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Silent Hill 2 has not only fulfilled the anticipation of terror but has also gone beyond and beyond in certain places, as well as our story opens up looking through the eyes of James Sunderland. James is a lonely person who has received a letter from his wife to visit her at their "special place" in Silent Hill, of course. Yeah, that's not too bad, but what really sets things up for some really strange stuff is the fact that his wife died three years before the letter was written. James doubts that Mary, his beloved wife, is still alive, but the letter spikes his imagination enough to get to the bottom of who sent her and what's going on. James returns to the now desolate, deserted, foreboding town of Silent Hill and finds himself trying to struggle for life in a living nightmare made up of things that would leave someone balling up in a fetal position and only waiting for the end to come soon.
Silent Hill 2 gameplay is pretty much the typical "Survival Horror" setup. The game itself has you controlling James around the town of Silent Hill to solve puzzles to find objects or open doors, engage with some very oddball people, and use a range of weapons to dispatch monsters and other unpleasant things as you advance. The puzzles are okay but it's gonna take some time to resolve them so, I'm going to the store to buy a hint book," but the general complexity of them can be adjusted before you start, which would give you more tips or apparent clues. Irrespective of that, it's the usual "go-to floor A and gets item B that allows you to access area C and drop item D after pulling the E levers" sort of stuff. Some of them consist of more common things, like turning clock hands to reveal the gap, whilst others, in true freaky Silent Hill form, would make you do some macabre things like staring at men hanging from the roof and working out which one was innocent. Okay, now you know that the fundamental mechanics are nothing new, so what makes this title different?
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First of all, the entire presentation of the game is what I've always thought Survival Horror ought to be. Previous games had some creepy stuff and stressful scenes, but it all seemed a little pre-scripted or very light. Instead, Silent Hill opts for a gloomy, desolate, gritty atmosphere that makes you feel filthy and overall "not right" after you play it. In addition, it often lets you feel totally isolated, as the characters you pass across regularly can temporarily give you a sense of relief, but their senseless and often odd bumps soon make you see them as untrustworthy, insane, and often crazy. Soon you will learn that there is no one who will help you get out alive, except you. The atmosphere is going to creep you out as well, so the smells, music, and crashing noises are going to get really loud, which makes you sit on the edge of the chair just hoping for nothing to happen. Most days you're going to get into something that looks like nothing will go wrong, only to get really close to having to change your panties because of something really unexpected that scares the daylight out of you.
Another thing that really got me in this game is the utterly crazy and scary monsters that you find along the way. Instead of going for a run of a mill zombie or a mutant animal, Silent Hill 2 instead plays on stuff you might see in one of your worst dreams or maybe in hell. Imagine that your electricity went out one night, and you bumped into someone in your home corridor that looked like a person in a straight jacket, and that made animal noises. Now add to that the fact that it is encased in a crust of rot from head to toe, mucus mixed with flesh, and its upper body convulsed like a seizure. It's frightening to think of because it's just one of the many things you're going to experience when you're going through such happy places as an empty low-rent apartment complex or a mental institution all the way. The creature mentioned is the first one you're going to see and believe me, it's just getting worse.
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Anyone who recalls playing the first Silent Hill can certainly recall the fog that was there when you walked through the city from destination to destination. It was a clever trick, but it was also a trick used by the developers at the time to cover a really bad popup in the background. Well, the city is large and more accessible than it was before, and the fog is back. This time, however, it's not there to hide anything but monsters, because it swirls and shifts around you as you pass or walk around it. It also contributes to the general impression of how barren and desolate the city is, and it also adds to the feeling that you could not make it through this one alive.
Most of the time, Konami really hit some top notes as far as action, setting, and controls are concerned, and it's a pretty good title. There are a few aspects that I think should have been built on, one of which is the darned camera that seems to pop up with every review of the third-person action game that I've ever done. Running down the street isn't that bad, so the view is usually something that you can deal with. The view will often get a little annoying when you're running down the corridor, but a fast press of the S button will zip it back behind you. The difficulty is in rooms or enclosed environments where the camera is lined up where the game thinks it should be in a stationary view. You can use the S-button to try to see in front of you, but it doesn't always fit correctly. Add on the fact that anything can happen to you in a place that you can't see, and it can lead to a lack of ammo or a loss of health.
Graphically, this game could teach some other people one or two about how lighting effects can be performed. The world, either outside or through the beam of a torch, looks incredible, which only adds to the realism of the entire game, making it so much scarier. The FMV scenes don't minimize all of the edges of the seat shocks that happen, and some of them will leave you looking at the television, stunned with disbelief or fear, wondering if you really saw what you think you were seeing. All have a run down, a gross look at it, and everything physically except for some sort of collision detection and rigid motions of some of the creatures at times are part of creeping you out absolutely.
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Overall, I'll say it's like this if you haven't played Silent Hill yet, and love to scare you know what's going on out of yourself, buy this card, turn off the lights, and don't say you haven't been informed. If you've already played this on consoles, you may want it for an extra scenario if you're a fan, but don't think it's going to give you more than a couple of hours of added insight into the game.
@kentzz001