Silent Hill 2
The Silent Hill series contains some of my favorite games of all time. I've always had a soft spot for real horror video games. There's something about the immersive environment that makes the horror narrative that much more complete in comparison to a horror film. I mean, I've been scared good by the odd scary movie or two, but Silent Hill and Dead Space have had my nerves so shot with tension that I've had to shut the game off after no more than an hour's worth of play.
With that in mind, I've decided to do a retrospective of the entire series as one run, instead of dotting them through the year. Now, I've already done a post for Silent Hill 1, which you can find here; now to move onto part 2.
Silent Hill 2 was launched on the PlayStation 2 console. Which meant that as great as Silent HIll 1 was, we now got to see what Konami could really do with a much more powerful system. By the time I had picked up a PS2 a number of early games were now available at a much lower price. At the time I had been mainly paying attention to my Dreamcast and GameCube and so there were a number of titles I didn't really know were out there until I had gotten started.
So having finally bought the PS2, walking into EB games was like Christmas what with about a ton of titles to choose from that were now Greatest Hits and available under 30$ or so. And since the PS1 started up some of my favorite franchises, I discovered that a ton of them had made it to the new system. Wipeout, Twisted Metal, Gran Turismo and of course, Silent Hill.
I loved the first Silent Hill game on the PlayStation, but truth be told it was one of those games that was mainly played by my brother while I watched on. I never got a good grasp of the full story and probably missed out on a few major parts. But when I finally got the PS2 and a copy of Silent Hill 2, my brother had moved out and I had it all to myself.
Silent Hill 2 wasn't easy. One of the things I found about it that got changed (thankfully) in part 3 was the ambiguity of the areas you explore. When you're wandering around multiple floors of an abandoned apartment building, hospital and school you completely forget which generic room you need to return to, which one had each piece of the puzzle you need or which one had the cryptic rusty hole you need to crawl through. To make matters worse as soon as the air raid siren blares and you find yourself in the dark world the layout becomes completely different.
As with previous Silent Hill games, Silent Hill 2 is about a protagonist who is called to the town of Silent Hill by his or her own inner demons. In this case James Sunderland received a letter from his dead wife, telling him to go and meet him in Silent Hill. James, who assisted in his ailing wife's suicide, still deals with the pain and regret of his choice and now finds himself battling it in the form of the horrifying town. The entire town has changed from Part 1, reflecting James' inner horrors and experiences both at home and his time at war. Apparently each of the monsters can be linked to different elements of his past. This includes a number of mutilated fleshy figures, the standard nurses, and the famous Pyramid Head creature covered in fleshy rags who drags a gigantic knife across the ground.
Silent Hill 2 took what was amazing about the first part and fleshed it out. (No pun intended.) It featured better textures, higher quality graphics overall, improved controls and possibly the best soundtrack of the series. It was horrifying and thought provoking, really pushing the boundaries of what a horror game really meant at the time. For most people, Silent Hill 2 was the best of the series, I can't say I disagree completely, because I simply enjoy each of them in their own way.
Tomorrow I'll post on the sequel, Silent Hill 3.
The Silent Hill series contains some of my favorite games of all time. I've always had a soft spot for real horror video games. There's something about the immersive environment that makes the horror narrative that much more complete in comparison to a horror film. I mean, I've been scared good by the odd scary movie or two, but Silent Hill and Dead Space have had my nerves so shot with tension that I've had to shut the game off after no more than an hour's worth of play. With that in mind, I've decided to do a retrospective of the entire series as one run, instead of dotting them through the year. Now, I've already done a post for Silent Hill 1, which you can find here; now to move onto part 2.
Silent Hill 2 was launched on the PlayStation 2 console. Which meant that as great as Silent HIll 1 was, we now got to see what Konami could really do with a much more powerful system. By the time I had picked up a PS2 a number of early games were now available at a much lower price. At the time I had been mainly paying attention to my Dreamcast and GameCube and so there were a number of titles I didn't really know were out there until I had gotten started. So having finally bought the PS2, walking into EB games was like Christmas what with about a ton of titles to choose from that were now Greatest Hits and available under 30$ or so. And since the PS1 started up some of my favorite franchises, I discovered that a ton of them had made it to the new system. Wipeout, Twisted Metal, Gran Turismo and of course, Silent Hill.
I loved the first Silent Hill game on the PlayStation, but truth be told it was one of those games that was mainly played by my brother while I watched on. I never got a good grasp of the full story and probably missed out on a few major parts. But when I finally got the PS2 and a copy of Silent Hill 2, my brother had moved out and I had it all to myself. Silent Hill 2 wasn't easy. One of the things I found about it that got changed (thankfully) in part 3 was the ambiguity of the areas you explore. When you're wandering around multiple floors of an abandoned apartment building, hospital and school you completely forget which generic room you need to return to, which one had each piece of the puzzle you need or which one had the cryptic rusty hole you need to crawl through. To make matters worse as soon as the air raid siren blares and you find yourself in the dark world the layout becomes completely different.
As with previous Silent Hill games, Silent Hill 2 is about a protagonist who is called to the town of Silent Hill by his or her own inner demons. In this case James Sunderland received a letter from his dead wife, telling him to go and meet him in Silent Hill. James, who assisted in his ailing wife's suicide, still deals with the pain and regret of his choice and now finds himself battling it in the form of the horrifying town. The entire town has changed from Part 1, reflecting James' inner horrors and experiences both at home and his time at war. Apparently each of the monsters can be linked to different elements of his past. This includes a number of mutilated fleshy figures, the standard nurses, and the famous Pyramid Head creature covered in fleshy rags who drags a gigantic knife across the ground.Silent Hill 2 took what was amazing about the first part and fleshed it out. (No pun intended.) It featured better textures, higher quality graphics overall, improved controls and possibly the best soundtrack of the series. It was horrifying and thought provoking, really pushing the boundaries of what a horror game really meant at the time. For most people, Silent Hill 2 was the best of the series, I can't say I disagree completely, because I simply enjoy each of them in their own way.
Tomorrow I'll post on the sequel, Silent Hill 3.
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