As you may know I've been making a bunch of threads about these games and just had one pretty big question. I've always heard that silent hill gameplay is something like, run if you can, fight if you must. From here on I'm gonna be talking about silent hill 2 so it will be minor spoilers (if you care)


So I just got done with the first real puzzle with the clock to give you a point of where I'm at. But when I was in the "open world" after being scared to hell like three times I tried to dodge combat when I could. It may be a dumb question but is this how to do things in these games? Does it apply for 3 as well. Thanks again for the help

I know this is mildly off topic from what you just said, but, I know everyone says that this is like the best survival horror game ever. But is it really now a days? Did it stand the test of time in the HD collection or is it just a whole bunch of nostalgia? I've never played a silent hill game so I am curious.

@Sackmanjones: Well then now we play the waiting game...

I'm of the belief that the combat is best set to Easy in the Silent Hill games and then you can fumble your way through it with the least amount of effort. The combat is never terrific in these games and making it easier on yourself is the way to go. Running past encounters is highly recommended, although on easier difficulties you might have enough ammo and health items to simply blow your way through all the enemies.

Silent Hill 2 is still an amazing game for its themes and hidden meanings. I've heard the HD collection isn't the greatest way to play these games but it is still worth playing through to experience its very unique story.

As soon as you get the pistol in SH2, you're golden. Even on the normal difficulty, ammo and healing items are freakin' everywhere. The melee combat is some of the worst across the series in SH2 (seriously, even the original SH had better melee combat), but fortunately you never actually need to fall back on it once you find the pistol (and later other firearms).

With Silent Hill 3, things become a little more balanced; you can't rely on your guns so much, but melee combat, while not very good, is much more functional I'd say. It still isn't very difficult on the normal setting like SH2 as well. And this is coming from me playing them again only about a few months ago.

I've played 2-4 (the originals I have on XBOX, PS2 and PC) several times, and for me they still hold up but as a whole some never liked what they were going for (mechanically) as the game has always (at least this is what Ive been told) purposefully had combat be kind of terrible.

If your question is "Are you supposed to run when you can?" The answer is technically you can play how you want but your never expected to kill anything if you are able to run away from it. You can fight if you want, and in 2 if you know where bullets are you can fight everything really (I never had a problem with the combat in SH2). In 2 I fought everything because I found the combat to be fine, in 3 it seems about the same but I felt the combat in 3 was a bit worse in terms of "clunkiness".

Yeah you've pretty much got the idea, and it's the same with most survival horror games from that era.

Reason being fighting is super clunky, most enemies are slow/stupid, dead enemies don't drop anything and you have limited resources.

@Abyssfull said:

As soon as you get the pistol in SH2, you're golden. Even on the normal difficulty, ammo and healing items are freakin' everywhere. The melee combat is some of the worst across the series in SH2 (seriously, even the original SH had better melee combat), but fortunately you never actually need to fall back on it once you find the pistol (and later other firearms).

With Silent Hill 3, things become a little more balanced; you can't rely on your guns so much, but melee combat, while not very good, is much more functional I'd say. It still isn't very difficult on the normal setting like SH2 as well. And this is coming from me playing them again only about a few months ago.

Spot on. Especially regarding SH2, I have no idea why people see it as the pinnacle in the series since it had its share of numerous flaws. (dodgy combat, camera...etc.). And this is coming from someone who've finished the game for like more than 5 times.

I have to say that I've really enjoyed the melee combat in SH4. The controls struck a perfect balance between vulnerability and being to handle yourself well in a fight.