Survival horror isn't really my cup of tea normally because it's all about the stupid scares. WOOO That thing jumped at you!! Isn't that scary!? And then came this game into my life.
There's survival horror which is all Resident Evil and Dead Space and you worry about your ammo and staying alive, and then there's Silent Hill 2's psychological horror that creeps into your brain, stays with you, and makes you worried any time that you see fog or hear radio static.
As you should know, if you're reading this, I just got my masters degree in creative writing. That means that I took a lot of literature classes, and a slightly less amount of theory and interpretation classes. Pretty much, I have far too much education about how to read a story than anyone that is thinking about old video games like Silent Hill 2.
Simple things like the relationship between Pyramid Head and the main character (James) make things sort of interesting.
This is one of those games that you play through once, and then once you get to the ending, you want to play through again just to see if you can catch all of the hints and clues that the developers make throughout the game as to what you're dealing with.
For those that have not played the game, skip this. For those that have played, keep reading.
I mean, once you figure things out like the simple fact that he killed his wife in a case of pity over her health, things start getting really funky. The town no longer is just a town, but starts to be a dive into his subconscious understanding his fears and pain that he had to go through when dealing with the murder of his wife.
Start out going to a hospital where she died following by a prison and then ultimately finishing off in the hotel where they spent their time together? Hello! Even the places start telling you what his state of mind is and what he's going through while trying to process through the pain of murdering his wife.
This game isn't just a survival horror, this game is a dive into this guy's mind, bringing out all of his fears and concerns about killing his wife, and making him work through them. This game isn't having a character simply try to survive through the scary stuff, it's having your main character process through all of the scary and horrifying things that have happened in his life. This game is his version of treatment and therapy where he is confronting the fear and the horror of his life and trying to find a way to put it behind him.
Yes, there are silly things like the UFO ending or even the dog ending
But that's only after you've beaten the entire game, multiple times.
I've played some crazy games, and I've even started to think about the meta behind them, but not a single one of them has come to this level of game. The best part about it is because at the surface level, you can enjoy this game and it's a great survival horror. You play through, get scared straight from any time you see a Pyramid Head, and you can walk away without missing much. Like I always say when talking theory, you have to have a great story first, and Silent Hill 2 makes that mark. BUT underneath that great story isn't a flat reading, or nothing like a lot of other games/stories, but a strong, dynamic, interesting reading.
That's the best part! You want to be lame and only do the surface? Well, it's a great game even if you do that! You want to be crazy and read deep into the imagery, locations, and the characters within the story? Well, it's a great game if you do that! No matter which way you want to approach this game, it's a great game.
Now, there is the side note that this game is part of a series, and you know my rule about series. I won't play a later game in the series without at least trying to get earlier games within the series played as well. Typically series build off of each other and to really understand 2,3,4,5,6 you have to play 1 or else you miss everything.
That's not the case with Silent Hill 2!
Silent Hill 1is all about the city and it's history and all the flavors of weird that is there. The rest of the series is about that history and the weird that happens there or at least what is related to that weird, but then comes in Silent Hill 2. It takes the funky city, the scary monsters, and the spooky setting, and instead of focusing on the city, it's history, and the crazy demonic rituals that are part of it, it focuses all of it's attention on the character. This story is self contained, needs no back story, no introduction, and even if you do know the city's back story it gives you only a few Easter egg moments that aren't even that important.
Finally, there is an amazing invention within this game, there are two areas that you can set a difficulty for. Puzzle difficulty and then game/survival difficulty. This game is so hardcore that you can change how hard it is for you to figure out puzzles to unlock doors and progress the game, and then also you can change how hard it is for you to survive from room to room and how hard things hurt. If you like puzzles but hate survival, crank up the puzzle difficulty, but lower down the hack and slash. If you love shooting things in the head and making sure that every shot counts, but hate puzzles - crank up the difficulty but lower down the puzzle level.
Yes, this game can be beat in under three hours (and that's not even that difficult once you know what you're supposed to do) but it will stick with you, and play with your head a LOT longer than that.
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