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I've always believed that a person needs to be seriously mentally prepared to go into this game due to how intense the story is. It really draws the player in. Absolute masterpiece!
I've thought of the significance of that exchange for so long. I think Maria is such a compelling character because she is genuinely ambiguous. More or less all the other workings and significance in the town and plot have been settled, what Pyramid head and all the monsters represent, etc. But Maria is mysterious. She has some of Mary's memories for example, things that James could never have known about, so she's not entirely just his manifestation: she isn't like PH either, because she has her own will and desires; there's some unknown quantity in her, both fascinating and disquieting
On one hand, this is a killer video, but as I was writing this comment I looked over in my recommended feed and your RE7 video hit a million views?!?!?!??! Holy fuck man! Congrats!!
Yooo Jared!!!!literally the best silent hill retrospective dude out there!love your channel ❤.when I'm bored working out at home or something I always watch your vids
@@ugandahater shut up they are great games, re7 was meant as a soft reboot after that michael bay shit called re6 capcom wanted to change the formula by bringing horror back or i should say turning resident evil into what its supposed to be: a horror game, something past re titles never were, lets be honest re was always an action game series with horror elements and item management but never true horror like silent hill
@@schemar17 Nah, we clearly see that the (or I guess a) Pyramidhead tried to continue his bloodline himself with some mannequins. Chris would never do that
You missed something I feel is important: there are many corpses throughout the game that look like James, including the one that looks to have shot himself in front of the TV. Add that to that one suspicious line from James "No, I'd never kill myself" is why many of us think that James is already dead and the ending doesn't really matter because it's just one instance of his purgatorial loop.
The sad part is that while that's interesting as a theory, they already over explained silent hill in the other games as a real place transformed by a cult instead of leaving it up to interpretation. I will defend that not explaining the town or if it's even real would've been way more interesting.
@@redtheyiffer The two aren't contradictory. James and Mary went to the REAL Silent Hill on vacation, that's not in question. Due to the cult's actions, though, Silent Hill is MORE than just a real city. When they visited, the city claimed James and, when he died, took ownership of his soul and trapped him in the meta-Silent Hill.
I agree that the more unexplained Silent Hill is the better. There are so many stories you could tell revolving around the idea of Silent Hill without having to explain the actual “place”
That and all the water in that weird basement hallway area. But I always figured it was just foreshadowing a possible ending and showing that killing himself was on his mind
I got the "Leave" one and personally prefer it as I like the idea that this experience finally gave James some closure and he can raise Laura. And it makes Mary's letter so bittersweet as what James did was not just out of selfishness but as a mercy as well. Also the letter reading is maybe my favorite voice acting of any game ever. But the in water ending is good too as it also makes sense that James cannot move on from what he did.
@@arthurdurhamI agree. These two endings are absolutely the two true endings. The leave ending is something that will stay with me forever, it feels like it should be the right ending. It adds redemption and understanding to suffering which is what we all want from life and most stories have. However the In Water ending is somewhat more realistic and again, the whole point of the multiple endings is how you treat James. It makes so much sense. These two endings are equal to me and sometimes you perceive the story one way and sometimes it's the darker way.
I personally want "in water" to be my canon ending. Idk speaks most to me. This is my all time favorite game and you did great reviewing this. Good job mr. punch.
Me too, it just makes the most sense to me given the symbolism present throughout. Like, it's always damp and there are themes of rusty metal and being weighed down.
I think the developers thought of the water ending as the real ending , killing ur spouse and then drowning even has a name in japanese , something like sinji but not sure
SH2 is definitely the best game in the series, but I will admit SH4 is my personal favorite, I just love the change between first and third person, exploring the room in between journeys to the other worlds and findings new weird things, looking for strange events trough the window, the way the room gets hostile as the game progresses and how it starts as a safe heaven and slowly turns in o a more dangerous place than the actual nightmare worlds, I really love that game and all the different things it does, the only thing I really don't like is all that back tracking in the later half, that's really a drag, but overall, SH4 is a very underrated entry in the series, I'm eager to watch your vid on it!
Very well said 👏...totally agree with you 😉👍💯, I was lowkey pissed off when I found out that SH4 wasn't included in the HD re-release!!! Like,WTF Right!? SMH 😑😓😅
4 is also my favourite in the series, and overall the second best after SH2 in my opinion (I've always thought that 3 was too straightforward for SH).. People hated it because of how difficult and different it was.. Walter is still the scariest video game villain I've ever seen..
SH2's interpretation of "5 Stages of Grief" on each Characters: James - *Denial* Eddie - *Anger* Maria - *Bargaining* Angela - *Depression* Mary/Laura - *Acceptance*
The first time I played this was in my best friend's room which was the basement and it had a huge crack running horizontally across the wall where thr ground had pushed it in enough to cause a large black void when there was little light. That house creaked likr crazy. It was perfect.
Angela let grief overcome her And Eddie tried to coexist with it While James chose to overcome it 3 stories 3 people 3 different ways of struggling with 1 force Grief
Great video! Angela & Mary's story makes me cry everytime. I hate tragedy. With that being said idk if I can get behind In Water being canon. Mary wanted James to live. For him to go through all that, defeat his demons and say he gets it now...just to kill himself, doesn't sit right with me.
I got hypnotized by the voice acting of Maria in the intro scene when I first stumbled on the game in 2001 and I got instantly hooked because I knew I was onto something so great that will folow. There is nothing that can ever match how grabbing it is in any other media. 20 years later and it still gives me the chills
Hey! Theres actually a reason behind why James (and a lot of other licensed DLC survivors) look weird like you mentioned at 12:38 . Basically BEhavior can acquire the license/rights for a lot of IP’s easily, but often times they are unable to secure the rights to the likeness of the actor that played the character. This isn’t a problem with the killers because for the most part they aren’t human/you don’t see their faces, but it’s far more noticeable with survivors. Best example of this IMO is Laurie Strode, where they couldn’t/didn’t get the rights to use Jamie Lee Curtis’ version of the character, and instead based Laurie’s look off of the comic book version of her, which is why she looks so different. They must’ve not been able to use the original face model for James so they had to make their own distinct one from scratch (I assume). Hope that clears it up! Also amazing video!!!
