Silent Hill 2 / YMMV

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- There is still a tremendous back-and-forth argument on the correct way to interpret James. Many see him as a heartbreakingly sympathetic man put into a terrible situation and who ended his wife's suffering as a result, while others see him as a selfish Jerkass who murdered his wife to move on with his life. However, the fans aren't the only ones, as James himself is unsure of which is really true, and his exact motivations for killing Mary vary depending on the ending you get.
- Beyond pursuing the protagonist, what Pyramid Head's exact purpose is is a matter of debate amongst the fandom. Theories range from a demon brought to existence to torture James for his perceived prior sins to being a personification of James' repressed sexual desire.
- Despite what the main page would suggest, there is actual debate as to whether or not Pyramid Head really is a rapist. As this fan eloquently argues, it's plausible to instead believe that the infamous assault on a Mannequin scene is actually a re-enactment of James' smothering his wife.
  - It is worth noting that Masahiro Ito has disputed the rape theory, saying Pyramid Head is meant to make James face the facts of his actions and that PH is not, in fact, a rapist.
- Some people think Angela's mother was being abused by her father as well, and reacted callously to Angela as a result of fearing punishment from him.
- Before James says "It's hot as Hell in here" as Angela ascends up the fiery stairs, he's seen wiping the front of his face. Was he wiping sweat off his brow because of how hot it was, or was he wiping away tears running down his eyes knowing he can't help Angela?
- In the "Maria" ending, James' line, "You'd better do something about that cough...", and the way it's delivered has been interpreted differently by players. It could either be concern (i.e. "You should see a doctor."), or a subtle threat ("... or else.") Either way, each interpretation implies a different kind of tragic ending for the two.
- Mary in the Leave ending. Is she just a manifestation of the town meant to soothe James after everything he's been through, or is it really Mary, given a final chance to speak with James and convey that she has no ill will towards him?
Anti-Climax Boss: Pyramid Head. When you first meet him, you'll just have to evade his attacks till he leaves. Near the end of the game, you encounter TWO Pyramid Heads. You'll have to repeat the same process, then they'll just spontaneously kill themselves.
Awesome Music:
- Theme of Laura it is Silent Hill 2's main theme despite the name.
- The reprise used for Angela's suicide is haunting and beautiful in the same way that Not Tomorrow was in the original game. Again, despite having a Nonindicative Name.
- Betrayal, for the final confrontation with Pyramid Head.
- White Noiz, which plays in the opening Disgusting Public Toilet scene. Have you ever wanted to hear what it would feel like to have your soul transcend out of your body?
- Promise, the standard end credits theme, and its reprise.
Base-Breaking Character: Pyramid Head, though it isn't the fault of Silent Hill 2 by itself. The problem is that other installments in the franchise not by Team Silent, starting with the movie and Silent Hill: Homecoming, included Pyramid Head in them not because of any symbolism that was involved with the characters, but because they were iconic to the franchise, making him into something of a Mascot. Most people appreciate Pyramid Head in the context of Silent Hill 2, but several fans feel that he's been overexposed, to the point where some newer fans of the franchise don't even find him scary in the context of this game.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
- The radio "game show" that takes place in the hospital elevator. Maria simply asks "What was that?" and nothing more is made of it in the story. From a gameplay standpoint, though, it might be good to pay attention. The correct answers are the code to open a chest in one of the storage rooms of the hospital with a nice amount of supplies. Get the answers wrong and you get a face full of acid.
- The Dog Ending certainly qualifies.
- Maria asks James about what happened to Laura and that they have to find her. Laura is never brought up from her again. It's possible this aspect of Mary's original personality was erased from Maria when Pyramid Head kills her [for the first time] shortly after that exchange.
Complete Monster (includes The Novel, by Sadamu Yamashita & Masahiro Ito): Thomas Orosco stands out as the only truly irredeemable character in this work about confronting one's own flaws. A brutal man with a history of alcoholism and violence, his home life hid an even worse abuser: An incestuous rapist, Thomas sexually abused his daughter Angela every single night and turned a blind eye to his own son participating in the abuse. So deep were the scars left by him that the town brings the memory of Thomas to life as the Abstract Daddy, a twisted manifestation of his lust for Angela. Despite being dead by the time the game takes place, Thomas was just as wicked and abhorrent in life as the literal monster that Silent Hill made to represent him.
