100%PC

I shit my pants thrice playing this game—would definitely play again. Few games are this unsettling, this psychologically invasive. The uniqueness of Silent Hill 2 lies in how it weaponizes atmosphere: every hallway, every piece of music, every sound design choice keeps you on edge. The puzzles are smart and rewarding, the monsters a genuine terror, and the story so cryptic you can’t stop theorizing about it. Playing it co-op style—passing the controller with a friend—turned the dread into shared adrenaline; we screamed, laughed, and argued about clues the whole way through. A masterpiece of horror that’s as disturbing as it is unforgettable.

80%PlayStation 2

The story is a 10, but the gameplay doesn't make it a particularly scary or uneasy experience (being able to easily hit stun enemies forever without interruption for example). I don't subscribe to the fact that it's bad on purpose. The argument is that it makes you feel weak. Not true, since James takes any enemy down fairly easily and the monsters themselves are comically easy to run around. Both in mechanics, and camera placement, it's not close to its contemporaries of the time. I understand it downplays mechanics to place more focus on story. The thing is, it doesn't need to be deep or complex to be competent. Which it is not. Some people do romanticize and try to find meaning in these subpar aspects which is fine but I can't see it that way. However, I'll say that it's nice that you can easily avoid the combat. Making it just window dressing. You could say that gameplay isn't just combat which is true. In this case, it's a downgrade in exploration and puzzles from Silent Hill 1, and in my opinion, not as atmospheric. Maybe it would be more accurate to call it a haunted house game instead of survival horror. The horror exists for aesthetic reasons.

90%Emulated

In my restless dreams I still see that town. Silent Hill. Truly a game worth its infamy with the world, characters, and narrative all Combining into such a masterpiece. Silent Hill 2 is a game I've grown attached to throughout it from figuring out how to boot it up to wondering how on earth someone deals with pyramid head every time they appear. I think the narrative may be in my all time favorites but as I've had my issues with its gameplay I predict that the remake will become one of my all times

Pros:
- The Narrative: Joining James Sunderland and his unfortunate journey towards Silent Hill is a simply yet vastly amazing way the story goes. Meeting & Surviving events with James and watching the narrative unravel before our vary eyes was an experience I hope to find again once more.
- The Characters: Silent Hill being a town filled with flawed individuals who've flocked here and experiencing the inner manifestation of Hell incarnate is simply marvelous. James, Maria, Eddie, Angela everyone was such a beauty and Mary's voice actor needs all the praise they can find as they have earned it.
- upgrades: From the prior just having simple mechanics like having the item in hand and when approaching said puzzle instantly being used was such a delight that I just had to mention it.

Cons:
-Pyramid Head: I kid you not every single appearance of Pyramid head was aura-full and Miserable at the same time. Unfortunately choosing Hard mode makes everything more cancerous but He was Just the worse. From his First encounter towards his Second and don't even get me started on the last one. The direction the game chooses to go about these encounters and the gameplay that takes place isn't one of fun.
- Hallway: Oh my fucking god this segment was HELL When walking with Maria down this long corridor we're forced to run away from pyramid head as he barrels down threatening our vary existence. While it is an amazing idea in theory the execution was horrendous. Maria's AI gets stuck after every single hit leaving her dead before you make it half way. And if you choose to attack/stun pyramid head we'll simply shoot Maria who dies in one shot OR he barley gets stunned enough to give breathing room.
- Final bosses: We're forced to fight two bosses back to back without breathing room. Unfun

70%PC

Pretty intriguing story and characters. Annoying controls and frustrating camera. Flaw with easy to miss key items (namely the music box in fountain).

90%Emulated

The game draws you in much more through its atmosphere and story than the gameplay itself. I found it a bit long in some parts, with the feeling of "another scenario to explore completely again?"

The story is incredible and the soundtrack is an absolute marvel. The story is sad and tragic, James Sunderland is a true "tragic" and "miserable" character in gaming history.

Highly recommended, although it's probably better to play the remake nowadays.

In conclusion, it's a gem, a game whose atmosphere and story are timeless.

90%PlayStation 2

How does one rate an icon? It's obtuse and a bit ugly. The voice acting sometimes veers into the comical. It's utterly effective and unforgettable.

80%PC

Way before its time. Replayed this after playing Remake (2024) and it still holds up with and with about third of the playing time it doesn't overstay its welcome.

