SILENT HILL 2

Well, I did say I'd do a few of these, regardless of quality. Next up to the plate:

Silent Hill 2 (PS2), a fairly old game that tops every other game I've played since in regards to immersion. The story: the protagonist, James Sunderland, arrives at the misty lakeside resort town of Silent Hill because of a letter he received from his wife Mary. Funny thing is, she died of a disease three years before the start of the game, and James is here to confront his inner demons and discover the truth behind the letter and his wife's death, while avoiding being killed horribly by the various monstrous residents of the town.

As mentioned, the immersion in this game is amazing. At all times, you can barely see a few metres around you because of the thick fog blanketing the town, but that doesn't stop you from hearing things. Are those sounds footsteps from some unseen creature stalking you, waiting for the moment your back is turned to strike? Or is it just a stray dog, or the wind disturbing something in the ruined building nearby? Are those rusted screeches part of the ambient music, or is Pyramid Head (the main antagonist for the game) lurching around the next corner, his bloody knife scraping along the floor behind him? Who knows. It adds another layer to send terrified shivers down your spine and keep you on the edge of your chair. Most of the horror, however, is in the subtle details. Why is there blood leaking out of that refrigerator? Why is there police tape encircling the place you killed that monster? Why is the note I found earlier suddenly blank? Why do I travel down even further to return to the surface?

The graphics in this game, while nothing special by today's hyper-realistic standards, are very good for something from the start of the decade. The environments are well designed, and the iconic Otherworld is beautifully decayed and macabre. The character design is rather good, though the jumps from in game models to properly rendered cutscenes can feel a little odd at times. The monsters are terrifying, all rotting, glistening flesh and rusted metal, with a hefty dose of symbolism to top it off. I do remember hearing somewhere that the fog was a way to hide the limitations of the graphics, but it in no way detracts from the game at all. If anything, it makes it even better.

The town itself and its history from the first game has been mostly discarded, with most of the details in books, newspaper articles and flyers that lie scattered around the town, providing backstory and depth without loading down the story with needless exposition. Many characters and locations make returns in other games in the series, such as Walter Sullivan, briefly mentioned in a thrown-away newspaper article in SH2, who makes a return in Silent Hill 4: The Room. I personally love reading this notes about the dark history of Silent Hill, but it's not everyone's cup of tea, so the choice to keep them optional was a good one.

The one detraction from the game is the actual gameplay. The camera lurches about like it's operated by a drunk on stilts when you're outdoors, and when you're indoors, it tends to fix itself at odd angles to highlight important things, something that's not very helpful when you're trying to beat down the Abstract Daddy trying to chew on your head. The combat is clunky and slow, but overall, it works. The inventory system is okay, and the puzzles are all very inventive, but some of them seem to rely on some twisted logic. One that a few people have complained about is the puzzle to open a trap door that is lacking a handle. You find various items, such as a wax doll, a lighter and a horse shoe, and you have a wide array of weapons to pry the trap door open. What's the answer? Simple: melt the wax doll with the lighter to fill the indentation left on the door by the handle, then put the horse shoe in the wax and wait for it to set. Viola, instant handle. The only reason puzzles like this work is that the town is a malevolent entity that is actively trying to mess with your head. But hey, it works.

The music in this game is fantastic, though it's a bit of a stretch to call it music. Where most games have music to play in the background of a scene, Silent Hill has a cacophony of discordant screeches and metallic grinding noises, interspersed with hellish whispers and the chiming of clocks, and the occasional period of complete silence, broken only by your footsteps and the cries of the monsters. It is very effective at creating the atmosphere that is integral to the game. The actual music that plays at important times in the game, like the opening sequence, is a lovely counterpart to the usual noise, and often pushes a scene from just sad to outright heartrending.

Overall, Silent Hill 2 is an amazing experience that could not have achieved the same effect in any other medium. It is sad, terrifying, grotesque, interesting, and most of all, subtle. It definitely deserves it's place among the top horror games of all time, and if you are a fan of horror, you owe it to yourself to play this game.

THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU

Since I'm being bugged into updating this thing (even though I'm pretty sure no one reads it, which isn't surprising), and the person bugging me requested something about video games (which I don't like talking about because I'm not all that knowledgeable on what makes a good game or a bad game), I figured I'd try my hand at something new and attempt to review a couple of the games I picked up over the Christmas break. I get the feeling this is just talking to the brick wall of the internet, but oh well. It'll stop one person's whining, at least.

First up, The World Ends With You (DS), one of the most recent games from Square Enix. The story revolves around Neku Sakuraba, a fairly typical moody teenager, who wakes up one day to find himself ensnared in the Reaper's Game, where he has to undertake missions and fight off the Noise (the generic mooks and bosses) with the help of his partner over the course of the week. It doesn't sound like the sort of thing to set the world on fire, and it's not. The story isn't amazing, but the characters are relatable and interesting, and the 'power of friendship' theme pervading the whole game isn't too out of place. Over the course of the game, Neku, originally a bit of a people-hater, learns to open up to others and experience a bit more of the world around him than he would have if he'd stayed an antisocial asshole. Simple, yet effective, and quite touching at times.

The setting is similar to another game I love, Jet Set Radio Future, in that it's brightly coloured, populated by hordes of people, and fun. TWEWY is set in fashion-conscious Shibuya, and that focus on style is actually made a pretty cool feature of gameplay, with the trends and threads system. Simply put, if you wear the right brand of clothing in the right area, you get boosts to your stats, or your attacks are more effective, but I never found it too useful until you start getting some really good equipment near the end of the game. Honestly, the most fun I had with it was putting the character that annoyed me in a lacy lolita dress, heels and a frilly umbrella (which is actually an accessory specific to one of the male characters.). Really, it's nothing to write home about, but it works.

The gameplay is something new, at least. You, the player, have to control both Neku and his partner, using both screens of the DS. The touch screen controls Neku, where you execute all kinds of attacks using equippable pins and the stylus, while the top screen controls his partner, with input from the D-pad or ABXY buttons, depending on your dominant hand. The D-pad (being right handed, this is what I used) inputs bring up a chain of commands, which you have to put in in a specific order to match numbers, cards or symbols to the set displayed at the top of the screen. It has a bit of a steep learning curve, though. This gets really confusing when you're facing a lot of enemies, and it feels a bit cluttered, but every so often it works pretty well. Good thing you can let the computer take over, though, or I'd be screwed.

The graphics in the game are nice and clean most of the time, with the only real exception being the sprites during gameplay, which tend to get a bit pixel-y depending on where you are in the stage. But that's a minor complaint, since overall the aesthetic works well. The characters all have unique and memorable designs, with something that sets them apart (except for the Support Reapers, who just get the generic hoody and jeans combo), the stages look great, and the cutscenes, despite just being inanimate 2D sprites and dialogue most of the time (except for important scenes), work pretty well. And from experience, fully animated 3D cutscenes on the DS tend to look a bit off anyway.

Lastly, the music. Honestly, I loved it, even though it's a far cry from what I normally listen to. I don't know quite what to label it as, but it's all pretty upbeat and catchy pop/rap stuff, and it goes well with the overall feel of the game. It's kinda fun to just listen to the music while doing menial chores or homework, and they tend to fade into the background just enough to stop you noticing the repetition, though your mileage may vary on that one.

To wrap it up, The World Ends With You is a fun, quirky game with a nice story and interesting characters, but if you aren't into this sort of game, or are just sick of this sort of story, it's totally understandable why you'd be turned off. It won't appeal to everyone, but overall, it's a pretty solid game.

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And that about wraps it up for that game. This is why I don't review games. Ever.

On another topic, school holidays are nearly over and I've barely started my holiday homework. Oh well, such is life.