Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams for Xbox Reviews by Gamers

Let me start off by saying that since I have an Xbox and not a PS2, I am limited to being able to play only Silent Hills 2 and 4. Therefore, I don't really know if SH2 is an improvement over its' predecessor or not. What I do know is that Silent Hill 2 is a game that, while in some ways seeming a bit outdated by today's standards, is definitely worth playing through and makes for a very memorable experience.
SH2 plays like most traditional horror games. The protagonist is controlled from a third person perspective and the player will have to solve the occasional puzzle in between fighting monsters and exploring areas. Early on in the game, the player is given a radio. This radio is worth mentioning because it emits white noise whenever monsters are close by. Though this may forewarn the player of the presence of monsters, it also builds a feeling of anticipation and dread in the player. Combat is very basic: hold the left trigger to ready a weapon and press the A button to attack. The monsters in the game sound and look disturbing, but they're very slow. In closed indoor areas, combat is tougher to avoid, but outdoors, the monsters can be easily avoided. They don't pose much of a threat either as the game provides many opportunities to pick up ammo and medical supplies. Most of the puzzles aren't too difficult, though I admit that on a couple of occasions, I used a walk-through just so that I could progress and the plot could continue to unfold.
Speaking of which, the story is probably the best part of the game. The story follows James Sunderland, who has arrived in Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his supposedly dead wife, telling him to meet her at their "special place". With a cast of interesting characters and a mysterious plot, the narrative is what will drive you to play this game for hours on end. The dark, rundown, disturbing environments and the excellent soundtrack certainly help to immerse the player as well.

This is the highly anticipated XBOX Version of the Playstation native series. Expectations were high, especially to the thought of the XBOX's higher hardware capabilities, I as a fan to the original expected a much more intense experience than the original.

Instead what I received was very bland, and incredibly slow story. I felt I couldn't connect to the character like I could in the first. The game play lacked the claustrophobia that the original had. It was a suffocating, haunting feeling. The sequel offered nothing but more camera angles, and showing off your characters pretty ol' mug as often as possible. The puzzles were childish even under the most difficult settings. And with the game difficulty set to its highest level, all it did was give you the same couple characters (bad guys) a little more often. Completely predictable and fixable attack pattern, and it made some of the boss battles a little harder to smile at. As a sequel to the original and as It's own game, Its an over produced game that was at the time mostly made to show off some of the ps2's capabilities. And the story lacked any of the real urgency as the first did.

But the most annoying thing, was that the guy didn't seem freaked out. He'd see something that your everyday joe peanut would at least hyperventilate to a little, and just walk by whistling and kicking cans. When it became nightmare world, he said "What the ?", or something to that effect. When he'd run into people in the middle of this nightmare world, a sort of "see ya later" feeling was felt, a real casualness that did not make me feel a sense of care enough as to whether the character lived or died.

All in all, Good eye candy, not nearly enough variation in villains, Gum chewing and skipping sense of fear, WAY TOO BRIGHT! Oh well... at least it adds a little to the Silent Hill Mythos.

-Sackavelli
Just my 2 Cents