I was originally going to write this blog yesterday. You see, last night, I made it to the end of Silent Hill 2, and it left me in such an odd state of mind that I found myself unable to write this. After an evening of pondering and dissecting what I'd played, and a night's rest, I'm feeling ready to try and piece my experience back together into something that's worth reading. I should probably warn those of you that haven't played Silent Hill 2 that this blog is going to feature a few spoilers in terms of the game's story, so here's the obligatory spoiler warning: 

Silent Hill 2

What's Good About It?

What's Not So Good About It?

I was originally going to write this blog yesterday. You see, last night, I made it to the end of Silent Hill 2, and it left me in such an odd state of mind that I found myself unable to write this. After an evening of pondering and dissecting what I'd played, and a night's rest, I'm feeling ready to try and piece my experience back together into something that's worth reading. I should probably warn those of you that haven't played Silent Hill 2 that this blog is going to feature a few spoilers in terms of the game's story, so here's the obligatory spoiler warning: 

Silent Hill 2

What's Good About It?

What's Not So Good About It?

To this day, I find Silent Hill 2 to be one of the greatest gaming experiences of my life. The psychological aspect of the game really gets it's hooks in you and it just doesn't let go. Only Shattered Memories has come close to having a similar effect on me. As for the rest of the SH series....well, 3 is okay but i'd invest in Shattered Memories. GOTY for me last year by a considerable mile. There's a quick look on here somewhere, but it doesn't really do the game credit. I might suggest looking into the Fatal Frame series if you're looking for something closer to 'survival horror' as I see it, or even Forbidden Siren.
Anyway, it was an interesting read, and I'm glad that someone else experienced the greatness of SH2.

I have never played any of the silent hill games but I had always heard Silent Hill 2 was one of the best survival horror games ever made. It does look interesting, though with my track record of not being able to go back to the last generation of games I think that door has closed.  
 
When you say the combat is awkward, isn't that supposed to be what makes it scary? Like being unable to move in resident evil games, you either run or fight - making the game a constant risk assessment. Or is it a technical thing?

You see, last night, I made it to the end of Silent Hill 2, and it left me in such an odd state of mind that I found myself unable to write this.     

I really don't get all the hate for the Tank controls these days.  I didn't have a problem with the combat, and if anything found it entirely too easy to just walk up and waste anything that looked like half a threat to me with a combo of wooden plank w/ nails and the occasional handgun.
By today's standards, of course, it's pretty poor, but it was par for the course back when it was made.

Damn it, now I can't stop thinking about a Seinfeild hack of Silent Hill 2, which is odd, given that I don't even watch Seinfeld. As for my opinions on the game, beat you to it.

" as if one of the head honchos at Konami burst into the development rooms and shouted, "There better be guns in this, because people ain't gonna buy it unless they can shoot those muthafuckin' monsters!""

Ha. I was reading your status updates recently, creepy stalker that I am, and was hoping for some sort of blog post about another one of my absolute favorite games. Replay it, and you'll find that almost every set piece, in one way or another, serves the interactive telling of the story; this is what sets apart games like Silent Hill 2, Portal or Shadow of the Colossus - instead of using movie mechanics whenever it is storytelling time, they know that they are videogames and they know that they have more - different - tools at their disposal to tell this world, these people, and this plot. Tell them interactively. 
 
As for the combat, I have always seen this partially as a deliberate decision, and you are excused for even trying to fight because you have not played the first game. You see, the first game made it abundantly clear that Harry Mason plain sucks at violence, and that you would be absolutely stupid to even try to engage in any sort of combat when you don't absolutely have to. There is a reason the game lets you turn OFF your flashlight and radio - it makes the creatures care significantly less about you and you about them, and almost all of them are incredibly easy to just run around. Silent Hill - apart from The Room and Homecoming - has always discouraged combat. It is unnecessary, awkward, difficult and most of the time the enemies are either no real threat or the amount of damage you take stands in no relation to the benefit you gain from engaging combat. SH:Origins took this to the extreme, as turning off the flashlight in this game makes you practically invisible. 
 
This might seem like a lame excuse for bad game design, but I have always felt that my hate of having to engage in combat and the fact that you can avoid it in 80% of cases has been an important part in how I experience - and like - these games. 
 
Interestingly enough, Homecoming and Shattered Memories approached this complaint from two opposite angles. Homecoming features a main character with military background, elaborate combat and evasion mechanics and complicated bossfights, while Shattered Memories did away with these elements completely. 
 
I hope you find the time and motivation to maybe check out the other games. I myself am playing through the first one on my PSP at the moment.

Also this.
 

I hope the Silent Hill franchise keeps going in the direction of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. No combat at all. It wasn't a perfect game and kind of short compared its older siblings, but damn what a ride. Glad you enjoyed Silent Hill 2, I haven't played that game in years.

The core SH series, despite their frustrations, are exemplars of brilliant audio and visual design, as well as psychological storytelling in gaming, so I would definitely say they are all worth checking out. I would be playing Shattered Memories right now if it weren't so hard to find in Australia.

I don't think I ever gave Silent Hill 2 a fair shake.  The outer town areas were hard for me to navigate, and so I pretty much gave up on it before I'd even given it a few hours.  At least the copy wasn't mine, but it's a game I really ought to revisit.

Pretty solid man.You have a lot of good points, I feel the same way.Except...I haven't finished my copy yet.I always wait for the right quiet nights to play and pop on my head phones.Oh yeah and I found RE5 pretty damn disappointing too.I am glad I rented, because I almost bought it.Hopefully SH:Downpour will be great.