Silent Hill 2

Silent Hill 2 (サイレントヒル 2, Sairento Hiru Tsū) is a video game and the sequel to original Silent Hill. It was originally released for the PlayStation 2 but was ported to Xbox and Microsoft Windows, before being included in the HD Collection. It was developed by Team Silent and published by Konami.

Plot
After losing his wife, Mary three years ago to an illness, James Sunderland receives a letter from her asking him to meet her in Silent Hill. Exploring the town, James meets Maria, a woman who resembles his wife and encounters horrific monsters. James must now figure out what is happening or succumb to the cursed town.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Great and emotionally frightening story that is considered the best in the franchise.
 * 2) Terrifying monsters, born out of James's subconscious.
 * 3) One of the most famous monsters in the Silent Hill franchise makes his debut, the Pyramid Head. It resembles the town's ancient executioners and are born out of James's desire to be punished.
 * 4) Complicated puzzles that really make you think.
 * 5) Horrific and terrifying imagery, especially in the Otherworld, a hellish like realm with everything decaying and covered in rust and blood.
 * 6) The radio emits static when James is near a monster.
 * 7) The Xbox version has additional content. The extra content was rereleased in the Greatest Hits version of the PS2 port.
 * 8) Six different endings to the games, each equal canon as Konami left the true ending ambiguous.
 * 9) The soundtrack is a good blend of calm music and music that is highly unsettling.
 * 10) It is one of the earliest mainstream games to involve "touchy" subjects, but it's never gratuitous because it's all implied rather than shown.
 * 11) The game is representative of trauma, depression, lust, neediness, relationship issues, sexual frustrations, bullying, insecurities, etc.
 * 12) Very few but genuine jumpscares. Notable examples: the Toluca prison toilet and the scream after completing the tablet puzzle.
 * 13) Speaking of which, the game relies WAY more on giving the player a sense of psychological dread over cheap jumpscares.
 * 14) Unlike the monsters in the first game, all the monsters in this one are humanoid and feminine (except for Pyramid Head).
 * 15) A story that feels relatively simple but it becomes sophisticated over time.
 * 16) The characters are complex, flawed, and real. No one’s got clear-cut black-or-white morale.
 * 17) A great plot twist near the end of the story.

Bad Qualites

 * 1) Laura is unlikable at the beginning as she is very rude but she becomes less rude as the story progresses.
 * 2) The first boss fight with Pyramid Head and the final boss can be beaten without having to attack at all.
 * 3) The game developers missed an opportunity to include unscripted encounters with Pyramid Head, which might have helped the game become scarier as long as it wasn't repetitive.
 * 4) This game has lower enemy variety when compared to the other games. The lying figures and mannequins can lose shock value and become irritating and repetitive.

Reception
Silent Hill 2 is considered one of the greatest horror titles ever made and one of the best video games ever made. With the exception of the HD Collection, all versions of the game have a rating over 4 out of five on GameFAQS.