SILENT HILL 2 (Zero Punctuation)

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This week, Zero Punctuation reviews Silent Hill 2.
Fast-talking Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw reviews a new game each week in this animated series that combines informed critique with cutting humor. Watch the next episode of Zero Punctuation a week early, only on The Escapist.
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[@VitalSigns1288]

There truly is no reason to have pyramid head in any game after silent hill 2. Pyramid head was, just like every other monster, a creature of James' imagination(to try not to spoil too much, it was a reflection of his guilt). So why James' guilt would be walking around in other games and movies bothering people who don't secretly desire to be killed is beyond me.

[@mewletter]

You can blame fanservice. Because of Pyramid Head and the sexy nurses, the other Silent Hill games' monsters can't stand out and end up being forgettable for most people. Hope Silent Hills DON'T bring them back.

[@suwatsaksri7191]

Having a gun wearing a T-Shirt with the word guilt would be so obvious that it could appear in a childs lesson cartoon show

[@VitalSigns1288]

John Oliver John, the inability to understand that, should be reason enough to make it onto the silent hill writing staff for silent hill 6.

[@VitalSigns1288]

Probably lead to a better game than whatever they are planning now.

[@Darkseadee]

VitalSigns1288 While having PH in the others is stupid, didn't PH technically appear to James because he saw a painting of it? I know he still represents his guilt in that game, but the actual physical look of him has nothing to do with his guilt, I could be wrong but that's what I thought.

[@THEGREATMAX]

"It leaves you emotionally drained and satisfied like fucking a burning dolphin" - Silent HIll 2

[@Krebons1200]

+Lord Raisins it was unused dialouge. look in the files

[@johnwrath3612]

Put that on the box art

[@narcissismincarnate9201]

I just finished playing this. My god it's depressing. The dog ending made me tear up.

[@Akechi_The_Phantom_Detective]

The dog ending is the scariest part in the game if you ask me.

[@jameswatsonatheistgamer]

It's the shits.

[@Shadow-zf5uc]

There was an opportunity for an Old Yeller joke here. It's gone now.

[@Rhubarb120]

I'm sure that someone who has not played the game will eventually read this comment and assume that there is a dog who dies.

[@kachigga6524]

@@Rhubarb120 THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT. I read this comment a few months back, and thought, 'huh I wonder what that ending is'. I've only had time to get the game now we're all isolated and at home, and I literally finished the game for the first time an hour ago, looked up the dog ending to see what was so sad about it, then burst out laughing.

[@Arangarta]

"It's a fascinating voyage of pain and despair that leaves you emotionally drained and satisfied, like fucking a burning dolphin!" I had to pause the video and contemplate things for a moment once I heard that sentence.

[@mr.candyworm2693]

7 years passed, and this metaphore still is my favourite

[@limepawz]

it never does get old

[@sasaki999pro]

I mean theres an entire compilation of yahtzee making sexual references to dolphins in his videos, so I assume its an actual fetish of his. I mean I can't really give him a hard time about it, from what I heard apparently female dolphins have full articulation over their genital muscles, so its like stickin your dick in an auto blow or something to that effect.

[@Arangarta]

@@sasaki999pro I posted this 8 years ago and I didn't think that in 2022 I'd have to say: please give people who fuck dolphins a hard time

[@derekquigley5816]

Oh, good, so I wasn't the only one.

[@Carlos-ln8fd]

this game perfectly recreates the feeling of going up the stairs at night and thinking there's a murderer chasing you

[@pokemonmanic3595]

That is probably the perfect way to describe this game. That unsinking feeling of terror that something is lurking behind you, ready to wrap its claws around your throat....only to turn around and realize nothing was there.

[@dellefranz]

+pokemonmanic3595 or worse, realizing that it's you chasing yourself!

[@Carlos-ln8fd]

Kevin Traberg hearing a noise in your kitchen only for it to be your feeling of self-doubt and sexual frustration trying to scare you

[@bobbluered8984]

Trigonometry for a face- yes, math does make things more terrifying.

[@Er404ChannelNotFound]

Actually, it's speculated to be a primitive instinct still present today that kept our ancestors alive by avoiding things with long faces/heads because they may well be predators.

[@noxkoimax356]

Mmmhhhh? That actually makes sense

[@dfghj241]

@@Er404ChannelNotFound why the long face ehhhhh?????

[@jessip8654]

Silent Hill 2: Realistically portraying what it's like to take care of a terminally ill loved one. Buckets of fun to be had here. (But seriously this game is a work of art.)

[@CMGThePerson]

Also Silent Hill 2: Has an ending saying that a dog was behind the whole thing

[@mrman6035]

@@CMGThePerson it also makes it easier to beat the hardest difficulty since you skip the final boss. Same with the joke ending in 3

[@jeffcarroll1990shock]

silent hill 2: some asshole trying to justify why he killed someone during a fever dream.

