Do you easily get scared by shadows in the night? Then you'll piss your pants when playing this game.
Graphics: 10/10
After playing this game, you'll probably wonder how does Konami manage to bring out the best out in the PS2 so easily: The graphics are gorgeous.
The reflections and smooth surfaces are so well done that you will NEVER fell like there is no AA present. The character models are nearly photocopied, they all look beautiful with great animation, facial expressions and all the works.
The environments you travel through are painfully created with a ton of detail. Rooms are full of all kinds of discarded material, walls are sprayed with blood, doors are blocked off from the world, etc.
Graphically this game is simply beautiful.
Sound: 8/10
Voice acting is absolutely hit and miss. Some of the actors do a great job but the actor for your main character and that of his partner do a horrible job about 50% of the time.
Ambient sounds are well made, but nothing special. There is a radio that emits static any time you’re around monsters and helps you with their location, again, nothing special.
The music on the other hand... The music in this game beats that of all the REs combined. There are some genially composed pieces (especially during the ending parts of the game) that make you feel like your watching a movie.
Gameplay: 8/10
First, the background story. You play as James Sutherland. He receives a letter from his wife, who died 3 years ago. She says that he should search for her in Silent Hill, a beautiful resort. James does so, and hell swallows him up in the hellhole known as Silent Hill. From here on you solve puzzles, kill monsters, and uncover the story and characters one more disturbed then the other.
Get ready for some religious philosophies and questions about death and sanity because the game is pretty much littered with them. Which is what makes this game so great: These characters act like they truly are about to die, they ask age-old question, they fear their end, they’re all so believable you won't be take out of the action for even one minute.
Other than that though, what makes SH2 scary and disturbing? Well, many things.
First off, the use of the flashlight, perhaps the best implementation of such an object ever in a game, is purely genius. Lighting up your path a mere few feet ahead of you, not being able to see what’s over there through the dense fog but still knowing full well something's there since you can hear the static from your radio. Makes you wonder if you should go on, or just take out your gun a fire a few bullets? What if those bullets are going to cost you your life later on? Oh yeah, all of that from a flashlight.
The environments are also absolutely amazing.
You will go from walking on streets filled with the ominous fog, to all kinds of shops, hotels and other deserted buildings among many others. All of this in environments with a ton of detail given to absolutely every wall and corner. Another absolutely amazing chill will go down your spine as you read clues or slowly walk through haunted hotels, hospitals and mansions.
The monsters also help the scare factor greatly. Hearing the static and not knowing what kind of freak of nature you will encounter out side or behind that door makes your hands cold as they grip the controller ever so tighter. It could be a mammoth or just some coach roaches, who knows, you open the door and… BOOM!! The room is an empty basin of blood or just a room with nothing but butterflies in it. On the other hand, you may also find yourself opening the door to find some kind of freak of nature and instead you get a manechin that walks upside down? What the hell Konami? All those scares so that I can see some half-naked doll? The monster designs are hit and miss but the way they’re built into the game makes all the difference here.
Make no mistake, this game is scary, disturbing and surprising. However, it suffers from a flaw that destroys that experience halfway through the game.
After finishing the first 2/5ths of the game you’ll soon realize that all of those scares I just described disappear. You begin realizing that you’re using a pipe while you already have about 300 pistol bullets, 160 shotgun bullets, and another 200 rifle bullets for a weapon you haven't even found yet, and I don't know about you, but when I have weapons, ammo and health and when I can obliterate anything with those weapons my scare factor just goes from 100 to 10.
This is SH2s biggest flaw. After the first half of the game it becomes more of an action game with bad controls than a survival horror titles, even if you’re on higher difficulties. Now don't get me wrong, SH2 still keeps its disturbing tone throughout, it's just that it loses most of its actual scare factor.
As for the actual gameplay, well, as almost all survival horrors are, this one too is a clone of RE; bad controls and all. You use the R2 button to raise your weapon up, the X to shoot, and you can use either your analog sticks (though with horrible results as far as I was concerned) or the D-Pad to move around. Of course, you get all the ridiculous puzzles, but most of the puzzles do fit the tone of the game. Certainly the puzzles are not as far out as most of the puzzles in Resident Evil. How the hell are you suppose to get to the bathroom anyway if you live in Raccoon City?
Combat and weapons are split equally between melee and long range. Bosses are disturbingly grotesque and very well made, but WAY they’re way too easy, even on higher difficulties.
Weapons include rifles, pistols, blades, pipes, etc. Also, unlike in Resident Evil you don't have either a box or limited inventory space you just keep everything with you. Trust me, it's a whole lot better then going to the box, though that too, kills a little bit more of the scare factor. The number of monsters itself isn't as big as in RE (at least not as far as I noticed) but, as a counter-measure, most monsters can't be taken down by 3-4 gun bullets.
The game also has 6 endings, and another extra scenario. Not bad for a survival horror game.
Multiplay: N/A
None
Overall: 7/10
This game suffers from the worst of curses: It looses its core attraction, scares, halfway through the game. Now, as I said, this game is truly disturbing until the end it's just that it loses most of its scares and difficulty halfway through.
Make no mistake though, if you want a game that is a blast to play and an OK scare with huge amounts of life scarring material, Silent Hill 2 is just the game for you. Just make sure you pick up the Greatest Hits version since you get the extra scenario with it.