Silent Hill 2
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Spoiler Warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
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September 27, 2001 
Silent Hill 2 is the second installment of the Silent Hill series and the first game of the series to be released for Sony PlayStation 2. It launched in North America on September 24th, 2001 and was later ported to Microsoft Xbox (with the subtitle "Restless Dreams" and previously unreleased features including a playable sub-scenario) and the PC. The changes done to the Restless Dreams port was also added to to the re-released Greatest Hits/Platinum Edition PS2 version.
Contents |
Plot
At the beginning of the game the player is introduced to the main character, James Sunderland, who has come to Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his wife, Mary, despite the fact that she had apparently died from an illness three years prior to his return. The letter states that Mary is waiting for James in their "special place", but this confuses James as the whole town of Silent Hill was their special place. After leaving the observation deck, James meets Angela Orosco, a teenage girl who came to the town to search for her mother. James eventually reaches the town, only to discover it is not the same, beautiful town from his past. In addition to the strange, omnipresent fog, the whole town seems to be rotting away and abandoned. Bizarre, vaguely humanoid monsters are also wandering the streets, waiting to attack James. With his path to his first destination, the lakeside Rosewater Park cut off, James enters an apartment complex to reach what he believes could be the "special place" Mary stated in the letter.
Inside the apartment complex, James meets an obese young man, Eddie Dombrowski, vomiting in one of the apartment toilets, who acts very defensive over questions regarding a corpse in a refrigerator in the same apartment. James also has a brief encounter with a little girl named Laura, who is apparently immune to the effects of the town and has an unexplained loathing of James, as well as knowing the identity of Mary. James finds Angela again, who had warned him of the
When James finally reaches Rosewater Park, he meets a woman who is almost identical to Mary, but with a more provocative wardrobe and attitude who calls herself Maria. During the game, she shows insight into matters that only he or Mary would know, and acts in a very seductive manner towards James. Maria accompanies James in his attempt to reach his second suspected "special place", the Lakeview Hotel. James enters Pete's Bowl-O-Rama where he meets Eddie and Laura who runs away from James. When James exits the bowling alley, Maria claims to see Laura, and out of concern for her she has James try to reach the girl. Their pursuit ends at Brookhaven Hospital, where Maria becomes sick and has to rest in one of the hospital rooms. James finds Laura, but becomes angry at her for claiming to have known Mary for the past year, in clear contradiction to his belief that she has been dead for three years. Laura responds by locking him in a room filled with covered monsters stuffed in hanging cages under the pretense of looking for a letter from Mary. After they are defeated, the hospital undergoes a sudden, dramatic change to the Otherworld, where Maria is missing. James finds Maria in the hospital's basement and they decide to find Laura. Pyramid Head, however, chases James and Maria in a long hallway. Pyramid Head kills Maria while they make their escape to an elevator, leaving James alone again. Maria's death saddens James and he refocuses on his original task of finding Mary. James catches a glimpse of Laura outside the hospital. He leaves the hospital and finds a key behind a statue in Rosewater Park, which leads him to the Silent Hill Historical Society.
The Historical Society becomes an exploration of two levels not noted on the town map: Toluca Prison and a labyrinth in which Pyramid Head resides. In this level, James finds Maria, who greets him with disillusions of Mary, miraculously alive and locked in a prison cell. He is unable to rescue her because she is killed by Pyramid Head again before James reaches her. This level also provides revelations on why Angela and Eddie are in the town as well. A newspaper clipping implies that Angela killed her father, who abused her physically, mentally and sexually with the complicity of her mother. James saves her from a monstrous representation of her father, but she is still hostile towards James. Eddie is revealed to have snapped after years of verbal abuse by his peers. He killed the dog of a football player and then shot the dog's owner in the leg as well. It becomes clear that upon his arrival in Silent Hill, he has gone insane, seeing everyone as making fun of him, and has resorted to killing anyone he encounters. He first attempts to explain the path of bodies he has left, but ultimately he turns on James as well and must be killed to progress through the game. James feels ashamed for killing Eddie, a human being. After this point, James seriously questions his perception of the events leading to his arrival in the town.
