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On this day 20 years ago, Silent Hill 2 changed survival horror forever.
Beer Baelly
Al Pachinko, Konami President
JimmyRustler
Gold Member
I remember the first SH being massivly overshadowed by RE. It was only with part 2 that they were able to step out of it's shadow.Didn't technically Silent Hill 1 changed survival horror forever on 1999? ...
I guess happy birthday SH2 you are cool too, older brother is way cooler tho.
That being said, it's crazy to think these days that there are only 2 years between SH1 and 2. God damn it.
killatopak
Member
love this game.
KOJIMA SAVE US!
KOJIMA SAVE US!
Duchess
Member
I remember getting to the hospital and not wanting to carry on, because I knew what I was going find lurking in there!
Actually, there were several moments in SH2 that made me want to stop playing, due to how creepy the atmosphere and story was.
Masterpiece is definitely the word to describe this game.
Actually, there were several moments in SH2 that made me want to stop playing, due to how creepy the atmosphere and story was.
Masterpiece is definitely the word to describe this game.
killatopak
Member
The apartments was where it was most intense for me.
really fuckin dark and so claustrophobic.
really fuckin dark and so claustrophobic.
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laynelane
Member
I remember running though the fog at the very beginning and hearing... things out there. I managed to make it all the way to the apartments and then had to put the game down. Years later I went back and finished it.
Trimesh
Banned
The original Japanese release says "HORROR ADVENTURE" - which I think is probably a more accurate description.
Naibel
Member
Damn, Mary's Letter... Why do you have to remind me... It still gets me after all those years 
The hotel segment, man...
SH1 was already a great horror experience but this is one of if not the greatest gaming sequel ever made. One of those titles that I consider to be more than a "just" a game. It left a real impact on me very few games did before or since. True art.
The fact that there is not a single remaster of this masterpiece worth a damn apart from the fan-made Enhanced Edition is a tragedy... But then I lost all hope about Konami doing anything of note about Silent Hill anymore.
Happy BDay to the goatest of the GOATs, gonna put some Yamaoka goodness onto my ears now that I'm at work (but shhh...)
The hotel segment, man...SH1 was already a great horror experience but this is one of if not the greatest gaming sequel ever made. One of those titles that I consider to be more than a "just" a game. It left a real impact on me very few games did before or since. True art.
The fact that there is not a single remaster of this masterpiece worth a damn apart from the fan-made Enhanced Edition is a tragedy... But then I lost all hope about Konami doing anything of note about Silent Hill anymore.
Happy BDay to the goatest of the GOATs, gonna put some Yamaoka goodness onto my ears now that I'm at work (but shhh...)
Trimesh
Banned
The original Japanese release says "HORROR ADVENTURE" - which I think is probably a more accurate description.
makaveli60
Member
One of the best games ever made. Art is a better word for it, I think.
Neff
Member
Didn't technically Silent Hill 1 changed survival horror forever on 1999? ...
I guess happy birthday SH2 you are cool too, older brother is way cooler tho.
Pretty much. SH1 is a much better game, and that game was basically just hanging off RE's nutsack anyway.
Fools idol
Banned
So I have a funny story about this game....
It came out when I was 12 years old. My parents were very selective of what me and my brother were able to play, and 18's were an absolute NO on all fronts (stuff like GTA, resident evil, etc). However, that year my brother turned 18 and my dad bought him SH2 for his birthday.
I was never allowed to watch him play, but he would talk about it and tell me various things about the game over breakfast from what he played the night before, and I was absolutely in awe of the game by proxy. I had sneaked 18 rating games home from friends at school before so it wasnt my first horror game or anything, but I wanted to play it so badly. I bunked off school by putting the thermostat in the lamp (thanks E.T) and spent the whole friday playing while my parents and brother were at work.
It completely traumatised me. My brother had said it was scary, but to a 12 year old who until that point had IT the clown as his most terrifying thing of all time, man... I cant understate what this game did to my child brain. I am convinced my anxiety issues in the early teens were triggered by this game. The scene where pyramid invades for the first time will haunt me forever. What the fuck was that thing? why does that nurse have no face? *shudder*. I was so scared that I threw up that night and had nightmares. AT 12 years old! LOL. I had to admit to my parents what I had done and they banned me from playstation for a month.
I will never forget it. Probably my most profound 'first play' even to this day.
It came out when I was 12 years old. My parents were very selective of what me and my brother were able to play, and 18's were an absolute NO on all fronts (stuff like GTA, resident evil, etc). However, that year my brother turned 18 and my dad bought him SH2 for his birthday.
I was never allowed to watch him play, but he would talk about it and tell me various things about the game over breakfast from what he played the night before, and I was absolutely in awe of the game by proxy. I had sneaked 18 rating games home from friends at school before so it wasnt my first horror game or anything, but I wanted to play it so badly. I bunked off school by putting the thermostat in the lamp (thanks E.T) and spent the whole friday playing while my parents and brother were at work.
It completely traumatised me. My brother had said it was scary, but to a 12 year old who until that point had IT the clown as his most terrifying thing of all time, man... I cant understate what this game did to my child brain. I am convinced my anxiety issues in the early teens were triggered by this game. The scene where pyramid invades for the first time will haunt me forever. What the fuck was that thing? why does that nurse have no face? *shudder*. I was so scared that I threw up that night and had nightmares. AT 12 years old! LOL. I had to admit to my parents what I had done and they banned me from playstation for a month.
