Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams (Xbox)
Silent Hill 2 is a creepy, psychology-driven survival horror game in which you play James, a guy who’s looking for his lost wife. (No points for originality on this one, as the original involved a guy who was looking for his lost daughter.) I say psychology-driven, because you really need a degree in psychology to understand what the hell’s going on here. Every monster you fight is some manifestation of his subconscious, and the endings are extremely abstract and obtuse. I don’t know, I never took psychology in college. Of course, I never graduated, either.
On the subject of gameplay, the game eschews the survival horror trappings of tank controls and fixed camera angles, making the town’s gibbering inhabitants easier to deal with -- almost too easy, in fact, because since I was always flush with ampoules of health medicine and ammunition for the various firearms you pick up, I was never in any serious danger. Danger is an important part of survival horror; you know, the survival part?
Now, as an aside, I play games on the easiest setting. I do this because I’m not a hardcore gamer, nor am I a masochist; I just want to have fun. Sometimes, however, the developers make the easy setting a little too easy – a few challenges never killed anyone. I think they did that here.
The design, however, is wonderful. The town looks so disgusting, corroded, and decaying, it sets the atmosphere perfectly. The difficulty on the puzzles can be selected to be easy or hard, and since I chose easy, they wouldn’t make a mentally deficient caterpillar scratch its head twice. This I don’t mind – I’m playing Silent Hill, not a Dreamcatcher game.
Finally, this game is short. I think it took me about ten hours to beat. And most of those involved trying every single door in every single building, which is the most annoying and tedious part of this game. If there’s one thing the town of Silent Hill needs, it’s a locksmith. Whenever some poor soul gets sucked into the demonic town, the first thing they learn is that 90% of the doors in the town have broken locks or otherwise won’t open. Regardless, it’s an enjoyably creepy experience that relies on atmosphere over cheap scares (I’m looking at you, Resident Evil).
3 out of 5
Silent Hill 2 is a creepy, psychology-driven survival horror game in which you play James, a guy who’s looking for his lost wife. (No points for originality on this one, as the original involved a guy who was looking for his lost daughter.) I say psychology-driven, because you really need a degree in psychology to understand what the hell’s going on here. Every monster you fight is some manifestation of his subconscious, and the endings are extremely abstract and obtuse. I don’t know, I never took psychology in college. Of course, I never graduated, either.
On the subject of gameplay, the game eschews the survival horror trappings of tank controls and fixed camera angles, making the town’s gibbering inhabitants easier to deal with -- almost too easy, in fact, because since I was always flush with ampoules of health medicine and ammunition for the various firearms you pick up, I was never in any serious danger. Danger is an important part of survival horror; you know, the survival part?
Now, as an aside, I play games on the easiest setting. I do this because I’m not a hardcore gamer, nor am I a masochist; I just want to have fun. Sometimes, however, the developers make the easy setting a little too easy – a few challenges never killed anyone. I think they did that here.
The design, however, is wonderful. The town looks so disgusting, corroded, and decaying, it sets the atmosphere perfectly. The difficulty on the puzzles can be selected to be easy or hard, and since I chose easy, they wouldn’t make a mentally deficient caterpillar scratch its head twice. This I don’t mind – I’m playing Silent Hill, not a Dreamcatcher game.
Finally, this game is short. I think it took me about ten hours to beat. And most of those involved trying every single door in every single building, which is the most annoying and tedious part of this game. If there’s one thing the town of Silent Hill needs, it’s a locksmith. Whenever some poor soul gets sucked into the demonic town, the first thing they learn is that 90% of the doors in the town have broken locks or otherwise won’t open. Regardless, it’s an enjoyably creepy experience that relies on atmosphere over cheap scares (I’m looking at you, Resident Evil).
3 out of 5
posted by Cole at
9:46 AM
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