Finally, James exits the labyrinth and takes a boat to the Lakeview Hotel in hopes of finding Mary. He finds Laura once again and she gives him the letter she claimed to be seeking earlier, which states that Mary wanted to adopt the girl while confirming her claims of knowing her for the past year. The final truth is shown to James when he watches a video tape he apparently left at the hotel three years ago, which shows him that he killed his terminally ill wife himself, smothering her with a pillow to stop both their suffering. Laura, who is ready to leave the town, finds James, however, he decides to reveal the truth to her. Laura becomes angry with him for killing Mary and she leaves disappointed. The radio James has been carrying to warn him of the approach of monsters sends a message from Mary, asking him to find her. James explores the rest of the hotel, which has undergone a transformation where it is damp and leaking everywhere. He finds Angela on a burning staircase and she asks James to return her knife so she can commit suicide, but he declines. James states that the room is hot as hell, but she replies that it's always like this for her; her life was always a living hell. Angela ascends the burning staircase, and her fate is not revealed.
The climax of the game approaches as James finds another resurrected Maria, screaming for James' help, but is promptly killed by two Pyramid Head monsters. James realizes that they have been created to punish him for his sins. James fights the two Pyramid Heads, who are still immune from his attacks but after taking enough hits from his weapons, kill themselves with their own spears. James is led to a hallway where he listens to a previous conversation that he and Mary had while she was still alive. In this conversation, James decided to bring Mary some flowers but she did not accept them, saying, "Flowers? I don't want any damn flowers! Just go home already!" Mary states she is too disgusting to deserve flowers and yells furiously at James. At the end of this conversation, Mary desperately pleads to James for him to be with her. James enters a large metallic complex with a long staircase, and at the top of this staircase, he finds a woman (depending on the ending, the woman will be either Maria or Mary herself) and the final fight of the game takes place.
Endings
While the game has multiple endings determined by the player's actions, like the other games in the series, Silent Hill 2 doesn't have a canonized ending. The fourth installment of the series reveals that James disappeared when he went to Silent Hill. Official statements from Konami have kept the canonicity of the ending ambiguous, with statements essentially saying that any of the endings can be considered "real" depending on the player's actions and interpretation of the story (e.g. personal reception of particular characters and their purposes). The final version of the game has a total of six possible endings; three which can be achieved on the first playthrough, and three enabled by acquiring new items on replays.
In the "Leave" and "In Water" endings, the woman in the room is Maria once again, making a final attempt to get James to take her. James rebuffs her, however, and she turns into a monster similar to the hanging monsters in the hospital, becoming the final boss. Upon her defeat, James will either leave the town with Laura in tow after being granted a final meeting with a dying Mary, shown in "Leave", or kill himself after Mary dies before he can properly make peace with her, as shown in "In Water". A replay ending entitled "Rebirth" will also have James kill Maria, but afterwards he will then attempt to use new objects collected in the game to resurrect Mary by confronting the "ancient gods of Silent Hill", with an unknown result.
The "Maria" ending, however, is radically different from these three. If the player spends a lot of time with Maria and protects her well from monsters (also from Pyramid Head in the hospital basement), the woman in the room will be Mary, who has not forgiven James for killing her. She will then turn into the final boss as the same monster Maria becomes, and after her defeat James dismisses her as being just another hallucination. He then discovers Maria, inexplicably resurrected again, and leaves town with her. As they leave, however, Maria starts coughing, implying she has the same illness Mary suffered from and the events that drove James to the town may repeat themselves.
Born From A Wish
- See Born from a wish scenario for more information.
Gameplay
Some new features to the series include:
- The Noise Effect screen filter
- The status screen showing a picture of the game
- Inability to read maps without a light source or a flashlight
- 2D and 3D modes
- NPC partner
Gameplay in Silent Hill 2 is very similar to Silent Hill, such as the flashlight, radio, etc. Many of the environments are dark, and the flashlight is often the only source of light. The radio James receives detects when monsters are nearby, emitting static and notifying the player of their presence. The player must guide James through Silent Hill by exploring, fighting, and solving puzzles. James will find many helpful items on his journey, and without some items, the player can't progress through the game. If James takes too much damage from an enemy, he will die, leading to a Game Over screen.
When a monster appears, the player will have to make a choice on whether to fight or flee. Both options work well in different scenarios; for example, in a narrow hallway, the better option would be to fight, but in a large open area, the better option would be to run away. Even if James flees from an enemy, he is still vulnerable to attacks. However, if James turns his flashlight off, this is less likely to happen.
