I have been a long time fan of the Silent Hill Series, ever since I got it for Christmas from my Aunt, in 1999. My mother was upset about the fact that shooting dogs was a part of the game. (big surprise) I got my PS2 in July of 2002, and the first game I grabbed from the shelf (without looking, I might add) was..YEP! Silent Hill 2. I thought, "Whoa, they've got a second one out? This I gotta get!" I literally dropped the copies of Midnight Club Racing and Gran Turismo 3 I had in my right hand, and checked out. I got home, and I played it up to the point where I fought Pyramid Head, where he gave me my "split" personality. (LOL) Anyways, after many hours, heading well into 2:00 am, I finally made the freak go away!
The sound quality is just AMAZING! Surround Sound just increases the good-quality..ness. The sound of odd voices over the radio you got, and the groans of things in the mist ahead, just totally psyched me out. You hear sounds from all around, and usually, there is so much noise, you don't know where anything is coming at you from.
This is what I love in a horror/survival game. That feeling of panic that just beats the hell out of your mind. This game plays many psychological tricks that even Charlie Manson could never dream of. The sound of distant footsteps that aren't really there, the breaking of glass, even though there is nothing causing it; that part in the apartment building where you see that thing behind the bars your first time around the place, then later, you don't see it anymore.
The main character is a piece of work, too. His recieving a letter from his dead wife leads him to Silent Hill, even though his wife has been dead 3 years, the same amount of time that Harry Mason's (from SH1) wife had been dead. (WEIRD) Those cars from the eighties look superb. The environments are cool as well, from dirty bathrooms, to buildings boarded up by some schmuck with a shopping cart, a gun, and a room that looks like a Matrix stunt gone horribly WRONG, endless holes and doors with hands in them, dilapidated old buildings that like a bomb went off in them, rusted gates and rooms full of bugs, a bowling alley with a fat guy eating a hot pizza (unusual.seeing as THERE'S NO POWER!!!), and other places that could give the Merry Maids nightmares for a week!
This game is so incredibly gory and icky and evil, that it could send the local convent into a tailspin. (God, am I witty or what?) But overall, this game is good. I suppose Silent Hill 3 is going to whoop some rump as well, seeing as I have already pre-ordered it.
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