Silent Hill 2

"Terrifying and Beautiful"

Everyone has a love-hate relationship with Survival Horror. We love to hate their ridiculous run and fetch gameplay, we love to hate the silly, B voice acting and we love to hate their clunky control schemes,

So where does that leave Silent Hill 2, a game where the run and fetch gameplay is kept to a bare minimum, where the voice acting and dialog is almost always well delivered and the story line is one of the best ever in a video game, and
where the Powers-that-be at Konami have allowed us to use a more intuitive 2D (in the PC version, its called ''directional control'') setup instead of the standard 3D ''tank'' controls of the genre (more on this later)?

Well, quite simply, it leaves Silent Hill 2 the scariest one player experience available to PC gamers (having only recently been better by the absolutely terrifying Fatal Frame on PS2 and soon Xbox). Silent Hill is still tops in the story department though. This is a game that draws you in, makes you think, scares the hell out of you, and keeps you captive in its world for the whole 5 to 20 hours it takes you to reach the end of the game and realise the truth...

The graphics are stunning in the PC port. I am running close to the bare minimum allowed for this game (1000 mhz Celeron, 256 MB ram, 64 MB Radeon VE card, no name Radio shack PC control pad with analog stick), and I have the game running in 800x600, with the high res textures and detailed fog effects, and the ''noise filter'' on, and I am fairly consistently above 30 fps. The game itself supports up to 1600x1200. Thats a big jump over the PS2 version's 640x480!

I highly recommend the noise filter by the way. Sure it looks grainy, but its SUPPOSED to. Its much scarier with the noise filter on. Trust me.

The sound is fantastic. Ambient noises such as dogs, scratching monster steps, and random whispers and door rattling are used to great effect. Wait until you get late in the game, there is one hallway that well...I won't spoil it for you, but there is one hallway where you won't ever see a monster, but it will probably make you wet your pants. This game is the real deal folks.

The sound is offered in several modes: stereo, surround, headphones (these three were available in the PS2 version) and also adds 5.1 and 7.1 support. I don't know if these are new additions, or from the Xbox version of the game or not,but they are welcome additions none-the-less.

I have to make a few important notes on the controls of this game. First of all, the game has an option to use more intuitive 2D controls instead of traditional ''tank'' controls. If you are new to Survival Horror games, a brief digression so I can explain how wonderful this is: In games like Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, and even Fatal Frame, you have to push ''UP'' on the control pad to move forward, and ''left'' and ''right'' rotate your character. This leads to a clunky and slow control scheme that most people either really love, or really hate. If you are one of the people who loves this type of control, fear not, you can select this style as well in the options screen.

The second point is more of a serious quibble: you MUST use a gamepad for this game. There is no mouse support besides the menu screen, and the keyboard will ruin the game for you. You only need three buttons on a pad for this: Run (or walk, depending on your control scheme default) Battle Stance (holding this button readies your weapon) and Action(which is both Attack and Examine, depending on whether you have the Battle Stance button pushed on or not). If you have a fourth button available to use for selecting the menu screen, then you're all set! But you really need a pad.

I won't say much about the story, because the story is the game (and this is a very, very good thing) and if I say much of anything I could give away some of the best parts of the game. Lets just say this is the deepest, most thought provoking storylines in the entire genre, and can be taken on several levels. There are 6 endings available, three of which can only be achieved on a replay.

Konami loves you PC gamers too because not only did they bring you one of the best Console to PC conversions ever, they brought you the complete Restless Dreams version released on Xbox (and re-released on PS2 as a greatest hits) instead of the original PS2 version from 2001. These extras include a special ending, a new subscenario, and improved lighting. This game is the real deal.

Now turn off the lights, put your headphones on, crank the volume up...and enjoy.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/06/03, Updated 01/06/03