Working as Intended

WARNING: The following post is extremely long-winded and rather pretentious. If you want me to be funny, you best wait until another entry, bucko! It also contains a million SPOILERS. You have been warned.




Hurray, it's my 150th post. This means.. absolutely nothing! Especially considering a decent chunk of those are just entries with a single YouTube clip and me going, "This is good! WATCH IT!" But, hey, entirely arbitrary numbers are a huge thing on the Internet these days, especially if you're interested in video games.

But regardless of all that, I want to do something special for this irrelevant and entirely forgottern post number on the #483,493,483,583th video game related journal. One that's not even meant really for people who don't already know me in some particular way. Usually in the, "Boy, that guy sure is friggin' bitter about some video games, isn't he?" sense.

So I thought I'd talk about.. I'm not sure if I'd say my most favorite video game series of all time, but it's definitely the one that's had the largest impact on why I consider gaming a hobby, and not just the things with the pretty lights that help pass time real good. One that I've been discussing with a few friends quite a bit recently. The series I have both an awful lot of love and anger (though in a nice way. Mostly) towards...





The original Silent Hill was released way back when I was in primary school. While I was at an age where a lot of the film and literacy the game was influenced by flew entirely over my head, pretty much the only Survival Horror console series available at the time was Resident Evil. Even as a kid I didn't think Resident Evil was scary. It had a lot of jump out moments, but those startle you, they don't scare you.

Oh, boy, was I in for something entirely different then.

To get all nostalgic for a moment, one of my most vivid memories out of all the years I've been gaming was the first hour of Silent Hill. I waited until it was dark the day I bought it, sat down.. and experienced probably the first real bout of dread and fear a piece of entertainment would ever place over me.

While I doubt it was the intention, to me as a kid it seemed like the first section of Silent Hill was specifically designed to point out just how wrong Resident Evil's approach to horror was. As you quickly explored the foggy town and made your way down a cramped and increasingly distorted alleyway you could just feel the atmosphere and overbaring sense of "Turn the fuck back, Right. Now!" looming over you, even when the game hadn't actually done anything yet. An accomplishment that would make the series rather famous.

It makes you scare yourself.

At least just before the game decides to be a massive prick and scare the absolute crap out of you by throwing disturbing symbolic abominations your way. Thus making sure you're properly ready to be scared shitless the next time it pulls this.

And then sometimes it'll pull these moments, and not put any monsters in. Making their eventual appearance later on all the more terrifying. Genius!

The voice-acting and graphics kind of (ie: almost completely) ruin the impact of this scene these days, but back when it was first released, especially to someone as young as I was? This was fantastic. I mean, I completely hated it for scaring me so much, but at the same time I was hooked now. Creepy figures fluttering about in the shadows, just out of eyesight? A world that could transform itself essentially into Hell on a dime-flip, just for shits and giggles? And, of course, what the damn was it about this town that was causing this? Sign me right the hell up!

The first Silent Hill, looking back on it, was incredibly doofy. The atmosphere and symbolism (this word's going to get used a lot) behind almost everything are the only major things going for it. Thankfully they're extremely well done, but yeah... the rest of the game doesn't hold up. The characters are stilted, the voice-acting is almost game-ruining, the camera is enough to make you throw up and the pacing of the game was all over the place.

That said, let's see specifically what it did right.


1) Environments and Atmosphere.
The thing that's always struck me about Silent Hill is the setting. This isn't a horror game that takes place in a giant Doom Castle atop the monster-infested Mountains of Apocalypse or whatever. It isn't about a virus creating super-zombies that completely demolish a town. No, Silent Hill always took place in an (seemingly) eerily abandoned town.

The unsettling nature of the series comes from Distortion of the Familiar. That deep-down sense of worry and dread when you know that things aren't what they're meant to be. Shops are left open, and yet empty. Everything is still on the shelves, and doesn't seem more then a few days old (if that), but nobody's here. Or anywhere. All you see in this stage is a lot of fog and the occasional strange creature hovering about. There are no signs of any active resistance, so the monsters didn't get them..

And then there's Distortion of the Familar in its most extreme sense.

To be frank the series loves pulling this one. The only thing more unsettling then seeing something you're familiar with seem not quite right is seeing something you're familiar with be outright damned and filled with horrific imagery. As an example, two of the most memorable Hell-ish scenes from the original game are Midwich Elementary School and Alchemilla Hospital. Why? Because the developers took two environments usually associated with care and well-being and transformed them almost beyond recognition. Then filled them with creatures that looked (or were) twisted figures based on children and nurses/doctors.

And put them in these dark, terrifying environments. With you.

Just waiting for you to stumble into them.