My god I'm old. 20 years? I remember playing Tekken 3 when my cousin came over so we could start our first play of Silent Hill 2. I had to have beaten it 12 times in the first year alone. The entire franchise is burned into my brain. Brings back such, such good memories. Well, now I've gotta play it again
“It’s hot as hell in here.” “You see it too? For me, it’s always like this…” Destroys me every time. No other game has so successfully portrayed what mental illness feels like.
I love the gameshow bit - it came so out of left field and combinig such a mundane event with the surreal setting and the at times almost hysterical line delivery really disturbed me a lot the first time I encountered it
I remember watching my parents playing this game when i was a little kid. This game sure had a tremendous impact on my life. Theyd have a "game night" where my aunt, uncle, and parents would play a puzzle game and all work together to solve it. Silent hill 1 and 2 were part of those games. They sure had great taste.
This video couldn't have been timed any better! I literally finished a first playthrough of this a few days ago. SH1 was one of my favourite games ever but for some reason never played SH2 back in the day...
The thing that makes silent hill 2 perfect atleast from the voice acting alone is that in the original, every character talks and sounds like real, yet slightly or extremly unhinged people and it adds soo much to the performance and the game as a whole. The new voice actors cant hold a candle to the original... which is saying something cause they are great voice talents... silent hill just needs a certain amount of realism and twin peaks to work before it goes full body horror mental xD
The FMVs in this game are just down right spooky the way they are shot and the rendering process they used. Especially the one with Maria locked in the cell
I heard during Silent Hill 2’s production, the Historical Society building was supposed to be bigger than what was in the final game, but it and some other files got deleted/lost. I believe that’s why they added the additional ‘hey you need to go to the park and dig up a random key’ just to add a little extra length to the game that we would of had in the building, before going down into the prison.
I'm glad that the Historical Society building ended up being so small. It was really effective to go through that entire labyrinth, further and further down, just to exit and realize you haven't traveled anywhere (just the back side of this small building).
You mention what if you don't face pyramid head until the very end. From my experience facing of pyramid head throughout the game was really scary, everytime he started chasing me i ran as fast as possible without even thinking about any resistance, which what the devs probably had in mind. James running from his guilt, untill the very end when you are ready to fight back finally. I think making pyramid as a final boss woulden't make him more terrafying. Being followed is enough to make you shit your pants.
SH2 gave me that “there is no going back” vibes. Id play this during sleepovers w my buddies in middle school. Playing the game not knowing if we were playing it correctly. Lights off, huge box tv, pizza, good times hahah
A really interesting and thoughtful analysis! I disagreed slightly with your idea that Pyramid Head would be more impactful if we only fought him at the end, though. The previous boss fights and hallway encounters made him feel more viscerally terrifying because it's YOU as much as James who's failing to defeat him permanently. It also added to the theme that he's James' punishment for his sins, and it's only after James has confronted those sins that he can successfully confront Pyramid Head. If he was relegated to just cutscenes, he'd have felt too distant.
Great opening, Gives me chills. It puts you in the game and makes you feel for the characters. I really believe they can do this again. Please do it again.
I just completed this game today and I have to agree with the countless analysis videos that acknowledged that this is a masterpiece. It's weird that my strongest emotional response to the ending was relief when James and Laura escaped that foggy nightmare. I found myself able to fathom the idea that Angela deserved a whole lot better and how we could have saved her too. A bit unfortunate that nothing this Halloween is going to compete with the immersion I felt in that retched world. Well except Silent Hill 3...
Silent Hill 1 and 3 are always my personal favorites, but 2 is such a masterful deep cut of a story it's easy to see why it overshadows the others so much. It's pretty clear that each member of Team Silent had a story to tell, and despite some difficulties, the first four games in this series had real spirit.
I always had the feeling that James wasn't a very sharp tack to begin with. Also, that ending letter always punches me right in the gut. My first name is James, it feels like she's speaking to me. Really caught me off guard a few times throughout the game but that ending line was something else. One of the best games I've ever played. None of the other SH titles has hit quite the same spot, though 3 was good in a different way. Good video, thanks!
Just finished playing this game a week ago or so and can't believe I didn't play it when it came out. One of the absolute best stories in a video game and, hard to admit, but the last letter really got me. The psychological horror and emotional levels in this game are dialed all the way up to 11 and it works beautifully. Great vid about a great game! Oh, and the elevator announcer did throw me for a loop a bit but it was cool that even the characters acknowledged this and I think it doesn't take anything away from the game. In my opinion, it actually fits with all the weirdness that's going on and that anything can happen.
Great video of my still favorite series. I personally used to be most of all, a Silent Hill 4 enjoyer, but after playing the second game myself and really letting it sink in instead of just watching, it changed me. Affected me deeply. There's something about melancholic, depressing entries that get me.
Great analysis on SH2! I just played this masterpiece for the first time this year! I just watched someone's playthrough and Mary's letter cured my lack of emotion again. XD I didn't even think of James "crossing into" other characters worlds, I love that insight, like Angela's Silent Hill is a burning mansion/ corridors for her tragic family life, or Eddy's being a cold storage facility for his insecurity of being "wasted meat". James' Silent hill is I think would be hospital corridors, or grimy dark prison corridors to reference his feeling of being imprisoned or trapped. "That James guy would jump into any suspicious hole he'd come across, wouldn't he?" Thats something I thought of on the spot, my take is of every instance of a deep dark hole mentioned like how "their was a hole there, now its not" or basically any pit James jumps into and explores can be relevant when you bring up his sexual frustration. Definitely not the best take or maybe even immature, but I do think its a decent observation. If "In water" ending is canon, I'd like to think James got swept up by the Dead by Daylight Entity, the guy would be oozing despair.
