Silent Hill 2 as a perfect game to play in Spookoctober (but I recommend you to play this every time of year)

                Today's topic is about my favourite videogame. Silent Hill 2 was created by Team Silent from Konami studios and it's considered as the best survival horror game of all the time. Why am I writing about it? I know that lots of people are afraid to play horror games but Silent Hill 2 is unique, psychological and, I could say, a masterpiece, so you should make an exception once. What if you're not a gamer? At least read my TOO short article about it (really, it's too short because I could write about this game for hours).

1. THE PLOT

"James Sunderland's life has suddenly changed when his beloved wife Mary died. But three years later James received a mysterious letter. A letter from Mary. She wanted meet him on their special place. Now James must go to that place to find out the real truth and finish with his restless dreams. The time has come. The time for last sacrifice"

This is the an official description from SH2 box cover from 2000. Isn't it make you feel intrigued? In Silent Hill 2 we are trying to help James find his dead wife in old abandoned town. In deep fog is always something and we are not sure if it could be someone who might help us or hurt us. The plot of SH2 is full of symbols. Everything has colossal impact on the plot, even the smallest details. The game has 6 endings and it depends on you and your style of playing which ending you'll get.

2. THE SOUNDTRACK & VOICE ACTING

Voice acting in this game is very specific because studio didn't hire professional actors. Normal people tried to play the emotions of their characters and create their personalities and sometimes it could sound funny but it makes them seem more realistic.

FUN FACT: The man who plays James had a depression so it makes the character more accurate to his condition of confused and lost person who don't feel sure if he could trust even himself.

Click here to watch one cutscene

Also the Silent Hill series is known for an amazing soundtrack. On the playlist we can find the "creepy" tracks full of strange notices which will make us feel unsure and scared but there are also very beautiful songs like: Promise, Magdalene and True. But the most popular is the main theme - Theme of Laura.

Click here to listen the playlist

First cover of SH2's soudtrack which presents Maria in Heaven's
 Club where she has been working before she has met James

3. THE CHARACTERS

There aren't many. We play as James - simple man. We don't know much about him. He is so ordinary and for some people he could be characterless or boring but the creators made it for purpose! James has to be this way so the player can relate to him. It makes him universal.

In the town we can meet Angela (terrified girl who seems to be unstable and as lost as we are), Eddy (another ordinary man who don't even know why is he here), Laura (little girl who seems to know Mary and feels very secure in the town) and Maria (a woman who looks exactly the same as James' wife, even her voice is the same but Maria isn't Mary; she's a local stripper who tries to help us). Every character has its own story which the creators don't tell us in the direct way. I don't want to spoil it for you but every of them is an unique personality with its own experience so it's amazing fun for player guessing about their reason of stay in Silent Hill. The town of restless dreams. The most interesting seems of course Maria who resembles Mary. Even if her behavior is totally different, James sometimes forgets about it. Their relationship is very important to understand what really made James come to this town. I also noticed that lots of fans love Angela. I can say she's the purest character of the game and we feel sorry for her from the beginning to the end.

James looking at his reflection at the beginning of the game trying to motived
himslf to search his dead wife in Silent Hill

4. THE ATMOSPHERE

This is what made the game so famous. Foggy town which used to be perfect vacation place. You really can't feel alone playing this - in the negative way of course. There's always a feeling that someone is hiding in the shadow and watching us. Sometimes we can hear steps behind us or unexpected sounds. The town is full of monsters - their look is important to understand the main problem. If you have a moment click here and look at them. How can you interpret their appearance? Also in the game we have a villian named Pyramid Head who always hunt us. When we are aware of his presence we can't stop think about him. Pyramid Head has also a symbolic meaning which we slowly get to know during the playtrough. He became an icon of Silent Hill series for his terrifying  design.

Immagine of Pyramid Head

                I really want to write more but it's impossible to not contain the spoilers. Silent Hill 2 is an unique game about human's biggest weaknesses. It shows how can we become monsters, not even knowing about this. It's about repression which help us deal with biggest mistakes or which make us unconscious. It's about forgiving. Silent Hill 2 give us very important question and leave us without a response - Can our biggest and the most terrifying mistakes be forgiven?

Click here to watch Silent Hill 2 intro scene.

The game is now very difficult to get on PC. You can buy it for PS2 or remastered version for PS3 (but it isn't recommended because it has been changed a bit). If you're not a player but this amazing story interested you, watch a walkthrough on youtube. Happy Halloween! Spend this night with James accompanying him in his long journey of finding the truth about him in his own purgatory.