100%PC

Me lo acabo de terminar y estoy medio en shock

80%PC

I was fully expecting this game to be as drawn out and crappy as the remake, but the more I played it the more I realized that the remake fucked it up every single step of the way. In the remake, the environments are less interesting, the combat is ""better"" (RE combat at home, worse), the enemies are equal except now have upwards of TRIPLE the health they do in base, the pacing is significantly worse, the music is less interesting, and the characters are flatter. The remake THINKS its combat is really good so they end up placing TRIPLE the enemies over twice the length of game. This combined with the fact they frequently have crazy poise and will break out of the melee combo to counterattack means the optimal strategy to conserve resources and health is to hit them once, wait for the counterattack, dodge, repeat. In base, it's "point the gun at them and shoot them a couple times until they fall over and die." This may SEEM like an upgrade, except as mentioned the base game gives you 10 pistol rounds at every pickup and enemies generally have less health, leading to a less mentally intensive combat experience. It's not about difficulty either, neither game is hard, but the remake's combat is just a pain in the ass. Silent Hill 2 is not supposed to be about the combat, so why did the remake make it such a central part of the gameplay loop? It wasn't great in the first game, but at least it didn't take forever and force you to kill most of the enemies. The environments of the remake frequently overstay their welcome, the 2 biggest offenders being hospital and labyrinth. Hospital has James explore 4 floors of a hospital that used to be easy to navigate and is now (again) a pain in the ass, and labyrinth made the craziest possible mistake that it genuinely baffles me how they considered this to be even remotely acceptable. They made a level called LABYRINTH and made it a STRAIGHT FUCKING LINE. How did they fuck it up that bad. The definition of labyrinth is "a complicated irregular network of passges which it is difficult to find one's way; a maze." The entire premise of a labyrinth is being a maze, and they fucked it up. So imagine my excitement when I get to the base labyrinth and see that, holy shit, it has branching paths. It's a maze. Holy shit. They fucking did it. They MADE a LABYRINTH. Not only this, in the remake it has you replay 3 sections of game that provide 0 new gameplay or environments over the course of like 2 hours. It is so bad that a friend on call watching me play literally fell asleep because it was so fucking boring and so little was happening. The biggest reason horror works is because you don't know what's going to happen/fear of the unknown, so when large portions of the game have you retreading the same ground but oh it's rusty! It is not scary anymore. The normal hospital already had taken me like 3-4 hours to get through, so when I got (literally) thrown back in, it had already killed the pacing of the game right away.
Without getting into more of it, because I definitely have more to say, the base game did NONE of this. The pacing is excellent, the enemies are visually shocking while still being mechanically threatening enough to be engaging but not so obnoxious to kill, the music is better, the ambiance is better, even the characters are better. The only thing I think could be argued as lesser than the remake is the Eddie fight, though while I personally didn't enjoy the remake's I recognize it is better mechanically than the original's slug fight. The characterization of almost every character is significantly better in the original, as more is explained for each character and why they're relevant in a vacuum, in context of Silent Hill, and in context to James.
Frankly I'm just done writing but omfg do NOT play the remake, play this instead.

70%PC

Прошел оригинал специально перед ремейком, потому что ждал его. Сам сх2 употреблялся в очень жирной и сочной сборке с модами: камерой из-за плеча и другими улучшениями из лучших версий игр с других платформ.
Так вот, дико доставил интересный сюжет, в добавок напичканный символизмами, которые дополняют общую картину и работают на раскрытие, антураж вдохновленный другими видами искусств и авторами, атмосфера города, персонажи, арки которых хорошо закрыты и чьи внутренние конфликты показываются буквально, а так же очень вайбовая музыка, которую можно слушать в отрыве от игры.
Плюсы солидные, но это в первую очередь это игра и геймплей тут самая слабая ее часть.
Иногда логика игры вообще непонятна, допустим был момент, когда поднимаешься на 3 этаж отеля и там решетка, за ней ключ, который я вообще не увидел, потом оказалось, что можно попробовать его достать. Дальше на 2 этаже есть мусоропровод, в котором надо пробить говно, но гг не в состоянии протолкнуть его палкой, хотя там расстояние по сути меньше руки, но вот сунуть эту же руку в стену с бабочками или в унитаз, ему проблем не доставляет. Потом часто предметы вообще хуй заметишь, даже не догадываешься подойти и потыкать, ключи какие-то сами используются, какие-то через инвентарь. Порой такие затупы случаются, приходится прохождение открывать. Ну и что это внешне породия на резик , говорит не стоит. Боевка неинтересная и кривая. Но насрать, суть не в этом.
Пока что ставлю модифицированному оригиналу 7/10, так как все прекрасно, ну кроме самое игры. Чувствую, что ремейк во всем лучше и оценка будет выше.

