GAME
The Gist: Wall-to-wall Creeps
$49.95
It's generally agreed that Silent Hill is one of the most disturbing, frightening, and all-around messed-up games ever to taint the Sony PlayStation. Now Konami has taken it one step further with this PS2 sequel.
Set in the same town of fog and fugues, Silent Hill 2 puts players in the shoes of a man whose life is fractured when he receives a letter from his dead wife summoning him to Silent Hill. Once there, reality and his sanity come apart at the seams: Not only is the place acrawl with almost Lovecraftian horrors, but before long the player's very sense of space and location comes under attack as the environment shifts between Anytown, USA, and Hell on Earth (with the same floor plan, no less). As in the original Silent Hill, part of the creepiness is the everyday plausibility of the main character. He's no Schwarzenegger secret agent, no Resident Evil elite cop. He's just a guy, with dandruff, Visa bills, and a malfunctioning pocket radio that blares static whenever some god-awful thing emerges from the mist.
The game also sports a wonderful paranoid dynamic - flashlights enable you to see The Bad Thing coming down the hallway, but it can also see you. Maybe you'd feel better in total darkness, or maybe you'll just die quickly and miserably. It's a world of choices. All the while, the PS2's Dual Shock controller puts the hero's throbbing heartbeat in your hands.
Freaky-monster design, claustrophobic surroundings, and scary lighting effects - all this and more await you. Just listen to the name: Silent Hill. It even sounds evil.
Konami: www.konami.com.
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