Ok, first let me say Wow! The sleepy, creepy little town of Silent Hill looks absolutely fantastic on the PS2. I sat enthralled with the mist alone for quite some time. Pitiful, I know, but it's really cool mist. It's simply breathtaking. That being said, the detail in the environments that you will traverse is quite good. The characters are all far improved over those on the PSX, but that is understandable. Facial expressions look good, although at times, they do look like re-animated corpses. And no, I am not talking about the re-animated corpses in the game, either. ;) Suffice it to say that everything looks really good. Nice and gory, just like we remember.

Voice acting is equally as impressive, and although some lines are kind of stupid, for the most part, it's compelling stuff. The acting is believable and you will be creeped out. The sound effects, once again, will have you looking over your shoulder for weeks. All in all, the environs convey exactly what the game designers wanted them to - this town is out to get me. And you know what? It is.

So you are James and you get this letter from your wife Mary, asking you to meet her in Silent Hill. Catch is (and there's always a catch with Silent Hill), she's been dead for 3 years. Of course, you are intrigued and if by some chance she's still alive, you must see her. So off you go, poor bastard. Along the way, you meet up with a tart named Maria, who looks just like your dearly departed only with a stripper's wardrobe and attitude. You spend a good bit of the game protecting her and wandering about with her. Something's not quite right with her, but you'll pick that up pretty quick. Of course, you'll meet a few other characters that help the plot along and aid in deeply disturbing you. Along the way, you'll have various weapons at your disposal to ward off and kill the new and twisted beasties Konami has dreamed up like a 2x4 with nails in it, a steel pipe and some guns. However, oftentimes a group will gang up on you and due to the wonky control (more on this later), you'll get beaten down. Oh, and you'll never look at pyramids the same way again. ((shudder))

One nifty feature is the ability to tweak the game to your liking. Having problems with the puzzles? Then dial the difficulty down in the middle of the game! Same with the action. This is a nifty feature and may help some more inexperienced players to enjoy the storyline a bit more. I played the game on Normal and never altered it during the game, and I still found that the action was quite acceptable. It was just enough to keep me on my toes, while also allowing me to explore the areas well.

One interesting thing to note is that there are certain times when puzzles will come up and the answers will be random. What I mean to say is that your friend may be playing and get a completely different answer than you did and this is very cool. There's plenty out there to explore, so don't cheat yourself by whizzing through the town, either. Whether it be creepy graffitti or body parts, you'll want to explore and find everything there is to be found. Of course, with 5 different sick and twisted endings to be had here, you don't need any more reasons to play Silent Hill 2 over and over until you've seen them all. Suffice it to say that this game is crack and will have you hooked until the bitter end, when you'll realize you did something wrong along the way and have to play it all over again to get a different ending. But you will. Joyfully.

Like I mentioned earlier, the action and puzzles are tweakable in game, so that definitely helps with the difficulty. For Action, you can choose between Beginner, Easy, Normal and Hard and for Puzzles, there's Easy, Normal and Hard. But even on Normal, it's certainly not ridiculous. Anyone can find a comfortable level in Silent Hill 2. Ok, well there's nothing comfortable about this game, but you know what I mean. Oh, but those damn nurses are back and they are faster and meaner than before. Who gave those bitches sticks!

Well, in all this greatness, you know there must be a down-side, and alas, there is. The control. Ugh. Running around, it's just fine. Exploring? Not bad. Now, when you are being gang-beaten by a bunch of crazed nurses and you can't defend yourself, we have a problem. Basically, James gets targeted on one enemy and even though a more dangerous one is approaching, he still focuses on the original one. For instance, nurses are attacking you from two sides. You knock one down and try to take a whack at the other one, but James is still locked to the one not moving on the floor. What's up wih that? It would have been nice if you could have forced him to lock on a different one a la Tomb Raider.

And that's basically my only complaint. The menus were nice and clean and easily navigable. This game was fun and kept me hooked, and there's plenty of gameplay and mucho bang for your buck. The Silent Hill series still holds the title as reigning champion in the fear department and I don't see that changing any time soon. The game will disturb you, but you will beg for more. Any survival horror fan worth his or her salt has already bought this, but if you are lagging behind, go get your copy now!