Demonic Spiders:
- The Bubblehead Nurses are a nasty spike in enemy difficulty compared to the relatively simpler Lying Figures and Mannequins, being much faster and durable while wielding weapons that actually increase their reach. It gets particularly bad when Maria is also present, since the Nurses can easily hit her (intentionally or by accident) if the player tries to get past them.
- The Abstract Daddies. A lot of bullets are required to take one down. They also have a wide collision box but at the same time inhabit really narrow hallways, meaning that running past them is not a good option at all unless you're fine getting hit once or twice while trying to squeeze your way through their models. And God forbid if you end up sandwiched by two different Daddies at once.
Difficulty Spike: Brookhaven Hospital, where the Bubblehead Nurses are much tougher than the other enemies you've fought up to this point.
Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: Silent Hill 2 is often held up as the pinnacle of the series and one of the best examples of the Survival Horror genre. However, most of its acclaim was focused on its story, atmosphere and visual design, with many critics less impressed by its awkward, repetitive combat and nonsensical, unintuitive moon logic puzzles. Interestingly, the game actually featured an option to disable its combat altogether, allowing players to experience the game solely for its story and puzzles.
Epileptic Trees: Considering what is revealed in the game, this has lead to many people to argue what's the true ending of Silent Hill 2: A common fan argument is the "Leave" ending, where James leaves Silent Hill with Laura (and while most don't like Laura, it at least provides a happy ending for James) or the tragic In Water ending, where while James does take responsibility for killing Mary, he cannot accept life without her and drowns himself in Toluca Lake. The other two endings ( the "Maria" and "Rebirth") are also debated upon, but not as much the "Leave" and "In Water" endings. The fact that Masahiro Ito and Guy Cihi both have stated to believe the "In Water" ending is canon^note and Shrug of God is put in effect doesn't help matters either (the only official word is that James' real motivations to search for Mary and his fate are for the individual player to decide, so looking to any other source for the "true" ending or trying to determine the answer for other players is Dramatically Missing the Point).
Even Better Sequel: The first Silent Hill was well-received, but Silent Hill 2 is not only considered the defining game of the series, but also one of the greatest achievements in video game horror (and indeed video game narrative in general), primarily thanks to its more psychologically compelling and complex storyline.
Fanfic Fuel:
- What if Laura could see Maria?
- Given how Laura never appears again if you don't choose the "Leave" ending and the fact she's last seen hurt, broken and angry at James over the death of Mary, could it be possible that Laura gets trapped in the town? Would Silent Hill use her feelings to create a manifestation of Mary for her to learn her lesson?
Fourth Wall Myopia: Some fans hate Laura for her antagonistic role, which to many feels too much of an aggressive, unpleasant brat. Not helping is when that brattiness manifests in ways that actively impede James (such as when she kicks an important key away from James and stomps on his hand for trying to stop her) or even endanger him (as when she locks him in a room full of monsters). In-universe, she does have her justifications for acting the way she does, which are revealed over the course of the game, and Word of God is that she can't see the monsters. But this is revealed so vaguely in the game that, combined with her antics — especially her final scene where she rages at James at the worst possible time, which is the metaphorical final straw for many — many fans don't acknowledge (or care) that this is the case. Combine with the fact that the Leave ending, the only unambiguously good ending in the game, has Laura leaving Silent Hill with James and suggesting he's going to adopt her, and the result is that she has a prominent hatedom.
