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.

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.

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

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 for example). I don't subscribe to the fact that it's bad on purpose. 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. Some people do romanticize and try to find meaning in these subpar aspects which is fine but I can't see it that way.

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!

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.

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.

95%PC

Me lo acabo de terminar y estoy medio en shock

90%PC

Goat

95%PC

69 сохранений
концовка: отъезд
время на лодке 3:58:61
ранг 4/9

100%Xbox

Абсолютно відмінний горор навіть за теперішніми стандартами! Закріплені камери змушують тебе думати, що ти наче слідкуєш за головним персонажем. Звуки постійно тримають тебе в напрузі: радіо, монстри, музика, виразні кроки. Сюжет просто відвал сраки, особливо, якщо ти знаєш, що таке Сайлент Гілл.

80%Emulated

Ужасный геймплей, кринж головоломки, но прекрасный сюжет, его подача, саундтрек, атмосфера и КУЛЬТОВОСТЬ. Все недостатки игры не помешали детищу Тим Сайлент занять почетное место в списке культовейших игр. Как часто при виде тумана на улице в вашу голову приходят ассоциации с серией СХ? Удивительно, что обычное природное явление может ассоциироваться с какой-либо игрой так прочно

90%PC

The Enhanced Edition is simply the best way to play the original Silent Hill 2 on PC. The game still holds all its ethereal charm, polished thanks to this excellent mod that has done far more than what happened with the terrible HD edition from a few years ago. If you want to experience the 2001 title, the Enhanced Edition is the only way to do it.

90%Linux

That ending monologue was sick. Honestly awesome game, and worth all the hype. I played it via PS2 emulator on my Steam Deck. Typically in games like this, puzzles frustrate me and they certainly did here, but the pacing overall of each of the "dungeons" was great, and while I think the environment is a tad bit bland (mostly due to the tech limitations) the atmospheric score is TOP NOTCH. It's not as scary as I was expecting, but there were definitely moments that gave me chills, and quite a couple rooms that I noped the f*ck out of. Maybe I'll get the rest of the endings or play the sub story sometime, I'm not sure. Definitely a game worth playing at least once, and I'm going to try the remake soon.

100%PC

Masterpiece. Play pc enhanced edition now!

100%PC

One of my favourite games of all time.

90%PC

Enhanced Edition Mod
Ending: Leave

70%PlayStation 2

Проходил в первый раз, очень понравилось изучение мира, загадки, атмосфера и особенно музыка/звуки. Дизайн локаций, мобов в целом неплохой. Сюжет не то чтобы великий, но для хоррора чуть повыше среднего. Камера и в целом управление ей и персонажем для времен PS2 (когда у тебя есть правый стик и уже есть игры где им ты управляешь камерой) довольно плохое, но за пару часов привыкаешь. Боевка мили оружием полный отстой, как и его разнообразие, а вот огнестрел довольно неплох. И самое плохое что есть в игре - это боссфайты, настолько скучные и однообразные, что просто ужас. Единственные нормальные боссы это Эдди и финальный босс.

80%PC

Me lo pasé con la versión enhanced edition

80%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

100%PlayStation 2

💬 In my restless dreams, I see that town. Silent Hill.

👍 The Good:

- This is me playing through the original Silent Hill 2 before diving into the remake. Silent Hill 2 is my favourite game of all time and I consider it an artistic masterpiece. For me, Silent Hill 2 isn't just a game because it changed the way I think and enjoy art. Nothing I write here can adequately express how magnificent and poetic this work of art is. From the environments that give you shivers to the sound component that makes you feel like you're actually in those mysterious places, the writing and story that elicited strong emotions in me, the level design, the enigmatic story-telling... Everything about this game is perfect, and I would not change a single thing.

👎 The Bad:

- Nothing.

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.

100%PC

This game is phenomenal.

From the characters to the story to the town, the horror and atmosphere—everything captured here is perfect. The only thing you might not like is the combat, which, in my opinion, is fine. I'm not here for great gameplay; I'm here for an awesome story and incredible horror.

Even though Silent Hill 2 is a sequel to Silent Hill, it actually doesn’t share much with the first game, except for the core mechanics. The story has nothing to do with SH1 and introduces a completely new cast of characters. The cult is also absent here as well.

The game still features the best story in the whole franchise, and in my opinion, one of the best stories I’ve ever experienced. It also has a great atmosphere, though I have to say, I think SH1 is much spookier. The cutscenes have excellent camera angles, and the voice acting perfectly captures the disturbed characters and the town. As always, the soundtrack accompanying the game makes it even better.

