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''[[Silent Hill 4: The Room]]'' makes multiple allusions to ''Silent Hill 2''. The main antagonist of the game, Walter Sullivan, was originally mentioned in a newspaper clipping James finds in the apartment complex, and one of the rituals the character carries out involves the usage of the items required for the "Rebirth" ending. James' father, Frank, is also featured in a small role as a building superintendent, and the game's protagonist Henry mentions that Frank's son and daughter-in-law disappeared in Silent Hill "a few years back." These statements would seem to suggest that after James killed Mary he went on the run, or may allude to the "In Water" ending sequence. Several of ''Silent Hill 2'''s endings involve James returning to the "real" world, but ''Silent Hill 4'' avoids specifying which of these was the [[canon (fiction)|canon]] ending by leaving James' current situation uncertain.
''[[Silent Hill 4: The Room]]'' makes multiple allusions to ''Silent Hill 2''. The main antagonist of the game, Walter Sullivan, was originally mentioned in a newspaper clipping James finds in the apartment complex, and one of the rituals the character carries out involves the usage of the items required for the "Rebirth" ending. James' father, Frank, is also featured in a small role as a building superintendent, and the game's protagonist Henry mentions that Frank's son and daughter-in-law disappeared in Silent Hill "a few years back." These statements would seem to suggest that after James killed Mary he went on the run, or may allude to the "In Water" ending sequence. Several of ''Silent Hill 2'''s endings involve James returning to the "real" world, but ''Silent Hill 4'' avoids specifying which of these was the [[canon (fiction)|canon]] ending by leaving James' current situation uncertain.

Screenshots for the upcoming Silent Hill arcade game also appear to depict Pyramid Head as an enemy.<ref>[http://kotaku.com/photogallery/silenthillthearcade/ Silent Hill: The Arcade]. Kotaku.com. Retrieved on 2007-19-2</ref>
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Revision as of 18:54, 19 February 2007

Silent Hill 2
North American cover art
Developer(s)KCET
Team Silent
Creature Labs (PC)
Publisher(s)Konami
Platform(s)PlayStation 2
Xbox
PC
ReleaseNA September 24, 2001
JP September 27, 2001
EU November 23, 2001
Genre(s)Survival horror/Psychological horror
Mode(s)Single player
For the upcoming Silent Hill film sequel see Silent Hill 2 (film)

Silent Hill 2 is the second installment in the Silent Hill survival horror series. The game was released in late 2001 on the Sony PlayStation 2 and was ported to the Microsoft Xbox and PC the following year.

While the game is staged in the series's namesake town, it is not a direct sequel to the events and characters of the first Silent Hill game, and is staged at an undetermined date between it and the third game.[1] This entry takes insight into a new character, James Sunderland, who enters the town after receiving a letter, apparently from his late wife Mary, saying she is waiting for him in their "special place" in the town.

The game received favorable reviews and was a commercial success. It has been followed by two sequels, with an additional two installments in the series in development.

Plot

Template:Spoiler

File:James sunderland mirror t2.jpg
James, Silent Hill 2's protagonist, in the opening cutscene.

At the beginning of the game the player is introduced to the main character, James Sunderland, who has come to Silent Hill after receiving a letter asking him to come from his wife, Mary, despite the fact that she had apparently died from an unnamed illness three years prior to his return. James enters the town, only to discover it is not the same, beautiful town from the Sunderlands' past. In addition to the strange, omnipresent fog, the whole town seems to be rotting away and abandoned. Bizarre, vaguely humanoid monsters are also wandering the streets, waiting to attack James. With his path to his first destination, the lakeside Rosewater Park, cut off, James enters an apartment complex to reach what he believes could be the "special place" Mary says she is in the letter.

Inside the complex James finds a young woman who had warned him of the town's bizarre nature, Angela, lying in one of the apartments with a knife, apparently suicidal. James persuades her to hand him the knife for her own safety, after which point she flees in panic. In another room James meets an obese young man called Eddie vomiting in one of the apartment toilets, who acts very defensively over questions regarding a corpse in a refrigerator in the same apartment. James also has a brief encounter with a young girl he later discovers to be called Laura who is apparently immune to the effects of the town and has an unexplained loathing of James, as well as knowing the identity of Mary. The most disturbing "person" he encounters, however, is the monster commonly referred to as the "Pyramid Head", a humanoid whose head is completely covered in a giant, metal, pyramid-shaped helmet that protects him against anything James will possess in his arsenal in the game, whom James encounters twice inside the complex.