I love playing the opening and walking to the town and not know the sound and the fog what out there it best 10 minutes of any video games open happy 20 anniversary let cheer for the future of gamers to enjoy this game for many many year to come
The HD collection voice acting is particularly egregious (especially in that scene), because there's no distinction between Mary and Maria's voices, and James very obviously sounds like someone who did what he did and knows he did it, when the whole game's a self discovery of the crime he's committed. It's crazy that the person who directed this also directed the wildly successful Cowboy Bebop dub.
great video. not sure about the idea that PH should only appear at the end. i like how he starts out as threatening but over time you come to realise what he represents and it becomes more self-defeating than anything. otherwise he'd just be a boss that turns up for 5 seconds as the end. love his lumbering presence and every time he showed up. stumbling into his lair and stealing the great knife scared the crap out of me.
You forgot to mention the incredibly weird note you receive in the hospital about not wanting to go into the basement and there’s so much tension about going down There and then …….nothing but you always feel like somethings going to happen. Top ten moments for sure
See now that line "they look like mosters to you?" Really messes with my head. With that line I get the idea that all of the monsters we see in Silent Hill were all other people who had brought themselves to SH for whatever reason and since the protagonist/player kills the "monsters" they/we would be their executioner like pyramid head was to James and like that one ending in downpour. To us they look like monsters while we are a normal person but to them we are the monster and they are normal or they could actually be monsters and the games just fuckin wiv me, I don't know but I love to theories.
Dude I love your videos, been adicted to them since I found your channel last week, I ve already watched more than a dozen of them, keep the good work man.
Genius, heavy, brilliant, terrifying, memorable and gets under your skin so easily. So many things about this game are impossible to best - the freaking soundtrack alone is just stellar. There will never be a game as good as this one.
If you know russian SHPA from SilentPyramid is definitely the most detailed analysis on all silent hills that I've seen, is a pretty nice read once you played the games and want to try and dig deeper.
Just give David Lynch the opportunity to direct and original Silent Hill story that he comes up with (with some help in the script from someone Japanese so they can better introduce the themes of Kegare, etc., so it's even scarier, the mix of japanese elements with americans, why later games all done by western teams fail so hard)
The final letter literally had me sobbing at the end. I remember sitting in my living room, sobbing my eyes out on a Sunday morning. That was the day this game was solidified as one of the most beautiful works of art ever created. Though I got choked up, not even Red Dead 2 had me crying as hard.
All this time later after playing it way back on the original XBox when I didn't fully "get it" until years later, this game still creeps into my mind and I reflect on how wonderful of a game it is, slight jank and all. It's a story that sticks to you, characters that are tragic and haunting. The voices fit so well despite somes claims of it being hokey or unprofessional. It's timeless in my book in just about every sense of the word.
Boulder Punch, this video was so compelling I went a bought a very good new like condition Silent Hill 2 on PS2 copy for $115. I've not played it since around March or so 2002. I bought Silent Hill on PS1 for $12 back in like 2009-2011 or so, and I was surprised to learn it's now $240. Silent Hill 2 goes for $115-135, Silent Hill 3 goes for $170, which is next on my list to complete the OG Team Silent trilogy. Don't really care much for Silent Hill 4 The Room. I had a couple paid snow days and spent them drinking hot green tea and playing Silent Hill on my Sony PlayStation 1 hooked to my Sony Trinitron PVM-CRT TV monitor. The day I watched this video I stopped by my Gaming store (not GameStop) and compared eBay prices, SH2 came with a manual that looked like it was read twice and remained in the case, disc looked like it was played twice and the cover sleeve was in perfect condition and it sold me to shell out $115 for a Sony PlayStation 2 game. Take some pride in your video making, the same day I spent over $100 for a used 21 year old game that looks better than a lot of modern games on PS3, PS4, Xbox 1 and Series X/S. Great video.
Solid breakdown, my only caveat would be the portion about Pyramid Head early on. The fact that you can’t kill it and you can do is try to survive make PH even scarier. On top of that, it deals with James trying to fight the urges instead of accepting them, which he does in the end.
I do think it makes sense that we got two final fights. In the end, the whole story we have two antagonist, one that stands for James’ wish to be punished, and one that stands for his desire to forget. I think in the end the leave ending is the one that makes the most sense if we consider James freeing himself from either, while the Maria and In Water endings see him falling for one or the other.
Silent hill 2 is endlessly fascinating to me. That being said, I feel as though it’s finally losing its grip upon my mind. I don’t know if it’s age or the fact that I’m moving on to other things, but I’m sad to see this wonderful game fade from my heart :(
I first played SIlent hill (on PC so about 10 years ago) when my GF left me, and I was seriously depressed... no game ever made me feel so much as that game. That "James... You made me happy" line at the end letter destroys me everytime
My girlfriend and I broke up 2 years ago, and I played SH2 this year while still going through some degree of depression. Yes, I totally agree with what you say.
Comic Sans is the third best font for dyslexia accessibility. The best one is very expensive, the second best one is very strange looking and is off putting to most people who don't need it. Comic Sans is arguably the best compromise if you aren't going to have an alternate font mode.
16:10 - I made a vid about this subject a few years ago, my conclusion was that he ordered it from the neigboring town (old phones can actually work without electricity). I tried it myself, and ordered pizza to the farest end of the delivery zone, choosing the spot near the cemetery fence, and it worked.
While there is no doubt Silent Hill 2 has the best plot and most intriguing characters of the SH series. I think SH1 and SH3 are better in other aspects. For me SH1 has the best puzzles and SH3 is the most disturbing one, regarding gameplay and atmosphere.
SH2 is my overall favorite.. However, SH3 has my personal favorite line of dialogue in the series. When Vincent asks Heather, "They look like monsters to you...?" Then to plant seeds of doubt in our minds, adds on, "It's just a joke."
Something people dont mention is how impressive sh2s engine coding and design was for the time also a case similar to re2 n64 in terms of memory and tricks lost to time to save space and lower texture memory loading ram ect ect The lighting and the textures and just in general coding was very weird and hard to replicate and in some cases even more complex than now a days games
There's also an ending where James takes Mary's body into the boat and says he's going to use the magic of the Cult to ressurect her. It symbolizes to me his desire to run from accountability for what he's done, like he was so close to getting what Silent Hill was trying to teach him and then he rejects it to try to just "fix" his mistake. A Silent Hill game that springboards off how he further screws up the town in his attempt to bring Mary back would be cool I think.