If I had one thing to say: it was perfect—perfect—everything, down to the last minute detail. 10/10.

100%PC

It's very difficult to even know where to begin when it comes to a game as special as this. Silent Hill 2 is a masterpiece that takes all the amazing things from the first game and improves it completely. It's made me truly see that Silent Hill as a series is able to invoke this feeling that I haven't felt from any other games. I would say it's almost similar to Dark Souls because both series have what I like to call Horrific Beauty. The absolute despair and horror of being put in a world or situation where everyone and everything is going after you. The feeling of complete solitude, with the only light being your own hopes, in this case, finding Mary. You can see how this small bit of hope that Mary may still be alive drives James into madness. After learning what he's done, he isn't left with many choices. No matter what ending you get, none of them are happy. Now enough yapping about that. The gameplay was a lot better and the fights felt much more fair and actually possible. The puzzles were really good, but sometimes kind of difficult. I already wrote about the atmosphere which is unmatched. The characters are all so fascinating. Learning the stories behind Eddie and Angela was very interesting and I really enjoyed it. I love how Angela mirrors the victim of all of James messed up desires, and Eddie almost mirrors what would happen if James accepted who he is and what he did. Maria is symbolic for James' hope. She keeps him tied down to this idea that Mary is still alive, and almost motivates him to chase a dead-end dream. Laura is like the kid that James always wanted, but could never have due to Mary's sickness. I haven't even spoken about the monsters yet. Everything that is trying to kill James are made from his suppressed desires. The nurses, mannequins, everything. Pyramid Head is the him that he is trying to run away from. I realize that this is less of a review, and more of an analysis. I don't care. It only goes to show how much this game really meant to me. The fact that everything can be analyzed this much really shows why this game special. I'll cut it here now, though. I hope the remake doesn't ruin everything.

100%PlayStation 2

Best Silent Hill game

50%Emulated

Silent hill 2 est un monument du jeu d'horreur, mais son âge le rend tout aussi injouable que le premier opus. Oui l'ambiance est toujours excellente, oui le jeu regorge de bonnes idées de mise en scène et rien n'est laissé au hasard. Mais en jeu, c'est temps de chargement après temps de chargement, fondus au noir inutiles et portes qui se passent en plusieurs longues secondes. Toute l'aventure est hachée par ces écrans d'attente, encore pire que le 1. Le gameplay rigide et les puzzles franchement pas inspirés (un captcha sérieux ?), couplé aux dialogues mauvais et au rythme très faux des doublages, rend l'expérience fastidieuse. L'acting devient cependant incroyable sur la dernière heure de jeu pour une raison qui m'échappe, et les fins sont excellentes. Un jeu plutôt fait pour en discuter et l'étudier que pour y jouer. Dommage parce que le fond du jeu et ses métaphores c'est purement de l'art, hyper fort.

100%PlayStation 3

Just played this for the first time before the remake comes out! I honestly don't know how they're going to recreate the sense of dread and tension this game has, it is unmatched even all these years later!

100%PlayStation 2

Muito bom,a história desse jogo e incrível

100%PlayStation 2

is the best terror game ever made

90%PC

I played with an enhanced mod. I never played it b4, but I had to see why its one of the most highly regarded horrors with my own 2 eyes.

With the mod the graphics looked rly good, and the story blew me away and it lingers on my mind. It rly deserves all the prise. The only reason why im not giving it 100% is coz of those damn tank controls

95%PC

The game is incredibly deep and symbolic, a true masterpiece of narratorial genius. I got the "Leave" ending in my run, if you give it a go, there's a good chance you could get another ending.

100%Emulated

This game makes my eyeballs vibrate

100%PC

A new all time favorite

90%PlayStation 2

Even though i knew what I was getting into and the story I still had an awesome time playing this! I even got an ending I didn't know about.

Some times the camera angles got to me a little but that was pretty minor in the grand scheme of things. Some of the key items were VERY easy to miss which sucked. I lost a lot of time trying to find stuff because I didn't want to rely on a guide unless I had no choice.

I'm excited and nervous to play the remake to see how it compares.

90%PC

Jogo brabo, muito atemporal e ao mesmo tempo a frente de seu tempo, final feelings e alem disso joguei criando varios memes, experiência literalmente ÉPICA.
É o tipo de jogo que te inspira, seja criativamente ou para a vida, infelizmente um pouco datado, mas muito bom do mesmo jeito. Gostei muito de ter jogado e agora tenho vontade de jogar os outros!

80%PlayStation 2

Depressing story, yet alluring.