80%PlayStation 2

Essa foi minha primeira experiência com a série, não sabia nada de relevante sobre o jogo e decidi jogar, joguei a versão greatest hits no próprio ps2 em 2025, ao meu ver não é uma master peça como muitos dizem, talvez pra época fosse mais surpreendente, mas sem dúvida um ótimo jogo.

Visualmente bonito e a ambientação é muito boa acompanhada da trilha sonora.

Quanto ao gameplay gostei muito que o jogo não te ensina a jogar e o primeiro momento de combate já é desesperador pois você não consegue bater no inimigo mesmo apertando todos os botões, reparei que ao apertar R2 o personagem mudava de postura, ai descobri como batia mas foi uns bons segundos de desespero. Particularmente gostei do combate porém achei as armas muito fracas no geral, é necessário muitos golpes pra derrotar diversos inimigos comuns, mesmo com as armas brancas melhores.
A exploração é muito boa, gosto muito de jogos que usam esse sistema meio metroidvania pros mapas e exploração, não me senti perdido enquanto explorava, sempre sabia pra onde ir porém tem alguns puzzles que convenhamos, ou usa um guia ou você é iluminado de resolver tudo sem conhecimento prévio, tipo o da ferradura de cavalo pra fazer uma maçaneta pra abrir uma porta no chão, pra mim aquela porta no chão era enfeite pra adicionar detalhe no ambiente, nunca que imaginei que realmente dava pra abrir aquilo apesar de que o jogo indicava que o caminho certo era por ali.
Achei os chefes como um todo fáceis, o Pyramid Head achei paia, entendi a história deles mas pelo hype da galera nele imaginei que seria mais relacionado ao que ele faz durante o jogo.

A história é boa, realmente tava engajado nela apesar de não ter pego todas as entrelinhas que o jogo esconde.

Boa primeira impressão, espero gostar dos demais jogos da série e futuramente vou jogar o remake também.

90%PlayStation 2

Amazing. In general, I think this game and Silent Hill 1 are at a comparable level, but the control scheme and some story aspects are slightly better in Silent Hill 2.

100%PC

Conseillé et suivi par Alexia.

Wow mais que dire de ce jeu! C'était une folie pure! Rivalisant avec Resident Evil en termes de gameplay, en plus mystérieux et flippant, le jeu te plonge dans la ville cryptique qu'est Silent Hill à travers les yeux de James Sunderland qui reçoit un bien curieux message de sa femme décédée et qui part à sa recherche.

Même si le gameplay a un peu vieilli avec la caméra et le fait qu'on est totalement perdu sans la carte, cela est vraiment moindre par rapport au reste.

Car on va alors se retrouver pendant les trois-quarts du jeu à suivre le personnage en tant que joueur et découvrir des personnages et des révélations avec lui, et c'est ce qui fait que ce jeu est impeccable en tout point. Ses thématiques abordées sont exceptionnellement bien traitées, j'en reviens toujours pas de ce que peut apporter une seconde lecture du jeu après coup.

J'apprécie en fin de compte énormément ce jeu et ce qu'il m'a fait ressentir, et je ne peux que le conseiller.

100%PlayStation 2

Jesus Christ

100%PC

Melhor jogo do mundo

100%PlayStation 2

19/06/2025
O que dizer desta jóia maravilhosa? É uma verdadeira obra prima do terror.

85%Emulated

The story is excellent, a combination of mystery and deep symbolism, although some parts are overly-dramatic. The music is also excellent, very unnerving. The gameplay itself is good but has some areas for improvement. The PS2 version has some small but persistent bugs with the camera and controls. The game brings significant graphical improvements over the original, particularly with the enemy designs. The enemies themselves were not very challenging except at the beginning when you only have a melee weapon.