When James finally reaches Rosewater Park, he meets a woman who is a dead ringer to Mary, but with a more provocative wardrobe and attitude who calls herself Maria. During the game, she shows inexplicable insight into matters that only he or Mary would know, and acts in a very seductive manner towards James. Maria accompanies James in his attempt to reach his second suspected "special place": the Lakeview Hotel. On their way, however, Maria claims to see Laura, and out of concern for her she has James try to reach the girl. Their pursuit ends in the Brookhaven Hospital, where James finds Laura, but becomes angry at her for claiming to have known Mary for the past year, in clear contradictions with his belief that she has been dead for three years. Laura responds by, under the pretense of asking him to look for another letter from Mary, locking him in a room filled with covered monsters stuffed in hanging cages. After they are defeated, the hospital undergoes a sudden, dramatic change, and James and Maria attempt to flee. "Pyramid Head", however, gives chase, and kills Maria while they make their escape to an elevator. These failures drive James to refocus on his original task of finding Mary, but in finding the key to the hospital's door he is lead to the Silent Hill Historical Society.

The Historical Society ultimately becomes an exploration of two levels not noted on the town map: a disused prison and a labyrinth in which Pyramid Head apparently resides. In this level, James inexplicably finds Maria, who greets him with disillusions of Mary and provocations, alive and locked in a prison cell. He is unable to rescue her, however, before she is killed, presumably by Pyramid Head again. This level also provides revelations on why Angela and Eddie are in the town as well. A newspaper clipping implies that Angela killed her father, who abused her physically, mentally and sexually with the complicity of her mother. The player is required to save her from a monstrous representation of her father, but she is still inexplicably hostile towards James. Eddie is revealed through his own monologues to have snapped after years of verbal abuse by his peers, killed the dog of a football player and then shot the dog's owner in the leg as well. It becomes clear that upon his arrival in Silent Hill he has gone psychotic, seeing everyone as making fun of him, and he has resorted to killing everyone he encounters. He first attempts to explain away the path of bodies he has left, but ultimately he turns on James as well and must be killed as the level's boss. After this point, James seriously questions his perception of the events leading to his arrival in the town.

Finally, James takes a boat to the Lakeview Hotel, where he finds Laura once again. She gives him the letter she claimed to be seeking earlier, which states that Mary wanted to adopt the girl while confirming her claims of knowing her for the past year. The final truth is shown to James when he watches a tape he apparently left at the hotel on a previous visit, which shows him that he killed his terminally ill wife himself, smothering her with a pillow to stop both their suffering. Inexplicably, however, the radio James has been carrying to warn him of the approach of monsters sends a message in Mary's voice, asking for him to find her. James explores the rest of the hotel, which has undergone a transformation on the scale of the hospital. During this, the fate of Angela is revealed as James finds her ascending a burning staircase (which, according to the map, does not exist), unable to cope with her guilt any longer and apparently resigned to live in her hell for eternity.

The climax of the game approaches as James finds another inexplicably resurrected Maria, who is promptly killed by two Pyramid Head monsters. James comes to the conclusion that Maria is nothing more than a delusion created by the town and his mind, a hallucination based on what he wanted Mary to be. James must now fight the two Pyramid Heads, who are still apparently immune from James' attacks but will, after taking enough hits from his weapons, kill themselves with their own spears. They are then revealed to carry the keys to a large metallic complex, where James finds a woman dressed as Mary and the final fight of the game takes place.

Endings

Template:Solution While it has multiple endings determined by the player's actions, like the other games in the series, Silent Hill 2 doesn't have a canonized ending. The fourth installment of the series reveals that James and Mary never returned from their trip to Silent Hill, but the circumstances of their failure to return are not specified. Official statements from Konami have kept the canonicity of the ending ambiguous, with statements essentially saying that any and all of the endings can be considered "real" depending on the player's actions and interpretation of the story.[2][3] The final version of the game has a total of six possible endings; three which can be achieved on the first playing, and three enabled by acquiring new items on replays.

In the "Leave" and "In Water" endings, the woman in the room is Maria once again, making a final attempt to get James to take her. James rebuffs her, however, and she turns into a monster similar to the hanging monsters in the hospital, becoming the final boss. Upon her defeat, James will either leave the town with Laura in tow after being granted a final meeting with a dying Mary, shown in "Leave", or kill himself after Mary dies before he can properly make peace with her, as shown in "In Water". A replay ending entitled "Rebirth" will also have James kill Maria, but afterwards he will then attempt to use new objects collected in the game to revive Mary, with an unknown result.

