You Promised Youd Take Me There Again Someday but You Never Did

"This boondocks... there's something wrong with information technology."

"In my restless dreams,
I run into that town.
Silent Hill.
You promised y'all'd take me there again someday,
But you never did.
Well, I'm alone there now...
In our 'special place'...
Waiting for you..."

Silent Hill 2 ^note A after port for the original Xbox has a subtitle, which differs betwixt regions of release. Restless Dreams is the Due north American subtitle of the game; Inner Fears is the European subtitle, and Verse form of the Terminal Moment is the Japanese subtitle is a survival horror video game released in 2001, and the 2nd game in the Silent Loma franchise. Despite sharing in the boondocks of Silent Hill as its setting, it is not a direct sequel to the first game (that wouldn't come until Silent Hill 3), but rather a Gaiden Game that however continues its unique take on Psychological Horror then some.

James Sunderland receives a letter from his wife, Mary, that begs him to meet her in their "special identify" in Silent Hill, a resort boondocks they visited together one time on vacation.

He just has one modest problem with the letter: Mary has been expressionless for three years.

James travels to Silent Loma, despite knowing for sure that his wife has died, to discover out who wrote the letter and why they sent information technology. He arrives to notice a seemingly-abandoned town shrouded in a perpetual fog — a far weep from the resort town he remembers. During his exploration of Silent Hill, James meets several people who may or may not have a connection to the letter: Angela, a disturbed runaway looking for her mother; Eddie, a mentally unbalanced swain with a weight problem; Laura, a young girl who seems to know Mary and bears a grudge against James; and Maria, a stripper with a remarkable resemblance to Mary who begs James to protect her.

James eventually discovers that his journeying through Silent Colina has a very personal slant, as the boondocks forces him to face up his fears, vices, and guilt via a number of increasingly symbolic monsters, most notably Pyramid Head (a muscular butcher in a pyramid-shaped helmet who stalks James through the town).

Frequently regarded every bit non but the apex of the Silent Hill series only a masterwork of horror video games, Silent Colina 2 is well-known for its bleak temper and intensely psychological and metaphorical storyline, alongside its much-improved gameplay compared to the original. The game also has Multiple Endings based on James' full general behavior throughout the story (rather than on specific choices at certain junctions).

---

Silent Hill ii offers upwardly these tropes; they're waiting for yous:

• Calumniating Parents: Angela's parents. Daddy was physically and sexually abusive; Mommy said she deserved information technology. The brother even joined in on the sexual abuse.
• Adult Fear:
  • A man has been securely changed by his wife's early death. The fact that James killed her is another Adult Fright: the fear of failing a loved one and of selfishness. James'southward guilt is overwhelming, hence his punishment. Due to his wife's long sickness James is besides sexually frustrated, and angry and guilty enough about it that the town creates a physical manifestation of his dark impulses toward sexual violence.
  • This is James and Maria'due south reaction to Laura running off on her own in a boondocks filled with danger; the unabridged infirmary sequence exists because they wanted to protect her.
• Advancing Boss of Doom: Pyramid Caput, during the escape from the hospital basement.
• Alien Geometries: Silent Colina starts exhibiting this more and more every bit the game goes on. The prison provides a especially memorable example, where it seems that one of the hallways was somehow inverted so that it turns into a giant pit.
• Ambiguous Catastrophe:
  • The Maria ending, which sees James refusing to take responsibility for killing Mary; accepting Maria every bit a substitute partner; and subtly threatening her when she so much as coughs. This catastrophe hints that the cycle may repeat, starting with Maria dying (either from sickness or by James' hand)... but to what extent his journey repeats is unknown.
  • The Exit ending sees Laura walking off ahead of James. Even so, Laura was never really addicted of James, so it's possible that he doesn't adopt her in this ending (which is what Mary had wanted to do) and they're just walking off together to James' automobile. It's as well not clear if they reconciled later James revealed to her that he killed Mary, which would understandably make Laura hesitant to be adopted by James.
  • The Rebirth catastrophe, obtained through a New Game+. James tries to resurrect Mary with some sort of ritual, merely the player doesn't run across the results.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: One of the characters eventually discovers something virtually themselves that they tried to deny. Which one? James. He suffocated Mary before her affliction could kill her and repressed his retentivity of doing so.
• And Now For Something Completely Dissimilar: Equally i fan interpretator has noted, the other three Silent Hill games washed by Team Silent ^annotation Silent Colina, Silent Colina three and Silent Hill four all have a very strong "occultic" theme, with one and three specifically beingness well-nigh Silent Hill'due south connection to a local cult, which is the primary focus of the narrative for both games. In SH2, the cult and the occult become mere background elements, with the narrative instead focusing on repression of memories and guilt. The later Silent Hill: Homecoming was really the offset game in the serial where both of themes were central to the plot.
• Another Side, Another Story: The "Born from a Wish" sub-scenario in the PS2's Greatest Hits version, the Xbox version, and the HD re-release, where you lot play as Maria just before she meets James out by Toluca Lake.
• Asshole Victim: Angela murdered her father and blood brother before coming to Silent Hill. Considering the former had been sexually abusing and tormenting her all her life and the latter participating in it, at that place's ZERO pity or sympathy to be had.