Franchise Original Sin:
- Silent Hill 2 is universally lauded as the best entry in the whole series, yet it's also responsible for introducing the concept of the hero having to own up to their tragic backstory as they enter the town, a plot point that would become increasingly controversial in later installments such as Homecoming and Downpour for instance. It was better received here than the games before and after this one developed by Team Silent, as it didn't focus so much on the characters being flawed individuals, but rather as capable fighters trying to survive against the hordes of monsters, making James' struggle and the twist that inspired him to go to the town feel suspenseful and unique. Once the games were exported to American developers almost all of them tried to reprise this narrative, with flawed protagonists having to come to terms with their tragic backstories to escape or be punished. The only exception was Silent Hill: Shattered Memories which is a reimagining of the first game, but it still passes a sort of moral judgment on Harry depending on his actions.
- The game is also notable for introducing "Pyramid Head" and the sexy nurse demons, two of the series' most iconic monsters who would appear in later games and the live-action movies, so much that they've become the unofficial mascots of the series. Their use in this game was effective as they were not only there to represent James' sexual frustrations towards Mary and the guilt he had towards murdering her, but because out of the Team Silent-developed games, they were only exclusive to this game alone^note. After Team Silent disbanded, they began appearing constantly in later games and in the movie adaptations; the symbolism that made them unique was gone, and they became generic slasher villains who popped up as mere fanservice with little-to-no symbolism whatsoever.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In the West, the game is held in high regard and is considered the pinnacle of the series as described above. It wasn't all that well received in Japan and it, in fact, kind of bombed. This was mostly because Japanese fans were expecting a direct sequel to Silent Hill instead of what they deemed to be a spin-off with tenuous links to the first game at best. Silent Hill 3 did fare better in Japan due to having stronger links to the first entry, while in the West it had more of a lukewarm response since across the pond, the lore about The Order is generally considered one of the duller aspects of the series.
Goddamned Bats: Lying Figures can get to be this (especially on Hard Mode), since some of them do not wait to be stomped before they immediately crawl away and they can do a surprising amount of damage if they crawl right into you. Being the only regular enemy able to attack at a longer range also makes them quite the pain for those who either have yet to find a firearm or are running low on ammo.
Harsher in Hindsight: At one point in the game James must jump into a dug grave with his name on a tombstone. In Silent Hill 4, Frank Sunderland once told Henry Townsend that his son went to Silent Hill and hasn't been heard from since. However, James' true fate is ambiguous.
He Panned It, Now He Sucks!: Game Informer's lukewarm-to-negative review of the game proved very controversial to much the magazine's readership, in no small part because they tapped a reviewer who was known for being an action/twitch gamer and admitted to disliking the Survival Horror genre as a whole. While the logic behind this choice was somewhat sound (i.e. "If this guy likes it, then it must be great!"), assigning the review to a writer openly biased against games like it also had a very obvious flaw (i.e. "If this guy hates it, that might not mean it's terrible."). Their defense of the initial review, continued potshots at the game, and disbelief at its sales numbers in several subsequent issues didn't help in smoothing things over, either. Game Informer would subsequently praise the game in retrospective articles, and unlike many of their other "retro" reviews, they never even bothered to archive it, indicating they consider it an Old Shame.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Angela, who suffered at the hands of an abusive father, is voiced by Donna Burke, who would later famously sing "Sins of the Father."
- The infamous "Dog" ending has gotten even funnier since the Doge meme came about, since both are Shiba Inu breeds.
Ho Yay Shipping: You'd be surprised, what with the many Alternative Character Interpretation, that James was gay all along and that Pyramid Head is the physical manifestation of his pent-up emotions, people tend to pair them up A LOT.
It Was His Sled: James killed his wife. By extension is that Pyramid Head, the monster most persistent in chasing after and antagonizing James, is a physical embodiment of his guilt and desire to be punished for it.
Jerkass Woobie: While how sympathetic James is a matter of debate amongst fans and largely depends on the player's own experience, there is no doubt about the plight of these characters he meets on his journey through Silent Hill:
- Maria is a tulpa of Mary Shepherd-Sunderland who shares her memories, personality, and attachments, and unlike Pyramid Head, is an independent entity on at least some level. When she discovers the truth about her nature as a torture implement created by Silent Hill, she nearly shoots herself before accepting her destiny in the hopes of earning James' love. She meets up with him only to get separated from him later, and sobs when she finds him again. Throughout the game, she is killed repeatedly by Pyramid Head before facing off with James and attempting to kill him when he rejects her. Once she's at his mercy, all she can do is repeat his name over and over again. To drive the nail in further in one ending, it's implied that even though she got what she wanted from him, she is about to suffer the same fate as Mary.
