Reviews in Black and White is an occasional feature on old-school video games.
"Silent Hill 2" is the sequel to the critically acclaimed "Silent Hill" for PlayStation. In it, you take the role of James Sunderland, a man whose wife died three years prior to where the game starts.
James receives a mysterious letter from his late wife, Mary, telling him to go to Silent Hill. He boldly obeys the letter and is sent to what is almost literally Hell on Earth. Monsters have taken over Silent Hill and pursue James on his journey to find his wife.
The Silent Hill series is a survival/horror series. However, unlike other survival/horror series (I'm talkin' to you "Resident Evil"), it focuses more on the horror aspect. The game will constantly have you on your toes looking out for the next horrific creature waiting for you.
The game has two different difficulties from which you have to choose before you start the game: action and riddle. This means that the people who are more into getting their heads torn off by a giant, sword-wielding maniac can choose action. And those who would rather do a puzzle that will have them sitting in their family room for hours on end, reading the same note given to help solve the puzzle can choose riddle mode.
I, myself, prefer the puzzles to the action. However, for review purposes, I played the game on normal for both.
Now, let's move on to the gameplay elements.
The game gave me four weapons throughout the whole game. Four! There were more to get, but I don't have the "clairvoyant space-brain" necessary to search for a weapon that will kill things faster while I'm in the middle of killing things!
I ended the game with a pistol, a shotgun, a rifle, and a 2x4, which were all I needed, but it still would have been nice to have something that would kill things easily. The pistol was weak, the shotgun was useless and the rifle was slow.
The only good thing was the 2x4. There was nothing wrong with it. In fact, I used it on everything except the bosses.
Speaking of bosses, they are the stupidest of the creatures you fight. For example, I was wandering the streets looking for a wrench to open a box in the park (don't ask) when I ran into a car parked on the street.
Nothing odd about that, right?
Well, I go up to it to take the ammo for the gun I never use from beside it, when suddenly, three crawling, acid-spitting enemies pop out from underneath. Real good tactic.
For my fight with the final boss, I ran in circles from corner to corner and shot it with the rifle. When it got close to me, I moved to the next corner. I just assumed that it just didn't have a long-range attack.
Later, I looked on the Internet to see whether or not I got the good ending, and I found out more about that boss. It turns out that boss has an extremely strong projectile attack where it fires bats at you face to kill you.
Like I said, the bosses are stupid.
The surround sound system in the game is excellent. It made me want to wet my pants at times.
I would walk around a corner because I heard the radio going off (the radio tells you when enemies are near), and the radio would stop. I'd turn back to my destination and hear the radio again, this time louder. I go around a corner again, and it stops again.
I turn around and see Pyramid Head -- the embodiment of James' sins -- standing behind me with his sword above his head. The radio is going wild. You haven't been scared until you've heard a sword swipe your head off from nine directions.
Despite the flaws with the weapons and bosses, "Silent Hill 2" is a great game that left me wanting more when it was over. The story is twisted, the sounds are great, and I can't think of a better way spend a 2 a.m. sugar rush.
"Silent Hill 2" gets a 5 out of 5. The game is a must for anyone who owns a PS2. It is very rare to find though, so good luck getting your hands on it.