• Apocalyptic Log: Early in the game, James finds a serial of notes written by a dead homo, which chronicle his experiences with the monsters and tips on how to deal with them. Chillingly, the 2d-to-last note says only "Run away." The last features several more repetitions of "Run away!"
• Artifact Mook:
  • A cross-game example: Pyramid Head is explicitly made from part of James' damaged psyche, just enemies with a similar design and purpose appear in other games across the series to menace unlike characters:
    • Homecoming has the very similarly appearing Bogeyman, with just a few minor design differences between the two. In this example, Bogeyman is instead a manifestation of Alex's father'south guilt.
    • Also, in Origins we have the Butcher, who is visually somewhat like to ol' Pyramid but has unlike symbolism. Whereas Pyramid Caput is about the guilt of James, the Butcher is either the cruelty and sacrifice of the Order, or is some manifestation of Travis' psyche, possibly fear and anger.
  • Inverted past The Abstract Daddy, who is sprung from Angela'due south psyche. When it reappears as a Degraded Dominate, Angela is nowhere to be establish, but the player later finds that she has indeed been nearby.
• Awesome, just Impractical: The Great Knife, if you can land a hitting, does enormous damage, and you lot'll feel as dreaded equally its possessor with it in your easily. The downside is the same as the good reason Pyramid Head is and so slow. James will be dragging the weapon while walking and turning slower than usual, and has a long time before the swing can connect - but it works quite well on targets that are stunned on the ground.

• Ax-Crazy: Eddie, definitely. Being bullied his whole life and made fun of for his weight well-nigh certainly did him no favors, and by the time James meets him for the last fourth dimension, he openly states that he will kill everyone who makes fun of him.
• Back from the Dead: Maria, who is brought back more in one case. This happens because she technically isn't a existent person. She's a manifestation of the town made to torment James with each death.
• Berserk Push button:
  • Maria's is James' confusing her with Mary, which is strange, considering she does information technology occasionally. President Evil's plot guide, analyzing the "Born from a Wish" sub-scenario, suggests that Maria doesn't have whatever identity outside of "surrogate Mary" — and she realizes this. It confuses and hurts her that her just purpose in life seems to exist to torture some sad and lonely dude that she'due south never met earlier past representing his dead wife. She can't non confuse herself with Mary, but it still hurts her when she and others practise.
  • Eddie takes this trope to the logical farthermost. After Eddie is plant standing over a corpse with a gun in his paw, he explains in a Motive Rant that he wouldn't ever heed to anyone making fun of him once more or he would kill them. This causes James to question Eddie's sanity aloud, and Eddie immediately attacks James.
• BFS: The Great Pocketknife. Unusually, the game realistically portrays how impractical such a weapon would be in real life — James drags it every bit he walks, and has to struggle to even lift it for a strike. Pyramid Caput himself even drags it along slowly and takes a while to do the overhand swing.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Exit ending, where James gets through his guilt, leaves Silent Hill and (probably) adopts Laura, but Mary is nevertheless dead and James (and Laura) must alive with this.
• Boss Corridor:
  • The final hallway to Mary's room. As with most things, the time you linger in this hall affects the ending. A like hallway, this one lined with newspaper murder headlines, precedes the Abstract Daddy.
  • Another takes y'all into the depths of the earth to find a psychotic Eddy.
• Tedious, just Practical: Your basic pistol may not be the flashiest weapon, but you lot'll find plenty of ammo for information technology and it is very handy for the rank and file monsters in the game. It's too useful against most of the bosses because you move adequately fast with information technology and can quickly reposition yourself between shots, whereas the shotgun and rifle are slow and take a lengthy filibuster before you tin move after each shot. If it'south inadequate for a job, your shotgun tin usually handle the challenge. It helps that there are 2 combination safes in the game that provide you lot with a heap of boosted ammo. The combinations are not also challenging to decipher with some persistence.
• Bottomless Magazines: Averted in the fight with Eddie, who has exactly six shots with a revolver earlier having to resort to pistol-whipping James. This is a bit of a phone call-dorsum to the fight in the offset game with Cybil, who also tosses her gun abroad later on running out of bullets.

• Cast from Hit Points: The unlockable Hyper Spray volition slowly harm James. Luckily it takes about 3 minutes of continuous spraying to kill him from full wellness.

• Central Theme: Guilt and punishment.
  • Pyramid Head is the all-time overt example of this, as he is a manifestation of James's guilt for killing Mary, and his desire to be punished for what he'due south done.
  • Maria'south entire character is meant to invoke this. Her constant deaths are meant to hammer in the guilt to James even harder, and she fifty-fifty berates him in a way that is clearly meant to invoke feelings of guilt in James.
  • Angela feels that she deserves to be punished for the constant sexual and emotional abuse she suffered in her home life, even though she really doesn't.
  • Eddie desires not to exist punished, but to punish those who have bullied him his entire life. A lack of guilt for his actions ends upward leading him down a nighttime path where he becomes an unapologetic murderer.
  • Laura is the merely character who is truly innocent in every sense of the word (even when she acts barbarous or aroused), and therefore feels no guilt. To Laura, the town has no monsters at all, and she's free to leave later she discovers the truth about what happened to Mary.
• Chainsaw Good: In a New Game+, you can notice a chainsaw in the forested area near the beginning of the game. It's not great confronting Lying Figures and Creepers, Pyramid Caput, or enemies that need to exist taken out at range (such as Flesh Lips or the terminal boss), but with good timing, it tin shred basically annihilation else.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Subverted with Angela's pocketknife, which James obtains after the cutscene in the Blue Creek Apartments. It does serve a function, namely that oft looking at this detail in the inventory and assuasive James' wellness to get low will issue in the "In H2o" catastrophe, in which James commits suicide. However, the knife isn't used in the actual human action (looking at it just implies suicidal tendencies) and it remains unused in your inventory forever.
  • In the Brookhaven infirmary, James finds a Dry Jail cell Battery. After, in the Silent Hill Historical Society, he has to use it considering his flashlight suddenly goes out afterward finding a key.
• Covers Always Lie: The game has Angela Orosco on the cover, but she's more of a side character. James is the truthful star of the game.
• Crusading Widower: James being a particularly dark example; his single-minded fixation on the search for his expressionless wife is a result of the fact that he killed her himself. In one ending, this crusade culminates in his suicide.
• Dead Man Writing: Mary's alphabetic character. James even lampshades this in the opening of the game. It actually isn't the whole letter. The whole thing is revealed in the endings.
• Death Amnesia: Maria was killed by pyramid caput merely before the elevator. When James meets her once more in the prison house, she claims they were just separated in that corridor.
• Degraded Boss: The Abstract Daddy reappears as a reasonably like shooting fish in a barrel kill a couple of times after its outset appearance as a unsafe boss.
• Developers' Foresight: For whatsoever reason, the dev squad decided to avert a particular Unintentionally Unwinnable moment. If you somehow make it to the final boss (who flies and is thus immune to melee) without any ammo, or run out of ammo during the fight, it will run a special script, speedily take harm, and dice anyways .
• Disgusting Public Toilet: Ii, in fact!
  • The game begins in one, and information technology's surprisingly gorgeous with the music that plays as James prepares himself for the road ahead.
  • James sticks his hand into ane without yet much as rolling up his sleeve first. Silent Hill iii even references this detail moment with the main graphic symbol wondering who would do something so disgusting.

