Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Best in series"

Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams was named #1 in G4's Top 10 Scariest Survival Horror Games and I would have to agree with them. This time around we take on a new character and pretty much a new storyline so if you haven't played the first Silent Hill then don't worry about being left out in the dark with the story. Really Silent Hill is a place that haunts everyone and seems to show those people thier "demons". In this SH, we find ourselves playing as another man named James Sunderland who has plenty of demons. Now the storyline is very interesting and has a lot to do with who James is and his past so pay attention to what the cutscenes and characters tell you.

James Sunderland once lived a happy married life with his wife Mary until she became ill and soon died. Oneday James recives a letter from his late-wife telling him to go to Silent Hill. And as any person who recieved a letter from someone who died telling them to do something would do, he went. He has no clue as to why he needs to go there other than that Mary stated she would always dream about Silent Hill. Once James arrives in the fog-ridden town he begins to search for Mary. James does run into several people who all seem to have something to do in Silent Hill as well. Notice how none of them decide to go along with James because as we all know safety is better in numbers. After awhile James comes across a women named Maria who somewhat resembles Mary if Mary was dancing poles. James then decides to let Maria tag along as he continues to search for Mary.

Okay now onto gameplay. The gamplay seemed rather easy to adapt to. There was your button for shooting and swinging a plank around and there was a button for viewing your map (which should have been a white or black button I think. It was Y and I kept hitting it whenever I tried to do something else) and then there was your typical action button and of course running. One problem I did have was the camera button. When I'm running up and down these wide fog covered streets Id like to be able to see what Im going to come across. Sometimes I'd be on the right side of the road and miss a monster on the left who would then proceed to jump out and scare the crap out of me. But I think that was the only problem I had with the gameplay. And I should mention that the difficulty level depends on what difficulty setting you choose.

Riddles. One thing I like about the game is that before you start a new game you are allowed to pick your difficulty for the riddles. I do recommend you start off easy unless you are a riddle master. Even on easy, the riddles are tricky and you may even need to cheat to get around them but they do offer a little bit of fun when playing this game. I mean everyone needs to take a break from blowing monster's brains out and solve a riddle, right?

Scare factor. This game really did scare me. I say this to everyone, the only way you're going to get the whole scare factor is if you play this game in the dark and in silence. Play it when it's light outside and there is a bunch of noise and you'll miss a lot. There was a lot of times where I didn't want to play this because I was so scared and wanted to put the controller down. It really kept my heart racing. The atmosphere adds to it a lot. I mean rotting flesh and blood sprayed walls aren't the most relaxing things in the world, now are they? And as always, Silent Hill has really great music and sound effects. I loved the music during the cutscences and would like to purchase the soundtrack. And the sound effects were very good too. They would definatley cause you to second guess yourself. I love how they trick you into thinking there is a monster right around the corner and when you go around it you realize there's nothing there. The scare factor definately gets a 10.

So when I look at the storyline, the gameplay, the music and atmosphere, Silent Hill 2 really brings a lot to the table and will definatley please all SH and survival horror fans. Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams gets a 9.5/10.

Thanks for reading and I apologize for any spelling and grammer mistakes but you think the spellcheck feature could be a little bit more helpful.