Upon reaching Rosewater Park, Maria will accompany James. She will follow James, and she can't defend herself because she has no weapon. It is James' responsibility to protect her from monsters. If Maria dies by taking too much damage from enemies (or if James shoots her), the game will lead to a Game Over screen. Also, even if Maria is very far away from James when he enters a door, she will appear right next to James in the next area.
In other media
Games
Silent Hill 4: The Room
Silent Hill 4 is heavily linked to Silent Hill 2. Walter Sullivan's suicide is mentioned in a newspaper article and his murders of victims 7 and 8 were a question on the game show in the elevator. A grave with Sullivan's name engraved on it can also be found in the prison graveyard. James' father, Frank Sunderland, is the superintendent of South Ashfield Heights. He can be seen regularly through Henry Townshend's peephole. By examining a picture on Henry's wall, it is revealed that James and Mary disappeared in Silent Hill - this suggests that no one knows about Mary's death. It also amplifies the possibility of Mary's corpse being inside the trunk of James' car.
Due to its connections to Silent Hill 4, it is possible that James and Mary lived in South Ashfield, and that Mary resided in St. Jerome's Hospital while she was sick.
Silent Hill 3
In Silent Hill 3, Douglas Cartland states that he went to Silent Hill on a missing persons case, but 'he' was never found, which could possibly be James. If a memory card with a Silent Hill 2 save is being used, there will be references unlocked to Silent Hill 2. These references include a toilet scene in the alternate shopping mall, a poster of Maria in Heaven's Night, a nonexistent letter from a dead wife in Heather Mason's apartment mailbox and an appropriate comment on a sturdy fence on Brookhaven Hospital's rooftop.
Pyramid Head, the games titular monster, is featured in Silent Hill: The Arcade as well as Konami's New International Track & Field. He also appears in Silent Hill: Homecoming as a non-combative character, renamed Bogeyman.
Music
- See Silent Hill 2 Original Soundtracks for more information.
Silent Hill 2 Original Soundtracks was released in Japan on October 3rd 2001 by Konami Music Entertainment, Inc. The album contains musical tracks from the game, composed by Akira Yamaoka. The CD is compromised of 30 tracks, some ingame and some exclusive to the CD, and are completely instrumental. The soundtrack was re-released in Europe as Silent Hill 2 Original Soundtrack the same year. The CD was packed in a jewel case inserted in a paper box with different cover art.
Films
The film, Silent Hill, the adaptation of the first game, features, among the creatures in the town, a modified version of Pyramid Head. In this appearance, his helmet has been redesigned with one less point than the original game version, and he has been manifested from the perspectives of Alessa Gillespie rather than that of James, as he does not appear in the film.
It has been confirmed that "Silent Hill 2" is being planned but it is unknown if it will be a continuation of the first film, an adaptation of the corresponding game, or a new, unrelated story.
Development
Influences and design
The atmosphere of the game is for the most part similar to the first game, including the abandoned and/or decomposing look of the town and the persistent fog obscuring the streets, but it has been given a more psychological twist. One example of this is James' letter from Mary, which progressively disappears during the game, hinting, as Konami later confirmed, that the letter was not real and merely another part of James' hallucinations. The implication is that, as James slowly began to understand what he did, the illusions of the town begin to disappear. This could also be the explanation for the transformation of the hotel, as when James enters it is mostly intact, but after he sees the videotape he finds it reverts to its true form of a mostly burned-out structure. Other acknowledged attempts to induce a psychological influence on the game include placing Mary's dress in the room where James discovers the flashlight and modelling at least one corpse in the town after James.
The monsters in the game, as well as being more humanoid in design than their counterparts in the preceding game, are acknowledged to have been, for the most part, designed as a reflection of James' own subconscious. At least two creatures, the Mannequin and Bubble Head Nurse, are acknowledged to have been created with sexual suggestion in mind, a reflection of James' desires and likely sexual deprivation during Mary's illness. Pyramid Head is acknowledged to have been based on the executioners of the town's fictional history and is intended to be a punisher for James. Two exceptions to this theme are the Abstract Daddy, a reflection of the subconscious and memories of Angela, and the Creepers, which are also seen in the first game.