Good
- I love the psychological horror aspect of this game. Quite literally, I was battling it out with James' mentality. His tug of war between his guilt for not being able to do anything for Mary. All the negative feelings manifesting into monsters and the deformed environment.
- the story kept me hooked cause it was a constant mystery. I never knew what was really going on, as it only gave me bits and pieces.
- the music is of course A+. Perfectly crafted for the environments, and timed extremely well. Made me feel uneasy for a lot of parts, similar to SH1.
- The detail in the environments were great. And the graphics generally looked great.

Bad
- the combat really needs some work. It was forgivable on the PS1, but less here. Especially the boss fights. It involved simply run and shoot, or heal and shoot. They were so straight forward. I guess given how clunky the movement is, anything harder would be a headache.
- some of the key items did not stand out enough. There were a number of times where I simply didn't notice it. If i didn't refer to a guide, I would've gotten it only if I examined every object in the room. They really need to add some kind of highlight to it, or increase it's contrast somehow without breaking immersion.
- The regular enemies actually got quite repetitive.
- There's gotta be a faster way of pulling the map up. Since there are so many doors, i often have to refer to it, but every time i look at it, it takes 1 second to pull up, 1 second to close. This all adds up. It would've been nice if there was some sort of mini map on the side.

100%Emulated

as amazing as the first game
i ended up with in water ending
at long last i was able to experience this game and it was a 10/10

10%PC

There are mostly 3 enemy types in the game and you fight all of them the same way - you wait patiently for them to amble into melee range and then spam spacebar for 30 seconds. Sometimes you have to fight 2 at a time, or even a bossfight - for these, you run away and shoot them while they slowly approach. That's it, that's the whole game.
This is supposed to be one of the best videogames of all time? Just like Last of Us, it doesn't matter how good your story is if your gameplay is trash.
--Reviewed with Enhanced Edition mod

100%Emulated

CINE

75%PC

Its alright, the atmosphere is impeccable and the story is interesting but i found the gameplay to be tedious if anything and the level design wasn't up to the par to be honest, its a good game with one of my most favorite soundtracks, but after all the hype i was left a little bit disappointed.
Played on emulator

100%PlayStation 3

Silent Hill 2 has a deeply disturbing and compelling narrative, with great characters. The atmosphere is incredible and made the game genuinely chilling, especially when taken with the excellent sound and music. This game takes everything great from the original Silent Hill and improves upon it, delivering with satisfying puzzles and fun, tense combat, never missing a beat. Truly a legendary game.

70%PC

So, the game is as good as I remembered it to be, and how the media at the time reviewed it: a lukewarm successor of Silent Hill, with almost none of its charm.

The story is definitely its strongest point, at least from its conceptual side. The voice acting and dialogue are mostly terrible and have aged even worse than I remembered, and while I have zero issues with the controls, it seems most new players nowadays hate them.

SH2 does a good job putting you in a tense mood during the initial hours, but that mood quickly ends deflating on its own since nothing ever happens, desensitizing you from its tricks the longer you play. Couple that with the fact that SH2 showers you with firearm ammo and health items. I ended up finishing the game with 15 health drinks, 8 medical kits, 9 ampules, 200+ pistol rounds, and 100+ shotgun shells... and I didn’t even get to use the rifle.

Thanks to this, there’s never any semblance of danger or misery. In the same vein, since the levels are very spacious (both indoors and outdoors), you will safely walk past 95% of the enemies, and for the rest that could pose a threat, you put the trio of mandatory bullets on their ass before they manage to inflict any damage. The iconic main baddie, is again, conceptually a very scary being, but in practice it ends up acting seriously dumb, goofy, and weak. The rest of the bosses are even worse, and they boil down to shooting a couple of shotgun shells from the hundreds you have, run in circles, shoot, run in circles, shoot, watch cutscene.

The initial city enemies are great, but then the city gets overtaken by the mannequins from the apartments and the nurses from the hospital, which completely destroys the uniqueness of the city and cheapens the already minuscule ”wow” value of these themed enemies.

Remember how Silent Hill 1 made you feel genuine fear in the clean, smooth, foggy world? Remember how that fear escalated into dread and desperation once the air raid alarms sounded and everything became rusted and bloody? Remember how returning to the foggy world with daylight felt like a blessing and like returning home? Remember how mesmerizing it was to see these places after the literal nightmare, now being showered by cold, foggy daylight, and calmness? Well, Silent Hill 2 ditched that, and you’ll barely ever notice the "nightmare" world or the transition to it. The majority of the game you’ll spend in dark indoors, where you can’t tell if it’s night or day, so again, you’ll become completely desensitized to darkness.