• Driven to Madness:
  • Eddie goes mad along the game, having been so obsessed with the murder and assault he committed that he even tries to kill James later in the game.
  • Presumably James is also driven to madness in the Maria ending, where he decides to forget nearly Mary and live with Maria, who isn't real, being just a manifestation of his guilt.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • James came to Silent Colina with the intention of committing suicide, only only goes through with it in the In Water catastrophe.
  • Unsaid with Angela, who is last seen walking upwardly a burning staircase, never to be seen again.
• Drone of Dread: A large portion of the soundtrack is this, and it helps to enhance the feelings of dread and feet that the game excels at creating.
• Downer Ending: Both the In H2o ending, where James is Driven to Suicide and the Maria ending, where James is presumably Driven to Madness.
• Dual Boss: The final fourth dimension Pyramid Head appears, James has to deal with two of them. Like always, they are invulnerable to anything you lot have bachelor, only if James avoids their attacks long plenty, they'll kill themselves on their own spears. It symbolizes that James has accustomed his guilt and is fix to move on.
• Early on-Bird Cameo: Although he did not appear in person, Walter Sullivan was really first mentioned in the game three times (first in a magazine article at the apartment buildings, then equally an answer to a question in the infirmary and finally his grave at a cemetery displayed prominently side by side to headstones for all the game's other major characters) earlier he made a concrete appearance in Silent Loma 4.
• Earn Your Bad Catastrophe: The "Rebirth" catastrophe tin only be obtained in New Game Plus, and involves collecting 4 hidden special items constitute throughout the game. The "Maria" catastrophe can also exist tricky to become on a normal playthrough, specially on the higher difficulties where she'due south apt to accept heavy damage in certain sections, such as the Pyramid Caput hunt.
• Earn Your Happy Catastrophe: The "Go out" catastrophe requires a very specific play mode that isn't necessarily obvious. To put it simply, you need to testify to the game that you have a called-for conclusion to see Mary again, and playing the game like a completionist tends to preclude yous from earning this catastrophe.
• Eldritch Location: Well, plainly all of Silent Hill, but specifically for this game is the Hotel. It shifts dorsum and forth between existence normal, dark, h2o damaged, burnt out, burnt out, night, AND h2o damaged, and some kind of metallic skeleton of the building.
• Elevator Escape: Lucky for James. Not so much for Maria. In fact, the closing of the doors seems triggered to make James run into the full grisly consequences of his self-preservation.
• Ending by Ascending: Angela is last seen ascending a burning staircase to what is plainly a Self-Inflicted Hell.
• Escort Mission: James meets Maria at Rosewater Park and she accompanies him until partway through the hospital department, at which bespeak she decides to rest for awhile. She rejoins him old later, but in time to go summarily murdered by Pyramid Head. There is relatively little combat for near of the time they are together then the chances of her being injure are fairly slight.
• Fan Disservice: Nice plumber's crack you got at that place, Eddie.
  • This is also invoked with the designs of the enemies. The Nurse monsters accept exposed cleavage... With incredibly rust-covered skin, and a massive lump of mankind where their head should be.
• Fan Sequel: Silent Loma: Hope
• Fanservice: If y'all unlock the Canis familiaris catastrophe (or just watch information technology on You lot Tube), the credits end with a shot of a buff, shirtless James and Maria in her underwear.

• Finishing Move: Later on knocking an enemy downwardly with gunfire, you lot can run up to them and stomp on them to kill them instantly. This can brand the departure between killing an enemy with just two-3 bullets, rather than 8-12 bullets.
• Foe Romance Subtext: Pyramid Head spends about of the game stalking James beyond the town, repeatedly kills the only other person interested in him, and interrupts his attack on another monster twice to pursue James instead. Go along in mind that PH is combined manifestation of James' sexual frustration and desire to be punished for Mercy Killing his wife.
• Foreshadowing: Partway through the Labyrinth, James comes across a graveyard with graves for himself, Eddie, and Angela. Eddie ever dies, Angela's fate is left ambiguous, and James can die depending on the ending.
  • At the very outset of the game, Angela warns James that the town has "something wrong with it", all the same James seems to brush it off. When Angela reacts similar she thinks James believes she'southward lying, he tells her that he believes her, just realizes he rather doesn't intendance if it is or not. While on the one hand it shows his determination to find Mary, it's also a subtle hint that James is really suicidal and isn't bothered with the idea of getting killed. Also foreshadows the "In Water" catastrophe since acting dangerously volition outcome in that ending, reinforcing James' mental attitude of not caring about danger anymore.
  • At the bowling alley, Laura frankly asks why Eddie doesn't just confess to his crimes. Near the finish of the game, James has to confess to his crimes to the twin Pyramid Heads, which is the central to him finally able to leave Silent Hill.