- Eddie counts as well, though there's more emphasis on the former part than the latter in his final appearance.
Magnificent Bitch ("Dog" Ending): Literally! Fluffy little Mira is the creator of Silent Hill via virtual reality simulation. Both an adorable Precious Puppy and the mastermind behind all of protagonist James Sunderland's traumas, Mira creates Silent Hill to better James and his broken psyche no matter what it takes, overseeing it all from the keys of an adorable, specialized doggy control panel. When James finally finds Mira, he capitulates beneath her and her method, all as Mira lets him know he is forgiven for his sins by tenderly licking his cheek.
Memetic Mutation:
- Good Heavens, just look at the time!◊
- "There was a hole here. It's gone now."
- "This town is full of monsters! How can you sit there and eat pizza?!"^note
Moral Event Horizon: Eddie could count as a Jerkass Woobie up until he cheerfully brags about how he violently killed a dog and shot its owner's knee.
Narm:
- The voice acting in Silent Hill 2 is generally a lot better than first time... but to some it can still feel rough, due to awkward cadence, tone, and inflection.
- The bizarre noise replacing the radio static to tell players monsters are present in Maria's scenario; while unnerving and loud at first, it quickly begins to sound like you're being pursued by Jet Jaguar.
- And there's also Laura's little meltdown when James tells her he killed Mary.
  Laura: You killer! Why'd you do it?! I hate you! I want her back! Give her back to me! I knew it, you didn't care about her! I hate you, James! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!
- The boss fight against Eddie. There's not much in the way of combat tactics in this game besides just spamming the attack button on whatever your target is so, more often than not, the battle ends up consisting of two adult men (with one of them also dressed like a elementary schooler, making things look even more ridiculous) running around like headless chickens while shooting/smacking/screaming at each other occasionally, this assuming they don't just stay still out in the open trading shots while tanking them.
  - The awkward grunting noises Eddie makes when he takes damage are one thing, but then there's his death scream, which sounds like a mixture between a nazi zombie and Bobby Boucher:
    Eddie: RUUUUEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!!!
Narm Charm: To fans, the awkward voice acting from the original releases made the characters much more believable as ordinary people, in that they sound like people who aren't professional actors (as opposed to simply sounding like bad actors). The new voice acting was so poorly received not because it was bad, but because it was too good; to wit, it sounded much more slickly dramatic and professionally acted, which fans believe undercut the verisimilitude of the game's story. Troy Baker, for instance, does an outstanding job voicing numerous gruff, badass characters, but James Sunderland is a decidedly non-badass Classical Anti-Hero and the "gravelly tough-guy" voice doesn't suit him.
Never Live It Down: James sticking his hand into a toilet without so much as a sound of protest or even rolling up his sleeve. Not only do the sequels love to make fun of it, but it's a fairly common Shout-Out for the series.
Nausea Fuel: Meeting Eddie while he barfs incessantly into the toilet. You don't see anything, but the sound effects are more than enough.
Player Punch:
- Pyramid Head suddenly appearing behind James without any warning and giving chase is utterly terrifying and made gutwrenching when he murders Maria while James looks on from an elevator, helpless.
- If that wasn't bad enough, Maria comes back to life and is killed at least twice more.
- Although the plot twist has fallen into It Was His Sled territory, the reveal that James killed his wife is still quite devastating.
- Angela calling out James for his white-knighting near the end of the game. Her speech makes it clear that her problems go deep, and can't be solved so easily. Given James has just come to his own crushing realization, it's worse by the fact that even if she could be helped, James really isn't one who's suited to help her.