Only game that made me cry. Played twice and got In Water ending in first time and Leave on second playthrough. Many horror games feel cheap and gimmicky comparing to this. I hope Bloober Team will do decent job with remake.
What a masterpiece of a game. I loved part2 especially the girl missions they were fun and eery, the atmosphere of the game was so dreary they really nailed it.
DOUGH you owe me money. My Riff ! thanks for using it though. Thats my first fing black metal song i wrote with 15. One good year before the game(debut title)was released. he even uses the same precise tab...utterly frustrating
One of those situations where everything happened to just be in the right place, and right time. Graphic capability was strong enough to give us what we saw here, but not so strong where it was “overly” realistic. Konami was still at the point where it let it’s devs experiment without too much interference. It was an early release for the PS2 so it got a lot more attention than it would’ve had it been later in the PS2s life. It also was a showcase of how using gaming as an interactive medium could enhance the story. Depending on how many times you went through the inventory and looked at Angela’s knife, it would influence what ending you got (something I thought wasn’t executed as well in a game until bloodborne). Honestly, it’s one, if not the best, executed stories in video games.
I live in a town covered in fog like this. My little brother was supposed to come visit me up there but suddenly passed away before he ever could. Sometimes I still like to think he could be wandering around in the fog up there and we’ll meet again
Oh man oh man. I stopped like 14 minutes in on the Angela scene. Seeing that cutscene really made me feel something, and I just knew I had to stop watching and play the rest of the game myself. So I did what I had to do and had a go at it. Holy hell, I've never seen story telling like Silent Hill 2 in gaming EVER. Some real and heavy topics are covered in this game, and Angela's story had me feeling broken. I feel so bad for her. That final line of hers in the fire, about it always being like this for her. Man. Really good video! Thanks for getting me into Silent Hill !
Silent Hill 2, to me, still is one of tge few trurly horrifying and scary games. It and Alien Isolation, tobthis day, were the only omes that gave me chills and made me feel actual tension. Truely magnificent games.
I absolutely adore the Silent Hill series and Silent Hill 2 is my favorite game out of all of them. There's so much going on and so much to talk about and pick apart like you mentioned in your video. It's a real gem of a game. I'm curious how you feel about the remake. I am extremely apprehensive, especially with how Konami has treated the series over the most recent games. I'm honestly expecting the worst but holding out a small drop of hope that the company will surprise me. Honestly, I'd prefer a simple port to newer systems with bugs polished out of it, but to my knowledge the source code was lost after the game was released.
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• Silent Hill 3 Review: ua-cam.com/video/Kt_2htpufgo/v-deo.html
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Silent Hill 2 is the game that “cinematic games” developers wishes they could be. Still the best story in gaming
I've always believed that a person needs to be seriously mentally prepared to go into this game due to how intense the story is. It really draws the player in. Absolute masterpiece!
The point is that is way better than many movies too, they really went full fancy
The point is that is way better than many movies too, they really went full fancy
@Rachel Leigh Cook I could see an argument for a better story but I really can't think of one. I heard the Pathologic games have great ones.
@Rachel Leigh Cook What would be your top 5?
'Aren't you Maria?'
'I'm not your Mary.'
Line still gives me the chills all these years later. So well acted!
Chills.... absoloute chills, every damn time. It is a perfect delivery!
The whole scene is incredible. The lighting obscuring her eyes while it slowly zooms in on her, and she's sitting so still and calmly. So unsettling.
I feel the same ^_^!
I've thought of the significance of that exchange for so long. I think Maria is such a compelling character because she is genuinely ambiguous. More or less all the other workings and significance in the town and plot have been settled, what Pyramid head and all the monsters represent, etc. But Maria is mysterious. She has some of Mary's memories for example, things that James could never have known about, so she's not entirely just his manifestation: she isn't like PH either, because she has her own will and desires; there's some unknown quantity in her, both fascinating and disquieting
James’ facial expression and voice tone always breaks me every time when he asks that question...
On one hand, this is a killer video, but as I was writing this comment I looked over in my recommended feed and your RE7 video hit a million views?!?!?!??! Holy fuck man! Congrats!!
Yooo Jared!!!!literally the best silent hill retrospective dude out there!love your channel ❤.when I'm bored working out at home or something I always watch your vids
Thanks bro! Yeah the algorithm gods blessed that one a few months back.
RE7&8 are for people who are delusional and disconnected from reality. They're abominations to the true story
Avalanche! :D I agree though, this vid is great. Just subbed. Keep it up Boulder!
@@ugandahater shut up they are great games, re7 was meant as a soft reboot after that michael bay shit called re6 capcom wanted to change the formula by bringing horror back or i should say turning resident evil into what its supposed to be: a horror game, something past re titles never were, lets be honest re was always an action game series with horror elements and item management but never true horror like silent hill
*Original voices:* Dissasociated and eerie like the town and events themselves
*New Voices:* Sounds like they're losing their breathe on every line.
If Chris Redfield was in Silent Hill 2 he'd punch the pyramid right off the Pyramidhead
No chris would be pyramid head
Chris would punch the hill out of silent hill. Town would just be “silent” after he left.
@@schemar17
Nah, we clearly see that the (or I guess a) Pyramidhead tried to continue his bloodline himself with some mannequins. Chris would never do that
@@devindeel5830 that’s a bar! Wordplay 😂
ua-cam.com/video/mQ9igHn_Tis/v-deo.html
Pyramid Head would be PyramiDEAD after this.
Dog ending is still my favorite ending. Especially the credits song.
Canon too
You missed something I feel is important: there are many corpses throughout the game that look like James, including the one that looks to have shot himself in front of the TV. Add that to that one suspicious line from James "No, I'd never kill myself" is why many of us think that James is already dead and the ending doesn't really matter because it's just one instance of his purgatorial loop.