The pacing was a bit unusual like the first game, where some parts had too many items, and other parts had too few items. The game gives you a gun too early imo. There were only a few bosses that you had to actually fight, though this doesn't necessarily count against the game. The game was full of suspense but a bit lacking in action. There were only a couple of actual puzzles in this game, the original did that better.

Like the original, this game has multiple endings, but beyond the ending cutscene I don't think there's much else in terms of replay value, I think it could have been done better by providing a token amount of branching gameplay, even just in the form of some secret rooms or something. Like the original it is a little bit on the short side. When things finally get serious, it's almost over. The world was more linear than the original and lacked exploration, once again the original did this better. Overall it was an excellent game which I would put one notch above the original. However the perfect Silent Hill game would be a combination of the best parts of 1 and 2.

85%PC

The most technically sound of all the silent hill games and the most emotionally charged. Also the scariest. However, the quality of the cutscenes drops as the game continues as things get a bit schlocky.

100%PC

De lo mejor que he jugado en mi vida

100%Emulated

The music is unreal, the story is tormented, and the environment is supreme. Some may say the dialogue is bad, but it strikes a tone that is just so odd, uncanny.. it's so perfect, and can't be replicated.

"Lost Innocence" playing behind the 2nd conversation with Angela. I can't think of a more perfect conversation in gaming. Theme, tone, and dialogue all culminating in the weirdest somber shit I've ever seen. It's the first conversation you have bar the intro, after traversing a tormented town, fighting God knows what - and we get that conversation. Man, like... Man... I have no words.

And Marys Letter? I legitimately cried. Who wouldn’t?

Above all that, this game made me feel some type of nostalgic-liminal mix I'd never felt before. Insane highs in storytelling and horror. Everyone will take something different away after rolling credits. Everyone will have this game strike a different nerve. The levels of psychological horror this explores is unmatched. This game is actually a masterpiece.

100%PC

I mean, it's the GOAT of all time bro.

100%PlayStation 2

Top 10 Games of all time for me. Nuf Said lol

90%PlayStation 2

Fantastic Game. Holds up so damn well. All the scares feel like they have a point, the plot is well written, the symbolism is bountiful, and the gameplay ties it together so well. The strange voice acting genuinely makes the world feel more bizarre in a great way. Exploration is engaging, the scares are well paced so that I always want to press forwards, in spite of everything, it's not too dreadful and overbearing. The sound design is absolutely top tier as well

90%PC

Pretty cool horror game

85%PlayStation 2

Really cool game with a lot of fun ideas. I think I prefer Silent Hill 1's gameplay and locations and general scariness, but SH2 had a much more interesting plot.

100%PlayStation 2

Best

100%PC

Silent Hill 2—oh, this is such a beautiful game...

At first I found it a bit boring, but then I got hooked!

Unique atmosphere, the mood here is right on target also because of the fantastic soundtracks created by Akira Yamaoka, you just can feel melancholy, loneliness, or you can be mesmerized, feel a bit of a small piece of hope... You can feel it in the soundtracks.

And all this plays into the hands of the narrative in this game, and here it is very good—all these symbolisms, all the themes that this game explores in a unique psychological nature... all these deep and dark human's sins... The message that this game tries to tell you, and then the ending it just clicks, you start to get it, and it hits like a truck... It's a fantastic exeperiece.

The gameplay is also interesting, of course, exploring locations, solving puzzles, and searching for quest items and resources, but this is of course psychological horror and survival horror, but I'm not entirely sure about the latter because there is an unlimited inventory, which removes the tension about the lack of space for resources, but this is all a trifle.

There will be no more games in the genre of psychological horror similar to this one!

P.S. Easily the best version at the moment

90%PC

долгая у меня история с этой частью так как я с нее начал и давалось мне это нуу ОЧЕНЬ тяжело поэтому в ней я провел больше всего времени из всех частей около 70 часов если не ошибаюсь и проходил ее 3 раза
отпечаток в моей голове оставило сильный но почему то двойка не стала хоть сколько то у меня любимой но здесь самая сильная атмосфера и сюжетец так что поставлю 9\10 но так вам по секрету скажу что если ставить ее в топ среди частей то она будет на 3 месте

100%PlayStation 2

Best game I ever played. Not super scary but has a really unique atmosphere that makes it both beautiful and engrossing. I found the gameplay to be super immersive due to the sound design and survival systems as it forces the player to move deliberately through the dark, maze like levels, mostly avoiding enemies and solving puzzles. The minimal combat is made very tense by the clunky controls. What really makes the game great is how all the systems and design elements work together to reflect the dark and surreal story and make the player feel like the protagonist James.

