777th played so far
Genre: Survival Horror
Platform: PC/Xbox/Playstation 2
Year of Release: 2001
Developer: Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo
Publisher: Konami
I was incredibly impressed by the first Silent Hill game. It had its control issues and its age showed, but the setting was good and tense and the puzzles worked quite well. We’ve also seen Fatal Frame in a similar setting, but now we’re returning to the titular town of Silent Hill to see what’s happening there.
Our Thoughts
Silent Hill 2 was a very creepy game. Knowing the weird creatures that run around in the first game, the fact that the game starts with a walk down a misty lane when you have no protections feels scary. From there you do get a weapon, but fighting enemies never seems like the focus – I put the combat difficulty to easy, so that helped, but I felt it helped the atmosphere. It’s not about the action, instead I got to explore this creepy world and see what was going on. It starts off slowly, building up an abandoned appartment building with a big scary boss at the end that you can only run from, never defeat.
It builds from there, with a section in a hospital having been the most effective so far. The mysterious antagonist is around there a few times, but rather than just chasing you, he seems to get to others. The abandoned hospital, with its many locked doors and areas, have padded cells, mortuaries and other places that make you uncomfortable. It’s hard to show that through the blog, but the tension is all there.
That’s combined with a game that plays better. The controls are more manageable, making my way through was a lot better. Again, I really got into the game, and the relative ease of play helped with that. The game felt set up to work for me, and that felt good.
Final Thoughts
Not only does Silent Hill 2 succeed at creating a creepy world, the puzzles are varied enough to keep me interested and I was glad I could tone down combat here. My nerves even held steady enough through out so I wanted to keep playing, the horror was tuned just right for that. It’s superior to the Resident Evil series and I’m looking forward to returning to this world in the future.