Product Description: Gamers looking for intellectual horror will find it in Silent Hill 2. As the story opens, James Sunderland receives a letter from his wife telling him to meet her in the town of Silent Hill. The only problem is that she's been dead for three years. In hopes of reuniting with her, Sunderland explores the haunted town, where he has many terrifying and unexpected encounters. While the brilliantly designed monsters are indeed scary, it's the complex twists and turns of the plot that really produce the game's terror.
The gameplay is largely puzzle based. Much of it involves gathering clues and items to solve each puzzle. A few fights are thrown in, but these are quite easy, and are mostly used to show off the developers' bizarre creations. The level of both puzzles and fighting can be adjusted to match each player's skill level. Although its mechanics are rudimentary, the game's presentation is anything but. A heavy use of fog is the game's hallmark effect, greatly adding to the mood. Sound--both effects and music--alternates between eerie silence and sudden, shocking crescendos.
Although the graphics and sound are both topnotch, the real star of this game is the story. It's very rich and intricate--a sharp contrast to the banal scenarios that frame most games. Although the game is short (around 10 hours), players will want to give it another go to discover its multiple endings and secret items. Despite basic gameplay, Silent Hill 2 is an excellent choice for gamers looking for cerebral thrills. Parents should note that in addition to violence and gore, this game deals with such topics as suicide, homicide, and euthanasia. --Raymond M. Padilla
Pros:
Scary and stylish graphics
Excellent cutscenes
Effective sound effects and music
Original creature design
Amazon.com Review: Gamers looking for intellectual horror will find it in Silent Hill 2. As the story opens, James Sunderland receives a letter from his wife telling him to meet her in the town of Silent Hill. The only problem is that she's been dead for three years. In hopes of reuniting with her, Sunderland explores the haunted town, where he has many terrifying and unexpected encounters. While the brilliantly designed monsters are indeed scary, it's the complex twists and turns of the plot that really produce the game's terror.
The gameplay is largely puzzle based. Much of it involves gathering clues and items to solve each puzzle. A few fights are thrown in, but these are quite easy, and are mostly used to show off the developers' bizarre creations. The level of both puzzles and fighting can be adjusted to match each player's skill level. Although its mechanics are rudimentary, the game's presentation is anything but. A heavy use of fog is the game's hallmark effect, greatly adding to the mood. Sound--both effects and music--alternates between eerie silence and sudden, shocking crescendos.
Although the graphics and sound are both topnotch, the real star of this game is the story. It's very rich and intricate--a sharp contrast to the banal scenarios that frame most games. Although the game is short (around 10 hours), players will want to give it another go to discover its multiple endings and secret items. Despite basic gameplay, Silent Hill 2 is an excellent choice for gamers looking for cerebral thrills. Parents should note that in addition to violence and gore, this game deals with such topics as suicide, homicide, and euthanasia. --Raymond M. Padilla
Pros:
Scary and stylish graphics
Excellent cutscenes
Effective sound effects and music
Original creature design
Cons:
Unchallenging combat
Too much item fetching
Story might be too complicated for some
Amazon.com Product Description: With its Poe-like atmosphere, dense fog, pitch-black hallways, and a cryptic letter from a dead wife, Silent Hill 2 promises to surpass the paranoia created by its predecessor, Silent Hill.
The sequel opens with James Sunderland, the series' average joe protagonist, and a mysterious message that reads, "Silent Hill, our sanctuary of memories. I'll be waiting for you there." More puzzling is that the note is signed by Mary, his deceased wife.
James sets out for Silent Hill hopeful that he'll find a trace of Mary. After an aborted attempt by car, James plunges into the dank fog and embarks on his quest by foot. Enter Angela, a woman who bears a striking resemblance to Mary, and who also beckons him with another curious message. It seems James can't go back; strange things are happening in Silent Hill.