[@leo_8492]

"There was a critic here. He's gone now." Poor Yahtzee.

[@Poetabrasileiro]

Weird how a Critic ceases to be a "Critic" when he openly admits to at least one game.

[@leo_8492]

Poetabrasileiro Mind you, this is something he said and was also making a reference to the game. The only critic he could be referring to would be himself.

[@TheMightyKawama]

Leandro Moreno He's making a reference to one of the first things you see in Silent Hill, a message saying "There was a hole here, it's gone now."

[@leo_8492]

TheMightyKawama I know that. The idea of the comment was to take his quote as if he were serious.

[@professornebula6545]

"It's a fascinating voyage of pain and despair that leaves you emotionally drained and satisfied like fucking a burning dolphin." My sides are in orbit.

[@TengouX]

I had a glorious meatball footlong at Subway this afternoon. And it made me think of Silent Hill 2 somehow.

[@TengouX]

I came back to tell you that I tried it. Unfortunately PETA intervened before I could reach climax, so I can't give a proper account of the experience. The footlong was delicious, however.

[@cigoLxeL]

@@TengouX This town is full of monsters! How can you sit there and eat MEATBALLS?!

[@Komnen0s]

Over a decade has passed and there still hasn't been a horror game quite as cerebral and effective as SH2.

[@seandunn596]

Komnenos Amnesia and Outlast come close in my opinion

[@redmeadow7911]

Komnenos I personally can't stand playing this game. The gameplay aspect is something that just kills it all for me. When I feel less like I'm fighting horrific abominations and twisted beings in a surreal, horrifying landscape and more like I'm fighting terrible control, any tension or fear falls flat on its ass so hard that the shockwave breaks its spinal cord.

[@flairthedark6000]

Red Meadow Well. ya know a horror game is doing its job right when ya cant bring yourself to play it. Lord knows I cant work up the nerve to play amnesia. Given a little nudge by my associates to make a vid about it I might very well do just that, Althought QUITE reluctantly. Seriously Amnesia is the ONLY game ive played for PROBABLY less than 5 or 10 minutes before the Crushing tense feeling gets too much and I wuss out screaming like a little girl going "NOPE" all the while with less DIGNITY.... THis is AMNESIA dark Descent Im talking about here tho. Im not kidding when I say I find it TERRIFYING, cuz the mere thought of it to even TYPE about it is making my Stomach invert from the flashbacks...

[@flairthedark6000]

Red Meadow Well. ya know a horror game is doing its job right when ya cant bring yourself to play it. Lord knows I cant work up the nerve to play amnesia. Given a little nudge by my associates to make a vid about it I might very well do just that, Althought QUITE reluctantly. Seriously Amnesia is the ONLY game ive played for PROBABLY less than 5 or 10 minutes before the Crushing tense feeling gets too much and I wuss out screaming like a little girl going "NOPE" all the while with less DIGNITY.... THis is AMNESIA dark Descent Im talking about here tho. Im not kidding when I say I find it TERRIFYING, cuz the mere thought of it to even TYPE about it is making my Stomach invert from the flashbacks...

[@redmeadow7911]

FlairTheDark's Neo Arcadia Gaming Did you just ignore what I said? I can't bring myself to play it thanks to its controls, which are horrifying for all the wrong reasons.

[@KRIMZONMEKANISM]

You know Yahtzee really likes a game when he uses not 1, not 2, but 3 animations in the same review. :P

[@lurn2minecraft]

And when he uses SIX animations, you know he especially likes that game. Yes I counted, he had six animations although 2 of them were rather short.

[@sol5339]

nearly 20 years later since its release, game still holds up as a masterclass of the horror genre

[@SolidRaiden2655]

Damn right

[@hexus761]

I played sh2 when i was 15, and hadn't since touched it. 10 years later i saw this video, played it again twice and shared the feels with 3 people who all cried at the end. Everryone involved was more deeply enriched by the bleakness. thanks mate

[@Justin-Theobald]

"Jaaaaaaaaames Sunderland"

[@gamerguy0358]

You're wright about the way they act like they're not seeing the same things as you. To quote one of my all time favoutite games, Silent Hill 3: "Don't stand there looking so smug, you're the worst person in this room! You come here and enjoy spilling their blood! You step on them and... snuff out their lives!" "Are you talking about the monsters?" "Monsters? They look like monsters to you?"

[@gamerguy0358]

Wright? WRIGHT?!?! Who am I, an illiterate trolling fanboy? Sorry fellow intellectuals, I meant right.

[@Kartissa]

Yeah ... that 'they look like monsters to you?' line had me wondering if she was actually killing normal people, and was just hallucinating that the town was filled with horrific creatures. That was an extremely troubling thought. (Although the friend who was watching me play the game interpreted the line differently - the speaker was so mentally disturbed that it was perfectly natural to have monsters in the town, and that he wasn't any different to them.)