• Iv Is Death: The 4th time that James meets Eddie he dies, and the fourth time he meets Angela is the final fourth dimension she'southward seen, though her fate is left cryptic.

• Game Mod: The customs-driven Silent Hill ii: Enhanced Edition projection, which not only aims to fix many of the issues of the ailing 2002 PC port, but also features many modern enhancements (east.chiliad. HD resolutions, improved FMVs, XInput/DualShock 4 controller support) while restoring missing and/or simplified PlayStation 2 features.
• Genius Loci: The town itself is implied to be one, drawing off the experiences, memories, emotions, and fears that those who visit it have.
• Free Japanese: James inexplicably speaks Japanese during the Dog Ending cutscene. Notably, despite beingness a Japanese made game, it only has an English rails, making this catastrophe the but part with any Japanese voice work regardless of region.
• Guide Dang It!: Equally noted in a higher place, Silent Hill 2 breaks the mold by being less intuitive near its endings than the previous and subsequent games, relying on various conditions dictated by the player'south behavior over the form of the story. Some of them are foreshadowed slightly, but otherwise they're never clear as to why ane happens over another.
  • "In Water" is probably the easiest catastrophe to get as it requires taking a lot of damage that the thespian is lax about healing quickly, checking Angela'due south knife at to the lowest degree once, checking out the periodical on top of Brookhaven Hospital, and listening to the tape and hallway conversations in the Hotel. Essentially, act suicidal and you'll get this one.
  • "Leave" is also relatively like shooting fish in a barrel, but generally requires the actor to be fairly aware of its requirements to go it. The histrion needs to heal often whenever James gets injured, check Mary's photo and letter, and avoid getting too close to Maria while she is following you. Basically, act like you desire to alive and still care about Mary to get this one.
  • "Maria" is considerably harder, every bit information technology does require Violation of Mutual Sense in some ways. Protect Maria at all costs, make sure to cheque upward on her whenever possible when she starts feeling poorly in Brookhaven, and otherwise stay by her, listen to her, and don't annoy her by pushing her out of the way when moving. More than or less, the histrion has to essentially forget Mary and prioritize Maria over everything else. This one is especially difficult during the infamous Pyramid Caput chase in the basement of Otherworld Brookhaven.
  • "Rebirth" is difficult due to the fact that it's simply possible after chirapsia the game once. This i requires collecting 4 relics scattered throughout Silent Loma. Collecting all four overrides whatever other endings you're progressing through, but good luck finding them all...
• Hell Hotel: The Lakeview Hotel. Downplayed in that it's noticeably less monster-infested than the apartments, hospital, or historical society/prison house, and largely is merely creepy and empty. Even the Other World version of it doesn't have many monsters in your path, with only a handful of basic enemies between yous and the final bosses.
• Hellevator:
  • The lift that marks the stop of Toluca Prison and the showtime of the Labyrinth. The doors close by themselves, and it's a ride downwards at a reasonable speed that takes a total minute to exist completed.
  • During a long ride in the hospital elevator, James' radio picks upward a macabre game show, complete with wacky host.
• Here We Go Once again!: The "Maria" catastrophe implies that Maria will end up suffering the same fate every bit Mary. Information technology is likewise speculated that James may have to suffer his journey through Silent Hill anew, and that he cannot leave the boondocks until he gains truthful closure.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Every actual fight with Pyramid Head is like this, until the final ane in which the 2 Pyramid Heads kill themselves. The only fashion to "win" is to avoid him long enough to escape, though shooting him does slow him downward and reduce the amount of time you have to hold out earlier he goes away.
• Implacable Homo: Pyramid Head. No amount of harm tin can impairment him, and he oftentimes appears without a cutscene, providing an splendid source of Paranoia Fuel, particularly in the basement of the hospital, when y'all realize oh God he'southward correct behind me. All you tin do is run.
• In Name Only: The game has cypher at all to practise with the get-go game other than sharing a full general setting and the concept of a place reflecting elements of a person'due south psyche. The evil cult, present in many other titles and usually central to their plots, is entirely absent-minded here bated from some very vague references.
• Incurable Cough of Decease: Used in the "Maria" ending to imply that Maria will endure the same fate as Mary. Also used in a cutscene in Brookhaven Hospital, where Maria will take unspecified pills on her person and insist "[i]t'southward but a hangover."
• Inescapable Deadfall: The first battle with the Pyramid Head. The door inexplicably closes behind James. He tries to open up it, to no avail.
• Infinity -1 Sword: The pipe barely gains this honour due to the limited melee weapons in the game. Good damage and not too irksome to use, with a decently powerful overhead swing. Admitting, the game'due south generosity with ammo tends to make using it less necessary.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The chainsaw, which is a Bragging Rights Advantage on any difficulty but Like shooting fish in a barrel, and bachelor after talking to Angela in the cemetery at the start of the game.
• Ink-Suit Actor: James' appearance is based off of his voice thespian, Guy Cihi. Cihi also did the motility capture for James.
• I Never Told Yous My Name: Maria calls James past name in spite of the fact that he never introduces himself. James never comments on this or responds to information technology in whatsoever style, and it's far from the but cognition she should not have and yet does.
• Insurmountable Waist-Top Fence: At the kickoff of the game when James first encounters a Shadow, Katz Street is blocked off by some police record, in comparison to Sanders Street where James turns around to investigate said shadow and the sinkhole by Vachss Route intersection. All three of these routes would lead to the seemingly ultimate destination, Rosewater Park. Instead of but going over or ducking under said constabulary record and getting things over with, James wanders off a side road to encounter the start monster - subsequently which point, the police force record gets cut and allows passage.
• Karma Meter: Different the residual of the main Silent Loma series, the ending is determined by an invisible Karma Meter. And unlike most video games, it's not just "practiced" and "evil": staying at full wellness as much equally possible gives y'all "Leave" and "Maria" points. Glancing at Angela's pocketknife periodically and not giving much of a damn about your health gives you lot "In Water" ending points. Examining Mary'south letter multiple times, peculiarly after the text vanishes, counts towards "Get out." Diverse documents and other items you can examine can requite y'all points on all three meters.
• Law of Asymmetric Response:
  • "'Anyhow?' What do yous mean, 'anyway'?!" Maria's burst is triggered by James's non "audio[ing] very happy to see [her]" after she "was nearly killed back there."
  • When Eddie snaps, things quickly become south after he runs into James the last time.

