By Emeraldrover
Once again the gaming public get to step into the twisted world of Silent Hill, this time with the backing of Sonys Playstation 2 to express team Konamis warped thoughts. Whether this is better than the original is questionable but there is no doubting the games quality. The original really raised the bar in terms of scaring people witless in the survival horror genre. Although Silent Hill 2 is not as scary as the original it has a much better plot and base storyline, wich is the standout feature in this title.
The story revolves around James Sunderland who travels to silent hill to search for his wife whom he recieved a letter from. The only problem is that shes been dead for years. And so james ventures into the resort town and encounters other citizens as well as horrific monsters spawned by the evil town, in some cases the citizens are just as strange as the monsters and they're true objectives are not so clear. What ensues is essentially a tragic love story that can change based on your actions in the game which is a nice touch.
The gameplay is simplistic and often trick to handle which is clever in a way, because James seems to be a regular person so why shouldn't he have difficulty fifring weapons and beating creatures to death with various blunt objects, this also adds to the tension when being attacked and there is often panic when an enemy is too close and James isn't ready to fight back or to run away. The graphics are obviously vastly better than the original and are still very impressive despite the game slighty begining to age. Charachters are well detailed with emphasis on the fact that they are not perfect human beings, if human beings at all.
The game does provide very good scares despite not quite being as frightening as the original but it surpasses the original in other ways that make this almost but not quite redundant. The soundtrack is very impressive with many eerie tracks to put you both at ease and on edge. The game has plenty of replay value with 5/6 alternate endings depending on region, and plenty of unlockables. This is a rough gem. 8/10
All images property of their respective owners.