Porting Disaster:
- The PC version a couple of issues. Despite featuring a few improvements over the PlayStation 2 version, such a per-pixel flashlight lighting like in the Xbox version, the ability to swap weapons during gameplay, a quicksave feature, and a movie gallery, unfortunately the game's audio was heavily compressed and lacking detail, the FMVs were also compressed and converted to play at 30 FPS that introduced ghosting, simplified or missing visual effects (especially the fog and shadow effects), and introduced some bugs that weren't in the console releases. The game also wasn't designed to run on multi-core machines, which causes voices de-synch and other issues if you don't manually set it to run on one CPU core (Ctrl+Alt+Delete/Ctrl+Shift+Esc → Processes → Set Affinity). Thanks to the ongoing community efforts of various modders, however, these issues can be easily fixed on modern systems with the Enhanced Edition project and then some.
- The Silent Hill HD Collection due to Konami's loss of the original source code, renders SH2 and 3 this. Technical issues include voice acting that lags slightly in cutscenes (inexcusable considering they recorded new voices for all the characters for this release), the removal of graphics that were used to cover up incomplete graphics in the original game, and slowdown in the PS3 version whenever the HDD is accessed, among many other issues. The collection also made several changes to the game's visual style, such as making the colors more murkier/duller and effectively removing the series' iconic fog, which were very poorly received by fans.
- While the Xbox version of the game plays perfectly on an original Xbox, playing it on an Xbox 360 turns it into this, as the emulation is imperfect. This leads to a lot of flickering/missing textures in the scenery.
Questionable Casting: How a majority of fans reacted to the change in voice actors for the HD Collection, with Troy Baker and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn replacing Guy Cihi and Monica Horgan as James and Mary Sunderland being particular standouts. Not that they’re bad voice actors (quite the opposite, really); rather, many felt they were miscast in the roles, believing Baker’s gruff antihero portrayal didn’t fit James’ overall character, whereas McGlynn was criticized for sounding too deep for the soft and gentle spoken Mary. Even McGlynn noted her own voice was too deep, but the producers cast her anyway. Similarly, it is really hard to make Liam O'Brien sound like a loser, with his take on Eddie suffering as a result.
Sacred Cow: Much like the other big PlayStation 2 Konami game, criticizing Silent Hill 2 will not end well for someone on a gaming website or forum. There's a reason why the disastrous HD Collection is so maligned for providing players with a poorly-rebuilt version of the original game.
Scrappy Mechanic: It's very minor from a gameplay standpoint, but pressing any buttons while examining an object or location will immediately close the dialog box. This includes the controls for movement, making it very easy to accidentally cut off flavor text before you can read it as you approach to check things out, and James has several thoughts and observations that he will not repeat if you missed them the first time (as does Maria in her scenario).
Scrappy Weapon: The Hyper Spray. Like the Hyper Blaster from the first game, its effectiveness depends on your end-game ranking, so it will do very poor damage unless you're good at Speed Running and meticulous at gathering items. Unlike the Blaster, the Hyper Spray has shorter range, requires you to "reload" by shaking up the can after about 10 seconds of use, and using it also damages you. Atop all this, it's just a simple spray can, so it doesn't even have the coolness factor of a sci-fi style raygun going for it (although it has some built-in humorous effect if you go to the trouble of unlocking the green spray, i.e. "death by Lysol").
Sequel Difficulty Drop: The game notably lacks a "fast" enemy type (i.e. the dog-like enemies from other Silent Hill games), allowing you to easily avoid enemies in the streets by simply running around. Enemies are only really a threat in the tight, in-door areas, and even then the game's generosity with health items and ammo make dealing with them rather straightforward, especially once you find the shotgun. It's been noted the game is intending to convey more of a feeling of dread and hostility rather than constant threat.
Signature Line:
- Mary's letter at the end of the game is one of the most impactful lines in all of Silent Hill. But it's the final line that will wring tears out of a stone.
  Mary: James... you made me happy.
- Angela's last words, as it signals how far she's gone.
  Angela: For me, it's always like this.