    James: Eddie, have you gone nuts?

• Lethal Joke Weapon: The plank. It'due south your starting weapon, and it'southward weaker than almost of the weapons in the game, but dissimilar the other normal melee weapon in the game (the Steel Piping), you can actually move while using it, letting James run circles effectually his enemies.
• Madness Mantra: The 1 typing into the carbon newspaper with the typewriter attempted "no one tin stop me", but was dropping unabridged words, and only got a few repetitions out.
• Manslaughter Provocation:
  • Angela. Throughout the game, it is hinted at that she was sexually abused by her begetter. A newspaper article that James finds later more than or less confirms that she killed him.
  • Eddie claims this.

    "Do you know what it does to y'all, James? When you're hated, picked on, spit on, but 'cause of the way you expect? After y'all've been laughed at your whole friggin' life?"

• Mercy Impale: James claims that Mary'south death was this; his overwhelming guilt after the fact is what sets the events of the game in motion. Whether or not he did it out of mercy is ambiguous — James' admission and reasoning, and whether Mary accepts and forgives or hates him is different in each ending.
• Mental Monster: Such creatures include the leggy mannequins, and the membrane-leap lying figures, all having rather sexual designs. Virtually of them are manifestations of James'south sexual frustration and increasing depravity ever since his married woman Mary fell terminally ill, and the ii Pyramid Heads originate from his guilt of murdering his married woman the week before and later Eddie in cocky-defense, existing for the sole purpose of fulfilling James's desire for karmic punishment because of said guilt. In one case he realizes he doesn't demand the Pyramid Caput to punish him for his sins, they promptly skewer themselves on their own spears.
• Merging the Branches: The canonicity of the game's Multiple Endings is never confirmed past the developers. You may interpret James' choices and fate whichever mode, for all are equally valid, and no single decision holds more weight than the others. The only reference to James later in the serial comes in Silent Hill 4, when Frank Sunderland mentions that his son left for Silent Loma and he hasn't seen him since. This doesn't actually bear witness anything, though: fifty-fifty in the "Leave" catastrophe in that location are plenty of reasons why James might have chosen not to render to his old life, ranging from lingering guilt over Mary's death to maybe being wanted for her murder (and, of course, the difficulty of legally adopting Laura as a single parent who recently euthanised their spouse).
• Metaphorically True: James'due south belief that Mary died three years ago (which is somewhen proven false) likely stems from a hidden feeling that the idealized Mary who he loved, was effectively lost to him when she began to mentally and physically deteriorate from her disease. The implication is that Silent Hill latched on to this subconscious feeling and allowed him to believe that is what really happened.
• Mood Whiplash: The Canis familiaris catastrophe. A whole game's worth of unpleasant weirdness, followed by a cute dog and a jaunty tune.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family unit: The nurses, though their constant twitching makes it difficult to see. Conversely, the Otherworld nurses have simply a blank hint of a face.
• Multiple Endings: A serial staple.
  • Go out: James forgives himself, makes peace with Mary, and leaves Silent Hill. Information technology's implied that he ends upwards adopting Laura like Mary wanted to in this ending.
  • In Water: Mary begs James to motion on, just James tin't shake the feelings of guilt. He kills himself by driving into Toluca Lake (along with a dead Mary, who was in the backseat the whole time) in guild to truly be with her again.
  • Maria: James turns to Maria to shake the guilt of killing Mary, but every bit they leave Silent Loma together, Maria coughs awfully, implying that she has contracted the same illness that killed Mary. James, taking an uncharacteristically dark tone, tells her, "You better practise something about that cough."
  • Rebirth: James turns to the occult to bring Mary dorsum to life, gathering items found throughout the game and taking her body to the church near the lake to resurrect her body. We do not see the results, but they're probably non pretty, given Silent Hill'south track record of "rebirth".
  • Dog: James breaks into a room in the hotel where he finds a Shiba Inu controlling the entirety of Silent Hill. He starts speaking Japanese as he realizes the canis familiaris was backside everything that happened to him, falls to his legs overcome with grief every bit said Shiba Inu licks his face to cheer him upwardly. Yeah.
  • UFO: Another serial staple. Harry from the first game (still looking like he did on the PS1) arrives at the hotel, and the two protagonists discuss their motives earlier James is abducted likewise.
• Murderous Mannequin: I of the monsters. Information technology's a pair of Mannequin legs fused together to requite a warped visage of a female person figure.
• Now I Lay Me Downwardly to Sleep: The music during the Rebirth ending credits is titled The Reverse Will. The song's lyrics is said poem, but it's Sdrawkcab Speech and has an echo.
• Nightmare Sequence:
  • The game shifts into this type of experience during and after exiting the hospital. The town becomes completely dark and James is led to a "Historical Club". From there, James explores an underground prison that devolves into complete Bizarrchitecture that takes him farther and farther underground, with an impossibly long stairway and multiple deep, human being-made-looking holes that he must leap into. Towards the cease he discovers Maria live, who claims to have never been killed in the first place. The nightmare seems to end afterward James gains a significant insight, and this places James back into the foggy boondocks from before. Lampshaded past a door encountered in the outset wing of the town which is unlocked during the aforementioned Nightmare Sequence and also has a relevant quote written next to it:

    The door that wakes in darkness, opening into nightmares.