Silent Hill 2 offers 10 new formidable foes, plenty of puzzles, and bone-chilling gameplay. The sequel's new story and characters promise to thrill and terrify. The visual and sound effects are amazingly detailed and macabre, and, if you're playing on a system with surround sound, you may find yourself keeping the lights on.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Great game, but lots of scratches
Great game, but disc has a LOT of scratches. Doesn't affect game play, but story scenes are choppy and lock up. Kinda annoying, but for the price I would say it was worth it.
Rating: - A truly horrifying materpeice.
Silent Hill 2 is, in my opinion, the best game out of the 6 silent hill's released to far. They have somehow managed to create a truly terrifying game without succumbing to cheap thrills, cliche storyline or anything of that nature. I'll split my review into pros, cons and middle ground, meaning it can be considered both a pro and a con.
PROS:
This game is truly terrifying. And there is no cut-off age to enjoy it. You may be too young, but you are never too old. All the music is absolutely gorgeous, and is also terrifying when needed to be. Akira Yamaoka, the guy who did the soundtrack for this game, truly knew the art of using both music and silence to stir your emotions to his whim. The sounds of the creaking buildings, never being able to see more than three feet in front of you, and just the looming anxiety that comes with exploring the incredibly beautiful, deserted town is too good to pass up.
The game deals with a lot of issues concerning the inner workings of the human psyche. The three characters, James, Angela and Eddie, all have some dark secret being kept from the player, and Silent Hill artfully reveals each characters sin when the player is ready to accept the truth. Which is where the beauty of the monsters in the game comes into effect.
The monsters in Silent Hill 2 are not just creative diarrhea, they are not some random, misplaced thing for you to take a swing at. Every monster in the game comes from the inner torment of the main character, James. While the symbolism behind the monsters isn't quite as apparent when you first start the game, their meaning becomes clear the more James discovers the darkness lurking in his own heart.
MIDDLE GROUND:
The gameplay is fairly simple. While you are given a choice of both combat and puzzle difficulty, the actual controls are fairly simple which could mean a good thing for less experienced gamers, or a complete bore for gamers looking for a challenge. There are no combos or matrix-like action, simply shooting or swinging at things.
The story is very complex. There are a lot of plot twists, metaphors and things "being said without being 'said'" type of things. I myself, having beaten the game for the first time had trouble understanding what exactly was going on throughout the game and can be considered a turn-off for some, but can also make the game just that much more intriguing.
The game does not produce the typical "haunted house" type thrills. Very rarely does a monster leap out at you (there is even one monster that stays perfectly still in the darkness until you approach it) or attempt to scare you in a conventional way. The game can be considered more of a "mind f**k" than a gore-fest. Those with a more mature sense of fear can come to appreciate the subtle terror the game produces, while others might simply find it a bore.
CONS:
The camera is AWFUL. While the obscure camera angles are designed to immerse the player, when you're trying to attack an enemy you can't see because the camera is giving you a birdseye view of the top of your head, it can be very annoying.
The actual tasks to be completed during the game do not differ from what is typical in Silent Hill games. That being, opening every single door until one opens, searching that room thoroughly and leaving to continue looking through all the other doors. And it can be very boring if you do not scare that easily and have learned to ignore the eerie music or silence and the anticipation of what could lie in that unlocked room.
Some of the tasks seem like pointless busywork. For example, in the hospital you must unlock a box that have a variety of different locks on it, you must search the hospital for keys and combinations, only to be rewarded with a strand of hair which you must use, along with a bent wire to fish a key out of the drain. Which, if this were reality, James could have easily taken hair from Maria (the female character who sometimes follows you around) and use hers. There are many other examples of this kind of pointless busy work throughout the game.
The game can sometimes be quite unclear as to where it wants you to go. It is easy to walk past a message or a map if you believe you're sure as to where you should be going. I spent a half hour my first time playing trying to reach a hotel I wasn't supposed to go to all because I walked past another map that instructed me as to where I was really supposed to be going.