[@gittonsxv126]

if i remember this game, this game used silence as atmosphere and it worked too, walking into a near pitch black area with all kinds of nooks and crannies and hearing...nothing, not one sound is fucking scary.

[@suwatsaksri7191]

They made great use of the hardware limitations, they couldnt show much because the graphics would suffer so just combine story and ingame and you have a foggy town that makes sense in both story and gameplay, and the fact that the monsters are "badly" animated helps that uncanny/inhuman feel that makes it creepier, monsters in modern video games are just too clean and smooth, they are anything but subtle and bizarre

[@CliveHowlitzer]

Suwat Saksri Reminds me of the creepy wrongness of stop motion animation in early films that helped make so many of those monsters seem all the stranger. Something that isn't really captured in highly polished CG in newer films.

[@suwatsaksri7191]

***** the Terminator creeped me out with that stop motion, that jerky and unhuman movement was a great contrast to the living tissue that surrounded the machine

[@Vishnu_Karthik]

What pains me is that no one seems to appreciate original resi games for the same damn atmosphere! everyone just seems to hate original resi games because of its controls&camera.

[@mimkyodar]

Having played the game now, I love that even "Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaames" is a reference.

[@mkultraenjoyer]

I cant be the only one who keeps on watching this video at least once a year

[@Akechi_The_Phantom_Detective]

lol you're not alone bro.

[@Mernom]

What's that profile Pic

[@backgroundnoise9310]

Here I am again.

[@mkultraenjoyer]

@@backgroundnoise9310 just rewatched it 5 minutes ago

[@backgroundnoise9310]

Cool.

[@joxvur0088]

Holy shit, Yahtzee predicted a monster with a cube for a face before The Evil Within came out.

[@cameronlee-foster6118]

(Aside from playing the games themselves) I come back to this video whenever I lose faith in the video game horror community, just so I can refresh my mind with how wonderful this series was, well.....until I look down the comment section and lose it again.

[@Andriej69]

Wow, didn't expect that... SH2 is one of my top 3 most favorite games of all time, and it looks like it's on Yahtzee's top list too. I shed a tear while watching this. Thanks

[@left4dead193]

Silent Hill 2..... Truly one of the better games in my opinion.

[@bumpercarsYT]

i personally prefer silent hill 1

[@left4dead193]

Everyone has there favorite games. Personaly I like if they like any of my games....

[@itzamedio5427]

Pyramid Head You mean game, singular.......sellout........

[@left4dead193]

David Brazie Oh calm yourself David....

[@itzamedio5427]

hmph....>:( lol

[@jayt4533]

A big lad with Trigonometry for a face.... Lol

[@cadian9432]

Here after the remake announcement. Can’t wait to hear Yahtzee’s fury!

[@mksabourinable]

next time my friend talks about pyramid head I'm going to say, "Oh you mean that big guy with trigonometry for a face." just to bug him ^.^

[@SuperMiracleMan]

Don't forget to mention that trigonometry face also has "happy times" with a manikin.

[@mksabourinable]

Shadow_Plays will do ;)

[@Slider1207]

Shadow_Plays mannequin*

[@bumpercarsYT]

Slider1207 grammar nazi*

[@lamptrent]

bumpercars spelling swordsman*

[@TabletTriple9]

Silent Hill 1,2 and 3 are still my favourite horror games. I agree with this.

[@teacake_94]

That dolphin bit is probably my favourite Yahtzee simile AND THAT IS SAYING SOMETHING!!!

[@matthewlayford1736]

The wind-up toy analogy is pretty much spot on.

[@Simp_Zone]

The way the nurses move is something I'm still not okay with.

[@theslammerpwndu7945]

JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMES

[@lewisskeleton967]

SUNDERLAAND

[@PETHRIS]

Female Sniper Don.

[@Neotokyovibes-WelcomeHome]

I happen to live in a town in England called Sunderland. Whenever it gets foggy I hide behind the sofa

[@errormine]

"He wouldn't be caught dead pressing X to not die"... Oh how far we've fallen.

[@DeadpoolX9]

That image of yahtzee and silent hill pointing a gun at james while he's pointing a gun at himself is the funniest and most well represented part to me.

[@southofheck]

Sh2 is the only game to make me cry. Other games have made me tear up a little bit, but the In Water ending followed by Mary reading her last letter left me sobbing. Such a fucking gut punch. Even though i knew about the twist and a lot of the symbolism and story going in, it still fucked with me.

[@varmintx0]

"There was a critic here. He's gone now." Some serious foreshadowing.

[@zombieater634]

After years of watching this video, I finally understood the reference to silent hill 4's hospital monsters in the line "falling downstairs makes me burp"

[@aljoa2392]

You’ve convinced me to try it.

[@TheMightyKawama]

2:39 This aged well considering the Remake has QTEs to break out of enemy holds lmao

[@mkultraenjoyer]

Why do I keep coming back to this video?

