Silent Hill 2 Remake Diary:
Alright. James was following Laura, but seems to have gotten distracted. As did I, and forgot to pick up the wrench. But once I figured that out, I got through the door and back into the park.
Which was, again, refreshingly monster-free, but I did run into Angela. She seems to be losing herself, no longer believes her mama’s here. She also has a fragile demeanor, like she’s weirdly eager when James says he’s glad to see her. And then when he mentions a little girl, that triggers something. She seems to see something James doesn’t. It’s strongly implied that she’s being tormented by memories, or at least visions, of childhood abuse.
But she runs off and James is left to find the key that will “open the abyss.” To the historical society, apparently!
But it did occur to me to wonder who’s writing the note James finds with the key. They mention having a patient, so it’s a doctor of some kind. But they also address James directly, they know he’s here, will find this. I’m not sure what that implies. Also, the tone of the letter is… disconcerting. The resignation of it: if James insists on continuing, this person won’t stand in his way.
On the way, I passed a gas station and I’m pretty sure there’s more to find there than I did, but that’s okay. Also passed a bowling alley, which had some leftovers in it that James comments on: “who could sit here eating pizza?” The answer to that seems fairly clear. Who have we seen eating, who’s been associated with food since he first appeared? Eddie is around somewhere.
The paintings in the historical society were neat. Plagues, shipwrecks, shit has not been well in Silent Hill for a long time. I looked at each one and considered it, but I still feel like there’s pieces I’m not putting together. I don’t know, I don’t know how important the history is here, but I learned some stuff. And the Pyramid Head painting. He is an arbiter of judgment. But that form, that incarnation—I first thought that he must exist outside James, cos here he is depicted. But it seems clear James (and thus me also) can’t trust what he sees here. The dream logic of this place could be shaping anything, everything. I don’t know. It’s interesting to question what PH is, but it’s even more unsettling to not be sure you can trust anything.
Then there was the staircase. Which just… kept going. To the point that I was almost sure I was missing something, doing something wrong, that this was some kind of Mario 64-style endlessly looping stairs, by the time I finally got to the bottom. And I mean, the note did say it was an abyss. But that’s what I mean—physical reality seems unreliable here.
And in that moment, this world is testing James. How committed are you to not turning back? He has to jump in yet more scary holes afterwards, and it makes you confirm it more than once. How badly do you want this? As the player, you don’t have much of a choice—this game seems pretty damn linear so far. To the point where I’ve had several moments of confusion and thought “trust the game to guide you.” And it does. Follow the lights on the darkened street. Explore around. You’ll see which way to go. There is a path to follow, but are we following after James, who seems unable to let go of a path that clearly wants to destroy him? Or are we leading him to his doom by continuing to play? I dunno. I had time to think about it going down those stairs though.
And then you run into Eddie again.
And… he’s kinda scary this time. I remember after the first encounter, I was like “he’s having the most normal reaction here.” But in the second encounter, it’s like that was slipping. Whatever darkness was in him was creeping out. And now it’s fucking out. He says he was joking about killing the body you find him with. Which seems unlikely—especially considering there’s a dead guy when you first find him and he said the same thing, and he mentioned to Laura the cops were after him. But either way, that’s a predator now.
But nothing happens. Yet. He just leaves.
And so now I’m in the prison. Which is probably the most stressful part so far? It’s cramped, it’s dark, those fucking wall mannequins are creeping around everywhere and sending my radio/controller into constant conniptions even when I can’t see them. It’s all very tense.
But I found the scale lock in the yard and got through the snake door and ox door and now I’m working my way toward D-block on the second floor. And god only knows what I’m going to find from here.