85%Xbox 360

360 port sucks, but the game itself is a masterpiece

100%PC

Amazing Game! very depressing story but gripped me the entire way. (Plus first game i ever beat live on stream)

90%PlayStation 2

91%

90%PlayStation 4

Un'esperienza inaspettata. Ha ribaltato le mie aspettative, che erano moderate, dato che il franchise è sempre passato fuori dal mio radar.

Mi ha sopreso la profondità psicologica, che trascende le limitazioni hardware, e la sottilissima attenzione ai dettagli. Difatti quest'ultima è stata una lama a doppio taglio. All'inizio non immaginavo fosse essenziale per proseguire nel gioco, invece mi sono trovato a non riuscire ad andare avanti proprio per le mie esplorazioni lacunose.
È iniziato come un fastidio il fatto di dover prestare così tanta attenzione per non perdersi nulla, mentre verso la fine è diventata una meccanica che lo rendeva più coinvolgente di altri giochi che avevo giocato recentemente.

Elogio la colonna sonora, in particolare l'uso dei sample. Creano l'atmosfera onirica che rende la città di Silent Hill così iconica.

95%Emulated

Simplesmente CINEMA. Digno de toda a atenção que recebe do Fandom.
Como crítica eu colocaria movimentação que mesmo para a época, era bem ruim.

70%PC

It was a pretty good time. Story was intriguing. Wish I didn't know the twist of him killing her but iiwi. At first I couldn't STAND the gameplay, but i came around to it. I really didn't enjoy the open areas (like the city) but other than that it was fine.

100%PlayStation 2

Silent Hill 2
• Millionth time playing
• One of my favorite Games

90%PlayStation 2

My favorite game in the series. The story is amazing and it only gets better with multiple runs. Do yourself a favor, go in blind, and don't look up others opinion on the story until you've gotten every ending. The joy is unraveling the story yourself.

100%PC

Hands down the most terrifying game I've ever played. Silent Hill 2 is infamous for its eerie fog and music. Despite its old age, I do love every part of this game. No matter how many times you replay it, there's always some new symbolism or hidden secrets to be uncovered. Team Silent, once again, really outdid themselves. The story is phenomenal with the shocking twist at the end, the atmosphere is astounding, and the music only adds to horror. Something I really love about Silent Hill is that every single character is always so fleshed out and so human. These aren't top secret agents or superhumans you're playing as; these are people experiencing things that people in real life also deal with: death, loss, mental health issues, or even abuse. The ending even depends on how you treat James, the protagonist. Will you be able to deal with the secret you uncover or will it be too much for you to handle? This is the type of game that you need to replay to discover all the foreshadowing that was sprinkled throughout the entire game. If you want to play a psychological horror game that really gets under your skin, I totally recommend this game.

100%PC

One of the Best Games ever made besides the f**king bossfights xD

50%Emulated

This was a game I played back in 2012 when I got a PS2 copy for it, I did eventually finish it in 2014 and still didn't think that much of it but now having finished the game for the first time in 10 years while also replaying SH1 a few weeks prior, I'm still struggling to figure out this notion that SH2 being considered an "amazing game" and "better" than SH1 even comes from. I consider SH2 to be a medicore game in every respect except music and visuals.

I'll start off with what I like before I start getting to the negative and lukewarm parts, in terms of visuals, I do prefer SH2 over SH1, I also like the latter visually but I prefer like the grimy and dirty PS2 look of SH2. The character models are detailed and the designs of them have them look a bit on the normal side without them looking sterotypically attractive like in a Hollywood movie. The fog is also much more dense and detailed than SH1 and as a result the early game of SH2 can be pretty creepy because it's that much harder to see what's in front of you since the fog itself is so much thicker now.

However one negative with the visuals is with the cutscenes while better directed from a cinematography standpoint has an odd habbit of showing some parts of the cutscene in FMV form and other parts of it in engine, it just makes for a weird inconsistency. Games like Soul Reaver 2 and Metal Gear Solid 2 managed to consistently put their cutscenes in engine and not randomly shove in FMV parts then in engine.

