Silent Hill 2 has an excellent story, and remains unbeatable in the horror genre, even if it makes a few mistakes.
James Sunderland receives a letter from Mary: His wife asking him to return to the relaxing resort known as Silent Hill, which they once visited before. The only issue is, Mary is dead but this doesn't stop James from following the trail. He arrives at Silent Hill, the foggy tourist attraction only to find it filled with disturbing monster who are out to kill him. The 'relaxing' town becomes a place of survival as you travel through dimensions trying to stay alive and hopefully, you can find the source of the letter. James is a complex character and is very interesting. His background is slowly explained through the story, but it shines the most in the environment. Clues of his past are scattered around the outstanding locations and it's fun trying to uncover his history; Even if you can barely survive the present.
Despite the constant feel of horror: The game isn't hard at all on it's standard difficulty setting. Ammo is rare, health is hidden and enemies brutalize you. Often though, it's easy to simple run by the opponents rather than face them, but even if you would rather kill everything you come across, you will probably only die a few times in your first playthrough. As far as the length goes, you will probably get around eight hours of gameplay in your first playthrough. However, thanks to extras and multiple endings, including ones only obtainable after game completion, the replay value is quite high. New weapons are also unlockable after you complete the game.
The graphics are impressive in the cutscenes but the gameplay graphics are decent. The environment looks good, but animation is quite rough, and admittedly, some colors don't blend perfectly. Also, a lot of textures are bland and lack detail. But beyond this, at a atmospheric aspect, the game exceeds nearly everything even till this day. It's one of the most disturbing games ever made, and this is brought to life by the attention to detail and creepy art design.
The locations are creatively designed, and are most definitely some of the most mentally scary areas in gaming. Hotels, hospitals and even parks are designed perfectly and makes you question even entering a room. Words painted in blood on walls offer warnings, which you may have to ignore and televisions randomly turn on. Even the sound of your own footsteps will have you looking over your back in Silent Hill 2.
The sound design is spectacularly detailed as well. Passing by a door, you may hear a loud echo surround the halls of a rather silent hospital, or an old door opening slowly. So many little details makes up for the sometimes non-emotional voice-acting. Very seldom does James show any signs of fear, and it's almost as if he remains unaware of half the things happening around him.
The gameplay is basic, and is familiar for fans of the survival genre. The tank controls are sometimes unresponsive, slow and aggravating. This does enhance the horror aspect even if it's a bit unnecessary. The gameplay mostly revolves around survival, but occasional boss fights are present. These boss fights come rarely but are normally a good change of pace and are intense.
Puzzles are scattered throughout the environment, and while some require time, nearly all are easy. They do offer a reason to explore, and delay you in some of the most terrifying areas in the game. This requires some backtracking, but it's amazing how the environment continues to look just as gruesome as when you first saw it.
One of my issues with the game was it's awful camera views. Sometimes the camera is fixed, which can block out important items and make seeing enemies difficult. Sometimes you can take control of the camera, like when you're roaming around the town, but this is not as good as it could have been. The camera is stiff, much like the tank controls and sometimes it seems as if it's fighting against you.
Silent Hill 2 has a lot of flaws, including a bothersome camera, terrible controls and some poor voice-acting, but any horror fan can enjoy the intense survival aspects, the phenomenal story and the horrific environment. The presentation in Silent Hill 2 may not have a great first impression, but the experience is emotionally pleasing. Once you get pass the issues, you have a promising game which few should miss.