[@douglasdehoff8327]

No matter how many times I see it, Maria's "smile" when you meet her for the first time still scares the crap out of me.

[@Cobalt360Degrees]

Dammit this makes me even sadder that Silent Hills will never be a thing. D'x

[@dickbutthebuttdick9876]

Well actually a fan of the game is was so pissed by its cancellation and has decided to make P.T. himself and so far it's graphics look more real life than real life and overall the game looks fucking amazing not done yet but so far it looks great

[@Centuries_of_Nope]

I have to make Bioshock my Silent Hill 2. When it comes to atmosphere, no other game portrays dread and no hope as much as Bioshock did. And I also find it Ironic that Bioshock and Silent Hill 2 follow a some what similar approach to atmosphere. The city is a character, you are all alone and everything wants to kill you with no sanctuary, the monsters in Silent Hill 2 mirror James while the Big Daddies and Splicers in Bioshock mirror rapture itself.

[@ZombieGamer009]

Dat username though...

[@ZoopsMind]

***** "Translate"?

[@ZombieGamer009]

Dat to that... idk why

[@KRIMZONMEKANISM]

i have to say that i'm on your side mate, i truly believe they did a wonderful job in the story department and it is to me a game that i have played more than once, thus signifying its importance to me. If i were to change anything though, it would be the way the plasmids affect you by the end, and the final boss itself, as well as making more meaningful choices that will affect the end. But as a whole, Bioshock is about the adventure and i love it for it. :)

[@walterbishop58]

I can't compare the two like that. Silent Hill 2 is so very low key in a way that Bioshock isn't. Bioshock- with plasmids and story and stuff. explains itself pretty thoroughly to the player while Silent Hill 2 contains so much symbolism that they leave entirely up to the player to interpret. And all of this " the city is the character"- I guess I don't really see it that way. The town of Silent Hill I found hard to see, literally because of all the mist. It's somthing that can't be touched. I wouldn't say it's a character but it certaintly has personality it is the presence and the atmosphere of the game. While Rapture is kind of frightening to me, It doesn't come near the emotions that Silent Hill invoke on me. And I think the fact that there is too much human presence left in Rapture takes that subtle magic out of the equation. Could also be that the fact that Silent Hill 2 is a so much older game than Bioshock and that outdated gameplay and grainy graphics helps enhance the amazing mixture of feeling one has for the game. Something that also can't compare is the soundeffects and the music for Silent Hill 2. Sure Bioshock has good soundeffects too, very distinguished now that you've played the Bioshock games you would immediatley recognize a Bioshock soundeffect. But the Music and soundeffects( sometimes I can't tell them appart)In Silent Hill contains so much more than whats happening on screen. I think the music helps with at least a 1/3 of the immersion for the player to whats happening on the screen. I love Bioshock for it's story and their special gameplay but when it comes to the most psycological, dark, scary, strangely enchanting, depressing and sad game of all time that you for some reason just want to play again despite of all the negative emotions it bestows upon you. If you've felt depression or has some ounce of darkness in you, this game will draw on that part of you and you will be able to relate to the feels that this game has to offer you. An experience to be sure. Play it if you haven't but I remind you, it speaks to a certain type of people.

[@user-zf3fc9tn5k]

"Like f*cking a burning dolphin.".........how do you come up with this stuff?

[@user-vu7me6ix1f]

...drowning baby fetish. Having a sick mind.

[@Upsetkiller456]

***** Hi Frank

[@user-vu7me6ix1f]

Domenick boucher Sshhhhhhh

[@shawn5716]

"wouldn't be caught dead trying to press x to not die" I've got some bad news about that remake...

[@mrpengywinz123]

a big lad with trigonometry for a face I have to use that someday

[@CERTAIND00M]

Do you teach a class? You should teach a class. You can name it "How to Compose Narrative Using an Interactive Medium" or, as us American's will probably call it once we eventually integrate the lesson-plan into our own curriculum, "Film Theory: the Video Game!"

[@Schwallex]

As long as Americans can't even fucking spell "Americans", teaching them anything but basic spelling would be a tremendous waste of time now innit, mate.

[@atomic747]

Why take out your time to be a petty bitch?

[@gojira5157]

I was 14 when I first watched this video. Now I’m 26 and have a job. Time is a weird mistress

[@SableGear]

I finally found it! "Interblurbing" has been a part of my personal vernacular for years and I knew it came from ZP but I couldn't quite remember where. My instincts were correct, it was a Silent Hill review.

[@edwardhernandez6668]

Silent Hill 3 Would love to hear your thoughts. :D

[@BLZ231]

From what I’ve heard it’s his least favorite of the Team Silent games, though he does like it much more then any of the western games. His opinions about it are pretty much summarized when he talks about it in this very video.

[@aidanabregov1412]

I laughed so damn hard at the Burning Dolphin part!!!

