Silent Hill 2

Rating:
Summary: All you children keep your lights on
Review: I played Silent Hill on the Playstation years ago. Then Silent Hill 2 comes out for the PS2. Did I want to buy a PS2 just for this game. You see, I'm not a big console game fanatic. It's pretty much PC only for me.
When I saw this game for the PC the other day, I bought it. No questions asked.
I started playing. And didn't stop until I was finished. That's how addictive the story is. If you like horror, creepy music, a few surprises to make you jump, get this game.
I'm still playing it to find all of the secrets. And certain parts are still freaky, and some parts still make me jump.
The camera angles just add to the atmosphere, especially in the fog when some creature is creeping up behind you and you can't see it.
I don't want to say a whole lot. Just get this game for that old horror feeling.

Rating:
Summary: yay
Review: i played this great game on ps2, but it broke. it was one game i really miss because it was such a good looking, fun and very creepy game. this game is one of my all time favorits and i am pretty excited to see it out on the pc.

Rating:
Summary: make one for the psx
Review: I say make one for the psx because think of the people that just have a psx. Like me for example I'd love to get a ps2 but i just cant afford it right now.

Rating:
Summary: The best game ever!!!!!!
Review: Just like the first one, this game is amazing. This game capture and introuce you toa horrible world. Silent Hill 2 is full of mysteries and persons you met that have a horrible truth. I said that this game is the best I play, if you think Resident Evil or Clock tower are good you don`t know anything. This game is for Inteligent persons that can figure out mysteries and the enviroment of the story. Also this game is the most Scary Game I ever Played. Konami is the best Game creator.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty creepy!
Review: Just started playing this very creepy game,and have found it to be quite interesting and fun to play.The graphics are great;the voice acting is pretty good;the creatures are really cool;and the game has run flawlessly on my P4 computer,running Windows XP.This is not a fast-paced shoot-em-up,monster-fest like "The Undying"(Clive Barker's most excellent game)was,but it has enough going for it that you are eager to find out what other monstrosity lurks around in the darkness.
Back to the fog I go!

Rating:
Summary: A true gaming classic of ANY genre
Review: Once you get past the clunky game control issues (NO mouse control!), you will find that Silent Hill is a true work of the gaming arts. It has -- by far -- the scariest atmosphere available in any game; and with a truly adult and moving story line. Until I played it for the first 20 minutes, I was about to simply throw the game away as merely another annoying puzzle-type game (which it is not) -- until I found out just how good Silent Hill truly is. Find out for yourself -- and the price is a steal!

Rating:
Summary: Film Noire in a game
Review: Silent Hill 2 does to disturbing what the original does for Horror. In SH2 you plat the role of James Sunderland, an emotionally shattered shell of a man who travels to Silent Hill after having received a letter from his dead wife. After stopping at a rest stop on the outskirts of the town, James descends into the darkness of his own psyche to battle the demons therein.

Gameplay:
This plays very similar to what you would expect from a survival adventure game with a slightly different, though equally enjoyable combat system. The interface is nothing to brag about, though it might be a bit awkward if trying to play through the keyboard. I used a Thrustmaster Dual Power gamepad that resembles the standard console gamepad complete with force feedback and analog sticks and was pleased with the response and familiarity.
Yet, what makes a Silent Hill game is the environment you play in. This game obviously takes place entirely within the confines of Silent Hill, both the actual and surreal. Upon entering the city, your first impression is the lack of residents. In fact throughout your quest you'll only come across a handful of the living who will either help or hurt your cause. That is part of the charm to this game. Konami knows that the best way to scare someone is to make their imagination do the work, and this game has that in spades. Whether it's day or night, blanketing fog or enveloping blackness will shrink your sphere of awareness to a bubble. Add to this Konami's use of uncomfortable camera angles and you'll be trying to peer around the edge of your monitor to save your skin.
Beyond the physical approach of trying to discomfort the player, the storyline adds a tangible psychological knife to cut into your comfort zone. In the original Silent Hill, the horror was surreal blood and gore, devils and cults. In this edition, the evil is human nature. You'll come across sociopathic murders, abused children, and suicidal personas to further enhance the feeling of wrongness that this game exudes. And that, my friends, is a good thing.

Graphics:
The motion capture in this game is great, and for being two years old, is has a spectacular lighting engine, which is of utmost importance since you'll spend most of your game with only a flashlight to cling on to. You even have the option to turn on the original noise filter from the console versions to add a little bit of old-time horror feel to it should you feel nostalgic. The textures are extremely well done considering it's a console port made for TVs and the effort put into just creating something that looks evil is outstanding. However, if you've played the original, it will look very familiar since they hit the nail on the head.

