Restless Dreams

Since Halloween was last weekend, I was going to use this post to talk about my top ten favorite horror games and what I think makes them both scary and good. However, after making my list, I discovered that the only thing I had any real interest in talking about was the game at my number one spot: Silent Hill 2.

In addition to being my favorite horror game, Silent Hill 2 is present on my short list of greatest games of all time. It tells the story of James Sunderland, a somber, estranged man who has lost his wife to an unspecified incurable disease. Three years after his wife's death, he receives a letter from her, beckoning him to the town of Silent Hill. Upon arriving, James finds the permanently foggy town completely abandoned save for a little girl, two emotionally unstable characters, and hordes of hellish, grotesque monsters. In addition, he finds a woman named Maria who looks exactly like his dead wife, only younger and sexier. Each character is an interesting addition to the roster, wandering around in their own little world and dealing with the emotional baggage that plagues them. It is strongly hinted at throughout the entire game that while Silent Hill is definitely a place where one faces demons, they aren't always the kind that go bump in the night.

There are many things that make Silent Hill 2 special. Here's my top five.

1. James

James' story is one of self-discovery. He has secrets locked away in his mind that he can't bear to remember. Everything in Silent Hill drips with symbolism and insight into his psyche. In fact, even the other characters seem to exist solely to highlight James' story. Learning the truth about Angela and Eddie's pasts gives the player insight into the kinds of people that Silent Hill attracts and makes them question what kind of a character they've been controlling. Each monster is specifically designed to bring out an aspect of James' personality, including the villain that the series is most known for: Pyramid Head. It all comes together to create the most personal story I've ever seen in a game. During the course of the story, you become very connected to James, which is both fascinating and very disturbing. It's particularly interesting because even at the end of the game, we know very little about his life. A short blurb in the Silent Hill 3 strategy guide mentions that he was a clerk, and we know that he took vacations with his wife to Silent Hill, but that's really all we know about his past. And yet, at the end of the game, I felt like I knew everything about him. The game focuses on James so heavily that at times it just feels like a character analysis, and if you've got a character that's interesting enough, that's definitely not a bad thing.

2. Horror

I feel like good horror can make you scared of anything. Silent Hill 2 made me scared of fog, rust, water, sewers, prisons, museums, hospitals, mannequins, nurses, straitjackets, stairs, meat lockers, the dark, and Pyramid Head. That's quite a laundry list for one game. What makes it even more impressive is that Silent Hill 2 does not contain a single scripted pop-out scare in the entire game. Every scare in the game is executed by means of atmosphere, superior design, and a tense, gnawing feeling that the game is messing with your mind. Oh, and Pyramid Head.Towards the end of the game, there's this really long boat ride out to a hotel in the middle of a lake. You control the boat the whole time, and the ride goes on for so long that at first you start thinking that you're missing something. Then, you start thinking that something is going to pop out at you any moment. There's no shadows in the water, no dramatic music, but you feel it, like hot breath on your neck. The ride continues, soundless and static, and you start to grind your teeth, bracing yourself for the coming attack, but none ever comes. When you finally arrive at your destination, you breathe a heavy sigh of relief. Silent Hill spared you this time. Of course, in retrospect, there was nothing in the lake. I KNOW there's nothing in the lake, and yet every time I get through that segment, I feel as if the town itself is letting me go; allowing me to live, so that I can face my demons at the hotel. It's the kind of stuff that stays with you. A while back, I was driving through Houston pretty early on a weekend. I was the only car on the road, and a deep, thick fog hung over the city. I put on the Silent Hill soundtrack and drove right through. It was one of the creepiest things I've ever experienced.

3. Emotional Atmosphere

If I could pick one word to describe Silent Hill 2, it's 'melancholy.' It's a strange departure from most horror, which is tense, adrenaline-driven, and exciting. Silent Hill 2 is slow, sluggish, and feels emotionally draining. James, in particular, drives this feeling forward with an estranged, alienated attitude that really makes it seem like he has nothing to live for. He cares about finding his wife, but never really gets passionate about it. It always feels as though he knows that his wife is dead and that he will never find her, but just can't let it go. I really applaud the designers for their attention to detail in this respect. Everything from the voice acting, to the writing on the walls, to the fact that James doesn't even close his car door when he goes into the town accentuates the feelings of loneliness and despair that the characters all feel. Long before you know the ending, you know it can't go well. There is no light in Silent Hill.

4.Bending the medium

Silent Hill 2 really pushes the gaming medium for all it's worth. It defies convention at every turn. In fact, just as a video game, it's actually kind of terrible. The controls are clunky, there's not a lot of weapon variety, combat is boring, and the pacing is slow. Oddly enough, however, it all seems to work in its favor. In the "Making Of Silent Hill 2" documentary they mention the fact that it takes ten minutes of running down roads just to get into Silent Hill. Then, there's another five minutes before you see the first monster. It was a stylistic choice to make it seem like the town was really, truly isolated. There are very few games that have the guts to withhold combat for fifteen minutes, but they knew that they were taking risks by bending the rules, and it worked. The clunky control scheme and the bad camera actually heighten the tension in scary situations, and the non-conventional story really makes it stand out as one of the best game narratives of all time.

5. Silent Hill

Silent Hill is more than just the name and setting of the game. It's also a main character. It pushes James in the direction he needs to go and guides him down his path of discovery. Sections of the town are often blocked off or completely missing. The town is in control at all times and it makes you feel very small and powerless. For me, one of the things that makes the town so interesting is that while you know that it's powerful and that it attracts a certain type of psychopath, you never really know what it is. Is it a place of punishment or redemption? Does it have a mind of it's own or does it just manifest what's in its occupants' heads? Is it somehow a benign force or does it have true malicious intent? This ambiguity is addressed in the game's six endings. In most games with multiple endings, which ending you receive is based on a decision (sometimes two) that you make in the story. Silent Hill 2, however, gives you an ending based on how you play the game, and it takes in a lot of factors. What you choose to look at, how much time you spend in certain areas, and even how much time you spend with low health all affect the ending you receive. This doesn't just shape the character of James. It changes what the town means to James through every choice he makes.

If you're a gamer who has never played Silent Hill 2, you really owe it to yourself to give it a shot, even if you're not a horror fan. It's one of my favorites, and when Roger Ebert comes knocking on my door to prove him wrong, it's the first thing I'm going to show him.