The sad part is that while that's interesting as a theory, they already over explained silent hill in the other games as a real place transformed by a cult instead of leaving it up to interpretation. I will defend that not explaining the town or if it's even real would've been way more interesting.
@@redtheyiffer The two aren't contradictory. James and Mary went to the REAL Silent Hill on vacation, that's not in question. Due to the cult's actions, though, Silent Hill is MORE than just a real city. When they visited, the city claimed James and, when he died, took ownership of his soul and trapped him in the meta-Silent Hill.
I agree that the more unexplained Silent Hill is the better. There are so many stories you could tell revolving around the idea of Silent Hill without having to explain the actual “place”
I thinnk the corpses are just dead exploarers of the town (like Eddie and Angela), and them reusing James' model is purely a budjet limitation.
That and all the water in that weird basement hallway area. But I always figured it was just foreshadowing a possible ending and showing that killing himself was on his mind
As a kid, I played this and got the "in water" ending it felt so fitting so conclusive that I can't even imagine the other endings being cannon
I got the "Leave" one and personally prefer it as I like the idea that this experience finally gave James some closure and he can raise Laura.
And it makes Mary's letter so bittersweet as what James did was not just out of selfishness but as a mercy as well. Also the letter reading is maybe my favorite voice acting of any game ever.
But the in water ending is good too as it also makes sense that James cannot move on from what he did.
@@arthurdurhamI agree. These two endings are absolutely the two true endings. The leave ending is something that will stay with me forever, it feels like it should be the right ending. It adds redemption and understanding to suffering which is what we all want from life and most stories have. However the In Water ending is somewhat more realistic and again, the whole point of the multiple endings is how you treat James. It makes so much sense. These two endings are equal to me and sometimes you perceive the story one way and sometimes it's the darker way.
I personally want "in water" to be my canon ending. Idk speaks most to me. This is my all time favorite game and you did great reviewing this. Good job mr. punch.
Seeing how he was yeah
Ya I'm glad that was the first ending I got
Me too, it just makes the most sense to me given the symbolism present throughout. Like, it's always damp and there are themes of rusty metal and being weighed down.
in water IS the real ending, according to the writers/developers
I think the developers thought of the water ending as the real ending , killing ur spouse and then drowning even has a name in japanese , something like sinji but not sure
I cry a little bit every time I hear "James.... You made me happy." Ugh I teared up just typing it.
SH2 is definitely the best game in the series, but I will admit SH4 is my personal favorite, I just love the change between first and third person, exploring the room in between journeys to the other worlds and findings new weird things, looking for strange events trough the window, the way the room gets hostile as the game progresses and how it starts as a safe heaven and slowly turns in o a more dangerous place than the actual nightmare worlds, I really love that game and all the different things it does, the only thing I really don't like is all that back tracking in the later half, that's really a drag, but overall, SH4 is a very underrated entry in the series, I'm eager to watch your vid on it!
Very well said 👏...totally agree with you 😉👍💯, I was lowkey pissed off when I found out that SH4 wasn't included in the HD re-release!!! Like,WTF Right!? SMH 😑😓😅
I never understood the hate for sh4, I like it a lot
4 is also my favourite in the series, and overall the second best after SH2 in my opinion (I've always thought that 3 was too straightforward for SH).. People hated it because of how difficult and different it was.. Walter is still the scariest video game villain I've ever seen..
@@ccaa7674 me too i actually prefer it over 3
SH2's interpretation of "5 Stages of Grief" on each Characters:
James - *Denial*
Eddie - *Anger*
Maria - *Bargaining*
Angela - *Depression*
Mary/Laura - *Acceptance*
This is all false.
Never played a game since that 'captured an atmosphere' like SH2 did, and that soundtrack, fantastic.
The first time I played this was in my best friend's room which was the basement and it had a huge crack running horizontally across the wall where thr ground had pushed it in enough to cause a large black void when there was little light. That house creaked likr crazy. It was perfect.
That scene you played at the start still gives me chills.
Angela let grief overcome her
And Eddie tried to coexist with it
While James chose to overcome it
3 stories 3 people 3 different ways of struggling with 1 force
Grief
Great video! Angela & Mary's story makes me cry everytime. I hate tragedy. With that being said idk if I can get behind In Water being canon. Mary wanted James to live. For him to go through all that, defeat his demons and say he gets it now...just to kill himself, doesn't sit right with me.
I got hypnotized by the voice acting of Maria in the intro scene when I first stumbled on the game in 2001 and I got instantly hooked because I knew I was onto something so great that will folow. There is nothing that can ever match how grabbing it is in any other media. 20 years later and it still gives me the chills
Oh hey, one of the most memorable games I've ever played. And a 40 minute video talking about it? Yes please.
Hell yes brother
Hey! Theres actually a reason behind why James (and a lot of other licensed DLC survivors) look weird like you mentioned at 12:38 . Basically BEhavior can acquire the license/rights for a lot of IP’s easily, but often times they are unable to secure the rights to the likeness of the actor that played the character. This isn’t a problem with the killers because for the most part they aren’t human/you don’t see their faces, but it’s far more noticeable with survivors. Best example of this IMO is Laurie Strode, where they couldn’t/didn’t get the rights to use Jamie Lee Curtis’ version of the character, and instead based Laurie’s look off of the comic book version of her, which is why she looks so different. They must’ve not been able to use the original face model for James so they had to make their own distinct one from scratch (I assume). Hope that clears it up! Also amazing video!!!
An absolute masterpiece in storytelling and psychological horror
My god I'm old. 20 years? I remember playing Tekken 3 when my cousin came over so we could start our first play of Silent Hill 2. I had to have beaten it 12 times in the first year alone. The entire franchise is burned into my brain. Brings back such, such good memories. Well, now I've gotta play it again
I swear most of the cutscenes in this game are more immersive and convincing than most cutscenes in the past 5 years.
Fact
The burning stairs scene broke me. I don't think I've ever seen a better rendition of what having mental-health problems is like in a blind society.
“It’s hot as hell in here.”
