Silent Hill 2

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Silent Hill 2

Developer(s)	KCET Team Silent
Publisher(s)	Konami
Release date(s)	^/ September 24, 2001 September 27, 2001 November 23, 2001
Genre(s)	Survival Horror/Psychological horror
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Mature (M) BBFC: 15
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2 Xbox PC
Media	DVD-ROM CD-ROM

Silent Hill 2 is the second installment in the Silent Hill Survival Horror series. The game was released in North America on September 24, 2001, Japan on September 27, 2001, and in Europe on November 23, 2001. It was first released on the Sony PlayStation 2 and was later ported to the Microsoft Xbox and PC.

While the game is staged in the series's namesake town, it is not a direct sequel to the first Silent Hill game. Instead, the game takes the perspective of a new character, James, who receives a letter, apparently from his late wife Mary, who died from a disease three years prior to the game, informing him that she is waiting for him in their 'special place,' the quiet, peaceful resort town of Silent Hill. When James arrives in town, he discovers it has undergone a radical transformation, shrowded in fog and inhabited by strange inhuman creatures. As he progresses through the wapred reality of the town, he finds others who have been drawn to the town for similar reasons of himself, and discovers the real reason he has come to Silent Hill.

The game was declared "Scariest Console Game of All Time" by G4TV's X-Play, during a 2006 Halloween episode.

1 Plot
2 Alternate Versions
3 Sequels
4 Plot Influences/Trivia
5 Connections to later games
6 Endings
7 Music
8 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

James Sunderland and his wife Mary are a young, happy couple. Years earlier for their honeymoon, James took Mary to the quiet, peaceful resort town of Silent Hill. The couple returned many times, and the town became their 'special place'; a place where they could share their love for each other. But sadly this happiness did not last. Mary was diagnosed with a rare and deadly disease (Konami has yet to name what the disease was/is) and had no hope of recovery. The reality of her terminal illness hit them both very hard. Eventually, Mary became so ill that she had to remain at the hospital. While she suffered, James did as well.

Before Mary's disease kills her, James suffocates her with a pillow during their last visit. Three days later, which James has convinced himself were three long years, he receives a letter addressed from Mary. Convinced that his dead wife has somehow sent him a letter beckoning him back to the town of Silent Hill, he heads to there in an attempt to find her.

Oddly, Silent Hill is not the same, beautiful town from the Sunderlands' past. In addition to the strange, omnipresent fog, the whole town seems to be rotting away and abandoned. Soon, James discovers bizarre creatures are roaming the streets. It seems in entering the town he had been drawn into another dimension, some theorize the demons he must face in Silent Hill represent the personal demons of his character.

While searching for his wife, James meets others who were called to the town just as he was:

Angela Orosco, an unstable girl in her late teens (according to Konami, she is nineteen) apparently responsible for the murder of her father, Thomas, a man who abused her physically, mentally and sexually. She is lost in Silent Hill, where, seemingly confused and disoriented, she tells James that she is searching for her mother. Later in the game the player is given clues as to why Angela is possibly trapped in Silent Hill, which includes a meeting with a twisted representation of her father, and it is theorized that Angela is lost in Silent Hill because she took her own life after the torment of being abused by her father. James last sees her ascending a burning staircase (which, according to the map, does not exist) in the Lake View Hotel, possibly forced to live in her hell for eternity. It can be said that depending on the ending received, she is a contrast to James as a character, as the two suffer from similar guilt but may or may not deal with it in a different way, where Angela is condemned to damnation for murdering her father, but James has the possibility of not making the same mistake as well as redeeming himself depending on the actions chosen by the player.

Eddie Dombrowski, a young man who dresses like a child and seems to possess the mental state of one, too. He seems to harness a twisted mentality, admitting to James that one of his actions involved killing the dog of a football coach and/or player (the game is unclear on this). Eddie then shot him as well, but panicked more from the fact he had shot a human. He was then drawn to Silent Hill because of this. Additionally, when James comes across Eddie throughout the game, Eddie claims to see people who laugh at him, and by the end of the game he has gone from committing a horror-filled murder to deciding that the solution to his problems is simply to kill anyone who bothers him. When James confronts him, Eddie turns on him and James is forced to kill him in self-defense. Some theorize that Eddie isn't a living person, but rather another tormented soul trapped in Silent Hill by the insane actions he committed.