The "Maria" ending, however, is radically different from these three. If the player spends too much time with Maria, the woman in the room will be Mary, who has apparently not forgiven James for killing her. She will then turn into the final boss as the same monster Maria becomes, and after her defeat James dismisses her as being just another hallucination. He then discovers Maria, inexplicably resurrected again, and leaves town with her. As they leave, however, Maria starts coughing, implying she has the illness Mary suffered from and the events that drove James to the town may repeat themselves.

There are also two joke endings available on replays. The first, "DOG", ends with James discovering beyond a normally locked door a Shiba Inu which has apparently been controlling all the events of the game from a large computer console. The second, "UFO", is a continuation of the UFO ending of the first game added in the Xbox port/Director's version in which James is abducted by a group of aliens with the first game's protagonist, Harry Mason. Template:Endspoiler

Gameplay

The game is shown from a third person perspective, with various camera angles for different areas of the map in contrast to simply always having the player view the game from behind the back of the playable character. The main screen does not feature a heads-up display, and consequently information on ammunition and health can only be checked by pausing to view the item menu screen. There is also no mini-map, and consequently maps have to be checked through a separate function. Maps must be collected throughout the game like other items, and can only be read if there is sufficient light or when the flashlight James finds is working. James will update relevant maps to reflect locked doors, obstructions and notes on other maps, and during the labyrinth will actually draw a new map himself while the level is being navigated. James will also write down the content of all documents in a notebook for future reference.

Much of gameplay consists of navigating the town, with less focus on killing enemies and more on finding keys or other items to bypass doors or other obstructions. Occasionally puzzles will be presented to the player to bypass the obstructions, often with riddles left for the player to interpret the solution. The difficulty levels of the enemies and the puzzles are determined independently, giving players the option of having weak enemies while being faced with extremely cryptic riddles or vice-versa.

Like the original game, James keeps a radio with him which alerts him to the presence of creatures by emitting static, allowing him to detect hostiles even through the thick fog. There are a total of six weapons available, three melee weapons and three firearms, with another two being unlocked during replays. While combat is not necessarily the focus of the game there are six boss fights: two encounters with Pyramid Head, the hanging creatures in the hospital, the large "Abstract Daddy", Eddie and the final Mary/Maria monster. All enemies use short ranged attacks with the exception of Eddie, who is armed with a gun, and the Mary monster, which can launch a swarm of black moth-like creatures at James.

Releases

Silent Hill 2 was first released for PlayStation 2 in late 2001. The original European edition also included a second disc: a "Making-of" DVD video featuring trailers, an artwork gallery and a documentary on the title's development.[4]

In late 2002, Silent Hill 2 was ported to the PC and Xbox, and were released on December 2 and October 4, respectively.[5][6] Each region had a different subtitle; the Xbox port was subtitled Saigo no uta (最期の唄, Last Song) in Japan, Restless Dreams in North America, and Inner Fears in Europe.[7][8] The ports also contained additional material. James' scenario was given a sixth ending and an additional sub-scenario titled "Born from a Wish" was included. This mini-game is shown from the perspective of Maria, which explains her background before she met James in the main game.

This revised version of the game was ported back to the PS2 and PC and billed as a director's cut under both the "Greatest Hits" and "Platinum" labels depending on location.[7][9]

PC Release

The PC Port of Silent Hill 2 was released December 31, 2002, ported to PC by Creature Labs and published by Konami.[10] The PC Edition is equivilent to the "Restless Dreams" or "Inner Fears" editions of the game, including the Maria scenario and the extra ending. The port generally recieved worse reviews due to its controls, which were keyboard only, lacking mouse support, although the game had support for a USB controller. Other added features included the ability to save anywhere, quicksave and quickload, and a movie menu to view trailers for Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3, as well as any ingame movie once seen by the player.[11] The PC port is a labelled with a NVIDIA "The way it's meant to be played" label, meaning it is optimised for NVIDIA video cards.

Reaction

Reaction to the game was generally favorable. Game Rankings gives Silent Hill 2 an average rating of 86% for the original PS2 version[12] while giving the expanded Restless Dreams version 82% on Xbox[13] and 90% on PS2.[14] MetaCritic gave the original PS2 version an average rating of 89%,[15] and an average of 84% for the expanded Xbox version.[16] GameSpot UK gave the PS2 and Xbox versions ratings of 7.7[17] and 7.9[18] out of 10 respectively. A review by IGN for the original PS2 version praised it as "a damn scary game, entirely worth every last cent."[19]