“You see it too? For me, it’s always like this…”
Destroys me every time. No other game has so successfully portrayed what mental illness feels like.
The movie Inside does a very good display of depression.
Not the same thing,I know.
But its still worth mentioning.
I love the gameshow bit - it came so out of left field and combinig such a mundane event with the surreal setting and the at times almost hysterical line delivery really disturbed me a lot the first time I encountered it
Agreed! Plus, it helps to mask just how long the elevator is running for, which is a nice creepy detail on repeat playthroughs
I remember watching my parents playing this game when i was a little kid. This game sure had a tremendous impact on my life. Theyd have a "game night" where my aunt, uncle, and parents would play a puzzle game and all work together to solve it. Silent hill 1 and 2 were part of those games. They sure had great taste.
This video couldn't have been timed any better! I literally finished a first playthrough of this a few days ago. SH1 was one of my favourite games ever but for some reason never played SH2 back in the day...
I remember playing this in 2001. Where does the time go.
Me too, I was 24 at the time.
Cherish the day
@@perplexingperceptions8888 i was 15. Im older than every character in the game now😢
Avalanche and boulder punch sounds good like you gotta collab
@@perplexingperceptions8888 you can enjoy knowing you had good taste :)
Silent Hill 2 is a masterpiece. I do prefer Silent Hill 1, but 2’s story is just perfect and never was or will be surpassed.
"He's not remembering well because the town is making him stupid".
So, Silent Hill is, basically, twitter?
LMFAO, a town full of Twitter users
@@Theweirdoizhere They certainly look like monsters to me.
Good one
The monsters are the voice audio tweets of extremist talking shit hahahaha.
It's being invaded by the Otherworld. A world of someone's nightmarish delusions come to life.
For me, Maria really looks like that character on Twin Peaks, that drives a classic car that James(from TP) gets involved with.
The town reminds me of Seattle. The Room part 4 also reminds me of Seattle so dreary with 70s furniture
The thing that makes silent hill 2 perfect atleast from the voice acting alone is that in the original, every character talks and sounds like real, yet slightly or extremly unhinged people and it adds soo much to the performance and the game as a whole.
The new voice actors cant hold a candle to the original... which is saying something cause they are great voice talents... silent hill just needs a certain amount of realism and twin peaks to work before it goes full body horror mental xD
I couldn't tell you the best games in most genres, but I can tell you what the best horror game is without a doubt. (this one)
Now you're the scholar whose analysis I can trust, as proven time and time already. Thanks or this
The FMVs in this game are just down right spooky the way they are shot and the rendering process they used. Especially the one with Maria locked in the cell
I heard during Silent Hill 2’s production, the Historical Society building was supposed to be bigger than what was in the final game, but it and some other files got deleted/lost. I believe that’s why they added the additional ‘hey you need to go to the park and dig up a random key’ just to add a little extra length to the game that we would of had in the building, before going down into the prison.
I'm glad that the Historical Society building ended up being so small. It was really effective to go through that entire labyrinth, further and further down, just to exit and realize you haven't traveled anywhere (just the back side of this small building).
I can't believe it's been 20 years since this masterpiece got released. Actually i played it last year and feels like it didn't age at all.
You mention what if you don't face pyramid head until the very end. From my experience facing of pyramid head throughout the game was really scary, everytime he started chasing me i ran as fast as possible without even thinking about any resistance, which what the devs probably had in mind. James running from his guilt, untill the very end when you are ready to fight back finally. I think making pyramid as a final boss woulden't make him more terrafying. Being followed is enough to make you shit your pants.
SH2 gave me that “there is no going back” vibes. Id play this during sleepovers w my buddies in middle school. Playing the game not knowing if we were playing it correctly.
Lights off, huge box tv, pizza, good times hahah
A really interesting and thoughtful analysis! I disagreed slightly with your idea that Pyramid Head would be more impactful if we only fought him at the end, though. The previous boss fights and hallway encounters made him feel more viscerally terrifying because it's YOU as much as James who's failing to defeat him permanently.
It also added to the theme that he's James' punishment for his sins, and it's only after James has confronted those sins that he can successfully confront Pyramid Head. If he was relegated to just cutscenes, he'd have felt too distant.
Great opening, Gives me chills. It puts you in the game and makes you feel for the characters. I really believe they can do this again. Please do it again.
Now this is ART.
To this very day I still play this.
I even have the music.
I just completed this game today and I have to agree with the countless analysis videos that acknowledged that this is a masterpiece. It's weird that my strongest emotional response to the ending was relief when James and Laura escaped that foggy nightmare. I found myself able to fathom the idea that Angela deserved a whole lot better and how we could have saved her too. A bit unfortunate that nothing this Halloween is going to compete with the immersion I felt in that retched world. Well except Silent Hill 3...
Silent Hill 1 and 3 are always my personal favorites, but 2 is such a masterful deep cut of a story it's easy to see why it overshadows the others so much. It's pretty clear that each member of Team Silent had a story to tell, and despite some difficulties, the first four games in this series had real spirit.
I always had the feeling that James wasn't a very sharp tack to begin with. Also, that ending letter always punches me right in the gut. My first name is James, it feels like she's speaking to me. Really caught me off guard a few times throughout the game but that ending line was something else. One of the best games I've ever played. None of the other SH titles has hit quite the same spot, though 3 was good in a different way. Good video, thanks!
One of the Best Horror Games ever. The Music in combination with the different Moments and Conversations is unforgetable.
First VTMB, now Silent hill 2. I think I found a new favorite channel
Just finished playing this game a week ago or so and can't believe I didn't play it when it came out. One of the absolute best stories in a video game and, hard to admit, but the last letter really got me. The psychological horror and emotional levels in this game are dialed all the way up to 11 and it works beautifully. Great vid about a great game!
Oh, and the elevator announcer did throw me for a loop a bit but it was cool that even the characters acknowledged this and I think it doesn't take anything away from the game. In my opinion, it actually fits with all the weirdness that's going on and that anything can happen.