  • It shifts back to a Nightmare Sequence — admitting with less darkness and more water and rot — when James leaves room 312, after the revelation that he killed Mary.
• No-Gear Level: In that location's an lift, but it has a limited weight assart and all items need to be deposited on a nearby shelf. This elevator leads to the employee's section of the hotel, initially vacant merely has enemies in the basement corridor. Once you return to the main section of the hotel, James has to run past a few new enemies that announced.
• Nonindicative Name: The rail "Theme of Laura" has cypher to do with Laura only rather it is the principal theme of Silent Colina 2.
• No OSHA Compliance: Or at least, No Housing Code Compliance. James is able to cross between the ii flat buildings by opening the fire escape on one of them to find that it's been torn down to make room for the other one next door, and then climbing through the window in the other apartment. Any programmer who tried to tear down a burn down escape on a multi-story apartment building to brand room for construction would exist either vetoed past housing authorities, or thrown in jail past them after being found out. Then again, given that Silent Colina tends to brand merry beloved to geography, this may be justified every bit Malevolent Compages.

• Detect This: Washed very subtly. James will turn his head towards items that tin be picked up. As a consequence, paying close attention to whether James is looking straight ahead or tilting his head around tin alert you to if there are items nearby.
• Cipher Is Scarier: At the commencement of the game, James spends the first xv or so minutes walking downward a fog-shrouded path forth the border of a cliff. There are no monsters or any obstacles of any sort, and barely any sounds other than your footsteps (and those mysterious footsteps coming from behind you... or are they?)
• Not Quite the Correct Thing:
  • Since Maria looks and sounds like Mary, being protective and considerate towards her may seem like what you should be doing. Unfortunately, she's a construct designed to distract James from his quest.
  • Playing the game like a completionist (exploring thoroughly, examining all objects, conserving your health items unless you're critically hurt) actually gets you lot one of the darkest endings, every bit multiple examinable objects (Angela's knife, the diary on the roof, the nighttime message in Neely's Bar, and the sound record in the Alternate Hotel) massively increase your score towards getting the "In Water" ending (just two out of 4 can requite yous the ending, especially if you play through the game at fifty-fifty fourscore% health).
• "Not And then Different" Remark: Invoked past Eddie during his Motive Bluster.

  Eddie: Don't get all holy on me, James. This boondocks called you too. Y'all and me are the aforementioned. We're not like other people.

• Oddball in the Series: Amidst the games adult past "Team Silent" at to the lowest degree, this is the only game of the original 4 that puts the Myth Arc of the Order to the side and focuses more than on a personalized psychological horror story.
• Oh, Crap!: James takes seeing Pyramid Head raping a dead monster about besides as you lot'd retrieve he would.

