Silent Hill 2

"Come on and say it! This just isn't all that good of a game!"

The original Silent Hill was hailed as the ethereal creep-out rival to the Resident Evil franchise. It met with few naysayers, and deservedly so.

Now, the sequel has come out to similar critical acclaim. But I think it's time someone stood up and told the truth about this inferior sequel.

Now, there are some high points to this game. The graphics are beautiful in their twisted way - the creepy atmosphere survives from the original, complete with the same "8-foot circle of light in the dark hallway" chill inducing gameplay. The radio transmitter returns as well, sending a chill down your spine when you hear that static begin. The same unwaking nightmare awaits you in that Ghost Town that is Silent Hill. There is an interesting NPC in th form of Maria - a mysterious woman of the night who bears a striking resemblance to your dead wife. The monsters are the most nightmarish creations you've ever witnessed.

Now, with all that going for it, you might say, "formula for success!" And, apparently many people think this is enough to make a good game. But - I beg to differ. What went wrong? Well, for starters, with all this mood and eeriness (and it IS eerie! Do NOT play with the lights off at night by yourself!) there just aren't any real scares in this game! By the time you are half-way through, you've already met the foru (yes, only FOUR) monsters the game has to offer, and you are so used to them that you are no longer afraid. After you sprint past about 10 on your 5-minute jog from one building to the next, it just looses it's fear factor. And, you will be doing ALOT of that - running around on the street or in a dark hallway from door to door, trying to figure out which one of the hundreds is the one that actually opens! All the mood and graphics barely matches the act that this is just a glorified "key quest" game.

On top of this are the very drawn-out cut scenes. And you thought watching President Bush's speeches was excruciating - try clocking some of the pauses between lines in THESE cutscenes!

Now, the main storyline is actually interesting in a gothic ghost story kind of way. James comes to Silent Hill looking for the wife he thought was dead, because he received a letter she apparently wrote saying she is waiting for him there. This is a very Japanese style spook storyline, and it works well for awhile . . . until James keeps on repeating the same line over and over - "Mary, could you really be here in this town?" By the end, you don't care anymore. And, it has one of those endings where you still don't really know what was going on, and what part Maria had in the whole story.

Then there is the complete waste-of-time character of Eddie - a fat boy/teenager who goes berserk for no given reason and eventually becomes a boss fight. He adds nothing to the story and only serves to pad out the game, though it still seems too short.

I will give it marks for maintaining the atmosphere - it is a very cerebral horror title. Perhaps if there had been a few jump-scenes along the way to really take advantage of the set-up, it would have been better. It isn't an awful game in its own right, but it is repetetive, and unfortunately is hurt be the overwhelming superiority of the original. If you can find it somewhere for under $10, you'll probably like it - but just don't expect the phenomenon that the critics have built it up to be.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/25/04