Original creature design
Gamers looking for intellectual horror will find it in Silent Hill 2. As the story opens, James Sunderland receives a letter from his wife telling him to meet her in the town of Silent Hill. The only problem is that she's been dead for three years. In hopes of reuniting with her, Sunderland explores the haunted town, where he has many terrifying and unexpected encounters. While the brilliantly designed monsters are indeed scary, it's the complex twists and turns of the plot that really produce the game's terror.
The gameplay is largely puzzle based. Much of it involves gathering clues and items to solve each puzzle. A few fights are thrown in, but these are quite easy, and are mostly used to show off the developers' bizarre creations. The level of both puzzles and fighting can be adjusted to match each player's skill level. Although its mechanics are rudimentary, the game's presentation is anything but. A heavy use of fog is the game's hallmark effect, greatly adding to the mood. Sound--both effects and music--alternates between eerie silence and sudden, shocking crescendos.
Although the graphics and sound are both topnotch, the real star of this game is the story. It's very rich and intricate--a sharp contrast to the banal scenarios that frame most games. Although the game is short (around 10 hours), players will want to give it another go to discover its multiple endings and secret items. Despite basic gameplay, Silent Hill 2 is an excellent choice for gamers looking for cerebral thrills. Parents should note that in addition to violence and gore, this game deals with such topics as suicide, homicide, and euthanasia. --Raymond M. Padilla
Pros:
- Scary and stylish graphics
- Excellent cutscenes
- Effective sound effects and music
- Original creature design
Cons:- Unchallenging combat
- Too much item fetching
- Story might be too complicated for some
With its Poe-like atmosphere, dense fog, pitch-black hallways, and a cryptic letter from a dead wife, Silent Hill 2 promises to surpass the paranoia created by its predecessor, Silent Hill.
The sequel opens with James Sunderland, the series' average joe protagonist, and a mysterious message that reads, "Silent Hill, our sanctuary of memories. I'll be waiting for you there." More puzzling is that the note is signed by Mary, his deceased wife.
James sets out for Silent Hill hopeful that he'll find a trace of Mary. After an aborted attempt by car, James plunges into the dank fog and embarks on his quest by foot. Enter Angela, a woman who bears a striking resemblance to Mary, and who also beckons him with another curious message. It seems James can't go back; strange things are happening in Silent Hill.
Silent Hill 2 offers 10 new formidable foes, plenty of puzzles, and bone-chilling gameplay. The sequel's new story and characters promise to thrill and terrify. The visual and sound effects are amazingly detailed and macabre, and, if you're playing on a system with surround sound, you may find yourself keeping the lights on.
Silent Hill 2 Accessories
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Silent Hill 2 Reviews
The game can be considered more of a "mind f**k" than a gore-fest. There are no combos or matrix-like action, simply shooting or swinging at things. You will not enjoy this game if you plan on burning through it as fast as you can. And it can be very boring if you do not scare that easily and have learned to ignore the eerie music or silence and the anticipation of what could lie in that unlocked room. It is definitely worth owning because I think it marks the pinnacle of Team Silence's creative genius. I'll split my review into pros, cons and middle ground, meaning it can be considered both a pro and a con. While the symbolism behind the monsters isn't quite as apparent when you first start the game, their meaning becomes clear the more James discovers the darkness lurking in his own heart.
Very rarely does a monster leap out at you (there is even one monster that stays perfectly still in the darkness until you approach it) or attempt to scare you in a conventional way. The gameplay is fairly simple. The monsters in Silent Hill 2 are not just creative diarrhea, they are not some random, misplaced thing for you to take a swing at. It can teach gamers that sometimes you need to stop, listen to the music, analyze the scenery, and appreciate the fear. Those with a more mature sense of fear can come to appreciate the subtle terror the game produces, while others might simply find it a bore.
Some of the tasks seem like pointless busywork. The actual tasks to be completed during the game do not differ from what is typical in Silent Hill games. This game is not for so much hardcore fans of blood-and-gore shooter games but for those with an appreciation for pure psychological terror. Which, if this were reality, James could have easily taken hair from Maria (the female character who sometimes follows you around) and use hers. TO CONCLUDE:. Akira Yamaoka, the guy who did the soundtrack for this game, truly knew the art of using both music and silence to stir your emotions to his whim. All the music is absolutely gorgeous, and is also terrifying when needed to be.
The camera is AWFUL. PROS:. CONS:. This game is truly terrifying. There are many other examples of this kind of pointless busy work throughout the game. For example, in the hospital you must unlock a box that have a variety of different locks on it, you must search the hospital for keys and combinations, only to be rewarded with a strand of hair which you must use, along with a bent wire to fish a key out of the drain. Which is where the beauty of the monsters in the game comes into effect.