Silent Hill 2 also incorporates some references to real life events. The creators have said that the name "Mary" came from Mary Ann Nichols and Mary Jane Kelly, Jack the Ripper's first and last victims respectively. Other observers have claimed that Maria's outfit was copied from Christina Aguilera's appearance at the 1999 Teen Choice Awards. Eddie Dombrokski's name was taken from actor Eddie Murphy back during the beginning phases of production when Eddie was originally designed with a pleasantly optimistic personality. The name of Angela Orosco was derived from Angela Bennett, the protagonist of the film The Net, and Laura's from the novel No Language But a Cry by author Richard D'Ambrosio. There are also indications that the layout of Silent Hill has been based on the town of San Bruno, California, to a certain extent.
Releases
Silent Hill 2 was first released for PlayStation 2 in late 2001. The original European edition also included a second disc: a "Making-of" DVD video featuring trailers, an artwork gallery and a documentary on the title's development.
The Xbox port was released late in the same year as the PS2 version, on December 20th, and the PC version in December of the following year. Each region had a different subtitle; the Xbox port was subtitled Saigo no Uta (最期の詩, lit. "Poem of the Last Moment") in Japan, Restless Dreams in North America, and Inner Fears in Europe. The ports also contained additional material. James' scenario was given a sixth ending and an additional sub-scenario titled "Born from a Wish" was included. This mini-game is shown from the perspective of Maria, which explains her background before she met James in the main game.
This revised version of the game was ported back to the PS2 and PC and billed as a director's cut under both the "Greatest Hits" and "Platinum" labels depending on location.
The PC version of Silent Hill 2 was released in December 2002, ported by Creature Labs and published by Konami. The PC edition is equivalent to the Xbox port, including the Maria scenario and the extra ending. The port generally received worse reviews due to its controls, which were keyboard only, mouse support limited to menu and map navigation, although the game had support for a USB controller. Other added features included the ability to save anywhere, quicksave and quickload, and a movie menu to view trailers for Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3, as well as any ingame movie once seen by the player.
Reception
Reaction to the game was generally favorable. Rating aggregation site Game Rankings gives Silent Hill 2 an average rating of 86% for the original PS2 version while giving the expanded Restless Dreams version 82% on Xbox and 90% on PS2. MetaCritic gave the original PS2 version an average rating of 89%, and an average of 84% for the expanded Xbox version. GameSpot UK gave the PS2 and Xbox versions ratings of 7.7 and 7.9 out of 10 respectively. A review by IGN for the original PS2 version praised it as "a damn scary game, entirely worth every last cent." Ben Croshaw, A popular game reviewer/comedian, also highly favored the game, except for the gameplay, and currently holds it as one of his favorite games of all time.
The PC ports typically were given lower ratings than the other consoles. The original PC port holds a rating of 72% on Game Rankings while the expanded version holds a rating of 6.2 at GameSpot, with the score lowered by the categories of "Gameplay" and "Tilt" (the latter category being an abbreviation of "Reviewer's Tilt" and apparently directed at other criteria including the plot.) A 2003 review on GameSpy claimed that some of the problems with the PC port came from the difficulty in controlling the character, especially when some of the more unusual camera angles were used. A similar point was made by another IGN reviewer in December 2002, suggesting that "Keyboard play is possible, but not advised."
By the end of October 2001, Konami had announced that over a million copies of Silent Hill 2 had been sold. Since then, it has also been re-released as a Greatest Hits game.
In 2006, G4TV's X-Play declared Silent Hill 2 to be the number 1 of the "Scariest Games of All Time".
Silent hill 2 is currently one of the most popular in the series, along with 1 and 3
Trivia
- The streets and buildings were inspired and named after real writers, stores, and locations.
- The main theme, Theme of Laura, was composed by Akira Yamaoka in 3 days.
- Akira Yamaoka took recordings of over 100 footsteps for the game.
- Like Silent Hill 1, Silent Hill 2 had some things changed or edited due to graphic violence or nauseating scenes ingame. James' original attacks included dismembering limbs of the monsters, but was changed to melee and ranged weapons. Eddie's original vomiting scene was much more intense graphically and audibly.
- When James talks to Maria through the cell bars, the scene is intentionally shot in a way that makes it look like James is also inside a cell.
Gallery
 James speaks to Maria through her cell bars |
 James tries to pry open the elevator |
 Bubble Head Nurse Concept |
 Mary's monstrous form |
 James at the Toluca Lake Observation Deck |
 James begins his journey in a public restroom |
External links
| Silent Hill Games | |
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| Main Series | |
| Spin-offs | |
| Production | |