I suppose now is as good a time as any as to explain the two worlds of Silent Hill. I won't go too much into the whole story of the first game (as a lot of it is frankly quite silly now) but here's the gist of it.

It started with a girl named Alessa Gillespie. She was born with some incredibly freaky powers, such as the ability to kill pretty much anyone she wanted just by wishing it. Obviously, this made her an outcast and she was branded as a witch by everyone she knew, which is kind of depressing when you realize she was only 6 years old, as a teacher's note you find in the school points out.

"There's a girl named Alessa in my class. If your memory is any good, you may remember her, she's the one I said they called a witch. Most likely her mother is abusing her. I've never seen her come in without some sort of scrape or bruise. Her expression is pitifully dark for a 6 year old.."

When Alessa turned 7 her mother (Dahlia) tried to use her in a ritual a cult called The Order was planning. The ritual went horribly wrong and Alessa was scarred and burned almost beyond recognition (as well as her soul being split into two people, which becomes vaguely important later on in the series). She was locked away in the basement of Alchemilla Hospital, with only a few people knowing she was even still alive (most being members of The Order).

Through both her fear of hospitals, The Order and the overwhelming urge to protect herself, Alessa, unwittingly or otherwise, gave birth to the Fog and Otherworld versions of Silent Hill with her powers and the body of God growing inside of her (as the point of the ritual was to try and bring their God into the world and usher in 'Paradise', again something that becomes important later.)

The whole cult thing has been hovering awkwardly over the series. Sometimes it's extremely effective in answering the Why Fors? And in other cases it just seems.. stupid and, as said, awkward. The Order and their freaky rituals were a great way to show the dark history this town had (something the sequel will find terribly important), as well as explain the different dimensions of Silent Hill in a way that would make sense but at the same time leave enough uncertainty and mystery for it to continue being scary.


2) Symbolism and Design.
Before I move on, I'll point out one more thing. Something that Silent Hill does so well that other horror games either haven't picked up on, or just don't care about. Symbolism. Almost everything in the game either foreshadows upcoming events/realizations or is further evidence towards the many implications that fly about. For example, we know Alessa created both the Fog and Otherworld versions of Silent Hill because every single monster that inhabits them has some part of her personality or past in them.

A few examples.



: Hanged Scratcher :


A manifestation and collection of the various insect specimens that Alessa used to find. This is mostly uncovered when you reach the memory of her room near the end of the game and see dozens of insect-like cases and drawings all over the place.


: Larval Stalker :


The creatures symbolize Alessa being tormented and abused by her peers at school. The monster is completely harmless and almost invisible, symbolizing her feelings of being worthless and almost completely alone in the world.



: Groaner :


As a child, Alessa was frequently scared by large barking dogs on her way to/from school. As a result she grew a natural fear for the creatures, which she then tried to use against others when protecting herself in the dimensions of Silent Hill.



And, of course, there's the case of Lisa Garland. Something that still sparks discussions about to this day, and a device that would become extremely important in the second game. The idea that Alessa/Silent Hill could manifest and/or manipulate people (or visions of).

It's also a rather disturbing scene.



When it comes to story, pretty much everything in Silent Hill revolves around symbolism and/or foreshadowing. Some obvious, some so bloody vague (but intentional) that it took people years to make the connection. It's always another level of enjoyment to the series. The game often doesn't just throw its plot at you and go, "Boo! Be scared!" It will hide things, often for a very long time, until everything in your head just clicks and you finally figure it all out.

Which brings me to..







Let's just get one thing out of the way, I absolutely fucking adore Silent Hill 2. Like most people who play these games. To me, everything that made the original game tacky and doofy was pretty much abolished here (except voice acting at times), and is a high point that the series hasn't been able to equal.

This is not to say that later games weren't good, by any means. It's just that Silent Hill 2 did things so damn differently and so effectively nothing's been able to reproduce the same level of quality and subtlty.

I think it's one of the greatest games ever created. If not the greatest.

Okay, enough of sucking the game off, let's move onto why I think this. After the overly Cult/Alessa/Demonic plots of the original game, it was rather shocking for many to find out that its sequel would have practically nothing to do with any of that. The Order wasn't featured at all, nor was Alessa, and the main character was someone entirely different from poor ol' Harry.

Instead the game focused on James Sunderland, a man who had traveled to Silent Hill after getting a letter from his wife to meet him here. This is rather perplexing to James, seeing as how his wife has been dead for three years now, passing away due to a disease.

I'm just going to reveal the ending now, otherwise writing all this would be extremely awkward. It turns out that James killed his diseased-ridden wife Mary roughly less than a year before the game happened, and his mind, due to grief, has essentially blocked it out. On some level he still knows why he did it, which is why Silent Hill has called out to him. Sadly his mind has essentially fractured, creating its own story for James about Mary dying from a disease, hoping he'll just forget about his sins and move on.