[@BMF396]

There's something poetic about the way that street cone fits over James' head... but I can't quite triangulate what... hmm....

[@PokerPlayerJames]

"...Like fucking a burning dolphin!" I think that's my new favorite yahtzee line. So out of nowhere but so damn funny.

[@breasthound]

Pyramid Head looks like a Dark Souls enemy.

[@tjwarddd]

Came here for the burning dolphin

[@ldmt1995]

Every few years I come back to this video to dwell on what was and will never be again.

[@Bryan7474]

"Falling down stairs makes me burp" Dat feeling when you're probably one of the few people to get that reference.

[@NerdySatyr]

My gods... How his voice has changed.

[@leonzchannelz]

came back to this review solely just because "Jaaaaaamees" came into my mind randomly and had to find out where I remember it from

[@CianCarnageMusic]

yahtzee's videos are something I can keep coming back to and it always makes me laugh so much :D

[@chukyuniqul]

Y'know, to me the first silent hill is insanely atmospheric exactly because of its low poly count. Something about thst really works well. I do.agree that the game would've kinda been better without cybil.

[@Holydiver2107]

Guy Cihi. Very good voice acting. Trust me.

[@reguluspastor]

I love this frenetic, chaotic, humor-as-black-as-an-obsidian-goblet review of my favorite game of all time. Have my sub.

[@spencermarley7990]

"It's a fascinating journey of pain and despair that leaves you emotionally drained and satisfied, like fucking a burning dolphin." That may be the greatest line in all of Zero Punctuation.

[@MrTimoth3]

So I went back to watch this video again and what do I fucking see? 777k views on this video. HIT THE LEVER

[@marieassi9698]

*666

[@MrTimoth3]

Nah it's 777, either that or my phone's fucking with me again -_-

[@RegretfulDeadMan]

+Marie Assi its a reference to Konami pachinko business and Jim sterling's fuckonami news segment

[@jayfolk]

food for thought, the last three failed attempts at silent hill are based off SH2, in that you play a guy who just gets dropped in silent hill to see a love one facing manifestations of their fears culminating into a central boogie man boss like pyramid head. one can argue that silent hill 1 and 3 can be scarier BECAUSE THERE IS A CULT, which uses the biggest fears of the unknown: ritual, tradition, god, and occult magic bullshit.

[@JustAnotherPest]

I'm under the impression that 1 and 3 are creepier because the town is turning into some sort of industrial hellscape and because the monsters are actively trying to kill you as opposed to 2 where, minus the prison, things occasionally look kind of wet and moldy and the monsters just kind of passively exist. It's not very scary.

[@minhkhangtran6948]

TBH, from what I can pick up, it's not scary in the jump-scare, Fnaf, "fear of the unknown" sense of thing. It's scary in the sense of dread, of anxiety, of vaguely knowing what you're in here for but can't just seems to accept it, until the very end. It's "fear of the known", basically, of having to faced your guilt head on and deal with it, so the kind of person that doesn't felt guilty about most thing, or tend to face trouble head on can't really be scare about that kind of thing, IMO.

[@twofacetoo75]

Good to see you all again in time for the announcement of the remake. I too eagerly await Yahtzee's review of it. I can only imagine he's already having a seizure over the news as we speak.

[@NetherStray]

I think one of the strengths of the game as far as atmosphere is that you don't see wreckage everywhere the way you do in games like Downpour. It doesn't look like a town where something very obviously went wrong or where people have very obviously abandoned. It's just a place where there aren't any people with no explanation as to why.

[@jacobdrum97]

Silent Hill 4 was my personal favorite.

[@Akechi_The_Phantom_Detective]

Now that....I....agree with.

[@yourwelcome9336]

As long as it's not SH3, good for you.

[@Akechi_The_Phantom_Detective]

YOur Welcome Silent Hill 3 has the scariest moments but it's hard mode puzzles are complete bullshit.

[@yourwelcome9336]

It depends on what you find "scary". My 7 year old cousin and I played it and in his own words "This game isn't scary, it's loud and annoying". I'd say the first game has the most fear inducing moments, the second game has a steady pace of tension and melancholy, but the third game's strongest suit is that it has the name "Silent Hill" on it. I enjoyed it the first time I played it but lacked things that its predecessors had. Also, Heather is the most annoying SH protagonist ever. I get it that she's 17 and therefore a smart-ass (because apparently, all 17 year olds are smart-asses) but all of her quips at inappropriate moments really ruined the game for me.

