"In my restless dreams,
I see that town.
Silent Hill.
You promised you'd take me
there again someday.
But you never did.
Well, I'm alone there now...
In our 'special place'...
Waiting for you..."
Ladies and gentlemen, these are the words that kick off the start of one of gaming's golden jewels. This isn't just the best game in the Silent Hill franchise. It's easily one of the greatest games of all time. I'm talking of course about...
SILENT HILL 2
Where do I even begin? When Silent Hill 2 first released in 2001, I'm not so sure the gaming industry was prepared for it. It introduced so many new ideas, including the notion that video games can actually have stories that rival films. And those visuals? They were a treat for players on the PS2 back in 2001.
We play as James Sunderland, a man who has been 'summoned' to Silent Hill because of a letter he received. A letter from his wife (written above). There's only one problem, however......his wife has been dead for 3 years. This confuses James just as much as it does the player, and as a result, he comes to the infamous town to investigate.
Now before we begin, I'd like to shed a little light on our hero James, without delving into spoilers. James may seem like your everyday guy, but similar to many Silent Hill protagonists, he's done some VERY bad things to earn him his stay in the haunted resort town. James' subconscious is riddled with many feelings of guilt, sexual repression, and suicidal thoughts. All of this is told in a very interesting fashion. You see, Silent Hill 'adapts' to each individual person's subconscious, and creates monsters based on all of their personal demons. This is especially true for James. Each monster is a physical manifestation of James' failures, and feelings. Symbolism plays a huge role in Silent Hill 2. In fact, the damn game is RIDDLED with symbolism. If you aren't prepared to do lots of digging into the story, you aren't going to fully grasp it.
While Silent Hill 2 may be one of the best stories in gaming, how does the horror stack up? Well to be honest, this isn't your traditional horror game with jump scares, and guts on the floor. This is psychological horror. Not just any psychological horror. This is psychological horror at its finest. I quite frequently call Silent Hill 2 the best survival horror video game ever conceived. Do you know why? It's because unlike any other game I know, Silent Hill 2 genuinely makes you feel depressed, alone, and forsaken. The game is so dark, so dead, it genuinely makes me feel actual symptoms of depression. If that's not horror, I don't know what is. In the game world, you feel as if you're the last human on Earth. It feels...apocalyptic. The town is eerily silent, and even creatures just feel like monotonous robots performing something they were designed to do. Nothing here has life. It's a cold dead wasteland, and you feel it just as hard as James does.
When I try to think of complaints for this game, I must be honest. I only have ONE, and I don't even know if this counts. My only complaint is that the game is so depressing, I don't even want to play it sometimes. I even have to take frequent breaks. This is not a game you want to play when you're in a cheery mood. Silent Hill 2 is the PINNACLE of how far games have come, and it symbolizes the hard fact that video games CAN create worlds that rival movies, and stir up all sorts of emotions. It has earned its place in the theoretical Gaming Hall of Fame, and reminds me why I love this industry.
This concludes my long list, and I appreciate everybody who came by to read. If you have yet to experience any of the previously mentioned games, I highly encourage you to do so. I can also answer any questions you have about the series. If you want to purchase SH2/SH3, I highly suggest you get them on the PS2 or Xbox, since Konami did a terrible job with the HD remasters.
