Silent Hill 2 - At night

[KageReneko]

Also, SH3 and 4 never mention any nut going on a killing spree in Silent Hill

[Fevered Dream]

The nighttime jaunt through town after Brookhaven is easily one of the most oppressive and frightening parts of the game, for me. Having your only partner in the game get horribly killed to being left alone in the cold, empty hospital with the depressing tune in the background to being thrust back in to the town blanketed in a thick darkness with deformed and homicidal nurses lurking around every corner is absolutely unnerving. And then there's the ominous messages being left for James everywhere about his forthcoming descent into his very own Hell.

Thanks a lot OP, you just made me want to play the damn game again God this game is great...

[Oddish]

Yeah, I should check Amazon, see if they've got a copy.

[Catch22]

The darkness in that section was very unnerving. Normally I'd walk out of a cramped, dark building into a relatively bright and open outdoor area, feeling that I've escaped the claustrophobia/oppression for a while. Even with the fog and the monsters, I could breath. But when the darkness crept in, that sense of relief dissipated--it's like the interiors of the buildings crept out and overtook the entire town. Gone was the reprieve from claustrophobic darkness, replaced by a consistently oppressive atmosphere that remains until James exits the Labyrinth. I found that entire section mentally exhausting as a result.

[alone in the town]

Regarding the "police" tape: It isn't police tape at all. It's generic caution tape. You know, the kind you'd find cordoning off dangerous parts of a construction site. Which that area clearly is.

[Oddish]

Well, whatever it is, it's one of those mystical impenetrable barriers. Like those hotel doors with broken locks, even though the metal's so rusted and the wood is so rotted, you could probably knock the door down by sneezing too hard in its general direction.

[Catch22]

Well, whatever it is, it's one of those mystical impenetrable barriers. Like those hotel doors with broken locks, even though the metal's so rusted and the wood is so rotted, you could probably knock the door down by sneezing too hard in its general direction.

According to DJ Ricks, Silent Hill

PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:

has some pretty convoluted "rules" that make relatively simple things impossible (such as hotwiring a boat, and one assumes opening certain doors).

I suppose that counts as a spoiler. I don't know. I spoiler'd it anyway because I care.

Not sure how that would keep James from jumping over, ducking under, or walking past a line of construction tape, though. That isn't the town's influence, that's James being a lazy ass. I just try to convince myself that James doesn't feel like going that way for whatever reason. Perhaps he perceives the tape as an indication that it's probably not a good idea to go that way--I certainly steer clear of places with construction tape in the area, for fear of falling debris and the like.

[Oddish]

I know, I encountered the DJ as well. He finally provides an explanation for a few incomprehensible facts about the Silent Hill experience.

[mikefile]

That isn't the town's influence, that's James being a lazy ass.

I wouldn't say so. It's his lazy ass that goes jumping in deep holes, sticking hands in suspicious cracks and rowing through an enitre lake without seeing a finger in front of him. I would rather say that it is the town's power influencing his subconscious, in order to warn him that this is not the path he is supposed to follow (it's the matter of those "rules" that Silent Hill drawns).

[Oddish]

Or maybe it's just an inexplicable force of game mechanics, the same way Eddie is still on his feet after absorbing enough shotgun and rifle blasts to kill a rhinoceros.

[mikefile]

That may be. But why not add some meaning to it if we can and if it's pretty simple?
Let's skimp the 'game mechanics' explanation for the times when we really won't have a clue.

[alone in the town]

I think of such things as the caution tape, or the locked doors or the other completely arbitrary obstacles he he encounters, as simply his mind's way of saying that there is no purpose in going this way, or that there is something you need to witness first before you are able to pass.

It isn't that whatever is behind the doors or tape is meaningless so to speak, as much as it is that we make the assumption that we are in some differing plane of reality in which the mind dictates everything, consciously or not, and that behind these arbitrary barriers there simply isn't anything at all. James can only go where his mind/experiences/memories allows him to go. The caution tape found in the nighttime Silent Hill is simply his mind saying that he has already found everything important which might exist past this point and that there is no point in returning here.

[mikefile]

Exactly. We can easily say that there is nothing beyond that point. The town's otherworld and his mind established what meaningful / symbolical locations he must visit. No big revelations happens if he visits Happy Burger. Rosewater park, on the other hand ..

[Oddish]

True. But if he visits "Happy Burger", he could get a double cheeseburger, some onion rings, and a large Sprite.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[Glenn]

True. But if he visits "Happy Burger", he could get a double cheeseburger, some onion rings, and a large Sprite.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Only if Laura or Eddie was there! (Laura merging the real world with James, and I think Eddie's world is filled with food since that is an issue for him).

[PyramidMind]

The darkness in that section was very unnerving. Normally I'd walk out of a cramped, dark building into a relatively bright and open outdoor area, feeling that I've escaped the claustrophobia/oppression for a while. Even with the fog and the monsters, I could breath. But when the darkness crept in, that sense of relief dissipated--it's like the interiors of the buildings crept out and overtook the entire town. Gone was the reprieve from claustrophobic darkness, replaced by a consistently oppressive atmosphere that remains until James exits the Labyrinth. I found that entire section mentally exhausting as a result.

That´s what I like so much about this part too! I like the fact that the developers decided to use the darkness that was in the apartments and hospital and use it outside. I felt a bit more secure when it was just fog everywhere and when it was daytime. But now, running around with a flashlight which barely works and monsters everywhere who wants to kill you, it intensifies that feeling of dread and loneliness.