All in all, the game is a nice narrative experience with probably the most exquisite works from Akira Yamaoka (which by the way, some of the most amazing tracks, are used for gameplay segments that literally last 10 to 40 seconds) next to SH4, but as a Silent Hill game, SH2 took one step forward, one sideways, and two backwards. It is so funny how, in 2024, the internet has spawned an avalanche of first-time players who paint it as a masterpiece and have overblown the "hidden meaning" and symbolism of elements of the game, to the point that members from the Team Silent have had internet fights to debunk these cringey fan made theories parroted by YouTubers… but yeah here were are.

100%PlayStation 2

There is a reason I think this is the peak of the horror games.

Everything about this game mechanically is a mess, the combat, the camera controls, down to the nonsensical puzzles. But it adds to everything as a whole. Until you're used to the jank, James is not a fighter, and its not particularly fun to fight, so you avoid enemies, adding to its uneasy and desperate atmosphere. The voice acting is offputting, so it makes each character weird and outterworldly, but they convey enough that you're interested in what, unlike James, they think Silent Hill is, and the tragedy that lead them there.

The soundtrack, the story, how every enemy is a reflection of our protagonist in some way, to the foreshadowing of who you're playing as, it's fucking amazing. I wish I could experience this game for the first time again.

The older this game gets, the harder it is to recommend. A more modern game I'd put against it is the pathologic series, which does a similar thing with their mechanics. Its not a fun game, but its not boring either.

Every time there is a foggy day, or I hear an air raid siren, or hear the crackle of static in the radio Silent Hill is the first thing I think of and makes me feel slightly uneasy. That's a horror experience no other piece of horror media I encountered has emulated.

100%Linux

No doubt the best game I've ever played.
Şüphesiz oynadığım en iyi oyun.

100%PC

Absolute masterpiece of a game. James is an amazing protagonist, but not so much in a “Oh my god, he’s so cool” way, but more like a “Wow, this guy is a complete loser, but also incredibly interesting and complex” kinda way. Speaking of characters, everybody that you come across is so intriguing, like you wanna learn more about them, and then when you finally do you wish you could go back. All of the voice acting in this game is so bizarre but in such a charming way and I love it so much. The enemy designs were so much more interesting compared to Silent Hill 1, being much more sexualized, representing James’s sexual frustration. AAAAAA I COULD JUST GO ON AND ON ABOUT ALL THE SYMBOLISM IN THIS GAME BUT I WANT PEOPLE TO FIGURE IT OUT FOR THEMSELVES!!! Genuinely might have to ask my English teacher if I can do an essay on this game because it’s so amazing.

Akira Yamaoka also manages to create some of my favorite music I’ve ever heard in a video game. Seriously, the whole SH2 soundtrack alone is just as amazing as the game itself. Theme of Laura, Promise, Blank Fairy, Letters, Betrayal, Angel’s Thanatos, Overdose Delusion, Love Psalm, all of these songs are so amazing and manage to capture so much emotion.

I genuinely have no problems with this game at all. It’s now my second favorite game of all time, right below Bloodborne. Sure, the combat and the controls might not be for everyone, it’s definitely kinda outdated in those regards, but they take like 10 minutes to get used to, so it’s not a massive deal breaker for me. I seriously recommend this game to anyone who wants to try it, but PLEASE download the Enhanced Edition for PC version. Seriously, every day I wake up and thank god for the team behind the Enhanced Edition 🙏🙏

95%PlayStation 2

Si no fuera porque los controles a estas alturas de la historia son un poco torpes, para mí sería un juego perfecto.
Hace mucho no sentía esa necesidad de vicio de seguir jugando, de terminar el juego y ver qué pasa.
Es increíble la atmósfera que logra este juego, con la música, los puzzles, la neblina, la estructura de las habitaciones, los juegos con la cámara, etc.
Y más allá de todos esos puntos fuertes, se encuentra la sublime historia, presentada en un modo donde terminas odiando al protagonista (y a ti mismo) pero sintiendo compasión también, por lo compleja que es la situación.
Tuve el final In Water y siento que fue perfecto. Luego de ver el resto en Youtube, me alegro de haber tenido el que tuve porque siento que es el que más calza con mi personalidad(?). Además de los dos que son meme, el resto no terminan de convencerme. Si bien, son buenos finales que le ofrecen un buen cierre y “tranquilidad” o resolución para James, siento que dejan cabos sueltos. Por eso me gustó mucho In Water, por lo desenfrenado y desesperado también.
Siento que no voy a dejar de pensar en este juego en harto tiempo. Quedé con ganas de seguir probando otros juegos de terror.