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Silent Hill 2

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Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 2
Developer(s)Konami
Team Silent
Publisher(s)KCET
Platform(s)PlayStation 2
XBox
PC
ReleaseSeptember 27, 2001 (JP)
September 24, 2001 (USA)
November 23, 2001 (EU)
Genre(s)Survival horror
Mode(s)Single player

Silent Hill 2 is the second installment in the survival horror series. The game was released in North America on September 24, 2001, Japan on September 27, 2001, and in Europe on November 23, 2001. It was first released on the Sony PlayStation 2 and was later ported to the Microsoft Xbox and PC.

Synopsis

Template:Spoilers James Sunderland receives a letter from his late wife Mary who passed away three years ago. She says that she is waiting for him in their "Special Place," the quiet, peaceful resort town of Silent Hill. Though he knows his wife died of a deadly disease three years ago, he misses her and is desperate to see her again. When he arrives in town, he sees that it's different than when he and his wife used to go there. It's shrouded in fog and it seems to be abandoned. Strange creatures and inhuman forms lurk within the depths of the fog and he begins to question his state of mind. As he continues through the twisted world of Silent Hill, he meets up with a few other characters who have been called to the town just like he has. He slowly realizes that they are all connected in some sort of way. In the end, during his search for Mary, he discovers the real reason he came to Silent Hill.

Full Plot

Template:Spoilers James Sunderland and his wife Mary are a young, happy couple. Years earlier for their honeymoon, James took Mary to the quiet, peaceful resort town of Silent Hill. The couple returned many times, and the town became their "special place"; a place they could share their love for each other. But sadly this happiness did not last. Mary was diagnosed with a deadly, rare disease and had no hope of recovery. The reality of her terminal illness hit them both very hard. Eventually, Mary became so ill that she had to remain at the hospital. While she suffered, James did as well.

Three years pass and Mary's condition only gets worse. James slowly drowns in his sorrow until, one day, it becomes too painful and he smothers Mary with a pillow, ending her pain. He puts her body in the trunk of his car and heads to Silent Hill to commit suicide. Then, they can be together and happy once again.

On the trip to Silent Hill, James becomes disgusted by what he has just done to Mary. In the car, his mind snaps and he loses touch with his painful reality. By the time he reaches the outskirts of Silent Hill, he has completely forgotten that he murdered Mary. Instead, he convinces himself that his wife has sent for him and that now he must find her. Oddly, Silent Hill is not the same town from the Sunderlands' past. In addition to the strange, omnipresent fog, the whole town seems to be abandoned. Soon, James discovers strange creatures are roaming the streets. It seems that before he had even reached the town, he had been drawn into another dimension (a sort of self-induced purgatory), so that he could be punished for what he had done. The demons he must now face in Silent Hill represent the personal demons of his character. While searching for his wife in his deranged state of mind, James meets others who were called to the town just as he was. -A mysterious woman named Angela who, he later discovers, murdered her sexually abusive father (she later commits suicide) -a young troubled man named Eddie, who shot a high school jock who used to bully him, and then killed his dog out of anger. (James is later forced to kill him) -a little girl named Laura, who knew Mary and had met her in hospital. -a woman named Maria, who, though she has a different personality and hair style, resembls Mary to an almost impossible extent.

Strangly, Maria knows things about James that only Mary would know and, coincidentally, is never around when James happens to bump into another person in the town. It's as if he is the only person she ever comes in contact with. While on his search for Mary, Maria is killed. This causes James to suffer the same grief and sadness as when Mary fell ill. But later on he meets up with Maria again, and she acts as if nothing has ever happened to her. He's amazed that she's still alive, but sadly it happens again. She is killed. James is drawn deeper into his own purgatory until finally it hits him and he remembers the truth. He killed Mary. Maria later appear for a third time only to be killed again. Soon, everything becomes clear to James.

Maria wasn't real, she was imaginary. His grief and his desire to see Mary were so strong that he created Maria in his mind. In fact, many things including the monsters are a delusion. The letter that he recieved from Mary at the beginning of the game slowly dissapeared as he begins to uncover the truth.

During this revelation, he realizes that his tormenters (i.e. Pyramid Head) are no longer necessary (for more information, view article, Pyramid Head). Throughout the game, the actions of the player determine James' fate and whether he falls into damnation or rises to redemption.

Unlike the other games in the series, Silent Hill 2 doesn't have a canonized ending where one ending is given clear evidence as being the "true" ending over the others. The fourth installment of the series reveals James and Mary never return from their trip to Silent Hill, yet it's been pointed out that it is never clearly stated if this is because he didn't survive his trip to Silent Hill or if it is because he did survive and instead left to start a new life elsewhere with someone else. Therefore, its become accepted that the ending becomes less of a debate over which is the canonized ending and instead more of a factor of the personal interpretation of each individual player to determine what the "true" ending is for them.