The music as usual for Akria Yamaoka's SH music is fantastic and the background music fits the cutscenes well while also being chill and relaxing to listen in their own right.

The story however I am lukewarm on, it's not "bad" but I feel it's overhyped. Most of the characters have little screen time to get attached to any of them and the only one I came close to being so with was Eddie since he just enjoys being a gultonous, violent psychopath. The rest of the characters are just kind of "there". Maria is a sexified personification of James' wife and never really goes past wanting to have his way with James, Angela is just an abused child and Laura I guess is supposed to the child James and Mary could've had together? They aren't terrible characters but they aren't great either. I also prefer SH1's approach of having an actual villain since I'm not sure how much of SH2's story is actually happening or if it really is all in James' head.

Speaking of James Sunderland, much of his personality is dependant on how you act towards Maria and in the game, meaning that cutscene James is hard character to even root for since he's a blank slate for the player. He's not really all that different from a silent protagonist with dialogue. I wouldn't want him to be silent but at the same time compared to Harry's drive to protect his daughter, James I found dull. I also never found a character as interesting as Lisa Garland or a scene that rivals her death from SH1.

The gameplay however is where many of my issues with SH2 comes from. SH1 was by no means an amazingingly designed game but it got the job done. SH2's combat is considered "bad" but intentionally designed but I argue it's just brainless and boring on normal difficulty. SH1's normal wasn't the most balanced but SH2's normal is somehow worse.

SH2's gameplay feels borderline brainless. At first, I was using melee to attack enemies to save ammo and I got less ammo and healing items by comparison to SH1, but by the time I got to Brookhaven Hospital, I disocovered most if not every enemy can beaten with 3 pistol bullets and one round of a pistol has 10 shots, so with one round, I can kill 3 enemies and the enemy count never gets higher than 3 in SH2 on top being showering with lots of ammo. At least SH1 enemies ran towards, grabbed and ganged up on you. In SH2, it's esstentially a game in of itself if an enemy can even land a blow on you.

The Lying Figure isn't even a great enemy but it will be used over and over again throughout the game as if the devs are super proud for making him and he always can be taken out in 3 pistol bullet shots maybe 4 or if it decides to lay down around crawl fast on occasion.

The enemies in the SH overworld are Lying Figures and Nurses and since you have to try hard to get hit by them, it's easy to stockpile massive amounts of ammo and healing items making the game even easier. Compare that to SH1 where enemies in the overworld moved fast, flew and can even grab you making the player be that much on the move.

Due to all of this, nothing in SH2 was even a threat for me anymore, enemies and bosses were pushovers and the only "hard" fight was dual Pyramid Head but that was because the shotgun had a long windup time before it can be fired and the Hunting Rifle had four shots before reload so I had to use the pistol and that did less damage making the fight longer.

Overall, I wouldn't consider SH2 to be a terrible game, but time hasn't made me any less lukewarm on it.

85%Emulated

This game was a slow burn for me. In the beginning, I actually had the feeling to swap to the remake instead of continuing this version, but I decided to keep going and I'm glad I did. I enjoyed the puzzle aspect a lot. I really like puzzle games, and I always feel most puzzles in games are a little too easy, but these were the perfect balance. On the other hand, the combat was to be desired and sometimes it can be easy to walk by a key item, causing a lot of back tracking. The story was the main burn. The beginning had no real draw, and the cutscenes a bit awkward and not in the good way, but the more you discovered, the more you were compelled. I guess that's the purpose but, I felt even in the cutscenes there was a certain shift from awkward setups to deliberate story telling and great messaging. Overall, a great game in its genre that I grew to really like over time, which was a pretty new experience for me. I can't wait to revisit this town again whenever I play the remake.

90%PlayStation 2

Damn still effective to this day, stays with you for a long time. An experience.

100%PC

Enhanced Edition

100%PlayStation 2

good game

100%Emulated

Absolutely fantastic horror game, with so much room for interpretation and analysis on a psychological level!

