I must confess, I've never played the original Silent Hill through to the end. I played it too late into the PlayStation's life-cycle to fully appreciate it and even revisiting it later on PS3, fully aware of it's graphical and gameplay shortcomings, I still couldn't get all the way through. It's sequel though is the complete opposite; it is actually the video game I've played through (to the end) the most. I think only Journey, a game that is easily completed within a couple of hours, has beaten it. Silent Hill 2 captivated me the very first time I played it, and was really the first video game to deal with some extremely adult themes: uxoricide, psychological trauma, dementia, sexual repression, etc. I remember being completely swept away with the plight of the game's protagonist James Sunderland, as I played through to the small hours of the morning. I also remember being almost paralysed by fear, unable to switch off the console and go to sleep and unable to continue the game because it had gotten it's psychological-horror hooks deep inside me.
Silent Hill 2 doesn't waste any time getting you into the game, as it opens on the outskirts of the infamous town and has you searching for your, previously considered, deceased wife who's waiting for you at your "special place". The town of Silent Hill is enshrouded within a thick otherworldly fog, limiting your viewing distance to a mere meter or two infront of James's face. This helps the game designers to build up a palpable sense of confusion and fear, as in the early stages of the game there is very little in the way of physical enemies, just a clever use of soundtrack and musical score, which I'll get on to later. When you do eventually happen upon the first creature haunting the mists it sets up a few things - firstly that the enemies in this game are not your typical zombies or other survival horror tropes. Instead, the menagerie of menacing adversaries reflect the psychological ailments of the main character and are usually women (or women's bodyparts) disfigured into some sort of tortured being. This is obviously all very disturbing and part of why the game gets under your skin; zombies are ten-a-penny especially in modern video games, but these monstrosities remain as creepy as ever. The second thing it sets up is how weak and alone you are.
You see, Silent Hill 2 is true survival horror, a genre that has been diluted now to the point where it is almost non-existent. In this game, there are few firearms, and even then bullets are scarce instead your only means of defending yourself is either to ineffectually hit things with a stick or run the hell away! Usually the best option is to do the latter (although in the HD re-release there are trophies to the former), especially in the case of the game's most iconic and undefeatable adversary: "The Red Pyramid Thing", also known as Pyramid Head. This silent hunter stalks you throughout the game, it's every appearance marking a key moment of panic and terror, it is little wonder that this has become such a memorable icon of video games and of survival horror. Pyramid Head's visual design and role within the game is again directly tied to the plot and themes explored within it. A faceless killer with a head shaped in painful, spiteful angles, he represents James Sunderland's guilt and desire to be punished.
The narrative takes you throughout the town and out across Toluca Lake, stopping several times along the way to let the game world (as well as the well being of the character's mind) literally break down and become abstracted. There is a sequence within a prison underneath the lake that slowly turns into a strange labyrinth, where connected halls and doorways seem to openly defy the laws of space and time. The events happening on screen as are much metaphor as they are actually happening and I've never experienced anything quite like it except maybe 'Catherine', another favourite game of mine from the past few years. Production values for the game are extremely high, and still hold up well to this day. The level of detail that the town of Silent Hill is lovingly rendered in is staggering, with lots of cryptic clues and messages hidden throughout that may let you piece together the lore and mythology of the game. A stellar soundtrack by composer Akira Yamaoka is still one of the best ever recorded for a video game and the voice acting (while dreamlike and unnatural in an Eraserhead-kinda way) was so well done that fans literally protested at the idea of a re-recording for the game's HD release.
As I mentioned above, I've completed this game multiple times and it still holds up to this day as a unique and almost perfect example not only of pure survival horror, but also of modern adult-targeted video games. Silent Hill 2, for me, symbolises a turning point when game designers took the brave step towards using the medium in other ways besides just entertainment. In recent years a HD remake of this game was released, initially with several flaws but now patched and completely faithful to the original, giving me the opportunity to relive this experience once more. Silent Hill 2 still scares, still captivates and unnerves me, and is still one of the best modern video games ever made. It is such as shame that (excluding Silent Hill 3 which is also excellent) Silent Hill, and the survival horror genre in general, has never managed to again create anything as amazing as this.
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