File:Sh2restlessdreamscover.jpg
Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams for the XBox

Alternate Version

The Xbox version of the game, subtitled Restless Dreams (Inner Fears in Europe), featured an additional scenario where players controlled Maria. This level was included on the PlayStation 2 version when the "Greatest Hits" edition was released (known as the Platinum version in Europe, with the subtitle 'Director's Cut'). The title of the original scenario with James is called Letter from Silent Heaven. The one featuring Maria as the protagonist is named Born from a Wish. This scenario was also included in the Director's Cut version of the PC edition.

Silent Hill 2 does not have a direct narrative continuity to the first game, but shares locations with the third game, and a few allusions are made to it in Silent Hill 3. The fourth game expands upon some of the town's history as related herein, as well as introduces the character of Walter Sullivan, who previously was only mentioned.

Sequels

As of 2006 two sequel titles exist. Another is planned for the next generation PlayStation 3 console.

Influences and Trivia

Template:Spoilers

  • In Silent Hill 2, a sign mentioning Historic Route 26 is shown. In the United States, Route 26 is located in the western mountain area of Maine on the New Hampshire border. The scenic byway is unique in that it connects with a New Hampshire Scenic Byway and passes through Grafton Notch State Park.
  • One of the end songs in Silent Hill 2, "Angel's Thanatos," is a reference to the Freudian idea of Thanatos. It is the desire to give up life and return to non-existence. The song precedes the ending in which James Sunderland commits suicide.
  • The German opera Die tote Stadt very similarly contains a main character who laments after his dead wife, and encounters someone who looks exactly like her, and with only a slightly different name.
  • Silent Hill 2 has taken a lot of inspiration from David Lynch's films Lost Highway and Blue Velvet. In Lost Highway the main character kills his wife but does not realize he has until he watches the murder in a VHS that is left in front of his house. After the killing in the movie, the same actress that plays the wife appears, but with blonde hair instead of black, similar to the duality of Mary and Maria. The presence of a mysterious creepy man mirrors Pyramid Head's character as well. The scene in which James is hidden in a wardrobe and sees the disgusting sexual situation between Pyramid Head and two mannequins resembles a scene from Blue Velvet. Is the one in which Jeffrey Beaumont is hidden in a wardrobe and is witness to a disturbing rape.
  • Maria appears to be designed after Christina Aguilera during the 1999 Teen Choice Awards, the image can be seen here.

Endings

Template:Spoilers

  • Leave: This ending in the game is acquired by the player and James essentially showing a will to live (healing injuries quickly, etc.), and showing remorse for your actions and a dedication to finding Mary (constantly examining Mary's picture, ignoring Maria, etc.). After the final battle with the demon Maria, James is seen with his wife Mary at her bedside, Mary forgives James and they have one last heartfelt goodbye. He is then shown leaving the town, tracing a path through the graveyard with Laura, while Mary's full letter is read aloud in which she says that James made her happy and he should move on with his life. This ending implies that James really loved Mary despite the pain brought by her severe illness, and has enacted her wish in adopting Laura. This is supposedly the 'best' ending as James has learned from his mistakes and has carried out Mary's final wish of adopting Laura and leaving to start a new life.
  • Maria: To get this ending, the player must make James seem rather attached to Maria, and not Mary. This includes checking up on Maria constantly and not letting her get hurt much. It also involves completely ignoring Mary's speech near the end. After the game is complete James is seen leaving Silent Hill with Maria, but Maria pauses to cough a few times, suggesting that James has learned nothing from his experiences in Silent Hill and that the whole thing might happen again someday when Maria's sickness gets worse.
  • In Water: After examining Angela's knife often and spending long periods of time with low health, the In Water ending is activated. In this ending James carries Mary's body out to his car and drives into the lake, killing himself.
  • Rebirth: After completing the game once, new items appear in various locations. These items are called: White Chrism, Book Of Lost Memories, Obsidian Goblet, Book of Crimson Ceremony. Once you obtain all of these items and beat the game it will activate this ending. In it, James rows to the center of Toluca lake, to what appears to be a church, and the screen blacks out with a voice-over of James talking about "the old gods" still being alive. It is speculated that he performs The Crimson Ceremony to try to bring Mary back to life.
  • UFO: Just like the first Silent Hill game, the second has a UFO ending as well (this is only included in the 'alternate version' of the game detailed above). After completing a task similar to the one required of the first game's UFO ending, a UFO lands in front of James and, not only do aliens come out, but the first game's protagonist, Harry Mason, does as well. Harry and James swap questions about their lost loved ones and James is zapped and taken aboard the spacecraft. This ending is set up as a grainey black and white silent film. Dialogue is set up using intertitles and the sound is slow to react to the action, suggesting a live performance (such was the tradition of the silent film).
  • "DOG": After completing the game at least once, a Dog Key item becomes available. If you obtain this key, it can be used to unlock a particular room in the final area of the game. Inside is a small dog standing on a stool at a kitschy computer console. James drops to his knees in anguish and exclaims, "So you're behind all this!" in Japanese. The dog then comes over and licks his face. A song consisting of pitched dog barks plays as the credits roll, accompanied by various humorous images of the game's characters, including a picture of maria in lingerie, complete with a sexual moan at the end.
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