Great video of my still favorite series. I personally used to be most of all, a Silent Hill 4 enjoyer, but after playing the second game myself and really letting it sink in instead of just watching, it changed me. Affected me deeply. There's something about melancholic, depressing entries that get me.
Great analysis on SH2! I just played this masterpiece for the first time this year! I just watched someone's playthrough and Mary's letter cured my lack of emotion again. XD I didn't even think of James "crossing into" other characters worlds, I love that insight, like Angela's Silent Hill is a burning mansion/ corridors for her tragic family life, or Eddy's being a cold storage facility for his insecurity of being "wasted meat". James' Silent hill is I think would be hospital corridors, or grimy dark prison corridors to reference his feeling of being imprisoned or trapped.
"That James guy would jump into any suspicious hole he'd come across, wouldn't he?" Thats something I thought of on the spot, my take is of every instance of a deep dark hole mentioned like how "their was a hole there, now its not" or basically any pit James jumps into and explores can be relevant when you bring up his sexual frustration. Definitely not the best take or maybe even immature, but I do think its a decent observation.
If "In water" ending is canon, I'd like to think James got swept up by the Dead by Daylight Entity, the guy would be oozing despair.
I love playing the opening and walking to the town and not know the sound and the fog what out there it best 10 minutes of any video games open happy 20 anniversary let cheer for the future of gamers to enjoy this game for many many year to come
The HD collection voice acting is particularly egregious (especially in that scene), because there's no distinction between Mary and Maria's voices, and James very obviously sounds like someone who did what he did and knows he did it, when the whole game's a self discovery of the crime he's committed. It's crazy that the person who directed this also directed the wildly successful Cowboy Bebop dub.
I recently found your channel and literally watched your silent hill 1 video yesterday. Silent hill 2 is without a doubt an experience.
An almost 40 minute long video about silent hill? LETS FUCKING GOOOOO!!!
great video. not sure about the idea that PH should only appear at the end. i like how he starts out as threatening but over time you come to realise what he represents and it becomes more self-defeating than anything. otherwise he'd just be a boss that turns up for 5 seconds as the end. love his lumbering presence and every time he showed up. stumbling into his lair and stealing the great knife scared the crap out of me.
You forgot to mention the incredibly weird note you receive in the hospital about not wanting to go into the basement and there’s so much tension about going down There and then …….nothing but you always feel like somethings going to happen. Top ten moments for sure
See now that line "they look like mosters to you?" Really messes with my head.
With that line I get the idea that all of the monsters we see in Silent Hill were all other people who had brought themselves to SH for whatever reason and since the protagonist/player kills the "monsters" they/we would be their executioner like pyramid head was to James and like that one ending in downpour. To us they look like monsters while we are a normal person but to them we are the monster and they are normal or they could actually be monsters and the games just fuckin wiv me, I don't know but I love to theories.
I watch a lot of analysis videos from this game, and no one says that Angela is actually the Arsonist.
oh boy is this game so underrated, 20 years and I'm just now playing it that should be a testament to its quality. great video brotha 💚👊
"underrated"? It's one of, if not the most revered horror game of all time lol
It was never underrated. It was a known gem ever it was released. I played it when it first got released and I was 18. Enjoy it kiddo
One of the things I'd never call SH2 Is underrated
Dude I love your videos, been adicted to them since I found your channel last week, I ve already watched more than a dozen of them, keep the good work man.
Same here bro 😉👍💯
Though I do think SH 1 is the best one this is just a fantastic game and thank you for the video! Your vids rock.
14:00 they include pyramid here to show that he won’t attack the player, though most players won’t know that
Genius, heavy, brilliant, terrifying, memorable and gets under your skin so easily. So many things about this game are impossible to best - the freaking soundtrack alone is just stellar. There will never be a game as good as this one.
If you know russian SHPA from SilentPyramid is definitely the most detailed analysis on all silent hills that I've seen, is a pretty nice read once you played the games and want to try and dig deeper.
Just give David Lynch the opportunity to direct and original Silent Hill story that he comes up with (with some help in the script from someone Japanese so they can better introduce the themes of Kegare, etc., so it's even scarier, the mix of japanese elements with americans, why later games all done by western teams fail so hard)
The final letter literally had me sobbing at the end. I remember sitting in my living room, sobbing my eyes out on a Sunday morning. That was the day this game was solidified as one of the most beautiful works of art ever created. Though I got choked up, not even Red Dead 2 had me crying as hard.
All this time later after playing it way back on the original XBox when I didn't fully "get it" until years later, this game still creeps into my mind and I reflect on how wonderful of a game it is, slight jank and all. It's a story that sticks to you, characters that are tragic and haunting. The voices fit so well despite somes claims of it being hokey or unprofessional. It's timeless in my book in just about every sense of the word.
Boulder Punch, this video was so compelling I went a bought a very good new like condition Silent Hill 2 on PS2 copy for $115. I've not played it since around March or so 2002. I bought Silent Hill on PS1 for $12 back in like 2009-2011 or so, and I was surprised to learn it's now $240. Silent Hill 2 goes for $115-135, Silent Hill 3 goes for $170, which is next on my list to complete the OG Team Silent trilogy. Don't really care much for Silent Hill 4 The Room. I had a couple paid snow days and spent them drinking hot green tea and playing Silent Hill on my Sony PlayStation 1 hooked to my Sony Trinitron PVM-CRT TV monitor. The day I watched this video I stopped by my Gaming store (not GameStop) and compared eBay prices, SH2 came with a manual that looked like it was read twice and remained in the case, disc looked like it was played twice and the cover sleeve was in perfect condition and it sold me to shell out $115 for a Sony PlayStation 2 game. Take some pride in your video making, the same day I spent over $100 for a used 21 year old game that looks better than a lot of modern games on PS3, PS4, Xbox 1 and Series X/S.
Great video.
maria is pulled off very well as a character
I just love that people still talk about one of my favorite games of all time.
I randomly thought about silent Hill 2 around December, but I had no idea it was on its 20th anniversary wow
Dude I've been digging your videos and now they're in regular rotation.