Laura, an innocent eight-year-old orphan who befriended Mary in the hospital and hates James for abandoning his wife when she was sick. She does not know that Mary is dead at the start of the game and has come to Silent Hill in hopes of finding her friend. As she does not seem to encounter the monsters or malevolent form of Silent Hill that James does, she passes through the town easily, and thinks nothing of tricking James and avoiding him. One theory is that Laura continues to exist in the "real" world throughout the entire game due to her pure and innocent nature as a child, and therefore does not encounter the monstrosities and twisted transformation of Silent Hill that James finds himself in. Mary wanted to adopt Laura, and, depending on the player's actions, James may take up that cause and leave Silent Hill with her in tow.

Maria, an apparent stripper at Heaven's Night who bears an uncanny resemblance to Mary in both face and voice - only her taste in clothing, hair color, and attitude are different. It seems far from coincidental that James first encounters her in Rosewater Park, his and Mary's first potential "special place." Throughout James' time with her, Maria acts very seductively towards him. Strangely, Maria knows things about James that only Mary would know and, coincidentally, is never around when James happens to bump into another person in the town. It's as if he is the only person she ever comes in contact with.

Pyramid Head, the main monster in Silent Hill 2. Pyramid Head through out the game appears to cause James pain and suffering but never, until the end, to kill him. Pyramid Head is a manefistation of James guilt and desire of punish himself. A painting in the Silent Hill Historical Society building implies he may be a representative of torturers or executioners from the town's past.

Throughout the game Maria is killed three times and James is forced to watch two of them. After her first death, Maria comes back to life and doesn't seem to remember anything that happened. Maria is killed a third and final time and during this, James presumably realizes Maria isn't real, but a twisted manifestation of everything he wanted Mary to be. His own grief and his desire to see Mary were so strong that through the dark powers of Silent Hill the manifestation of Maria came into existence, possibly as well as the other dark creatures that inhabit the twisted Silent Hill James encounters.

Throughout the game, the actions of the player determine James' fate and whether he falls into damnation or rises to redemption. If the player's actions lead James to the path of redemption, during his revelation he will understand that the manifested delusion of Maria and additional dark manifestations (such as Pyramid Head) are no longer necessary and James will confront and defeat them.

In addition, it's important to mention that we can assume that many things that Eddie, Angela, and James see in Silent Hill are reflections of their guilt and grief for the crimes and sins they have committed.

Unlike the other games in the series, Silent Hill 2 doesn't have a canonized ending. The fourth installment of the series reveals that James and Mary never returned from their trip to Silent Hill, yet it's been pointed out that it is never clearly stated if this is because he didn't survive his trip to Silent Hill, or if he remained trapped in the malevolent realm of Silent Hill, or if it is because he did survive and escaped back to reality in order to leave to start a new life elsewhere with someone else (specifically in his adoption of Laura in one of the possible endings).

[edit] Alternate Versions

Silent Hill 2 was ported to the Xbox, with a new subtitle (最期の唄 in Japan, Restless Dreams in North America, Inner Fears in Europe) and a new scenario featuring Maria. This extra found its way on to the PlayStation 2 when the game was re-released as a Director's Cut, either labeled "Greatest Hits" or "Platinum," depending on location. James's original scenario is now identified as "Letter from Silent Heaven," and Maria's is appropriately called "Born from a Wish." ("Born from a Wish" was also included in the Director's Cut version of the PC port, developed by Creature Labs.)

The original European edition is also notable for including a Making Of DVD video created by France's FunTV, featuring trailers, an artwork gallery and a documentary on the title's development.

[edit] Sequels

As of 2006 two sequel titles exist. Another sequel is planned for at least two next generation console.

Additionally, a prequel is planned for the Playstation Portable.

Silent Hill: Origins (2006)

[edit] Plot Influences/Trivia

See Silent Hill influences and trivia

[edit] Connections to later games

In Silent Hill 3 the heroine, Heather, discovers someone dead in their apartment, sitting in a chair before a television in a scene very similar to the one described above. While this is clearly a reference to the scene from the second game, the connection between the scenes is unclear. At another point Heather discovers something lodged in a toilet, just as James did in Silent Hill 2. While James reached in to fish it out, Heather turns to the camera and wonders aloud what sort of person would actually do that.

There are several more references that appear if a Silent Hill 2 save file is on the same memory card.

Silent Hill 2 appears to contain several foreshadowings of Silent Hill 4: at one point, James enters a bar with a cryptic message scrawled on the wall: "there was a HOLE here. it's gone now." This could be a reference to the kinds of spontaneously appearing and vanishing "holes" Henry uses to travel between realms in Silent Hill 4. Also, James finds a newspaper story about a killer named Walter Sullivan, who ultimately was used as the central antagonist of Silent Hill 4.

