have scared me even more if I had been able to pick up on them on my original play through.
James encounters a woman in a graveyard on his way into town, and she says things that don't seem to make a whole lot of sense to him. There are several encounters like this throughout the game. Finally entering the town on foot, James encounters a creature that he is forced to bludgeon to death with a wooden plank. The town is filled with creatures, and the only clue to their existence is a white noise that emanates from a portable radio James finds and begins to carry around with him. You know there is an enemy nearby when the radio starts making noise. This causes a lot of scares in the game when you are walking around dark hallways and corridors, barely able to see what is happening. But then your radio starts pumping in that static sound...
James searches all over town for his wife. At first he thinks that she is waiting for him at the park overlooking the water. But she is not there. He then determines that she is at the hotel where they spent their last trip in Silent Hill, so he embarks to find here there.
Basically, you wander around this small city, looking for clues of where to go next. You fight monsters, you encounter random strangers who seem just as lost as you do, and you get the crap scared out of you. Locales in the game include an abandoned apartment complex, a bowling alley, a historical society, a jail, a hospital, a hotel, and more.
All of these locales are scary. The lights are off, everything is abandoned, and creatures are waiting around every corner to jump out and make you piss your pants. The apartment complex is a great introduction to the game. You wander up and down the hallways, checking the doors, looking for rooms that are not locked. You encounter so much fucked up shit that really sets you on edge. People who have committed suicide, body parts from dummies strewn all over the place, creatures that move all jerky-like and randomly lash out at you. And there are puzzles. One particular segment that scared me is when you have to reach your hand in this eerie hole in the wall and pull something out. There is this bizarre banging sound going on that you do not know where it is coming from. Flies are swarming you. Tensions are high. I had to take a deep breath before reaching in that hole.
The scares never really let up for the whole game. Everything is so dark, that you can basically only see what the radius of your flashlight allows you to see. You never know what you are going to encounter until sometimes it is too late. Not only is the game scary visually with its monsters and corpses and all that, but it is scary to listen to as well. The music is creepy, the dialogue is unsettling, and that dang white noise from your monster detecting radio always keeps you on edge.
The game isn't actually that challenging, if you can work up the courage to play it. Enemies tend to go down pretty easily. When the game ended I had a major surplus of ammunition left over, so you don't need to be conservative with it. Health items are everywhere as well. And so many of the enemies you can easily elude or run away from. The puzzles are fairly easy as well, although there were some points where it wasn't clear what I was supposed to do or where I was supposed to go next. Thank god for Google.
The game looks good. Playing through it, I was surprised how well it has held up considering it was a first generation PS2 title. If anything the grainy look and feel of the game makes it seem even more authentic and scary. The controls are "tank" controls, which I know a lot of people don't seem to like. But I didn't mind them here, and in fact have never minded them in a game before.
If I had to make a complaint, it would be that the voice acting is cheesy in some parts. The conversations between characters make little to no sense. The whole plot and the resolution of it in general makes no sense. Is James dead? Is this all in his mind? Is it the afterlife? Is he real, but Silent Hill is just a supernatural anomaly? What is with the other people he encounters there? What the frick just happened??
I don't know. If anything I think the whole title is open to interpretation. I love the game, but I wish some of these questions had been answered. I am sure some people out there are fine with this, but I am not okay with David Lynch style things that don't make any sense whatsoever. I want things to be laid out in front of me and clearly explained.
There are several endings to the game, but I only have ever gotten one. I understand that the way you play influences the ending, so I guess I am always playing the same way when I play this. I take my time, I explore everything, I kill everything, save often, and I make sure I am always full on health and stocked up with ammo and other items. Apparently if you play more recklessly you get different endings, but I have yet to see them.
This is not a lengthy title - it took me around 7 hours to beat on my most current play through. And that is with me falling asleep for over an hour early on in the game. But the game doesn't need to be long to be good. If you like exploring, if you like solving puzzles and killing monsters, you should like this. But you have to like to be scared too.
Like I said, this wasn't as scary as it was the first time I played it, but it still made me jump out of my skin on more than one occasion. It's not all about the jump scares, the whole atmosphere of the game just permeates this sense of dread. Like you don't ever know what kind of fucked up shit is going to happen to you next. And this is what truly makes the game great.
If I had to make a list of the top ten scariest games I have ever played, this would be close to the top of the list, if not AT the top. I recall the original being pretty scary too, but it has been so long since I have played it. The first Resident Evil scared the bejesus out of me too. So it would definitely be a close race.
One thing that this game has going for it is Pyramid Head. If you are familiar at all with the series or with gaming in general you probably know who this is. A giant, silent, sword wielding stalker that has... a giant red pyramid on his head. His appearance doesn't make a lot of sense, but that is part of what is scary about him. You first encounter him in the abandoned apartment building, having a, err, carnal adventure with one of the mannequin looking enemies. You encounter him sporadically throughout the game, and each time his menacing appearance scares the shit out of you.
My scariest Pyramid Head moment, you aren't even in any danger from him. Shortly after encountering him the first time you come out of an apartment unit only to find him standing there motionless behind iron bars that cut the hallway in half. He doesn't move, he doesn't do anything. He can't even get at you from behind those bars. But just the fact that you come out the door and there he is standing so ominously scared the crap out of me. That was probably one of the biggest "OMG heart attack!" moments of the game for me.
That about covers how I feel about this game. If you like to be scared when playing a game, you have no excuse for having not played Silent Hill 2. This is an absolute must for all fans of the survivor horror genre. It is iconic, fun, scary as fuck, and has actually aged relatively well. There is a newish HD version out there for the PS3, but I have yet to play it, and I probably never will. It just works so well on the PS2 with the gritty picture quality and the low visibility. I imagine that playing the remastered version would be like watching the Night of the Living Dead in color. It just isn't the same.
Silent Hill 2 is a definite classic, and a candidate for the scariest game I have ever played. A few minor flaws, like the incomprehensible plot resolution, clunky battle system, and its short length keep it from getting an A+. But still, this game is legendary and one that should not ever be forgotten by fans of the genre.
Overall:
A
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