It'd be a bloody short and boring game if that were the case, so let's go over some of a major themes in Silent Hill 2, and why I think they're so awesome.



1) The Town Itself.
In the original game it was implied that the town, both what inhabited it and how it transitioned between dimensions were, at least partly, controlled by Alessa. After the first game (the canonical ending being that Alessa and her second-half merge and reincarnate into a child for Harry to take care of) it would appear that the town has somehow managed to conduct things on its own.

It's never fully explained, which is where a good deal of the terror in this game comes from. It honestly does feel like the town itself is after you, and the fact that this remains an unknown to the very end makes it clear that there are things going on beyond James' possible comprehension, making everything that much more damn unsettling.

It's hard to explain, really.

At some point Silent Hill has become a magnet and means for those who wish to atone for their sins. Knowingly or otherwise. Each person sees their own fears and sins manifested as a way of both making them remember what they've done, and then retributing them for it. This is brought forth by the three main characters in the game, James, Eddie and Angela.



2) Symbolism. Again.
If you thought the original game had a lot of symbolism in it, just you bloody wait! Every single thing in Silent Hill 2 is a hint or a message to both what James has done as well as the dark history of the town, possibly explaining how the powers continue despite Alessa not being there anymore.

To continue the first point into this one, one of the first major signs we get of Angela's troubled family past is this monster, the Abstract Daddy (or Doorman as it was known for a while, because it did take people quite a while to figure this bit out).




It's actually two creatues covered in a sheet of flesh. The image it projects is of a large man looming over a child's bed, which is a sign (and eventually confirmed) to show that Angela was sexually abused by her father. When attacked the Abstract Daddy screams in agony (unlike other monsters), another sign to the abuse, as well as the bizarre vaginal-like mouth/s at the front of the body.

This is the only monster in the game that isn't manifested from James' mind, and always shows up in the later part of the game when Angela is around, possibly pointing out that the two are actually quite similar to each other. Both are guilty of muder (Mary for James, and her father for Angela) and have a history of something sexually related (frustration for James, and abuse for Angela).

The game never has Angela screaming out exposition about her abuse. The only things we have to go by are the design of the monster, Angela's uncharacteristic fury towards her first encounter with one (she kicks and slams a TV into it repeatebly) and the off ways she acts when her family is brought into a conversation. That's it. The game puts all the pieces there and it's up to the player to put them together themself.

Again, some obvious, some not so much.

A lot of the speculation and confirmation of Angela's past comes from one particular scene near the end of the game, where James seems to temporarily stumble in Angela's version of Silent Hill (again, showing that the two are rather alike).



Now let's move onto James.

There are so many things in the game that foreshadow and symbolize James' sins and fears/frustrations. Let's start at the beginning with the most obvious ones, the monsters. I'll spare the onslaught of images. Mostly because finding ones of high enough quality was surprisingly annoying.


: Nurse :
The obvious one. Their low-cut skirts and cleavage symbolize James' sexual deprivation of his wife being bid-ridden by disease and the anxiety that came with constantly being in hospital alongside her during an uncertain time.


: Fresh Lips :
Strange roof-hanging creatures that are fused with a metal frame. The creature represents Mary and the frame the bed where James' suffocated her. They're only found in the hospital, another point towards the Mary symbolism.


: Lying Figure :
A monster struggling a straightjacket-like device made of its own flesh, which also covers its head. The jacket and the struggling represent James' feeling of interal suffering while the curving figure and almost high-heel shoe design of the lower body also symbolize Mary, and James' sexual frustrations.


: Mannequin :
A creature composed entirely of mannequin legs. I think the symbolism for that is obvious enough.


: Pyramid Head :
The big one. As I've said in an earlier journal post, Pyramid Head symbolizes both the dark history of the town (a painting of one can be seen in the Historical Society, apparently being a Civil War prisoner executioner) and as a way for the town to both show James the sins he has commited and make him pay for them.

There are two scenes which showcase this. The first one being the freaky first cutscene encounter with Pyramid Head, and the second being when it kills Maria constantly over the course of the game (I'll explain that in a sec'), The foreshadowing to James' own sexual frustrations is shown clearly in the first example.



This is, of course, the source of all the Pyramid Head rape jokes that fly throughout the Internet.

It's also worth noting that at absolutely no point in the game does James seem to damage Pyramid Head. In the above cutscene it just walks off as the bullets bounce off its helmet. During the first boss battle it also doesn't react to anything James throws at it, instead the battle ends when a siren is heard in the distance and Pyramid Head walks off. Possibly a sign that James isn't ready for the truth just yet. The final encounter is the second last boss battle, where James has to fight TWO (!) Pyramid Heads.