I will never forget it. Probably my most profound 'first play' even to this day.
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FunkMiller
Gold Member
This game remains the best exploration of mental illness in video games ever. It’s maturity, restraint, and creativity have rarely been matched by anything else.
Top five game of all time.
Top five game of all time.
tommib
Member
I was 22 and still traumatised. I was a PC gamer at the time and thought console games were mostly shit in that period. My brother in law had an Xbox and a recent copy of SH2. I would sleep on the couch when visiting my sister and it was past midnight when I decided to check it out thinking that it was going to be some brainless and tasteless Alone in the Dark clone.
2 hours later I was absolutely in shock with the overall vibe and those 4 legged creatures. It was like my brain was being opened and filled with the most terrifying and otherworldly
images and sounds. The lack of any explanations to what was going was just more anxiety fuel. Terrifying stuff.
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mansoor1980
Gold Member
great game , but SILENT HILL 1 should be remade as it started the psychological horror genre
killatopak
Member
I’m probably one of the biggest RE fan around here but even I wouldn’t say that.
There’s just too much difference between both games. SH was fully 3d too. It also tackles a different kind of horror.
tommib
Member
Were you expecting arcade/Mario/Nintendo levels of gameplay in a terrifying horror game? Good gameplay in a horror game very rarely translates into the player feeling frightened. Best example is Resident Evil 4. Absolute top tier action game but no one can pretend that they were frightened by it or that it’s at the same horror level of SH2.
Neff
Member
Silent Hill is definitely trying hard to do its own thing, but there's no doubt in my mind that SH came into existence due to RE. There are too many similarities.
I disagree. RE1 and RE2 have amazing gameplay and pitch-perfect atmosphere/scares. SH2 drops the ball on the gameplay front hard, with zero challenge and terrible level design. SH1 does much better in these aspects.
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GymWolf
Member
Lol the opposite for me, my mother had to take care of his ill sister so me and my sister were everyday on our aunt house and her 2 sons were older than us and they let us watch all of their horror movies they had in vhs, so every nightmare movie, every friday 13, every halloween, so by the age of 8 i was already completely desensitized
Berserking Guts
Member
Truly, one of the most frightening posts in this thread. Chilling.
Badlucktroll
Member
One of the best games i have ever played, and one that greatly affected me. I remember the day it came out, talking with some friends in school about how we couldn't wait to buy it, and giving our thoughts on it the next day. I play it once or twice a year all the way through. Wish it would get the Bluepoint treatment. Is it true that this masterpiece didn't sell very well?
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killatopak
Member
SH titles sold worse in every entry. SH1 was the best selling iirc.
Dorohedoro
Member
I only ever played the HD Collection version and it sadly had issues like the busted fog effects, etc. but in spite of all that it never fails to make me feel tense and uncomfortable when playing which, if anything, is a testament to the brilliance of the original dev team. No matter how much incompetence might've seeped through it never touched the heart and soul of the game.
The whole OST is fire. Akira Yamaoka was just showing off...
My number 1 videogame
Magical music.
The whole OST is fire. Akira Yamaoka was just showing off...
Duchess
Member
I've not watched it for a while, but my PS2 copy came with a Making Of documentary.
If I'm remembering right, they said that they purposely made the initial approach to the town from the car park, down a wooded path, sound like something was following or walking along beside you. I do remember stopping constantly to try and see where the sound was coming from..!
Kerotan
Member
Yeah I never played this series but was thinking the same. What did SH2 do that SH didn't?Didn't technically Silent Hill 1 changed survival horror forever on 1999? ...
I guess happy birthday SH2 you are cool too, older brother is way cooler tho.
nkarafo
Member
Didn't technically Silent Hill 1 changed survival horror forever on 1999? ...
I guess happy birthday SH2 you are cool too, older brother is way cooler tho.
SH2 made more of an impact.
Technically, SH1 on PS1 just didn't have the horsepower needed for it's vision. SH2's graphics/textures, the complex fog effect and the lighting effects with the real time shadows cast by light sources and the flashlight were a huge part of why it was so atmospheric. I don't remember any other game before SH2 having real time shadows like this and that was years before DOOM 3 made a huge deal about it.
I know graphics don't always matter in making great games but in this instance they did.
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nkarafo
Member
It's a horror game. Tension, atmosphere, visual/audio design, etc, are more important. Gameplay mechanics take the back seat.
Exploration was still great. Combat was intentionally gimped because your character wasn't supposed to be an agile fighter. The only thing that could be improved are the camera controls since this is a dual analog stick game. But that was before the standards were established.
Naibel
Member
SH2 is more of a horror drama than a survival-horror game per say, unlike SH1. It dealt with very adult themes, that were nearly unheard of in video-games at the time (sexual abuse, depression, mental illness, grief, suicide and mercy killings ...sort of) whereas the original (and third entry) focused more on a strange cult.
Because it's a more personal story, dealing with the universal themes of loss, grief and love, James's ordeal was more emotionally impactful and relatable to some players (even after knowing the ending twist) than Harry Mason's search for his daughter. I love Silent Hill as a whole and I agree that SH2 is pretty much a "spin-off" and not the original vision of the series, but SH2 is still my preferred entry for this reason. It really elevated the horror genre and video games as a whole.
ElCasual
Member
Ban this guy.
Hammerite Zealot
Member
Great game but not a good horror rather psychological drama with horror elements. Really liked the story but I remember getting a lot of ammo and health also monsters were either easy to kill or just annoying.