Solid breakdown, my only caveat would be the portion about Pyramid Head early on. The fact that you can’t kill it and you can do is try to survive make PH even scarier. On top of that, it deals with James trying to fight the urges instead of accepting them, which he does in the end.
Great vid! Thanks
I do think it makes sense that we got two final fights. In the end, the whole story we have two antagonist, one that stands for James’ wish to be punished, and one that stands for his desire to forget.
I think in the end the leave ending is the one that makes the most sense if we consider James freeing himself from either, while the Maria and In Water endings see him falling for one or the other.
I've recently found your videos, and your voice is amazing for trying to sleep to, keep up the awesome work man
Silent hill 2 is endlessly fascinating to me. That being said, I feel as though it’s finally losing its grip upon my mind. I don’t know if it’s age or the fact that I’m moving on to other things, but I’m sad to see this wonderful game fade from my heart :(
I first played SIlent hill (on PC so about 10 years ago) when my GF left me, and I was seriously depressed... no game ever made me feel so much as that game.
That "James... You made me happy" line at the end letter destroys me everytime
My girlfriend and I broke up 2 years ago, and I played SH2 this year while still going through some degree of depression. Yes, I totally agree with what you say.
@Rachel Leigh Cook What's your point?
Comic Sans is the third best font for dyslexia accessibility. The best one is very expensive, the second best one is very strange looking and is off putting to most people who don't need it. Comic Sans is arguably the best compromise if you aren't going to have an alternate font mode.
16:10 - I made a vid about this subject a few years ago, my conclusion was that he ordered it from the neigboring town (old phones can actually work without electricity). I tried it myself, and ordered pizza to the farest end of the delivery zone, choosing the spot near the cemetery fence, and it worked.
While there is no doubt Silent Hill 2 has the best plot and most intriguing characters of the SH series. I think SH1 and SH3 are better in other aspects. For me SH1 has the best puzzles and SH3 is the most disturbing one, regarding gameplay and atmosphere.
Fully agreed
SH2 is my overall favorite.. However, SH3 has my personal favorite line of dialogue in the series. When Vincent asks Heather, "They look like monsters to you...?" Then to plant seeds of doubt in our minds, adds on, "It's just a joke."
3 is good. But it's annoying. There are too many enemies after every door and they just knock you down every time.
Something people dont mention is how impressive sh2s engine coding and design was for the time also a case similar to re2 n64 in terms of memory and tricks lost to time to save space and lower texture memory loading ram ect ect
The lighting and the textures and just in general coding was very weird and hard to replicate and in some cases even more complex than now a days games
Maria and Lisa garland. So similar. Beautiful and tragic ghosts of these incredible worlds created by silent hill.
There's also an ending where James takes Mary's body into the boat and says he's going to use the magic of the Cult to ressurect her. It symbolizes to me his desire to run from accountability for what he's done, like he was so close to getting what Silent Hill was trying to teach him and then he rejects it to try to just "fix" his mistake.
A Silent Hill game that springboards off how he further screws up the town in his attempt to bring Mary back would be cool I think.
Only game that made me cry. Played twice and got In Water ending in first time and Leave on second playthrough.
Many horror games feel cheap and gimmicky comparing to this. I hope Bloober Team will do decent job with remake.
What a masterpiece of a game. I loved part2 especially the girl missions they were fun and eery, the atmosphere of the game was so dreary they really nailed it.
SILENT HILL 2 IS ONE OF THE BEST VIDEO GAMES MADE IN HISTORY
THE SOUNDTRACK IS LITERAL FUCKING HEAVEN TO MY EARSSSSSSSSSSSSS
DOUGH you owe me money. My Riff ! thanks for using it though. Thats my first fing black metal song i wrote with 15. One good year before the game(debut title)was released. he even uses the same precise tab...utterly frustrating
One of those situations where everything happened to just be in the right place, and right time. Graphic capability was strong enough to give us what we saw here, but not so strong where it was “overly” realistic. Konami was still at the point where it let it’s devs experiment without too much interference. It was an early release for the PS2 so it got a lot more attention than it would’ve had it been later in the PS2s life.
It also was a showcase of how using gaming as an interactive medium could enhance the story. Depending on how many times you went through the inventory and looked at Angela’s knife, it would influence what ending you got (something I thought wasn’t executed as well in a game until bloodborne).
Honestly, it’s one, if not the best, executed stories in video games.
the "I'm not your Mary" always creeped me the fuck out lol I love it
I remember playing this on PS2 when it came out and I thought the gameshow moment was really scary at the time.
James's jacket is from Jacob's Ladder 😀
Please, please. I hope that the upcoming remake is going to be as great..or close at least.
I live in a town covered in fog like this. My little brother was supposed to come visit me up there but suddenly passed away before he ever could. Sometimes I still like to think he could be wandering around in the fog up there and we’ll meet again
Oh man oh man. I stopped like 14 minutes in on the Angela scene. Seeing that cutscene really made me feel something, and I just knew I had to stop watching and play the rest of the game myself. So I did what I had to do and had a go at it. Holy hell, I've never seen story telling like Silent Hill 2 in gaming EVER. Some real and heavy topics are covered in this game, and Angela's story had me feeling broken. I feel so bad for her. That final line of hers in the fire, about it always being like this for her. Man. Really good video! Thanks for getting me into Silent Hill !
Silent Hill 2, to me, still is one of tge few trurly horrifying and scary games.
It and Alien Isolation, tobthis day, were the only omes that gave me chills and made me feel actual tension.
Truely magnificent games.
Even after all these years, this game is still one of the best I have ever played. I hope they remaster 1-4 for the true sh fans.
I absolutely adore the Silent Hill series and Silent Hill 2 is my favorite game out of all of them. There's so much going on and so much to talk about and pick apart like you mentioned in your video. It's a real gem of a game.
I'm curious how you feel about the remake. I am extremely apprehensive, especially with how Konami has treated the series over the most recent games. I'm honestly expecting the worst but holding out a small drop of hope that the company will surprise me. Honestly, I'd prefer a simple port to newer systems with bugs polished out of it, but to my knowledge the source code was lost after the game was released.