Sound:
Ahh, this is the one aspect that will scare you. As stated earlier, with the camera angles, you'll often hear something before you can see it. Heck, sometimes, there's nothing to see. Whether it's a whisper in your ear as you enter a room, or the thud-thump and the ensuing radio crackle of a monster lurking around the corner, you'll find your stomach leaping into your throat on more than a single occasion. The game even supports hi-fi 5.1+ dolby surround if you have the setup, though I prefer hi quality enclosed headphones for the ultimate in personal torture.

Overall:
Whether or not you've played the first one, this game is a must buy. With six endings and a mini-scenario to discuss the background of a character, it provides more than enough content should you want a replay. This is the kind of game you want to play late at night, in the dark, to truly experience the thrills that it has in store for you. Even if you're not one to get scared, you'll find it disturbing enough to suit your fancy.


Rating:
Summary: The Best Game Ever (and I don't say that lightly...)
Review: Silent Hill 2 is the best game I've ever played. This is not the same as saying it is my favorite, although it is certainly one of my top ten of all time.
This is the only game aside from the original "Silent Hill" which I was able to take completely seriously from beginning to end, which thoroughly immersed me in its impeccable storyline, and which can be called a true work of art. It is also one of only two games (and no films) which have ever made me cry.
First of all, I take my hat off to the producers for resisting the urge to make any of the game hammy or tongue-in-cheek (like all of the Resident Evil series), and for keeping any semblance of "comic relief" well away from their product. Nothing ruins a project- be it a film, a book, or a video game- faster than comic relief.
It has been said that the controls are unresponsive, and much has been written about the old-fashioned "Resident Evil"-style control scheme itself that is less than glowing. It is only a personal preference, but in a game like this, where the emphasis is on moving slowly and carefully, this system (where "up" is forward, "down" is backward, etc) is superior to the Metal Gear-style scheme which shifts with the camera. I had no issues with the response time but, like the main character's lack of firearms proficiency, I think it only adds to the impression of a frightened, amateur avatar. I cannot say whether this was Konami's intention, but the effect is a good one, nonetheless.
Secondly, there is no shortage of moving and mind-bending material here to satisfy any number of plot theorists. I have my own thoughts, as will anyone else who plays. But here, unlike so many other products which claim to be "artistically open-ended", there is enough of a skeleton provided to string a believable theory across.
Silent Hill 2 also does something that no other serious game has managed to do nearly so well, and that is to be a work of art while taking advantage of the peculiarities of its medium. It uses its perks as a game to enhance the experience, making it far superior and more moving than any film on a similar subject could possibly be. The first way it does this is by having multiple endings (which are attained based mostly upon gameplay style, rather than a single, obscure choice), all of which must be seen to make complete sense of the theme. The second thing it does, which is especially important for a horror game, is that it makes the player identify with the character. When James must enter a dark and possibly dangerous area, it is the player who must take that step inside. When James is confronted with some deadly horror, it is the player who must carry him through. Unlike in a film, the outcome is not pre-printed on celluloid, which gives the player a far greater stake in what happens on-screen.
One shortcoming, however, is the voice-acting which, barring "Mary", ranges from mediocre to rather poor. Of course, it is indescribably better than that found in any of the Resident Evil games (or most others), but don't expect film- or television-quality performances.
I realize that I have written nothing about the plot, but that has been mentioned enough elsewhere, and giving almost anything away would potentially ruin a great experience for a new player.
In short, this is the only game I have ever played about which I would change nothing other than the voice-actors. Many games are well-directed, but have poor or meandering scripts. Others have potentially great scripts, but half-hearted execution. Silent Hill 2 is the whole package.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Game Ever (and I don't say that lightly...)
Review: Silent Hill 2 is the best game I've ever played. This is not the same as saying it is my favorite, although it is certainly one of my top ten of all time.
This is the only game aside from the original "Silent Hill" which I was able to take completely seriously from beginning to end, which thoroughly immersed me in its impeccable storyline, and which can be called a true work of art. It is also one of only two games (and no films) which have ever made me cry.
First of all, I take my hat off to the producers for resisting the urge to make any of the game hammy or tongue-in-cheek (like all of the Resident Evil series), and for keeping any semblance of "comic relief" well away from their product. Nothing ruins a project- be it a film, a book, or a video game- faster than comic relief.
It has been said that the controls are unresponsive, and much has been written about the old-fashioned "Resident Evil"-style control scheme itself that is less than glowing. It is only a personal preference, but in a game like this, where the emphasis is on moving slowly and carefully, this system (where "up" is forward, "down" is backward, etc) is superior to the Metal Gear-style scheme which shifts with the camera. I had no issues with the response time but, like the main character's lack of firearms proficiency, I think it only adds to the impression of a frightened, amateur avatar. I cannot say whether this was Konami's intention, but the effect is a good one, nonetheless.
Secondly, there is no shortage of moving and mind-bending material here to satisfy any number of plot theorists. I have my own thoughts, as will anyone else who plays. But here, unlike so many other products which claim to be "artistically open-ended", there is enough of a skeleton provided to string a believable theory across.
Silent Hill 2 also does something that no other serious game has managed to do nearly so well, and that is to be a work of art while taking advantage of the peculiarities of its medium. It uses its perks as a game to enhance the experience, making it far superior and more moving than any film on a similar subject could possibly be. The first way it does this is by having multiple endings (which are attained based mostly upon gameplay style, rather than a single, obscure choice), all of which must be seen to make complete sense of the theme. The second thing it does, which is especially important for a horror game, is that it makes the player identify with the character. When James must enter a dark and possibly dangerous area, it is the player who must take that step inside. When James is confronted with some deadly horror, it is the player who must carry him through. Unlike in a film, the outcome is not pre-printed on celluloid, which gives the player a far greater stake in what happens on-screen.
One shortcoming, however, is the voice-acting which, barring "Mary", ranges from mediocre to rather poor. Of course, it is indescribably better than that found in any of the Resident Evil games (or most others), but don't expect film- or television-quality performances.
I realize that I have written nothing about the plot, but that has been mentioned enough elsewhere, and giving almost anything away would potentially ruin a great experience for a new player.
In short, this is the only game I have ever played about which I would change nothing other than the voice-actors. Many games are well-directed, but have poor or meandering scripts. Others have potentially great scripts, but half-hearted execution. Silent Hill 2 is the whole package.

Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Psychological Survival Horror Ever
Review: The Silent Hill series of video games is one of the best of its genre. With the exception of SH 3, which has more of a blockbustery feel to it, the original game and its sequel, Silent Hill 2, have done more to further the genre of Survival Horror than any other series of games, making Capcom's Resident Evil/Biohazard series look slow and tired.

We start off with James Sunderland, a shell of a man since his wife Mary's death, three years before, lost in thought in a bathroom on the outskirts of town. He's come back to SIlent Hill, a resort town full of happy memories for himself and his wife, because he has received a letter from her, saying she will meet him in their 'special place'. And from there, you're pretty much left to piece the story together yourself, thanks to ingenious plot twists and the best characterisation since Final Fantasy 7.

The graphics are wonderful. Fuzzy, murky streets and rooms harbour beautifully-rendered, totally ambiguous creatures that scare us becuase of what we cannot see. The superhuman, exaggerated animation of the mannequins and nurses add to the unnatural atmosphere pervading the game. The cut-scene renders are actually beautiful, with Maria and James' exchange in the underground Toluca Prison levels being one of the most riveting pieces of FMV ever. The sound, too, adds greatly to the experience, with grunts, bangs and screams punctuating the sometimes-deafening silence. Because of the game mechanics, what you hear is oftentimes more important than what you see (or believe you see) and it's this, coupled with the storyline and characters, that characterises the unique psychological tension found in this game.

The game mechanics are simple to come to terms with and prove themselves after fifteen minutes or so of play time: you don't notice them anymore.

A word on what makes SH 2 such a wonderful experience - Characters like Laura, an enigmatic child who claims to know Mary, Eddie Dombrowski, an unhinged giant of a man whose attitude towards cold-blooded murder gives a realistic slant to the psychological horror, and Maria, the sensual and schizophrenic doppelganger of James' dead wife, are so well-realised that we see new characteristics in them each time the game is played. The character of Angela is a particular mystery, and a testament to the strength of emotion that a videogame can create. On paper, the main villian, Pyramid Head, is nothing special (a giant man with a steel pyramid for a head... literally!) but it's the way he moves and the noises he makes that propel him into the history books as one of the scariest villians anywhere, alongside Biohazard's Hunters and The Exorcist's Pazuzu, in terms of the amount of fear he generates. This is the genius of the game, Konami's developers taking painstaking time and effort with the people that populate the terrifying world of Silent Hill, thereby giving us an unforgettable and compelling cast of characters.

The replay value is very high, with five different endings to discover, and new things to see and hear each time, every trip you make to Silent Hill 2 leaves you with something new from this bizarre and macabre universe.

A word for fans of action-based violence: you'll be disappointed. SH 2 is a story-based, character-driven game, and if it's violence and gore you need, then this won't do. It's a different kind of scary than Resident Evil, Clock Tower etc. For anyone interested in seeing just how far a game can push the concept of psychological horror, or for anyone who loves to get lost in a storyline, this is one of the best examples you can own.

Put simply, Silent Hill 2 is an Opus, a magnificent monster of a game that should held up as a standard-bearer by more than just the videogames industry. It's deep, it's complex, it's engaging, and above all, it's excellent. Thoroughly and unequivocally recommended.