80%PC

The atmosphere is definitely something to write home about, so I'll do it, it's amazing, the fog is beautiful and the environments feel like real places that people used to inhabit, I think is important to remark that I played the fan-made enhanced pc port and it runs and plays like a dream, the story which somehow I have never gotten spoiled for me in my 21 years of existence is captivating and most importantly mysterious, which makes you want to explore even more of the world and its characters in your head, it doesn't tell you anything out right, it respects your intelligence to figure out yourself kinda like the puzzles which are also really good, I think it is possible to beat this game without a guide if you are the patient type of person, I myself did consult a few guides here and there but only when I got stuck for a good 15 minutes or so, the only bad things I could say about this game is that the combat is inconsequential, since you have way too much ammo and the enemies don't really come in that large numbers, so you can basically kill every single enemy that you come across and you would still have a few dozen bullets in your inventory, also the voice acting kinda sucks, but in a charming way, but still sucks, at least the important moments have a good voice direction, I'm exited to play the remake now.

95%PlayStation 2

Silent Hill 2 is considered one of the most important classics of the survival horror genre and, after playing it for the first time in 2024, I can now totally see why that is.

But before I talk about its story and vibes, which is what really makes Silent Hill 2 one of the greatest games ever made, let me nerd out about the gameplay for a bit.

Comparing it to Resident Evil, which is the only other series of games in this genre that I have played a lot of, Silent Hill 2 uses many of the same systems and mechanics, but utilises them in a completely different way, which leads to an unrecognisable experience.

Yes, you still have a limited amount of ammunition and healing items, but whereas in especially the earlier Resident Evil games you had to constantly scramble for resources, Silent Hill gives you just enough to where you never feel like you're going to run out anytime soon. And if you somehow ever did run out of ammo, SH2's melee weapons are much stronger than RE's knives.

Yes, you still need to gather and manage items necessary for solving puzzles, but Silent Hill 2 gives you an unlimited inventory which significantly lowers the amount of backtracking.

Yes, the camera still follows your character from a farther distance than in most games and utilises cinematic angles to hide what's in front of you, but in most situations you can easily refocus it behind your character's back, giving you much greater visibility of your surroundings.

Yes, your character still has separate movement and combat stances and you need to stand in one spot to use any of your weapons, but now you can (and should) disable the tank controls, which gives you a much greater ability to avoid enemy attacks.

Yes, you still need to save the game at predetermined spots, but Silent Hill 2 doesn't limit your number of available saves or penalise you in any way for using them, so you can save as often as you like.

You might think this would make the game a lot easier, and yes, it does. During my 10 hour playthrough I died maybe 2 or 3 times total.

You might think this would make the game less scary... And you couldn't be more wrong.

Silent Hill 2's lower difficulty and relative generosity feels something like a dare. It's almost as if the game tells the player "go on, go ahead, make yourself as comfortable as you can, take everything you need to survive and feel safe... in the end, that won't matter one bit".

Whereas the tension in Resident Evil games comes from your desperate fight for survival, Silent Hill 2 does not mind making surviving the town feel easy, because it builds its tension on the back of its lonely, unsettling, oppressive atmosphere. The real enemy of Silent Hill 2 isn't the monsters, it's your own sanity.

And this is where we come to talk about the game's story and atmosphere.

The game begins with the protagonist, James, receiving a letter from his wife, Mary, in which she tells him she's waiting for him in "their special place" inside the town of Silent Hill. The catch is, apparently Mary died of illness 3 years before the game's events take place.

James, whether truly hoping that his wife is somehow still alive or just having nothing to lose, arrives at the town, hoping to find answers, and that's where you take control.

From the first minutes of the game, something feels wrong, despite the player not yet knowing what that is. With every clue you uncover and every conversation with one of the other characters James meets on his journey, that feeling only continues to intensify.

Conversations between characters feel strange, as if they're happening inside a dream. The things they talk about make sense, the way they talk about them sounds as if they were on drugs.

That feeling also intensifies as you go on your journey, with both characters and entire locations behaving in a way that makes decreasingly less and less sense the further in the game you get.

And yet, in the last 2 hours of the game, it all comes to a conclusion that feels logical and coherent. Everything that happens to all the characters can be explained by the different trauma they carry making them see the town in the way they do.

In that, Silent Hill 2 is a masterpiece of storytelling that I am incredibly glad to have experienced.

The gameplay itself, while good or even great at times, isn't the focus of the experience, which is why I'm "only" giving it a 9.5 as opposed to the 10s I've bestowed upon the three Resident Evil games I've reviewed so far, but in all honesty, I might like this game more than any of them.

90%PC

Goat