I spent a half hour my first time playing trying to reach a hotel I wasn't supposed to go to all because I walked past another map that instructed me as to where I was really supposed to be going. While the obscure camera angles are designed to immerse the player, when you're trying to attack an enemy you can't see because the camera is giving you a birdseye view of the top of your head, it can be very annoying. Silent Hill 2 is, in my opinion, the best game out of the 6 silent hill's released to far. MIDDLE GROUND:. I myself, having beaten the game for the first time had trouble understanding what exactly was going on throughout the game and can be considered a turn-off for some, but can also make the game just that much more intriguing. That being, opening every single door until one opens, searching that room thoroughly and leaving to continue looking through all the other doors. The game does not produce the typical "haunted house" type thrills. And there is no cut-off age to enjoy it.
The three characters, James, Angela and Eddie, all have some dark secret being kept from the player, and Silent Hill artfully reveals each characters sin when the player is ready to accept the truth. The story is very complex. While you are given a choice of both combat and puzzle difficulty, the actual controls are fairly simple which could mean a good thing for less experienced gamers, or a complete bore for gamers looking for a challenge. The game can sometimes be quite unclear as to where it wants you to go. It is easy to walk past a message or a map if you believe you're sure as to where you should be going. Every monster in the game comes from the inner torment of the main character, James. They have somehow managed to create a truly terrifying game without succumbing to cheap thrills, cliche storyline or anything of that nature. There are a lot of plot twists, metaphors and things "being said without being 'said'" type of things.
You may be too young, but you are never too old. The sounds of the creaking buildings, never being able to see more than three feet in front of you, and just the looming anxiety that comes with exploring the incredibly beautiful, deserted town is too good to pass up. The game deals with a lot of issues concerning the inner workings of the human psyche. Overall I think the positive aspects of the game vastly outweigh the negative.
1. They didn't even have a manual or box for it, lol. there is an online FAQ for the game incase you get stuck and have no clue what to do. I found it a couple years ago at EB Games by shear luck. Which resulted in getting a Xbox green case. Sure the graphics aren't kick a$$ perfect, but for PS2 its pretty good and once your into the game, its something you don't even notice. Theres different levels to put the difficulty of the monsters AND riddles.
preserve ammo and use melly when you can. By the way, best played at night with all lights off. Anyways, about the game. Silent Hill 2 has a great story.
One of the things that stuck out to me was the graphics and reality of this little girl in the game, she looks so real its kinda creepy lol. I've never seen a game where you could set game difficulty to medium and riddles to easy. I hoped I helped some and I hope you enjoy this game. 2.
This was one of the first games I beat on the PS2. :) Two pointers,.
This is one of the scariest and best games ever on any system to this date. Other people have written some pretty extensive reviews on just how great this game is. I'll keep my review short.
And it's amazing. This is Silent Hill 2. Hardly a game at all, really. Because the mechanicsthe controlsare just there for you to have a way to be in the story. Camera angles can be irritating at times, but they are how they are to increase the cinematic quality. You run around, solve puzzles, beat up monsters with a steel pipe or shoot them or what have you. Still, I love the facial expressions on characters during the well-rendered scenes. I picked up 3 wondering if I liked horror games.
Catchy, haunting, whatever. Akira Yamaoka has been doing SH's music for so long and for good reason, it's always fitting with the mood. But we're spoiled to amazing next-gen graphics these days. Silent Hill 2 is an experience before a gamea happening in stead of a distraction. What's going on. In closing, I've played more fun games than SH2, but I don't think any will stick in my mind as well or as long. It's the unraveling of secrets.
He searches through streets and apartments, a park, a hospital, a prison, but will James find the answers, or will he go mad, or is he already. I still don't know if I do, but I love Silent Hill. Sound - Fantastic. I wasn't even a fan until very recently. Great during some cut scenes. You uncover secrets and watch the events unfold. James searches, fighting where he must, being stalked by the malevolent figured with the helmet shaped like a rust-covered pyramid that carries a knife too big for a normal man to even lift. But when James finds the old resort town, he finds only monsters and those few humans dragged to the town, driven by their own inner pain, trying to discover things for themselves.
James Sunderland's wife passed away three years ago, but he could swear the letter he's holding is written in her handwriting. I'll be buying the soundtrack. That's what Silent Hill 2 is for me. And really, isn't that what games are supposed to do.
These are the questions you'll be asking yourself when you play through SH2. It's an event to be felt rather than played. But the Silent Hill series is more than cheap scares and gore (though such will be found). It will make you think, it will make you wonder, and you'll enjoy it the whole way.
In general, I'm not a fan of horror games. What happened. Graphics - Decent, most of the times. It's a great story tied with exploration and discovery.
And how you play the game determines how it ends. The controls work, that's all that needs to be said about them. She's waiting for you, James, in your "special place". That really brought life to the characters. What's it all mean. Or SH3 for that matter.
The gameplay is what you'd expect if you'd played the games before. Explaining a game like Silent Hill is boring when you mention the mechanics. I assume the same goes for 1, 4, Origins, and the new 5, but since I haven't played them I cannot say absolutely. Overall, though, Silent Hill 2 is amazing.
You play as James Sunderland, a normal guy who goes to Silent Hill after receiving a strange letter from his wife. This game does have two issues: the combat is a bit frustrating and the camera isn't a team player, but the story more than makes up for that. The strange thing is that his wife died long before the letter was written. Silent Hill 2 is famous with video gamers for what is perhaps the best story in a video game yet.
