"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." - Verbal Kint, the Usual Suspects
First, I can't believe that quote originates from the Usual Suspects, but the internets seems to imply it's a paraphrase from the French poet Baudelaire. (who?) Because you'll want to know: the Usual Suspects sucks and I figured out the twist to the movie about 5 minutes in without any prior knowledge at all. But anyway...
The ACTUAL greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing people that Silent Hill 2 was a great video game. This might just be a side effect of him convincing the world that the Playstation 2 was a great console.
This could be the most over-rated video game of all time.
Silent Hill 2 (PS2, later Xbox (glitchy if played on 360) - released September 24, 2001)
I know the game is 9 years old, but the game was never really hyped as having cutting edge graphics (because the PS2 was only capable of 2 colors...gray and brown) so I figure I should still be able to comment on the supposedly amazing atmosphere and story.
First, let's look at the atmosphere.
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| Here's a typical in-game view of your surroundings. |
Fog. Fog is not atmosphere. Covering up graphical inadequacies with fog or darkness to produce the smallest viewing distance in video game history is not atmosphere. Three types of super-slow-zombie-things-that- wander-aimlessly-and-only-attack-you-if-you-stand-next-to-them are not atmosphere. The music might have been good at the time, but in no way does it compensate for the lack of atmosphere elsewhere. And I'm pretty certain I would've felt the same way 9 years ago.
Even the bosses weren't scary. Abstract creatures that look like failed "paintings" by "artist" Dave McKean? I mean, c'mon people, are you really telling me Pyramid Head used to be scary?
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| This isn't scary. |
As far as gameplay elements are concerned, the combat is pointless (and completely avoidable except for the bosses), the puzzles are easy except when they rely on pixel-hunting and the only reward for exploration is additional ammo and health that you will never need.
For those of you who haven't yet played the game and don't plan to because you've learned from my mistake, the "storyline" of the game consists of generic protagonist James returning to the town of Silent Hill because he got a letter from his wife....who died three years ago. He wanders the foggy town, encountering mindless zombies and only 4 other "living people" as you put the obvious pieces together and conclude that you killed your wife, and this whole thing is you going crazy to try to deal. The girl who looks like your wife is a manifestation of your wife! The suicidal and homicidal NPCs are aspects of you! And the little girl is your guilty conscience with the added bonus of being someone for you take care of!
I was a little upset that as the clues continue to progress, you find out that your wife was already dying, and it was mostly a mercy killing. It probably would've worked better for me if the main character actually was an evil murderer, but I still don't think we've had a game where you were the bad guy on purpose and NOT just being lied to and used as a pawn. (Braid didn't take it that far and was too obtuse, Shadow of the Colossus' ending makes no sense to anyone and is too open-ended.)
Many people praise the story as being "subtle" because it doesn't spend all game beating you over the head with what's actually going on with NPC or book-within-the-game exposition. The problem with this is that when you ONLY meet four people in the game, they are the only things drawing your attention, and that's not subtle. The beating-you-over-the-head portion doesn't come along until the very end, and is still less skull-bruising than usual, but I would never accuse the game of being subtle. Or good.
Hey, maybe I'm wrong about the subtlety, just look at this poll.Or this one. Nah! This is CLEARLY a case of people remaining in denial cuz they didn't get it.
Silent Hill 2 also has multiple endings, but according to the the internets, the game selects one of the main three randomly but giving the options higher percentages by taking some of your gameplay choices into account. Apparently, not healing yourself constantly is viewed as self-destructive and will most likely give you that suicidal ending. I bet 95% of gamers wouldn't agree with that statement. I'm pretty happy with the ending I got, as it seems to be the one that made the most sense.
James realizes that this is all him coping with killing his wife, gets in his car and drives into the lake.
Which is a great lead-in for a future post.Why do video game developers suddenly so keen on the main character dying all of a sudden? It's no longer unique and is not as cool in video games as it is in movies. 6 of the last 8 or 9 video games I've finished have ended with the main character dying. And only 2 of those are from before 2008.
In Silent Hill 2's defense, the dead protagonist makes the most sense here as opposed to all the games that followed. I suppose it's possible that I've become jaded against swerves or character deaths and this would truly have been an OMG ending in 2001, but I doubt it. I vaguely remember (translation: clearly remember) controlling Cecil and Kane as they destroyed a town in Final Fantasy 4 way back in 1991. And by 2001 we would have been a decade past Twin Peaks and halfway through Buffy and well into the geekification of TV and movies.
As a comparison, last Christmas I was playing Luigi's Mansion to entertain a 5 year old. That came out only a few months after Silent Hill 2, and is a lot more fun even if the story isn't attempting to be art. And maybe that's the problem. If Silent Hill 2 was one of the first attempts at "adult" video gaming, I can understand everyone's nostalgia, but somewhere along the way, the developers forgot the FUN that should exist in all video gaming.
Which, unfortunately, is a problem that still rears it's head today.
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