And if that isn't an "OH FUUUUU-" moment, then I don't know what is.

But even then, the battle only ends when both Pyramid Heads walk to the center of the room and kill each other. Many reasons have been brought up over the years for why they do this. I personally believe it was that James has shown that he now fully acknowledges what terrible things he has committed and is willing to fight to the end to atone for it. The Pyramid Heads have served their purpose and the town disposes of them and lets James move onward to the final encounter in the game.

And then we come to the one that even trumps ol' P. Head..


: Maria :
Maria is the embodiment of everything James wanted Mary to be in her final days. While Mary was bed-ridden, covered by disfiguring scars/sores and incredibly angry and abusive to everyone around her, Maria was seductive, kind and always wanting to be protected, which was fueled by, again, James' sexual frustrations.

The town created Maria as yet another means to teach James about what he had done. By being constantly murdered by Pyramid Head, the town was really trying to hammer the point home about James killing Mary. As the game progresses Maria also starts to show signs of being not quite right, like having memories of Mary (Maria being the embodiment of what James always wanted Mary to be, again) and referring to being killed by Pyramid Head in the long corridor in Brookhaven Hospital as simply "being seperated" from James.

Things get progressively unsettling from there.



Of note is that throughout the entire game Maria is never seen in a scene with any other character, as they'd either see James talking to nothing or they'd see a monster based on their own mind. That's all Maria is, just another creature to push James towards seeing the truth.

As for the video tape mentioned in that clip, that is where all the symbolism finally makes sense. It falls into place and both James and the player put all the pieces together. The monster designs, the design of the Otherworld itself (taking the form of distorted corpse sheet coverings and general hospitalization/depression themes), the purpose of both Maria and Pyramid Head. Everything.



Fun note for the people who enjoy mind-fucks. After this cutscene, go look at Mary's Letter that James recieves/talks about at the start of the game, the one that tells him to come to Silent Hill. Fantastic attention to detail. Or lack thereof.



3) Gameplay.
I won't blab on about it too much, as I've spent enough of this damn entry talking about the story of Silent Hill 2, but one of the most effective things about the game was that everything in it was entirely focused towards telling the story and projecting the atmosphere. All the monsters (even their attacks), all the locations, the pacing, the... well, yeah, you get the idea.

While the original game had a nice emphasis on it, it was kind of ruined by the somethings unresponsive controls of the first PlayStation. The gameplay in the Silent Hill games (at least the first three) are so good because they're so bad. If that makes any damn sense.

When you're in a monster infested area, there's no reason to be scared if you're a super-soldier who can slow down time and kick people across the room in a nanosecond (see: F.E.A.R, or better yet, don't). Harry, James (and later on Heather and Henry) are just normal people. They have no firearms experience, or any training in melee combat. They're ordinary people who have to go up against really disturbing and frightening things. Which means the worse the combat, the scarier the encounters are.

I'll go into the negatives of an effective/forced combat system when Homecoming comes up on the ol' journal. For the moment, let's look at the effect it had on Silent Hill 2. Melee combat was slow and incredibly clunky while ranged combat was often a waste of ammo, as James would more often then not miss the target entirely unless he was disturbingly close to it. Makes perfect sense, and means that when a monster is gunning for you down a hallway you're just as frantic on shooting the damn thing as James would be.

Hammering down on the trigger, seeing bullets only occasionally hit as the abomination gets closer to you. It is quite terrifying. Put James in an enclosed room with one or more of these things (as the game does like to do, the prick) and you'll probably be running for the door screaming on more than one account.

The worse the combat is, the better it is for Horror games. The earlier Resident Evil titles, while I personally didn't find them scary, did have tense moments because the controls and combat were so awkward, which really made it a survival horror game (Odd). When Resident Evil 4 came about it stopped being survival horror and just became a third-person shooter. A damn fun one, mind, but not survival horror anymore.


4) There was a Hole here. It's gone now.


That line still seriously weirds me out and I don't know why!



All the above and so much more are why I seriously love Silent Hill 2. It's horrifying, full of fantastic and actually properly thought out symbolism, the combat system makes everything worse and better. The only thing I have against the game is that the voice acting is rather dodgy (which is annoyingly standard for this genre) and that other Silent Hill titles have yet to top it.

Assuming anyone made it through that wank-fest to live to see another one, I'll go through why I enjoy (and dislike, but mostly like) Silent Hill 3 and Silent Hill 4: The Room. Then do the Silent Hill movie (which will be anger-fueled and bitter, believe me!), Origins and Homecoming as the final one!