• Ominous Fog: Naturally. Early on the boondocks is completely shrouded in fog, though it later goes abroad when the town goes completely dark. Information technology returns well-nigh the terminate of the game right before you get to the Lakeview Hotel.
• Ominous Save Prompt: All of the save points count, since they're impossible to miss anywhere, just how nigh nine of them bundled in a bright red foursquare on the Hotel's meridian floor, right before the twin Pyramid Caput fight?
• Parental Incest: It's heavily implied that Angela was sexually abused past her father.
• Telephone Call from the Expressionless: The game begins with i of these from the protagonist'south dead wife, in the form of a letter. It'due south revealed to be a Dead Man Writing, because he had repressed the true retention of her manner of death.
• Psychological Torment Zone: The entire boondocks of Silent Hill is this for those information technology targets. James is tormented by his guilt over the murder of his wife, Angela is constantly reminded of her sexual and emotional abuse at the hands of her parents to the point she considers (and possibly goes through with) suicide, and Eddie is unable to escape the fear and hate that come up with years of existence bullied. Laura is the only ane not affected by it due to not having any sins at all.
• Quote Mine: Mary's letter. The letter in your inventory is only the commencement part of a much longer message, and was "called" by the town to mislead James into thinking Mary might still exist alive. At the stop of the game, in the "Leave" and "Maria" endings, yous become the full text of the letter, which makes it clear that she's yet talking about what she sees in her dreams, and and then goes into her final thoughts before she loses the ability to say anything else.
• The Reveal: The video tape reveals the truth backside the whole story: Mary is non in Silent Colina, and she did not die iii years ago from her illness. She's only been dead for roughly a week... because James smothered her to death with a pillow. The letter from Mary in James's possession at the get-go of the game is a mirage conjured by James to cope with what he'd done, or conjured by the boondocks to torment James.
• Recurring Boss: You have to bargain with Pyramid Head several times in a multifariousness of ways.
• Replacement Goldfish: Maria. Deconstructed in that she's a creation of the town manifested from James' want to see his wife and subverted in that the "Maria" ending implies that she volition fall ill similar Mary.
• Resources Direction Gameplay: Downplayed compared to nigh other Survival Horror games. While resources are finite, the game is quite generous with them, especially if you lot explore effectually and make sure to use your Finishing Motion to save on ammo in combat. Throughout the game y'all can discover nigh 600 handgun bullets, 200 shotgun rounds, 70 rifle rounds, etc. On Normal difficulty, as long as you save ammo by using your Finishing Motion and don't waste matter ammo by fighting annihilation on the streets (where they can be easily evaded), y'all've more enough bullets to impale everything y'all come across ii or iii times over.
• Revolvers Are Simply Better: Eddie certainly thinks then, only he'south forced to resort to pistol-whipping afterward six shots. Maria also starts out with a rather beefy snub-nosed wheelgun in her scenario, but discards information technology just before setting out to find James.
• Retraux:
  • Harry'due south cameo in the UFO ending uses the blocky PS1-era graphics.
  • "Soundless Mount 2", a 2D Super-Deformed fan de-make.
• Dominion of Funny:
  • The pizza scene. Why is Eddie eating pizza in the center of a monster-infested area? How was he able to obtain one when no one's around to brand it, nor annihilation to brand it with? If it wasn't a byproduct of the weirdness of Silent Loma, then it could simply be explained with this trope.
  • The Dog Catastrophe, which simply doesn't make sense even inside the context of the setting... which makes it that much funnier.
• Self-Inflicted Hell: The boondocks of Silent Colina itself, in this game more so than the others in the series. Angela really doesn't deserve the torment she goes through, merely her belief that she deserves information technology brings it upon her anyway.
• Sheathe Your Sword: In your first encounter with Pyramid Caput, y'all win past avoiding him and not attacking until he goes away. Y'all tin can also drive him off if you shoot him enough times, which not only slows him down, but it makes the invisible counter become downwardly faster.
• Shout-Out:
  • In the Lakeview Hotel, if you examine the heater, James will discover a notation on the back of information technology that says: "I'm Johnny, one hot guy." This may be a reference to the The Shining (Heeeeeere's Johnny!) where chief character Jack Torrance forgets to adjust the pressure on the old boiler room of The Overlook Hotel, causing it to catch on fire. A affiche for The Shining can also exist seen on a wall before James gets to boondocks.
  • A character named Eddie dies in a freezer.
  • The infamous closet scene is homage to the as disturbing Blue Velvet.
  • James become dragged through the hospital via gurney. He's wearing an Olive K-65. His initials are JS. Sounds familiar?
  • The infamous Dog Catastrophe is based on a memorable scene the Murder, She Wrote episode "It's a Canis familiaris'south Life" that besides features a dog using a security system control panel to wreak deadly havoc (although the dog in question was a beagle rather than a Shiba Inu).
• Sinister Scraping Sound: Pyramid Head scrapes his giant blade forth the basis.

• Sprint Meter: Not as a visible meter, but James runs a bit slower after running for a period of time, and noticeably stops to catch his breath if yous stop running. Information technology's not a major gene due to the generally slow enemies in the game, merely managing the sequel's sprint meter is much more than of import due to the faster enemies and several sequences requiring extended running.
• Stairway to Heaven:
  • The game plays with this trope in the labyrinth's downward staircase "that leadeth thee to Purgatory."
  • Inverted with Angela's upward staircase to Hell.
  • Played straight after James has faced and dealt with his guilt.
• Story Difficulty Setting: The "Beginner" difficulty setting substantially disables the gainsay, allowing players to, co-ordinate to the transmission, "bask the storyline, drama and puzzles of Silent Loma 2 without fighting". Information technology doesn't remove monsters birthday, simply information technology makes them then weak that even a single bash with the plank is enough to impale one.
• Stupidity Is the Only Option: During the dominate fights against Pyramid Head, all your shots ping off his helmet. In that location's no way to aim downwards and hit, y'know, his unarmored, seemingly fully vulnerable trunk.
• Suddenly Harmful Harmless Object: The first Mannequin encountered reacts when James took the flashlight. They'll be frequently appearing afterwards.

• Sympathetic Murder Backstory: James smothered his wife to decease. There are several different factors which drove him to practice this, and some of them come up beyond as less than savory, but the overall impression is that James is a desperate and despairing man doing what he feels is the correct matter.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: The game heavily implies this trope. When a thespian returns to the spot where they killed their offset monster after in the game, they'll find information technology surrounded past law record. Nearly the end, the motel keeps shifting between bizarrchitecture and its normal state. The letter from Mary too counts; presently subsequently James'south last encounter with Eddie, the writing vanishes, and so the stationery information technology was written on vanishes, and so finally the envelope that independent the letter of the alphabet vanishes.
• Together in Death: Monster designer Masahiro Itō has confirmed (via Twitter) that Mary's expressionless body was in the backseat the whole fourth dimension . This means that, in the "In Water" ending, James drives her into Toluca Lake with him, never to exist separated again. (It can be further inferred from Mary's presence in the car that to complete such a murder-suicide was really James' initial motivation for returning to Silent Hill.) Withal, at that place's no direct evidence supporting her presence in the car in the game itself, with the catastrophe merely depicting the car sounds and James' internal dialogue over a black screen. Nevertheless, that internal dialogue begins with "Now I understand. The real reason I came to this town," and ends with "Now... we can exist together." It should exist noted that the graffiti in the Dark Earth version of Neely'south Bar taunts him that he "might exist heading to a different place than Mary" (i.e. hell, since he committed murder and, by that point, has at least considered suicide).
• Love apple in the Mirror: Mary died anywhere from a few hours to a calendar week before the game—from James smothering her with a pillow. James had forgotten he'd done this.

