#it's such a pity sh4 didn't because you almost got that with the last couple of men to die were cruel to kid walter

[kainissoable]

A comparison of SH2 to SH4, in particular the openings and character storytelling choices. (contains spoilers)

I’ll preface this by saying that this is more a collection of comparisons and observations than a structured essay, and I have been informed by more knowledgable people that SH4 had time constraint issues and suffered for them. I’ve also only seen one playthrough, and given Silent Hill games often need a couple of goes to fully “get”, so these probably don’t represent my final thoughts on it.

First, a quick runthrough of the first half hour or so of each game, because I think when broken down they are illustrative of the sort of issues SH4 has with being what it wants to be.

SH2 starts with a reasonably long voiceover where you find out why James is there in the first place, and we have our long-term goal as a player set out for us – find Mary. We then have a walk through creepy forest before meeting with Angela in the cemetery. The conversation is stilted to say the least, but it immediately gives us a good feel for both characters. It establishes that there’s something wrong about the town, and that James has something of a self-destructive streak to him, or at least values his search for Mary over his own safety. This will be a driving factor in the rest of the game. James then walks on to town and through a series of short cutscenes sees and follows a figure in the fog. He finds the creature, and the player’s first introduction to monsters is having to fight one in a small space so they can escape. After this, similar monsters will be found wandering the streets for the rest of the first part of the game.

SH4 starts with some on-screen text giving a little bit of background about the PC, Henry, and establishes the major problem he has to overcome – he’s trapped in his flat and suffering recurring nightmares. Play starts in the room with general Silent Hill Yuck over everything and objects the PC doesn’t remember owning. After a bit of exploration, we get a cutscene where the room goes more to hell and a ghost pulls itself through the wall of the apartment. It seems we’re going to get thrown right into it this time – oh, no, it was the aforementioned recurring dream. We can then explore an un-Silent Hilled apartment, then crawl through a hole in the wall to a distinctly concerning kind of freedom. Original goal completed, I guess. Immediately, we meet Sexy Latina Stereotype Cynthia, who believes this to be her dream, “a pretty terrible one”, and wants to find the exit. Then she vanishes into the bathroom, and we get our first in-game enemies – fucked up dogs! Now Cynthia has apparently vanished into the ether, there’s a hole leading back to Henry’s apartment in the ladies’ loos. Henry wakes up back in his room, but the hole in his wall is still there and leads back to the bathroom he came from. This mechanic continues for the rest of the game.

The first difference between these styles of opening I want to draw attention to is that SH2 tells you what’s going on pretty much straight away. There are questions which want answering, and the questions are clearly stated. SH4 goes more with the mind screw angle and does a good job of making the player go “what the heck’s happening now?” Where it fails is explaining why Henry is doing what he’s doing. Objective: escape room. Done. New objective: Help Cynthia get out the messed up station. Oh, Cynthia’s vanished. Is Henry concerned for her and going to look for her? Does he just want to find the way out? Does he just want to know what’s going? I don’t think we ever actually find out.

The second change is the monster vs NPC introductions. In SH2, you get a vague warning that Some Shit is happening, then run into two types of common monster and the big bad Pyramid Head himself before meeting Maria, who resembles James’ late wife Mary to an uncanny degree. By the time you meet her, you know a) what the danger is and b) why James would feel protective towards her. Regardless of your feelings about Maria, James’ actions make sense in-universe.

In SH4, Cynthia turns up before any monsters in the subway world, so at that point neither the player nor Henry knows why she doesn’t want to be there except it’s dull and a bit creepy. So not only do you not get the same sense of urgency, but the emotional drive for Henry could be as shallow as getting laid. The lack of clear danger to her and apparent NPC immortality for the bits she’s with you for do serve to make it more of a shock when she dies within the first hour of gameplay, but the lack of time with her or defining character traits means her death doesn’t have the punch it should. “It’s okay… it’s just a dream” finally gives Henry some discernable character and it’s a pity nothing has been built up between these two characters before that.

Later character deaths suffer from it even more because they don’t even have the shock value after Cynthia dying at the end of the subway world. It doesn’t exactly take a genius to figure out what’s going to happen to the NPC you meet near the start of every subsequent world. After Disposable Person #2, I started to develop a pretty Walter Sullivan attitude that obviously these people need to die to get to the next bit, so there was no point in expending effort trying to find something about them to make me care.

Compare and contrast the 2-7 deaths in SH2, depending on ending and how you count Maria. They never feel cheap, even though each one could be seen coming if you read the signs, and some were obviously coming. Angela was a tragic figure, damned from the start. Eddie was pushed too far and turned to wrath. James had to kill him to survive. Maria existed purely to die and make James suffer, and yet there’s a tragedy to her as well. She was James’ futile attempts to bring back Mary, his guilt and desires. And in the ending where James took his own life, he succumbed to everything the others did. Deaths were many things in SH2, but they were never plot coupons.