[@Akechi_The_Phantom_Detective]

YOur Welcome No offence but if you think 3 is loud then you can't really say any different for Silent Hill because the games soundtrack is where all of it's ear factor comes from. SH1 makes brilliant use of Dark environments and a twisted soundtrack to set you on edge, SH3 goes for individual moments (mirror scene and statues galore) but my personal favorite is 4 because the game messes with your personal space. First half of the game you're trapped in this unsettling apartment which after the first scene can leave you somewhat unnerved but nothing really happens, you get used to Room 302 and it's extreme attention to detail. Then the second half introduces the haunting's begin and you can never be sure which one comes next which makes the games hub truly unsettling. Silent Hill 2 has...some disgusting imagery but I find it has no real...climax of horror you know? I'll admit I really don't care for any of the Silent Hill protagonists because while Heather is annoying James, Henry and Harry are all so damn monotone but then again they're supposed to be an avatar for the player. Shattered Memories is an awesome thriller but doesn't do so well as a horror.

[@thundermorphine]

Best game ever.

[@jmar4life]

one of my favorites reviews by far

[@Thatannoyingtgirl]

this game is still one of my favorite survival horror game even now

[@jmalmis]

My only way of playing Silent Hill 2 is that HD version everyone seems to hate. Is it still worth it?

[@LENSX_NA1]

No, it's shit, play the Ps2 version or get it for PC, most pc are able to run it, it's a game from 2001, there is a modern compatibility patch made by someone, so you can play it at higher resolutions.

[@jyyrgenniemi740]

PS2 version with PCSX2-emulator on your computer with custom settings(just google for more indepth tips) is going to be better looking than HD and its the original experience with the better voice acting and cutscenes.

[@keychainere]

Its fine. People are just disappointed that it's not as good as the original, which as it's an HD release is somewhat shocking. Im using a European version thats been patched and it works fine. It doesnt have the grain of the original which added atmosphere and there are only new voices on SH3. Oh, theres a lake sequence that looks dreadful, something out of N64 era. But the game is so good that despite a few drawbacks, its still an incredible, scary ride.

[@paulramirez8545]

Wait, why is the HD version so bad? It's just a graphics updater. I have only played about ten minutes of it via gamefly sending the wrong game. Then I had to go leave to do something then I thought I don't want to play this so I sent it back, but I'll get it sometime recently. The part I stopped at was entering the town and finding a piece of wood.

[@BrandonDeanRobinson]

If your PC can run it, I suggest getting an emulator and playing the original PS2 game that way. I watched fan made comparisons of the original SH and and the HD collection. The HD collection was ported by a team that originally only worked on smart phone applications/games with little to no prior experience on a project like this, which also reflected in the finished product. barely noticeable or flat out missing textures, buggy frame rate, and audio problems plague the game. They even released a day 1 patch for the game, which didn't really fix anything. It seems like it's beyond repair. I've never played SH2 up until recently, considered getting the HD remake, but opted to run it on an emulator instead. As someone stated above, you can also run the game at higher (1080P) resolutions as well. get the PCSX2 emulator and get the game from somewhere like cool rom. You can find custom settings online to make the game run as smooth as possible. You'll have a much better experience with an emulator than the actual HD remake.

[@Bruhx10]

I know why you're here

[@ShankStabington]

thats what i tell my self every day. ive probly seen all his videos around five times each. their just so great.

[@Ninjaswithipods]

Cant wait 4 the hd collection to come out!

[@R_got_a_name_change]

Can someone explain why he says Jaaaaaames Sunderland?

[@Frostuin]

Becaaaaaaaaause it's funny!

[@yourwelcome9336]

+robo4evar There's a part in the game where a game show plays through James' radio and the announcer elongates his name.

[@R_got_a_name_change]

+YOur Welcome Ok, thanks

[@TheDeathtoll99]

Does anyone know if the original version is available on anything except a PS2 since the HD version is said to be awful

[@TheDeathtoll99]

thx for leting me know lets hope its part of the steam black friday sale this year

[@TheDeathtoll99]

not on steam all steam has is homecoming

[@goldmegaman1000]

Alden Grant *cough* pirate bay *extremely unconvincing COUGH*

[@jimmodelle9468]

Konami was dumb and only released few copies of Silent Hill 2 Directors Cut Pc,so you can either emulate it or torrent it

[@brittanyisaketten]

xbox

[@kailomonkey]

So good to at last hear a fully positive review from you! And also good to hear someone agree with my thoughts on 3 and 4. The first 4 have a sense of being respected before things went downhill but I thought 3 was pretty bland and I haven't played 4 based in a room which I'm sure could have its good points but well, 2 has already optimised on what 1 gave birth to. And 1 was great too. But 2 just perfected it.

[@crimsonghost4040]

4:00 explains my life so well.

[@demonfireofhell]

Wow re7 really did rip this game off a bit didn't it? Getting a letter from a dead wife after 3 years and then going to check it out.

[@stinger59605]

While the story is amazing, I feel like the actual game could use some improvement. The fact that you have so many large open areas and the easiness of dispatching enemies really doesn’t strike fear into me. A more claustrophobic layout and less effective melee would do wonders for it.

