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Silent Hill 2
Players: One
Age Rating: Mature
Looking back on my recent gaming habits and trends, I think as I got older I became able to appreciate games a little more. Given the freedom of earning my own money and having more freedom over what I do with my time, I was able to play more, try more.
I never really played horror games. Aside from strategy games, they were the one genre I shunned, mainly because modern horror games have been defined by Resident Evil 4. RE4 is not a bad game; it's a stellar game, paced extremely well, filled with visual language, and excellent control. The problem is that it's a power trip; the vulnerability that defines what is "horror" is completely absent. On a more basic level, tension. Resident Evil 5 threw this out the window completely, and now you can call upon a giant laser the pierce the sky and smite your enemies, or punch enemies faces so hard they explode. (I have nothing against games changing (note the non-use of the word evolving); I just hate when games become retarded.)
Silent Hill 2 is what horror should have been. Its vision is liberating, yet restrained for all of the right reasons.
James Sutherland's wife, Mary has died years ago. He mourns, still, the loss, but one day a letter comes. Addressed from Mary, it asks him to come to meet her at the "special place" in Silent Hill. Bewildered, but with not much else to live for, he goes.
Silent Hill is a dreary place. Drenched in fog, abandoned and left to decay, the town has immense character. Graphically, the game is phenomenal for such an early PS2 game. The beauty of art design, Silent Hill 2 was designed by people who know what disgusting places look like.
The music is even more stellar. It's minimalist, timed perfectly to just fuck with you. It's how you'd imagine a disgusting place would sound like.
Who ever developed this town had the common sense to actually use the town, and its characteristics, to further the story. The setting has become a character.
You see, Silent Hill 2 isn't a standard, search and rescue sort of game. It's a psychological analysis of James.
There will be spoilers here!
You can't talk about Silent Hill 2 without discussing the intent behind it all. Because this game, it's about the intent, the design, and the epoxy-like bond between them.
James is hiding from the truth. He knows how Mary died, that she is dead, that there is nothing to be done. He doesn't come to Silent Hill because he wants to find Mary; he needs to be healed. To face the regret of what he did.
You see, Mary was diagnosed with a terminal illness, and James was loyal until the end. The end that he brought upon her.
He could never forgive himself, and continually tortured himself over it, but could never, truly, feel at rest.
Silent Hill is a cursed town, modeling itself over the fears and problems of its inhabitants. Practically everything in this game has some symbolic significance with James; the Pyramid Head, the Bubblehead Nurse, the dark hallways, the other characters, the wooden combat, the audio; it all comes together in such a dense whole you're surprised the disk doesn't weigh fifty pounds. The fact that the player doesn't learn the truth about Mary's fate until the last quarter of the game makes it even more shocking. The game is designed and designed so wonderfully that there are no cheap tricks needed to align the player's perspective with James'; you follow along the path of bewilderment, disgust, horror and resolution, a step at a time with James. It's incredible that I've experienced this, and I think you can only really do this in a video game.
I think this because of the perspective of the player, and what he expects of "horror"; it's so effectively smashed by Silent Hill 2 that it strings the player along. Other media have used this technique effectively. The difference is that, with video games, especially more modern ones, we've become accustomed to being in control. That's the basics of any game; player input to obtain a desired reactionary output. Silent Hill 2 dances around this fact with the requisite rough control of older horror games. The difference being, Silent Hill 2 isn't obtuse like the older Resident Evils; it's at least serviceable. But James is limited, so that we begin to adapt to James. We recognize his movements, his rhythm; eventually, we become invested in James. It becomes less about fighting the control and more about embracing the character through input.
There is one flaw in the game; the voice acting is shit. Well, uneven.
Silent Hill 2 shows that gaming isn't just about play. It's about experience; the sad thing being that many games are stuck in the rut of trying to be more than games but lack the vision to become more through the rest of a video games components. "Epic" games are often considered good because they have good "stories"; is that the only way? To have sharp writing? There are more to games than just story; Silent Hill 2 will show you how.
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Ratings
Graphics: A driven by artisans, the game looks deplorable; as intended.
Sound: A+ minimalist and effective. It's been a few weeks since I beat the game, and I can still hear the echoes of it from time to time.
Gameplay: C the physical act of control is merely serviceable. But that's not the point.
Replayability: C multiple endings; the Xbox and PS2 rerelease have expanded content, and there are multiple endings. Playing it again would be a disservice to what Silent Hill 2 is, however.
OVERALL: A a game whose lessons are only now coming into view among some developers. Experience the inspiration for yourself.
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Inspired by PhoenixGamma.
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