The PC ports typically were given lower ratings than the other consoles. The original PC port holds a rating of 72% on Game Rankings[20] while the expanded version holds a rating of 6.2[21] at GameSpot, with the score lowered by the categories of "Gameplay" and "Tilt" (the latter category being an abbreviation of "Reviewer's Tilt" and apparently directed at other criteria including the plot.)[22] A 2003 review on GameSpy claimed that some of the problems with the PC port came from the difficulty in controlling the character, especially when some of the more unusual camera angles were used.[23] A similar point was made by another IGN reviewer in December 2002, suggesting that "Keyboard play is possible, but not advised."[24]

By the end of October 2001, Konami had announced that over a million copies of Silent Hill had been sold.[25] Since then, Silent Hill 2 has also been re-released as a Greatest Hits game[26]

In 2006, G4TV's X-Play declared Silent Hill 2 the "Scariest Console Game of All Time".[27]

Sequels

As of 2007, there have been two sequels, and another sequel has been planned.

Additionally, a prequel is planned for the PlayStation Portable.

Influences and design

See also: Silent Hill influences and trivia

The atmosphere of the game is for the most part similar to the first game, including the abandoned and/or decomposing look of the town and the persistent fog obscuring the streets, but it has been given a more psychological twist. One example of this is James' letter from Mary progressively disappears during the game, hinting, as Konami later confirmed, that the letter was not real and merely another part of James' hallucinations.[28] The implication is that, as James slowly began to understand what he did, the illusions of the town begin to disappear. This could also be the explanation for the transformation of the hotel, as when James enters it is mostly intact, but after he sees the videotape he finds it reverts to its true form of a mostly burned-out structure.[29] Other acknowledged attempts to induce a psychological influence on the game include placing Mary's dress in the room where James discovers the flashlight and modelling at least one dead body in the town after James.[30]

The monsters in the game, as well as being more humanoid in design than their counterparts in the preceding game, are acknowledged to have been, for the most part, designed as a reflection of James` own subconscious.[31] At least two creatures, the "Mannequin" and "Bubblehead nurse" are acknowledged to have been created with sexual suggestion in mind, a reflection of James` desires and likely sexual deprivation during Mary's illness.[31][30] Pyramid Head is acknowledged to have been based on the executioners of the town's fictional history and is intended to be a punisher for James.[31] Two exceptions to this theme are the "Abstract Daddy", a reflection of the subconscious and memories of Angela, and the "creepers", which were borrowed from the first game.[31]

Silent Hill 2 also incorporates some references to real life events. The creators have said that the name "Mary" came from Mary Ann Nichols, Jack the Ripper's first victim.[28] UK Resistance has claimed that Maria's outfit was copied from Christina Aguilera's appearance at the 1999 Teen Choice Awards.[32] Prior to the game's release, there were also allegations that the layout of Silent Hill had been based on the town of San Bruno, California.[33][34]

Connections to other media

Games

Template:Spoiler Silent Hill 3 contains several references to the previous game. In one scene, Heather (the protagonist) discovers something lodged in a toilet, similar to James' discovery. While James can reach in and fish it out, Heather ultimately refuses, turns to the camera, and wonders what sort of person would actually do that.[35] The UFO ending for Silent Hill 3 also features James with Harry Mason (the protagonist of Silent Hill) after his abduction following the Silent Hill 2 UFO ending.

Silent Hill 4: The Room makes multiple allusions to Silent Hill 2. The main antagonist of the game, Walter Sullivan, was originally mentioned in a newspaper clipping James finds in the apartment complex, and one of the rituals the character carries out involves the usage of the items required for the "Rebirth" ending. James' father, Frank, is also featured in a small role as a building superintendent, and the game's protagonist Henry mentions that Frank's son and daughter-in-law disappeared in Silent Hill "a few years back." These statements would seem to suggest that after James killed Mary he went on the run, or may allude to the "In Water" ending sequence. Several of Silent Hill 2's endings involve James returning to the "real" world, but Silent Hill 4 avoids specifying which of these was the canon ending by leaving James' current situation uncertain.

