Not as action-packed as other Silent Hills but still the best out of the bunch.
When I did I was blown away. The initial thing I noticed was the stunning visuals. Every frame has been designed with such caring detail and it is easy to see that a lot of effort and work has been put into this game.
Visually the game is flawless. The empty streets, although spooky and eerie, do show off it's own strange, sick beauty. The popular mist returns and makes playing SH2 all the more atmospheric and chilling. My favourite parts are the way the story turns into the dark, evil, deserted world and the environments look even more twistedly gorgeous. The characters are also wonderfully created and seem so real. Even the FMV's are stunning, right down to the voice syncronisation (one of the things I do like to be perfect is the mouth-to-voice work).
The gameplay is solid and provides heart pounding action for a good 9-10 hours if you take your time and search all of Silent Hill. The puzzles in the game are relevant and are in place with the game itself, like the coin puzzle with the desk, a nice touch. From a survival-horror point of view the game is also worthy and can and will give the gamer a task of finding ammo and weapons to get through levels. The combat in SH2 is probably the only weakness of the game however. James' moves are too clunky and at times it feels like I am moving a bus around on screen. After a while combat does become repetitive and a little boring. I did find more excitement exploring the game's environments than fighting it's monsters.
The sound-effects are carried out geniusly and more often does provide the game with great moments of atmosphere and scares, simply by just using plain background noises. The music itself is also perfect and couldn't fit better to the story if it tried.
Silent Hill 2 is one of the strongest game ever made in my opinion. Only mild problems like the rather weak combat dilutes the game slightly but if you look at the game from a different view: the strong, deep story. The length and size of the game and the visually stunning environments, this is why this has to be the best Silent Hill of them all.