The fourth installment also features James' father, Frank, in a small role as the building super. Henry mentions that Frank's son and daughter-in-law disappeared in Silent Hill "a few years back." This would seem to suggest that after James killed Mary he went on the run, or may allude to James' "In Water" ending sequence, in which James, unable to bear the guilt of Mary's death, drives his car into the lake. Several of Silent Hill 2's endings involve James returning to the "real" world, but Silent Hill 4 avoids specifying which of these was the canon ending by leaving James' current situation uncertain. The items required to get the "Rebirth" ending in Silent Hill 2 are also the same items used in Silent Hill 4 by Walter Sullivan.

[edit] Endings

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Leave: This ending in the game is acquired by the player and James essentially showing a will to live (healing injuries quickly, etc.), and showing remorse for your actions and a dedication to finding Mary (constantly examining Mary's picture, ignoring Maria, etc.). After the final battle with the demon Maria, James is transported to his wife Mary at her deathbed. Mary forgives James and they have one last heartfelt goodbye. He is then shown leaving the town, tracing a path through the graveyard with Laura, while Mary's full letter is read aloud, with her voice-over, in which she says that James made her happy and he should move on with his life. This ending implies that James really loved Mary despite the pain brought by her severe illness, and has enacted her wish in adopting Laura. This is supposedly the 'best' ending as James has learned from his mistakes and has carried out Mary's final wish of adopting Laura and leaving to start a new life.

Maria: To get this ending, the player must make James seem rather attached to Maria, and not Mary. This includes checking up on Maria constantly and not letting her get hurt much. It also involves completely ignoring Mary's speech near the end. After the game is complete James is seen leaving Silent Hill with Maria, but Maria pauses to cough a few times, suggesting that James has learned nothing from his experiences in Silent Hill and that the whole thing might happen again someday when Maria's sickness gets worse. Mary's letter is read out with her voice-over at the beginning of this sequence.

In Water: After examining Angela's knife often, spending long periods of time with low health, reading the suicide diary on the roof of Brookhaven hospital and examining the message to James in Neely's bar, the In Water ending is activated. In this ending James is transported to Mary at her deathbed. Mary forgives James and tells him he has suffered enough, but before they can part properly she starts to cough violently and then dies. James then carries Mary's body all the way back to his car and, in an unseen sequence, drives into the lake, killing himself. Mary's letter is then read out with Mary's voice-over in an underwater background.

Rebirth: After completing the game once, new items appear in various locations. These items are called: White Chrism, Book of Lost Memories, Obsidian Goblet, Book of Crimson Ceremony. Once you obtain all of these items and beat the game it will activate this ending. In it, James rows to the center of Toluca Lake, to what appears to be a church, which the screen then focuses on, with a voice-over of James talking about "the old gods" still being alive. It is speculated that he performs The Crimson Ceremony to try to bring Mary back to life.

UFO: Just like the first Silent Hill game, the second has a UFO ending as well (this is only included in the 'alternate version' of the game detailed above). After completing a task similar to the one required of the first game's UFO ending, a UFO lands in front of James and, not only do aliens come out, but the first game's protagonist, Harry Mason, does as well. Harry and James swap questions about their lost loved ones, poking fun at the striking similarities between the plots of the two games and the simgle-mindedness of the protagonists, and James is zapped and taken aboard the spacecraft. This ending is set up as a grainy black and white silent film. Dialogue is set up using intertitles and the sound is slow to react to the action, suggesting a live performance (such was the tradition of the silent film).

"DOG": After completing the game with all the three main endings ('Leave', 'In Water' and 'Maria') or once with 'Rebirth', a Dog Key item becomes available. If you obtain this key, it can be used to unlock a particular room in the final area of the game. Inside is a small dog standing on a stool at a kitschy computer console. James drops to his knees in anguish and exclaims, "So you're behind all this!" in Japanese. The dog then comes over and licks his face. A song consisting of pitched dog barks plays as the credits roll, accompanied by various humorous images of the game's characters, including pictures of James showing off his muscles, Angela dancing and Maria in lingerie, complete with an orgasmic moan at the end.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Music

Main article: Silent Hill 2 Original Soundtracks

The original soundtrack for Silent Hill 2, composed by Akira Yamaoka, was released in Japan on October 3, 2001 and its catalogue number is KMCA-120.