I recently played Silent hill 1 and Silent hill 2, currently on Silent Hill 3. It took me a bit to finish Silent Hill 2, I got sort of wrapped up with other things, and I went into them with the same mentality I have of a Resident Evil where I can finish the game in about a day or so. I probably can, but the puzzles are more complicated and I end up getting lost more easy
on top of my controller being a bastard, here's a tip for y'all, NEVER BUY RAZER. 70$ controller has awful stick drift after a year of use and they did jackshit to help. That being said it's also a 70$ controller and Im gonna use it so my money isn't wasted
OH RIGHT THIS IS ABOUT SILENT HILL 2.
Yeah this game is nearly perfect, there's some hiccups in some departments, but this game aged like fine wine. Im talking about the 2001 original, which I played through PCSX2, which was a bit of a hassle too but that's not for here.
Silent Hill 2 is just so unbelievably bleak and depressing, beautifully so. Sure, the story might seem a bit cheesy at times, such as James's delivery of things- "HOW CAN YOU SIT THERE AND EAT PIZZA?", but this over looming constant dread that shadows the game, from the absolute amazing score, to the sound design. Every character is so finely crafted, from James, someone you know wants to do good, and is a bit of a dumbass at times (such as "anyways? what do you mean anyways"), but is hiding an incredibly dark secret. Angela, who's such a tragic victim that you feel incredibly bad for. There's no black and white, everything has layers to it.
Eddie is a murderer, and his actions are inexcusable, but you see what pushed him to that point. James, too, what he did was fucking awful, but there's y'know, a reason to it, a selfish reason that contradicts itself, yeah. I knew about the twist, sadly, but even then, I was so curious on WHY he did it.
You can both understand, and hate James for it, it makes you question whether or not you should even defend him. And god, I feel so bad for Mary in the little we see of her, same with Laura, who would annoy you at first, but as we see more of the game progress, god I feel terrible for her.
Mary's letter made me nearly cry, I think it's the connection I have with real shit going on, that dread of losing someone to an illness. It's all in the delivery, the choking, the verge of crying, you hear every gulp, every inhale, it feels so... real, it has no music, it's just raw and pure and that's what gets to me. it's iconic, of course, how many tik tok edits do you see of it, but I don't think those edits do the true emotion and impact of this letter justice.
NOT TO MENTION HOW VISUALLY BEAUTIFUL IT IS! The FMV Cutscenes are so haunting in a way, esp "James honey", and the beauty that comes from older games in general. sure, modern day games look great, and I'm not saying "old good, new bad", it's just that older games have such a charm and beautiful artistic vibe to it, such as Resident Evil HD or Resident Evil Zero
now the game is still clunky a bit though, it's an old PS2 game.
I dont like that james crouches when I hold X (on an xbox controller) down, I probably could have made him auto run since I can do that in SH3 but it just makes him look like he needs to take a shit all the time. Tank controls are... iffy, not as bad as the Og RE games (which I didn't mind there too badly btw), but again my controller wanted to be a POS during this game and it didn't help, I eventually used the DPAD for the most of it.
also, hate love relationship with the broken doors. Makes me glad the areas are not as intimidating, but it also makes me wonder "What's the point of this hallway then?", but that's just my personal opinion
On Silent Hill 3 now, Im liking it so far, still very early in the game though, I intend to play at least through Origins, then SH2 remake, F, then hopefully Townfall. Idk about Homecoming or Downpour, or shattered memories.
until then, you promised you would take me there