James Sunderland is just not going to outlive this.
By the top of his journey via Silent Hill, all the pieces can be chaos – his thoughts and even the world round him, a violent cacophony of anguish.
But to start with, it’s silent. The form of quiet that’s deafening, the place you hear your pulse in your ears, and each tiny sound turns into the worst factor you’ll be able to think about.
Includes 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, may appear a bit ridiculous. Your aim is just to navigate James via a dilapidated house constructing. At most, you’ll face 10 enemies all through the constructing’s three flooring, however they hardly pose a menace; they’re simply averted 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’ll be able to 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, similar to whispers in rooms that will or could not play, relying in your playthrough.
(*2*)
Within this silence, I began to turn out to be my worst enemy. James’ footsteps gave the impression of 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. In 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 typically pause the sport after which work to construct up the braveness to proceed.
Visually, the sport performs comparable methods. For one, the house is capital-D Dark. You have a flashlight, however past that slender cone of illumination, the remainder of the hallways would possibly as properly be the countless abyss of outer area. 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 numerous downtime in comparison with, say, Resident Evil – makes every time there’s something at nighttime all of the scarier.
Of course, 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. But the normalcy of those residences is the scariest aspect of the complete recreation.
The greatest method to consider the gameplay in Silent Hill 2 is to know that it’s, in truth, 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 stage format now not make sense, because it mirrors James’ guilt.
But to start with, in these residences, James continues to be considerably oblivious to why he’s in Silent Hill. As such, the house format is smart. It seems like an house constructing you lived in sooner or later. Architecturally, there are few surprises. But the shortage of humanity makes the entire thing really feel fallacious.
Let’s return to the silence. Imagine strolling down a hallway in any house constructing – what do you hear? Televisions, individuals speaking, the sounds of shifting round past the doorways. You hear life. When you take away these sounds we’re accustomed to, when a spot synonymous with being full of individuals all of the sudden has its humanity taken away, it now not is smart to our brains. You don’t want 100 monsters to make this house scary. All you want is the eerie void of humanity. It’s the identical cause it’s scary to be inside your work workplace alone – this area 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 is, actually, a masterclass of horror, working on a number of ranges to place you, the participant, on edge. Most importantly, it’s refined. Many horror video games – Dead Space and Resident Evil are prime examples – function on excessiveness. That method is just scary to a degree. I’ve all the time thought the scariest components of these video games had been the primary half-hour after which no second after. On the opposite, Silent Hill 2 makes you wallow in silence and dread in order that by the point it lastly breaks in its last 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 can play the HD remaster, however technical points have brought on the fanbase to largely disregard it. Original copies can price upwards of $150. But I genuinely can’t suggest it sufficient if you will get your arms on it. There’s actually nothing else prefer it. Bloober Team, developer of Layers of Fear, The Medium, and so forth, is growing a remake. There’s loads of cause to be cautious; the developer has a nasty historical past of dealing with delicate tales, and Silent Hill 2 is stuffed with troubling themes that require a cautious hand. Nevertheless, every time that’s launched, hopefully, it can provide new gamers a glimpse of the unique’s horror.
Just don’t lose your self within the silence.
This article initially appeared in Issue 360 of Game Informer
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