Silent Hill 2 — 8/10

Publisher: Konami

Developer: Creature Labs

Release Date: 12/2/2002

Also Available On: PS2, Xbox

The Good: Great graphics and effects, creepy sounds and ambiance, interesting monsters and characters, decent voice work, easier than the first, recognizes joysticks

The Bad: Extremely short, story can sometimes leave you scratching your head at the end, not all endings are worth playing through again, no replay value, terrible keyboard controls, bad camera

It took me long enough to finally play SH2 and I’m glad I did. The story has nothing to do with the first one but is somewhat confusing really and not all the ends are tied off no matter what ending you choose. The graphics are actually pretty good even for today.

The thing that bothered me is the SH2 is all atmosphere and no pop-out-of-the-closet type scares. The game nails atmosphere spot on with fog effects, lighting, and down right disturbing ambiance. The main thing I loved here is that the game is a lot easier when it comes to puzzles. Almost every puzzle is just right and you can solve yourself without a walkthrough. I love the PC version more because you can save anywhere and this makes the game much more forgiving. The story is extremely short and you can beat it in 5-8 hours. One word of advice though…YouTube the endings since they’re not worth playing through the game again unless you’re a die hard fan. Another piece of advice: Get a gamepad! The keyboard controls are terrible and even the gamepad requires remapping. If you played the first game pick this up for sure since you can find it real cheap now.