Screenshots for the upcoming Silent Hill arcade game also appear to depict Pyramid Head as an enemy.[36] Template:Spoilerend

Film

The film adaptation of the first game features, among the creatures in the town, a modified version of Pyramid Head. In this appearance, his helmet has been redesigned with one less point than the original game version, and he has been manifested from the perspectives of the film's characters rather than that of James, as he does not appear in the film.[37]

It has been confirmed that a "Silent Hill 2" is being planned but it is unknown if it will be a continuation of the first film or an adaptation of the corresponding game.[38]

Music

Main article: Silent Hill 2 Original Soundtracks

The original soundtrack for Silent Hill 2, composed by Akira Yamaoka, was released in Japan on October 3, 2001.[39]

References

  1. ^ Book of Lost Memories (per Translated Memories translation). Konami, 2003. Pg 8-9, "Alessa's History".
  2. ^ Book of Lost Memories (per Translated Memories translation). Konami, 2003. Pg 50-51, "Silent Hill 2 Ending Analysys".
  3. ^ E3 2001: Silent Hill 2 Interview. IGN, 2001-5-17. Retrieved on 2007-1-21
  4. ^ Silent Hill 2 special edition in Europe. PS2Fantasy.com, 2001-11-6. Retrieved on 2007-1-23
  5. ^ Silent Hill 2 (pc:2002) - Metacritic.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-31
  6. ^ Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams. Gamespot UK. Retrieved on 2006-12-31
  7. ^ a b Silent Hill 2: Greatest Hits - IGN.com
  8. ^ Reed, Kristin. Review - Silent Hill 2: Inner Fears. Eurogamer, 2002-10-2.
  9. ^ uk.Playstation.com - News and Features - "Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut offers cheap chills". 2003-1-14.
  10. ^ http://videogames.yahoo.com/browsegames_developer?developer=Creature%20Labs%20Ltd.&page=0
  11. ^ http://www.actiontrip.com/reviews/silenthill2innerfears.phtml
  12. ^ Silent Hill 2 - PS2. GameRankings.com. Retrieved on 2007-1-20.
  13. ^ Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams - XBOX. GameRankings.com. Retrieved on 2007-1-20.
  14. ^ Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams - PS2. GameRankings.com. Retrieved on 2007-1-20.
  15. ^ Silent Hill 2 - PS2. Metacritic.com. Retrieved on 2007-2-7
  16. ^ Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams - Xbox. Metacritic.com. Retrieved on 2007-2-7
  17. ^ Playstation 2 - Silent Hill 2 - Reviews. Uk.gamespot.com. Retrieved on 2007-1-21.
  18. ^ Xbox - Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams - Reviews. Uk.gamespot.com. Retrieved on 2007-1-21.
  19. ^ Perry, Doug. Silent Hill 2. IGN, 2001-9-25. Retrieved on 2007-1-26
  20. ^ Silent Hill 2 - PC. GameRankings.com. Retrieved on 2007-1-20.
  21. ^ PC - Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut - Reviews. Uk.gamespot.com. Retrieved on 2007-1-21.
  22. ^ Gamespot's Rating System. Retrieved on 2007-1-25.
  23. ^ Silent Hill 2 (PC). GameSpy.com Review, 2003-6-26. Retrieved on 2007-1-20
  24. ^ Sulic, Ivan. Silent Hill 2 Review. IGN, 2002-12-3. Retrieved on 2007-1-26
  25. ^ "Silent Hill 2 Cracks Million Mark". IGN, 2001-10-31. Retrieved on 2007-1-23.
  26. ^ Playstation 2 Greatest Hits. Playstation.com. Retrieved on 2007-1-21.
  27. ^ X-Play: Top 10 Scariest Games. DivX: Stage 6.
  28. ^ a b Book of Lost Memories (per Translated Memories translation). Konami, 2003. Pg 46-47, "Silent Hill 2 Character Commentary".
  29. ^ Book of Lost Memories (per Translated Memories translation). Konami, 2003. Pg 4-5, "Silent Hill Area Map"
  30. ^ a b Silent Hill 2 making of DVD. 2001
  31. ^ a b c d Book of Lost Memories (per Translated Memories translation). Konami, 2003. Pg 48-49, "Silent Hill 2 Creature Commentary".
  32. ^ "Silent Hill 2's Christina Aguilera Copying Shame". UK Resistance. June 18, 2005. Retrieved on 2006-12-28
  33. ^ Silent Hill: Too Close to Home? IGN, 2001-5-11. Retrieved on 2007-1-31.
  34. ^ Letter from Silent Heaven. Retrieved on 2007-2-09.
  35. ^ Trivia for Silent Hill 3. IMDB. Retrieved on 2007-1-21.
  36. ^ Silent Hill: The Arcade. Kotaku.com. Retrieved on 2007-19-2
  37. ^ On The Red Pyramid, Carol Spier as Production Designer, and Exploring Society in Horror Films. Sonypictures.com, 2006-4-6. Retrieved on 2007-1-25
  38. ^ Boyes, Emma. "Silent Hill 2 movie confirmed". GameSpot UK. December 29, 2006. Retrieved January 25, 2007.
  39. ^ Silent Hill 2. Soundtrack Collector. Retrieved on 2007-1-23
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