James Sunderland is just not going to outlive this.
By the tip of his journey via Silent Hill, every part will likely be chaos – his thoughts and even the world round him, a violent cacophony of anguish.
However to start with, it’s silent. The type of quiet that’s deafening, the place you hear your pulse in your ears, and each tiny sound turns into the worst factor you may think about.
Contains spoilers for Silent Hill 2
The opening hour of Silent Hill 2 is – with out query – the scariest factor I’ve ever performed. Which, taken at face worth, might sound a bit ridiculous. Your purpose is just to navigate James via a dilapidated condo constructing. At most, you’ll face 10 enemies all through the constructing’s three flooring, however they hardly pose a menace; they’re simply prevented or killed. Gameplay primarily consists of strolling as much as every door within the constructing and making an attempt to enter; most of the time, they’re locked. There’s a boss battle on the finish, nevertheless it’s on a timer; you may simply run round till it ends. It’s tedious by design.
And but, it’s that rattling silence that wears on you as a participant. The vacuum of sound leaves sufficient room that you simply begin to think about listening to issues – or worse, the sport has random sound results that mess with you, reminiscent of whispers in rooms which will or could not play, relying in your playthrough.
Inside this silence, I began to develop into my worst enemy. James’ footsteps seemed like anvils falling on the picket flooring. I imagined he was strolling too loudly. That somebody would hear him and are available after us – a mechanic that doesn’t really exist within the recreation. Within the moments Silent Hill 2 decides to interrupt the silence – whether or not by way of the sport’s rating or, heaven forbid, a monster’s footsteps or cry- I used to be so on edge that I might usually pause the sport after which work to construct up the braveness to proceed.
Visually, the sport performs related methods. For one, the condo is capital-D Darkish. You’ve a flashlight, however past that slender cone of illumination, the remainder of the hallways would possibly as effectively be the countless abyss of outer house. Seeing the faint actions of a monster proper past the sunshine’s cone of imaginative and prescient, simply barely discernable, is sufficient to make my blood run chilly. That this isn’t taking place repeatedly – it’s a recreation with a whole lot of downtime in comparison with, say, Resident Evil – makes every time there’s something in the dead of night all of the scarier.
After all, the residences are filled with very overt, graphic visible scares; for instance, Silent Hill mainstay Pyramid Head’s introduction is right here. The scene is so horrific that I can’t describe it in a family-friendly journal. However the normalcy of those residences is the scariest ingredient of your entire recreation.
One of the simplest ways to consider the gameplay in Silent Hill 2 is to know that it’s, in reality, the narrative; the world is a visible illustration of James’ psychological well-being or lack thereof. By the ultimate third, the world has wholly fractured; the structure and degree format now not make sense, because it mirrors James’ guilt.
However to start with, in these residences, James remains to be considerably oblivious to why he’s in Silent Hill. As such, the condo format is sensible. It appears like an condo constructing you lived in sooner or later. Architecturally, there are few surprises. However the lack of humanity makes the entire thing really feel flawed.
Let’s return to the silence. Think about strolling down a hallway in any condo constructing – what do you hear? Televisions, folks speaking, the sounds of transferring round past the doorways. You hear life. If you take away these sounds we’re accustomed to, when a spot synonymous with being full of individuals instantly has its humanity taken away, it now not is sensible to our brains. You don’t want 100 monsters to make this condo scary. All you want is the eerie void of humanity. It’s the identical motive it’s scary to be inside your work workplace alone – this house wasn’t constructed to be empty. And when Silent Hill 2 lastly decides to interrupt that silence with an precise scare, your nerves are already so frayed that it barely has to do something to interrupt you fully.
It’s, actually, a masterclass of horror, working on a number of ranges to place you, the participant, on edge. Most significantly, it’s refined. Many horror video games – Useless Area and Resident Evil are prime examples – function on excessiveness. That method is just scary to a degree. I’ve at all times thought the scariest elements of these video games had been the primary half-hour after which no second after. Quite the opposite, Silent Hill 2 makes you wallow in silence and dread in order that by the point it lastly breaks in its closing third, and the entire thing turns into a cacophonous nightmare, the sound is overwhelming. It by no means gave you a second to get used to its scares, so when it turns to extra, you’re not ready, accustomed, or jaded by it.
Silent Hill 2 is basically inaccessible now – no less than via authorized means. You possibly can play the HD remaster, however technical points have precipitated the fanbase to largely disregard it. Unique copies can price upwards of $150. However I genuinely can’t advocate it sufficient if you may get your fingers on it. There’s actually nothing else prefer it. Bloober Crew, developer of Layers of Worry, The Medium, and so forth, is growing a remake. There’s loads of motive to be cautious; the developer has a nasty historical past of dealing with delicate tales, and Silent Hill 2 is filled with troubling themes that require a cautious hand. However, at any time when that’s launched, hopefully, it can provide new gamers a glimpse of the unique’s horror.
Simply don’t lose your self within the silence.
This text initially appeared in Challenge 360 of Sport Informer