TO CONCLUDE:
Overall I think the positive aspects of the game vastly outweigh the negative. This game is not for so much hardcore fans of blood-and-gore shooter games but for those with an appreciation for pure psychological terror. It can teach gamers that sometimes you need to stop, listen to the music, analyze the scenery, and appreciate the fear. You will not enjoy this game if you plan on burning through it as fast as you can. It is definitely worth owning because I think it marks the pinnacle of Team Silence's creative genius.
Rating: - Fun to beat over and over again
This was one of the first games I beat on the PS2. I found it a couple years ago at EB Games by shear luck. They didn't even have a manual or box for it, lol. Which resulted in getting a Xbox green case. Anyways, about the game. Silent Hill 2 has a great story. Theres different levels to put the difficulty of the monsters AND riddles. I've never seen a game where you could set game difficulty to medium and riddles to easy. Sure the graphics aren't kick a$$ perfect, but for PS2 its pretty good and once your into the game, its something you don't even notice.
One of the things that stuck out to me was the graphics and reality of this little girl in the game, she looks so real its kinda creepy lol.
Two pointers,
1. preserve ammo and use melly when you can.
2. there is an online FAQ for the game incase you get stuck and have no clue what to do.
I hoped I helped some and I hope you enjoy this game. By the way, best played at night with all lights off. :)
Rating: - One of the best games ever
Other people have written some pretty extensive reviews on just how great this game is. I'll keep my review short. This is one of the scariest and best games ever on any system to this date.
Rating: - Don't go to Silent Hill without a clean conscience.
Hardly a game at all, really. Silent Hill 2 is an experience before a game--a happening in stead of a distraction. It's an event to be felt rather than played. That's what Silent Hill 2 is for me. And it's amazing. In general, I'm not a fan of horror games. But the Silent Hill series is more than cheap scares and gore (though such will be found). It's a great story tied with exploration and discovery. It's the unraveling of secrets. What happened? What's going on? What's it all mean? These are the questions you'll be asking yourself when you play through SH2. Or SH3 for that matter. I assume the same goes for 1, 4, Origins, and the new 5, but since I haven't played them I cannot say absolutely.
James Sunderland's wife passed away three years ago, but he could swear the letter he's holding is written in her handwriting. She's waiting for you, James, in your "special place". But when James finds the old resort town, he finds only monsters and those few humans dragged to the town, driven by their own inner pain, trying to discover things for themselves.
James searches, fighting where he must, being stalked by the malevolent figured with the helmet shaped like a rust-covered pyramid that carries a knife too big for a normal man to even lift. He searches through streets and apartments, a park, a hospital, a prison, but will James find the answers, or will he go mad, or is he already? This is Silent Hill 2.
The gameplay is what you'd expect if you'd played the games before. You run around, solve puzzles, beat up monsters with a steel pipe or shoot them or what have you. You uncover secrets and watch the events unfold. And how you play the game determines how it ends. Explaining a game like Silent Hill is boring when you mention the mechanics. Because the mechanics--the controls--are just there for you to have a way to be in the story. The controls work, that's all that needs to be said about them. Camera angles can be irritating at times, but they are how they are to increase the cinematic quality.
Overall, though, Silent Hill 2 is amazing. I wasn't even a fan until very recently. I picked up 3 wondering if I liked horror games. I still don't know if I do, but I love Silent Hill.
Graphics - Decent, most of the times. Great during some cut scenes. But we're spoiled to amazing next-gen graphics these days. Still, I love the facial expressions on characters during the well-rendered scenes. That really brought life to the characters.
Sound - Fantastic. Akira Yamaoka has been doing SH's music for so long and for good reason, it's always fitting with the mood. Catchy, haunting, whatever. I'll be buying the soundtrack.
In closing, I've played more fun games than SH2, but I don't think any will stick in my mind as well or as long. It will make you think, it will make you wonder, and you'll enjoy it the whole way. And really, isn't that what games are supposed to do?
- A truly horrifying materpeice. 