[@stinger59605]

@@isaywhateveriwantandyougot7421 boy, I never even mentioned the puzzles. I’m saying I don’t fear the enemies. In the old resident evil games, the enemies were a huge threat as it was very hard to bring them down. And smaller environments made slipping past them nerve racking. Silent hill 2 I can just wack them with a stick and they go down.

[@stinger59605]

@@isaywhateveriwantandyougot7421 care to elaborate? You’ve not made any counter points. You just keep saying I’m wrong without giving any reasons why I’m wrong. And I have played silent hill 2. Before I stopped at the part with the hospital out of boredom.

[@stinger59605]

@@isaywhateveriwantandyougot7421 1. I already said the story was great. 2. Voice acting is bad, but still funny to listen to. 3. Sh2 came out 5 years after re1 so of coarse the graphics are better. 5. Re1 takes place in a single building. So? Assassins creed Valhalla has a big map and it’s shit. 6. The free camera is less frustrating to control, but that also lessens the panicky fear in hectic situations. 7. You fucking missed the entire fucking point of my original comment. A world isn’t scary unless it has danger. Sh1 makes it very easy to kill the monsters where re1 not only makes it very costly to kill a monster (10 bullets for a single zombie) But greatly limits access to ammo. Making the zombies a legitimate threat you have to sidestep. Couple that with the small rooms and the camera working against you, and fear is created. That’s literally the only aspect where sh1 falls short. Everything else is good aside from easily defeatable monsters.

[@LegendaryPlank]

@@stinger59605 I'm not sure where this misconception comes from but in RE1 97, you have enough ammo to kill every enemy in the game. You can clear the mansion of zombies with just the handgun inside the first hour.

[@thatweirdchild100]

"its a fascinating voyage of pain an despair that leaves you emotionally drained and satisfied like FUCKING A BURNING DOLPHIN" i died at this point

[@BitchPuddingFTW]

Silent Hill 2 is my all time favorite out of all the games I don't know how many times I've played it now but yes it stands tall and proud over all the other games.

[@goodjpngoblin]

WHY ARE ALL THESE VIDEOS UPLOADED ON 21ST OF JULY 2011? WHAT THE FUCK?

[@skysnow2495]

It's time you know... the world was created then, all of us have flas memories, thinking that we have lived whe nreally we are all new to existance. It is a well kept secret but they messed up when allowing access to these videos, leaving the date unchanged... that or it was on the Escapist site and all the videos were put on KZbin on the 21st of July.

[@AnotherWotNoob]

that's the day he re-uploaded all his old videos when he got the job at Escapist.

[@goodjpngoblin]

Oh, okay.

[@PsyrenXY]

AnotherWotNoob Actually his job at the Escapist came several years before that (either '08 or '09.) Rather, this is the date that the *Escapist* gave up its big fight with KZbin (because random schlubs kept reposting their videos here anyway) and simply worked out an ad deal with YT instead.

[@Erik-qv5ue]

Can someone tell me, why is he saying James' name like that ?

[@crisptugboat8764]

Beefold characters in silent hill 2 liked to drag james' name out when saying it sometimes.

[@Erik-qv5ue]

Thanks. It's weird, that i haven't played this game yet, seeing how fond Yahtzee is of this game.

[@crisptugboat8764]

Beefold trust me, silent hill 1-4 are a horror experience you won't forget.

[@Erik-qv5ue]

And the characters saying "Jaaaaaames" won't ruin the mood ? Or you'll mostly hear screams of tortured souls trapped inside the abominations walking around the town ?

[@crisptugboat8764]

Beefold nah, don't worry. it won't ruin the mood

[@shawnrogers6533]

This deserves a proper remake more than RE2 or RE3 could ever

[@CaptCooldude]

I just love how he says "James", and it makes it especially funny for me since my name is Jaaaaaaames :)

[@ranchdressing]

Pretty much the only thing I ever liked about Silent Hill 2 HD is the replacement for James' voice actor. He actually sounds and feels like a man who's been through some shit and is about to go through a lot more of it. A LOT more of it. The one thing I didn't really understand about SH2, though, is how the Otherworld looks. I don't even know I'm in it half the time, compared to the Otherworld from the original. But I guess I'll get used to it the more I play it through. And yeah, this game is still arguably the best in the series. Even with Downpour in the franchise.

[@cordia96]

The other world is made up by the protagonist, to make it short. It's not a "paralell dimension". Same thing counts for the monsters. It's not just the otherworld itself, but also the transition. With SIlent Hill 2, it's seamless by just walking through a door (best example, the Hotel at the end). In Silent Hill 2, Harry passes out most of the time. In SIlent Hill 3, Heather suffers pain while the world becomes rusty. In Silent Hill 4, Henry get's "Born into it", with the tunnel as a birth channel. Everything makes sense within the individual games story and themes. There are so many elements you don't notice on your first playthrough. I just saw it in a video comparison and it blew my mind. The first 4 games don't need to shuff everything up your ass.

