The hills are alive with the sound of radio static and the heavy footsteps of James Sunderland, a man with a lot going on in his head right about now. Silent Hill 2 looks, at a glance, to be more of the same. More deserted towns, more nightmarish horrors, and, thanks to the increased power of the PlayStation 2, more fog.
It looks grim, grey and grainy. It frankly looks great. I didn't play anything like this back on the PS2. The games I played looked crisp and saturated, and you could see things further than twenty feet in front of you. But that's not what the Silent Hill series is about, is it?
Fun Times
James Sunderland has a problem. It's not that he's found himself staring in the mirror of a shitty, disgusting bathroom. It's not that he's got to navigate this unhygienic space with tank controls, and pressing additional buttons to run. His problem is a bit weirder than all that.
That's our set up for this sequel, which as far as I'm aware isn't directly related to the first Silent Hill. Our long dead wife has sent us a letter urging our return to Silent Hill to meet her once more. I don't know what has driven James to come here - love? Curiosity? - but here we are, with one hell of a task ahead of us. We are, most certainly, going to need the help of a map.
I'm emulating the original PlayStation 2 release of Silent Hill 2, though there are many you can pick from. All of them have their issues, from what I've read, so pick your poison and start running through the fog.
There's a hell of a lot of fog, but it looks fantastic, especially when paired with the overall graininess of any given screen. This game is thick with atmosphere, literally. It's also lovingly detailed and textured, above and beyond what other games were going for in their own looks, no doubt possible because so much of the screen is fog.
This well only hid a save point, but it might well be the most magnificent well I've seen in a video game. That's high praise, that.
A very brief FMV switches over to an in-game cutscene of James and a woman in a graveyard. I don't learn a whole lot about how to navigate the town, or who this woman is, but it does a good job of showing us where James' head is at. The voice acting might not be stellar, but it's averageness, if that's a word, portrays James as someone who doesn't care about life anymore.
He says that he doesn't care if Silent Hill is dangerous, he's going in regardless. But he doesn't say that full of bravado, he says it as though he's resigned to the fact that all things come to an end. While he's still alive, he might as well work towards something meaningful. Like solving the mystery of your dead wife writing a letter to you.
It's refreshing to hear, this story, insofar as it's not the usual kind of story I get drawn to, in gaming or otherwise. It's moody and personal and sounds like we're going to be fighting some inner demons down the line.
I've just got to find out where to start...
I don't know where I am, I don't quite know where I'm going, but it all looks marvellous. Eventually, I hit the town, and it is as silent as you'd expect.
Something lurks in the fog, but I'm unarmed and would rather not go bumbling into any bad guys at the minute, so it's time to explore our surroundings.
In the original Silent Hill, I didn't know how to progress because I couldn't find a key in a dog house. James will subtly move his head to look at points of interest, so hopefully, that'll come to the rescue for when I inevitably miss something this time around.
As before, the obvious routes through town are blocked off, and, again, your map gets scribbled in with detail the more you explore. I like features like this. I just don't like stumbling around for needles in haystacks, so let's see how we go.
In a dingy tunnel, we find a busted radio - sound familiar? - and a busted being of some description. Picking up the nearest weapon-like object we can see, we're about to learn how good we are at fighting opponents. If we're bad, we're going to need to get good with those tank controls.
Immediately getting confused and walking the wrong way is not how I wanted to start this section, but it's how I did. By the time I was pointing in the right direction, my foe was in front of me, within range for a mighty overhead chop with our big stick.
Armed and dangerous, we can finally put up a fight in town. Movements are slow and clumsy, like an average guy who doesn't fight freaks in his spare time would be, but everything is done with a press of the X button. One huge swing to knock them down, and a stomp to finish them off.
With a satisfying squish, the radio static dies down, and the town is silent once more.
Frustrations
And once more, I'm lost. Where do I go? What do I do? I know where I want to go, the park, because it was the only landmark underlined at the start of the game. But getting there once again seems to rely on finding that one thing that sets everything else in motion.
Where is it? What is it? Determined to find it, I start knocking on doors, hoping for something to be open. Happy Burger? Random doors? No luck.
I don't even know what I'm looking at here, and I like maps. I'm a fan of maps. This map sucks. I still don't know where I'm going. Time to explore the dark corridors of the apartment complex then.
Where is it? What is it? Determined to find it, I start knocking on doors, hoping for something to be open. Happy Burger? Random doors? No luck.
Nearing defeat, I headed down the one street I glossed over on my first whip around town. Why did I gloss over a dead end? Because I was looking for a route through to the park, and dead ends tend not to have ways through.
 |
| Don't look 'em in the eye, James... |
So now I have to hunt for an apartment. At least that'll be an easier find than this key was. Why didn't I just look down the dead end first...
I don't even know what I'm looking at here, and I like maps. I'm a fan of maps. This map sucks. I still don't know where I'm going. Time to explore the dark corridors of the apartment complex then.
Do I have anything useful in my inventory? A lighter? A crowbar? What good is a picture of my wife when I can't even see the map to this building?
I do hope one of these doors is unlocked. Just one. That'll be a starting point, won't it?
Aha! Progress! This room was unlocked for a reason. The developers wanted me to be in here. Now I just have to work out why...
Great. Cool. I wonder where there's a flashlight in this God forsaken town. And when I find one, I wonder how much battery it'll have. Probably need to find some of those, as well. Why didn't you bring a torch, James? You've been to this bloody place before, surely you knew what an utter dive it would be!
Final Word
After spending half an hour getting to this place, I didn't want to spend another half an hour looking for a way to light these corridors, which is a shame because the lighting engine in Silent Hill 2 is something to see, with dynamic shadows all over the place.
Alas, it'll have to wait. I can't go on. I skim-read a guide that says that there is a flashlight somewhere in this building, and there's a handgun around too. That's just typical, really - me stopping a game only to read a guide that says I was there or thereabouts to solving my problem.
Speaking of problem-solving, Silent Hill 2 comes with adjustable difficulty for both combat and puzzles, which is nice. I put both of them on the easiest settings, and here I am, lost in a dark corridor.
But what an atmospheric corridor it is. I'm enjoying the look and feel of Silent Hill 2, just as I did the first game. I'm just not enjoying the gameplay. The tank controls you can get to grips with. The timing of the attacks you can learn to adjust to. Eventually, you'll probably look in enough weird places and pick up all kinds of strange items to get you through all manner of situations, but at the start, when everything is new, it's just too much.
If the game gradually opened up, I think I'd be more comfortable. As it is, the town is there, go explore it. What's that? Roads shut? Gates locked? Go explore the rest of it, find the key already. You want a clue? Nah, you can do it.
I want to see more of Silent Hill 2, but how am I going to go about it? With a guide? Why not save time and just watch it? Because I won't be experiencing the foggy town in all its glory? Do I need to run through any more fog to know how foggy Silent Hill 2 is? I have run through an awful lot of fog so far...
If you like getting lost in spooky deserted places, Silent Hill 2 is fantastic. The texture detail is stunning, and the film grain works so well with the colours, the fog, everything. If you want to show off the PlayStation 2, many games will impress, and Silent Hill 2 is definitely one of them.
Fun Facts
The look of the game was inspired by artwork from the likes of Francis Bacon and Rembrandt, as well as films from David Fincher and David Lynch. The story itself is based on Crime and Punishment, from all the way back in 1866.
Silent Hill 2, developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, first released in 2001.
Version played: PlayStation 2, 2001, via emulation.