Lucas Versantvoort / December 15, 2014
Resident Evil, with Shinji Mikami at the helm, had come out
in 1996. I’ve never played it, but I’ve read here and there that it pretty much
revolutionized horror gaming with its deliberately obscure camera angles and so
on. Three years later another team made their own little horror game by the
name of Silent Hill, bringing with it
its own subtler, more atmospheric brand of horror. In 2001, the inevitable sequel
hit store shelves and the Silent Hill series reached its creative peak.
A man by the name of James
Sunderland looks at his reflection in a mirror in a bathroom stall by the road.
He gets out. We see his car. He walks past it and towards the edge of a hill
overlooking a little town, Silent Hill. Via voice-over he tells us his wife
died, but that he recently received a letter from her, telling him to come to
their ‘special place’. As it happens, their special place is a hotel near
Silent Hill overlooking the nearby lake. He does realize it’s kind of strange
for dead people to be writing letters, but nevertheless finds himself inexplicably
drawn to Silent Hill. He starts walking toward the misty town and so his and
our adventure begins.
I’ll come right out and say that to
me, this game signifies the best in horror games, a Gesamtkunstwerk of sorts, where most aspects of game design are unified
for a single narrative purpose. Whereas the plot seen in Resident Evil is very by the numbers, Silent Hill 2’s storyline has been hailed as one of the greatest
gaming plots ever and rightly so. The designers placed great emphasis on the
psychology and inner world of James and his mysterious past. Not only is this
told through the basic story, but symbols and other hints are scattered all
across the game, as if the town’s shifting into an externalization of James’
mind. Everything from art and monster design to sound and music is utilized in
service to the story. In one of Silent Hill’s motels, James finds a body
sitting in a chair that upon closer examination is revealed to be James’
doppelgänger. In another room he finds a headless mannequin wearing the same
dress his wife used to wear. There are mumbling, straightjacket wearing enemies
walking around. A giant creature roams the halls with a metal pyramid head and
a big sword he drags behind him, its scraping sounds can be heard from a
distance. Indeed, so respected is Silent
Hill 2 that almost every aspect of it has been analyzed countless times. I’d
almost say that analyses are reaching Kubrickian levels. You’re always
wondering what everything means: who is this supporting character? Why is
he/she dressed like that? Why does he/she only appear in these locations and
under these circumstances? What does their dialogue signify? Et fucking cetera.
In the video game world, that is a singular achievement seldom witnessed.
For me, Silent Hill 2 surpasses 99% of all horror games out there. Its goal
isn’t to throw cheap jump scares at you ad nauseam, but to build a relentlessly
tense atmosphere, to provide you with an experience that bores its way into
your mind and doesn’t let go even after the credits roll; in other words, true
horror. Much of this is due to Akira Yamaoka’s impeccable sound design. In the Making of Silent Hill 2 documentary he
says Resident Evil’s sound effects have
become boring, typical. You don’t actively notice them anymore. For Silent Hill 2, however, he wanted to
create something unique, something that would truly get under your skin. Besides
sound design, Yamaoka also composed the score which like pretty much every
aspect of Silent Hill 2’s production has been universally hailed. Whereas his
score for Silent Hill 1 mostly consisted of aggressive, industrial noise, Silent Hill 2’s score is more lyrical
and melancholy, perfectly reflecting the more personal story.
I’ll say it again: Silent Hill 2 is my type of horror game.
Not only does it favor relentless tension over cheap scares, practically every
part of game design is crafted in service to the fantastic story which can be
analyzed over and over again. Silent Hill
2 is without question one of the games I would consider to be art.
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