[@justincanu9153]

***** Got a link for that comparison? Sounds rather interesting.

[@TheMicklo25]

ranchdressing Really? I always preferred Guy Cihi's performance over Troy Baker's because Troy just sounds like an actor while Guy's performance sounds like a real person.

[@carnifexdemon]

justin canu Essentially, Silent Hill (the town) does not change into one specific scene that is the same for everyone. The town feeds off of the guilt of the one the game is centered around (though why only them is beyond me). A good example is James Sunderland and Pyramid Head who represents James' sexual activity and violence. The sexual activity part is also translated via the Nurses that, for some reason, show up in Homecoming. The three worlds also symbolize Alessa's comparison of Silent Hill. The normal world is self explanatory. The Fog World is typically used as a transfer between the normal world and the Otherworld, in which the Fog itself could actually be smoke as I remember one protagonist (not sure which one though I think it's the one from Origins) commenting about how it 'smelled like ash', which goes hand in hand with Alessa in the housefire. The Otherworld is Alessa projecting her torture under the Cult's hands and manipulating it so that the character see's that which they are both most familiar with and most guilty of (see James Sunderland). Basically, Silent Hill= Purgatory run by a crazy lady who was tortured as a child because of her powers. I say Purgatory as each character so far has gone to Silent Hill with a huge guilt hanging over them, this changes the landscape to fit, which is either dealt with and they are sent on their way, or they fuck up and end up failing (not spoiling anything, but the Silent Hill bad ending was interesting).

[@TheMicklo25]

carnifexdemon Actually there's only one world and the way it transitions is through Alessa power over the town.

[@michaelphillips6]

tired of you pushing your politics in the videos

[@jodyelvira2978]

Oh dear, I can't wait for what you have to say if you watch the Black Ops 2 one.

[@ZZZZZZ-ek2pq]

You realize he was making a joke, because the way he described what Pyramid Head was doing you would obviously think he's make a sex innuendo, but then he said politics to throw everyone off. Learn 2 humor.

[@TheVino3]

Padraic Register I don't think you get exactly why he chose "neo-conservative imperialism" though. Generally I think its just a bad idea to politicize things that don't need to be politicized. Yahtzee hasn't never really grasped this. There are multiple reasons why its a bad idea to shove your own political ideas into whatever you are doing that isnt politics: 1) You can lose a percentage of your audience who disagree on political terms. Yes. Other people have ideas on politics. 2) It just reeks of "I know best and fuck anyone with a different opinion to me". I don't necessarily disagree with a lot of what yahtzee says, but the way he says it can sometimes be very very condescending, which I just find a bit tiresome. His political opinion is nothing special, and nothing I can't hear by talking to anyone else I know. 3) Once you do it, you have to be really careful not to contradict yourself. You can't be all anti-discrimination and then discriminate out the arse - you just look like a hypocritical cunt, and sadly yahtzee has done this. 4) Its just fucking boring. Talk about what you are doing. Luckily Yahtzee doesnt do it too much, and *usually* when he does it is at least tenuously connected. Many people with some sort of celebrity just go batshit and start politicizing the shit out of whatever they are doing, which is basically art suicide.

[@dantheman1261]

***** Over-analysis?

[@ZZZZZZ-ek2pq]

***** TL:DR I could give a shit less is he politicizes things. Just ignore the parts that annoy you and laugh at the parts that entertain you.

[@Schlorgan]

"fucking a burning dolphin" gets me every time.

[@XxShadiaxX]

this is my favorite video ever

[@ghostmaker2909]

14 years later, no game has beat silent hill 2's story. It's heartbreaking and just all around awesome. It's freaking scary too. The new voices are really good in the hd collection for xbox 360 and ps3. It's also one of the best games of all time.

[@sgamer-xc1bd]

Sterling Hannemann No they aren't, the new voice actors butchered the characters in the HD collection by not picking up on subtle character traits (Vincent espescially)

[@Heartbeat0N]

Meh, planescape had much better story and writing. "No game in that particular genre" more like it.

[@poop1234794]

+90sgamer92Eng At least SH2 HD had the original voicew. Sadly, that can't be said about 3.

[@FalloutRuler85]

He did. Over a month ago. It's on the Escapist website. He's also done Skyrim, Saint's Row the Third, Risen 2, ect.

[@alexmac25]

thats how i played it the first time, didnt even get past the opening part when you start hearing footsteps just off the screen. flipped the lights on and started playing madden lol

[@MichaelV118]

2:17 onward is the story of my life.

[@ty1298]

Probably like the eighth time I've watched this but only now do I understand "Falling down stairs makes me burp"

[@Acemetzer]

I love your picture because it fits so perfectly with the comment.

[@Eviiana]

I Liked this video years and years ago and the first minute reminded me why

[@jellyman1303]

His best review yet.

[@karixening]

I think this is my favorite review by Yahtzee. It hits almost every aspect of the game and what makes it good.