Monday, October 6, 2014

Tom G Reviews: Silent Hill 2

Happy Halloween, Peeps and Peepettes. It's that time of the years once again. When the dark crap I immerse myself in all year long is actually seasonable instead of just morbid. This time we're doing something different. This time we're looking at a video game.

Now, I'm by no means ANY kind expert when it come to video games. But I've played them and I enjoy the one's that I enjoy. I also no a thing-or-two about horror and psychology. Not that I'm any kind of expert. Tonight's creeping journey into darkness is a 2001 game that combines the three in what can possibly be considered one of the best horror games thus far. Tonight, we'll be looking at "Silent Hill 2".

Produced by Konami, "Silent Hill 2" follows protagonist, James Sunderland, as he follows the trail of a mysterious letter written by his now deceased wife across and into the heart of Silent Hill, an abandoned, fog-blanketed American Town. You play as James, finding clues, solving puzzles, and surviving the many grizzly manifestations that infest Silent Hill. As you progress and as you go deeper... literally... the story of James and why he had come here unravels.

Silent Hill 2 is the follow-up to 1999's "Silent Hill". And while I've never played the first game, I've seen enough of it to know that the sequel takes what worked about the first game and brought it to another level. And while it lacks action, Silent Hill 2 more than makes-up for it in atmosphere, story, character development, and a sheer psychological plunge. The Silent Hill series is notable for its use of surrealism and psychological manipulation. Silent Hill is very much a reflection of the protagonist in each game. The environments and the ghouls that inhabit them are arguably more figurative than "real".

The Silent Hill of Silent Hill 2 is James Sunderland. Instead of exploring a tangible place, he is exploring himself and his reason for being there. From a vacant apartment building to a blood-splattered hospital and even into the depths of a nightmarish labyrinth... into the maw of hell itself, the darkness you (James) will encounter is the darkest imaginable. James will face an abyss where he'll see nothing but himself.

Silent Hill 2 is also noteworthy because of its antagonists. Creative, grizzly, surreal, and disturbing, Silent Hill 2's cast of ghouls and spunkies ranges from a chubby glutton on a hair-trigger to the most menacing manifestations of sexual frustration, guilt, and violence.

Silent Hill 2 does the same thing that the franchise is renowned for and that very few video games will do or do successfully. Silent Hill 2 obliterates the line between real and unreal. Does James explore a forgotten place or does he explore a dreamscape? Are those he encounter real, or are they just memories of the past? Is the terror he faces a threat, or is it no more than a reflection of himself?

Silent Hill goes to the very core of horror. To the genre's atomic structure. No place is scarier than that place inside the self.