• Tulpa: According to some theories, the existence of the grapheme Maria tin can be explained past this concept as an eroticized manifestation of James' deceased wife. She is briefly playable during the Born From A Wish segment included in the re-release, subtitled Restless Dreams—which subtitle itself is suggestive that she was literally conceived primarily from James' unconscious desires, specifically his repressed sexual desire concerning his tardily wife Mary during the progression of her disease. Maria too seems to share some of Mary's own memories apart from James (hence her knowledge nearly and empathy for Laura), as well every bit an occasional outburst of the inner dominatrix (James ofttimes perceived Mary in her concluding years as a manipulative corking, bent on emasculating him). Although Maria physically resembles Mary, their personalities differ starkly; and throughout the game, Maria makes numerous attempts to delineate her individuality and differentiate herself from Mary earlier James, who is consistently unable to distinguish the two.
• Turns Red: Inverted; almost of the bosses actually become weaker as the battle progresses. Pyramid Caput stops using his quicker, more dangerous swipe and starts exclusively using his dull, easily dodged overhead swing, one time y'all kill one Flesh Lip the other is much easier to bargain with by itself and the third one only shows up once the first two are dead, Eddie'southward attacks become less aggressive and he starts trying to run away and hibernate as his wellness gets low, and Maria uses her butterfly assault less frequently equally she starts getting low on health, giving you more fourth dimension to pump bullets into her.
• Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: Specifically when the "Play a trick on or Treat" quiz testify randomly plays on James's radio. Maria and James once again testify what a one-act duo they would make by their reactions at the cease.
• Unexplained Recovery: Maria reappears in the prison after being fatally impaled by Pyramid Head in the hospital basement with no caption, autonomously from insisting she and James were "separated in that long hallway". This is not the final time this happens, either.
• Unreliable Narrator: James repressed his memory about what really happened with his married woman. Virtually the end, when the player starts to realize this, the letter James supposedly received becomes bare, and eventually disappears.
• Unusable Enemy Equipment:
  • Subverted with Pyramid Head's weapon, the Great Pocketknife. Subsequently in the game, this weapon can exist picked upwardly in a room in the labyrinth.
  • Played straight with the spear the Keen Knife is replaced with.
• Vague Hit Points:
  • The pause bill of fare has a different coloured filter depending on how much health there is.
  • Graphic symbol animations modify based on remaining health.
  • The game simply shows a large cross at the bottom-right corner when at low health. Otherwise wellness is shown on the inventory screen with a color shade in the top-left corner, and no indication if using a health item could cause excess striking-points to exist lost.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: Maria keeps the 3 keys to a triple-locked door tucked into her short skirt, in her boots, and in her cleavage (in that society). While she's opening the door, James attempts to sneak a peek.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Very insidious subversion: Being especially caring and protective toward Maria is the incorrect choice, since she's a demonic cosmos designed to exam how faithful James really is to his quest for Mary.
• Violation of Mutual Sense: In the Historical Society, repeatedly: "The pigsty's dark and I can't see annihilation. Volition y'all bound down?" If you don't choose "aye", you lot tin can't go along with the game.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: The cutscene introducing Eddie has him vomiting into a toilet. Copiously. The camera angles advisedly prevent the histrion from actually seeing him puke, though the sound of Eddie'southward spewing works well enough on its ain.
• Vorpal Pillow: James puts Mary out of her misery by smothering her with a pillow.
• Wham Episode: Everything from the end of the Labyrinth to the stop of the game serves every bit one long i. To wit: Eddie goes insane and James is forced to impale him, Maria dies again, Laura reveals Mary didn't die three years agone, Angela states her Wham Line below, and James finally remembers that he killed Mary.
• Wham Line:
  • When James finally reaches the Hotel, he speaks to Angela, finding her in a perpetually called-for stairwell. What she says as she'due south leaving reveals a lot about her character, but also that each person in Silent Loma experiences their own personal torment- for Angela, she believes that she deserves to burn in hell, so she sees fire everywhere.

    Angela : You come across it, too? ...For me, it's always like this.

  • Eddie drops a massive one in James' confrontation with him:

    Eddie: Don't get all holy on me, James! This town called you, too!

  • Over again after reaching the Hotel, James meets Laura and discovers that Mary didn't die three years ago- she died, at the most, a calendar week ago.
  • Subsequently leaving the Apartments, James encounters Laura, who drops this on him every bit she leaves:

    Laura: None of your business. You didn't love Mary anyway!

  • When James finally reaches the one-time room he stayed in at the Hotel, he finds a videotape and plays information technology. James and so is forced to call up that he killed Mary anywhere from a week to a few hours ago, and he tells Laura this every bit softly as he can.

    James: I'm... distressing. The Mary yous know isn't here.

  • Depending on the ending you become, Maria may deliver 1 in the conversation before the Last Boss. The near obvious i is in the "Get out" ending where James sees "Mary" and calls out to her. She turns around, looks at him and...

    Maria: When will you ever terminate making that mistake!

• Welcome to Hell: An incomplete "WELCOME!" sign hangs over Road 73.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In all but the "Leave" ending, Laura's fate is never revealed outside having to get back to the orphanage with the knowledge that Mary is dead and James killed her.
• Womb Level: Players fight the Abstract Daddy boss in a room featuring fleshy, pulsating walls and pistons thrusting in and out of said walls. The floor fifty-fifty squishes under James' footsteps. The room supposedly represents Angela'due south uterus.
• World of Symbolism: Tons, especially in the enemy designs and also in the characters. Just about everything James sees is an insight into his personality and deepest fears.
• You Are Improve Than You Think Yous Are: The final conversation in the "Leave" ending includes such a moment.

  James: The truth is... I hated you. I wanted y'all out of the way. I wanted my life dorsum!
  Mary: If that were truthful... then why practise yous look so distressing?

---

He who is non bold plenty
to be stared at from across
the abyss is not bold enough
to stare into it himself

vazquezressell.blogspot.com

Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/SilentHill2

Share this post