Slow-Paced Beginning: It can take awhile for players to get into the game. The first two hours or so of the game aren't particularly scary, as the player mostly faces unchallenging and easily avoidable enemies in a single fairly dull apartment building, culminating in an anticlimactic Hopeless Boss Fight against Pyramid Head who is effectively incapable of harming the player. This section of the game is also light on story too: the only real plot developments are the introduction of James, Pyramid Head and three secondary characters. The story starts to get going shortly afterwards once James meets Maria, and thereafter the game starts to become much more frightening, with the deeply unnerving hospital sequence, more challenging enemies and the Mind Screw-y Psychological Horror elements to the game becoming more prominent.
So Bad, It Was Better: While the voice acting in the original game was hardly bad all around (Mary's letter reading has been near-universally praised), it was noticeably less polished than the voice acting of the HD collection. Naturally, there were fans who preferred the former regardless. (Part of the issue is that while the new voice actors were well-regarded, many felt that they were miscast for their roles.)
Suspiciously Similar Song: The music for the dog ending sounds a lot like the Silver Shamrock jingle from Halloween III: Season of the Witch.
Sweet Dreams Fuel: "White Noiz", the ambient track that accompanies the opening bathroom scene of the game.
Tainted by the Preview:
- Initial reception to the announced remake has been very... mixed, to say the least. While there are those that are cautiously optimistic, detractors have been very vocal about the perceived missteps being taken: from the fact that Bloober Team is working on the remake at all, to the shift from fixed camera angles to an Always Over the Shoulder camera, to how James looks and sounds.
- A pre-order listing indicated that one of the game's features is an origin story for Pyramid Head, who several fans feel is already over-exposed. As of writing, 58% of the responses on a ResetEra poll were "oh god no". It was later found to be some confabulation, the result of a quote from a developer taken out of context, but the damage had already been done by then.
That One Boss: Eddie can be really annoying compared to the other bosses. Mostly due to using a gun.
That One Level:
- Getting to the Silent Hill Historical Society requires James to slog through long, very dimly-lit streets full of enemies, which slows the game's pacing to a crawl.
- The basement of Brookhaven Hospital on Hard Mode, especially if the player is attempting to go for the "Maria" ending. It's difficult to see where you're going without running into walls and losing speed, which will allow Pyramid Head to catch up and easily kill Maria. Even if he doesn't kill her, Maria can take enormous damage here if you're not careful, which will blow the requirement of keeping her protected from monsters for the "Maria" ending. You have a chance to briefly slow Pyramid Head down by shooting at him through the open chain-link section of one wall, but it's incredibly easy for Maria to get caught in the crossfire, and a single errant bullet will end her on any difficulty.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- Maria asks James where Laura is and begs James to find the girl. However this is never brought up again, nor do Maria and Laura actually interact because of Laura's innocence shielding her from the horrors of Silent Hill and by extention Maria herself. It would've been interesting to see how Laura would react to her. Interestingly, the wiki shows a scrapped photo of Laura and Mary sitting on the same wall where James meets her.
- While the game constantly shows how much James was heavily affected by Mary's death, it never tells us anything prior to the disease outside of their trip to Silent Hill. It would've been interesting to learn more about James and Mary's past outside of their trip to Silent Hill and how it developed.
Tough Act to Follow: While most fans like part 3, there aren't many who prefer it over this one. As for 4...
Visual Effects of Awesome: Even after over 20 years since it first came out, the game is still gorgeous to look at to this day. From the fog in the town to the facial reactions, it’s aged very well.
The Woobie:
- Angela definitely qualifies. The picture of her profound pain and misery and the horrible abuse she endured becomes clearer and clearer as you go on, but it's one line from her in her final appearance that cinches it: "Even Mama said it: I deserved what happened." Just... Fuck.
- Maria might qualify if you play Born From A Wish. At the end she comes to realize she's just a torture implement created by the forces of Silent Hill and considers committing suicide.
- Pretty much all of the characters with the exception of Pyramid Head and Angela's family count really. Whether they hang on to it all the way through or not depends, but every one of the main characters will have your sympathy at some point. Although given that a few cutscenes show that Pyramid Head seems to be in constant pain due to his head/helmet, even he has at least one sympathy point.

YMMV / Silent Hill 2

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