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indigozealMuch has been done, but not much to report. I did get through one part of the hospital and am making my way through its inverted side - so, yes, there are inverted locations in this game. That's a bit dispiriting - I think gameplay flowed better when you didn't have to redo old levels immediately upon finishing them, particularly when they have 50+ doors to check.
I had to check a guide for the first time to make sure I didn't screw up my playthrough irreparably. One time when I got on the hospital elevator, the radio James was carrying began playing a quiz show that promised a reward for answering questions about town minutiae correctly. In the middle of the broadcast, I recalled that one of the answers could be found in the contents of a brochure recorded in the Documents status sub-screen, but I pressed the Start button to access it, the broadcast cut out and James's elevator ride ended. Left with no apparent way to answer the quiz I had to run to a guide to make sure it didn't matter in the grand scheme of things and wasn't the answer to the super-secret best ending or whatever, which wouldn't be a trick outside the series playbook. (Turns out that you're supposed to input the answers into this puzzle box you encounter later.) Puzzles have gone pretty well and totally assistance-free other than that, though.
Combat has become ridiculously easy: three quick bullets and a kick take down the main enemies for the level. The sequel's like the first game in that you encounter the toughest enemies right off the bat, but the foes that follow are significantly less threatening than those of the first title. Moreover, my stock of supplies has grown to about 15 health drinks, 8 first-aid kits, 120 handgun bullets, and a smattering of shotgun ammo for bosses. Oh, and I did encounter an additional boss after finding the bratty girl who should be just left in Silent Hill after locking James in a room with monsters, but its movement was so limited that it posed only a modicum of challenge.
Storywise, things are not looking good for the sanity of our hero. I do hope, though, that we're not heading for an "it was only a dream" ending, with the reveal that James has been in a padded cell all along. Wrapping everything in billowy, pillowy white for Inverted Hospital does not bode well, though.
Also on the storyline front, I have to say two things:
1) In the first Silent Hill, I mentioned that the prevalence of rusty, grody environments did not compel me to continue playing and exploring. In this second game, I have to say that the nature of the supporting cast does not compel me to get to know them better through the numerous cutscenes dedicated to their personal problems and subplots revolving around preserving their well-being. No, I'm not expecting a horror title to be populated solely by 1950s Happy Homemakers, but the supporting cast is so trashy in its puking and vile name-calling and just general poor hygiene that they wouldn't be out of place in a Rob Zombie movie. It's depressing, and I'm not inspired to know more about these people. (The exception is Maria, who has a heart and a good deal of initiative.)
2) The game really illustrates how make-or-break a tool voice acting is for games that choose to use it in communicating emotion, and how critical it is that an actor be given full control over his or her voice. I'm pretty sure they had the same directing issue here that they did in the first game, where each line was recorded separately, in a vacuum apart from its scene, and the actors had to guess blindly at the context of each line of dialogue. As a result, there's no consistency in mood or mental state for nearly any character within a given scene; people will go from calm to crazy-desperate to joking in the space of a few seconds. (James, heartbreakingly, is particularly prone to this.) Any atmosphere in the cutscenes is destroyed by the yo-yo emoting, and the characters, a problematic lot to begin with, seem these weird, inhuman aliens new to this phenomenon you Earthlings call "emotion," and it makes it so you can't possibly relate to them. As I've said before, it's obvious that they're aiming high with the story's content, but considering the production values here, I'm not sure they can stick the landing.
.
I had to check a guide for the first time to make sure I didn't screw up my playthrough irreparably. One time when I got on the hospital elevator, the radio James was carrying began playing a quiz show that promised a reward for answering questions about town minutiae correctly. In the middle of the broadcast, I recalled that one of the answers could be found in the contents of a brochure recorded in the Documents status sub-screen, but I pressed the Start button to access it, the broadcast cut out and James's elevator ride ended. Left with no apparent way to answer the quiz I had to run to a guide to make sure it didn't matter in the grand scheme of things and wasn't the answer to the super-secret best ending or whatever, which wouldn't be a trick outside the series playbook. (Turns out that you're supposed to input the answers into this puzzle box you encounter later.) Puzzles have gone pretty well and totally assistance-free other than that, though.
Combat has become ridiculously easy: three quick bullets and a kick take down the main enemies for the level. The sequel's like the first game in that you encounter the toughest enemies right off the bat, but the foes that follow are significantly less threatening than those of the first title. Moreover, my stock of supplies has grown to about 15 health drinks, 8 first-aid kits, 120 handgun bullets, and a smattering of shotgun ammo for bosses. Oh, and I did encounter an additional boss after finding the bratty girl who should be just left in Silent Hill after locking James in a room with monsters, but its movement was so limited that it posed only a modicum of challenge.
Storywise, things are not looking good for the sanity of our hero. I do hope, though, that we're not heading for an "it was only a dream" ending, with the reveal that James has been in a padded cell all along. Wrapping everything in billowy, pillowy white for Inverted Hospital does not bode well, though.
Also on the storyline front, I have to say two things:
1) In the first Silent Hill, I mentioned that the prevalence of rusty, grody environments did not compel me to continue playing and exploring. In this second game, I have to say that the nature of the supporting cast does not compel me to get to know them better through the numerous cutscenes dedicated to their personal problems and subplots revolving around preserving their well-being. No, I'm not expecting a horror title to be populated solely by 1950s Happy Homemakers, but the supporting cast is so trashy in its puking and vile name-calling and just general poor hygiene that they wouldn't be out of place in a Rob Zombie movie. It's depressing, and I'm not inspired to know more about these people. (The exception is Maria, who has a heart and a good deal of initiative.)
2) The game really illustrates how make-or-break a tool voice acting is for games that choose to use it in communicating emotion, and how critical it is that an actor be given full control over his or her voice. I'm pretty sure they had the same directing issue here that they did in the first game, where each line was recorded separately, in a vacuum apart from its scene, and the actors had to guess blindly at the context of each line of dialogue. As a result, there's no consistency in mood or mental state for nearly any character within a given scene; people will go from calm to crazy-desperate to joking in the space of a few seconds. (James, heartbreakingly, is particularly prone to this.) Any atmosphere in the cutscenes is destroyed by the yo-yo emoting, and the characters, a problematic lot to begin with, seem these weird, inhuman aliens new to this phenomenon you Earthlings call "emotion," and it makes it so you can't possibly relate to them. As I've said before, it's obvious that they're aiming high with the story's content, but considering the production values here, I'm not sure they can stick the landing.
.
