Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams

"Unforgettably Atmospheric, But Feels Too Familar"

Silent Hill, that foggy little town with the countries most jammed and broken doors (oh yeah, not to forget the army demons, just can't forget those demons) is back and is as twisted as ever. Though the story is entirely different from the original Silent Hill, it feels more like a graphical update of the first. Silent Hill 2 does deliver its fair share of shocks, looks great and has an unforgettable plot but suffers from ''Been There, Done That'' syndrome and repetitive tasks.

PREMISE 9/10
Main Quest
James Sunderland, the depressed middle-age protagonist, receives a letter in the mail from his recently passed wife that reads ''Silent Hill, our sanctuary of memories... I will be waiting for you there. In our 'special' place.'' James believes that the letter is a hoax but nonetheless ventures to Silent Hill to find out the source.

If you've experience Silent Hill for the Playstation, you know that creepy lakeside town is nothing but trouble. This brings me to Silent Hill's largest flaw; if you've played the first installment of the series you essentially played this. James reminds me of a slightly more lethargic, pathetic Harry Mason (See Silent Hill) and some of the other characters bleed similarities to those from the first installment.

The story is far less convoluted this time around but takes much longer to get the ball rolling. In my opinion, things don't get really interesting until the last 75% of the game. Though, in the back of every gamer's mind they want to find the origin of the letter; that's really what keeps things interesting, and going, for that matter. Also the occasion appearance of a secondary character twists the plot pleasantly.

The characters in the game serve their purpose. They are largely there to aid James in discovering the whatnots of Silent Hill or where to go next. Some are more interesting than others and some you hardly see at all.

Sub-Quest
Maria's sub-quest takes place an hour or so before she meets James in the Main Quest and for the most part, in a large old house. I'd discuss the plot further but there isn't much to say about it without spoiling it.

GAMEPLAY 6/10
Main Quest
There is no other way to phrase it; Silent Hill 2 is almost entirely an exercise in key fetching. I'd say you unlock over 30 doors in this game. Normally games that rely on a key adventure fail to fuel my fire, but due to the fact you are searching for someone it seems somewhat suiting. I really wanted to see what was behind that next door.

Silent Hill 2 is littered with a few simple puzzles. You can choose the difficulty of the riddles, but even on the highest level I had no problems with solving all but one of the brainteasers.

The controls are standard survival horror fair with the inclusion of side-stepping. You can now perform a 180-degree turn but it involves hitting both side-step buttons, which is not going happen in the heat of combat.

Despite how menacing the monsters may appear, they rarely pose a problem. You can choose gameplay difficulty, which affects the amount of damage James can take and the ferocity of the monsters. While hard mode can be a little too taxing, normal mode provides a decent challenge. Unfortunately, ammo and health are FAR too plentiful for a survival horror game. It really takes away from the tense atmosphere the developers were trying to uphold.

The biggest problem is again, if you played the original Silent Hill, the sequel, as far as gameplay is concerned, doesn't feel as minty fresh. There are essentially no gameplay upgrades in Silent Hill 2. Also, having to drudge through a hospital again didn't rock my boat whatsoever. I don’t care if it’s a different hospital, I've played Silent Hill, I've seen a scary hospital, could we please move on to a Grocery Store or Zoo or ANYTHING except another hospital. I know the second visit is needed to progress the plot, but far too much time is spent there once you enter.

Essentially there are only three types of enemies wander around Silent Hill; that’s less than the first game. You run into about ten different adversaries, but you only see most of them once or twice. It really kills the scare factor.

Silent Hill 2 claims to have 10-12 hours gameplay. I beat it in 6 hours on hard puzzles and normal difficulty with no aid from a walk-through. Silent Hill 2 does sport 6 endings though.

Sub-Quest
I truly believe Maria's sub-quest is a nod to Resident Evil. The house that the majority of the quest takes place is reminds me a great deal of the manor in Resident Evil. Other than that, it's Silent Hill 2 starring a girl that has to key-fetch, solve one puzzle and deal with 90% less drama. It's also only about an hour long.

GRAPHICS 9/10
Wow, does Silent Hill ever look great.. well, in a really grimy way. The environments are crisp and littered with nice touches. Unfortunately it's hard to enjoy them considering how dark or foggy most of your adventure is. Thankfully, the fog's purpose is no longer only to cover up the horrible draw-distance as it was in the original. Fog roles realistically and creates an extremely claustrophobic sensation when traveling through it. When things get 'dark,' lighting is flawless, the real times shadows and reflections are amazing.

You can play Silent Hill 2 with or without graphical noise (a slight fuzz). While the game looks very crisp without, it loses a certain grit that really works for the game. Also, without the noise some objects, especially plants, look sadly low resolution and the fog doesn't look as foreboding. The game occasionally uses static 2D backgrounds that aren't overly apparent with noise, but without look horrible.

Character and enemy animations are meticulously realistic. In the past Silent Hill conversations usually took place between two very still - scratch very still - unmoving individuals and were beyond droning to watch. With Silent Hill 2's superior graphics conversation are now alive as characters touch, smile and move around like, well, we do. Enemies’ writhe and squirm appropriately as if being tortured, while others are calm and slowly hunt you, ie: old school horror monsters. The amount of detail allotted to each character and enemy has to be seen to believe.

CG cinema are hyper realistic and some of the best I've seen in a video game.

Silent Hill 2 does have some repetitive textures, especially noticeable in indoor areas where a flashlight is needed to navigate. It's easy to get lost because a lot of the rooms and hallways look frightfully similar. I don't know whether or not this is intentional, but it does leech from the overall graphical presentation.

SOUND 9/10
I guarantee that Silent Hill's use of sound effects are going to creep you out more than once. Whether it be the monsters squealing gibberish or unrelenting footsteps all around you or sudden demonic-like whispering, sonically Silent Hill 2 will give you goose bumps. Not to mention the dreaded white-noise from the handheld radio

Character voice acting is strong from Maria but everyone else is average or bad. Silent Hill's dramatic pausing is still in full effect (But you said............. you'd be........ there..........) along with the initial overuse of monotone.

Sound is presented with Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound, which is a very cool feature if you have it.

STABILITY 9/10
Considering how great Silent Hill 2 looks, I'm very surprised at how short the load times are. The majority of the loads are three seconds if that and some larger areas like the town are at most ten seconds. The long loads are few and far between.

Only stability problem is that the lip-syncing is slightly off in the XBOX version, while the PS2 version’s was fine.

Rarely (happened to me about 4 times) there is a skip in the frame-rate. It usually happens in large outdoor areas and could be progressive loading.

The much claimed (mostly by non-XBOX owners) slow-down in Maria's sub-quest is non-existent.

FINAL 7/10 (not an average)
My final score is a very strong 7. Silent Hill 2 is probably the most atmospheric and enthralling game for any system. Despite the slightly tired gameplay, it is a great game that every adult gamer should experience at least once. Though, the slow-moving, surprisingly depressing story may not be for everyone.

On that note I'd like to mention that Silent Hill 2 is a very adult game. It is disturbing on a visceral level and is definitely not for children. There is a reason it’s an M-rated title.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/02, Updated 01/03/02