Psychological horror may seem commonplace in games now, but it’s thanks to “Silent Hill 2” that it found its place in gaming at all. A follow-up to the original Playstation hit, “Silent Hill 2” carried high hopes from fans of the first entry. The original game’s fog-shrouded town swarming with monstrosities set itself apart through well–built atmosphere, tone and sound design. Most expected the sequel to carry this on, providing new monsters while also bringing back the titular setting that terrified them. “Silent Hill 2” didn’t disappoint. The game puts you in control of James Sunderland, a widower who receives a letter from his dead wife. She asks him to return to their “special place” in Silent Hill. Seeking answers, James enters the town to find out who sent the letter, finally facing the truth surrounding her death. The town was as haunting as ever, filled with new, warped nightmares of enemies wandering through its foggy streets. Combat was designed in the enemies’ favor to increase the tension, with sounds of metal scraping and industrial clangs that only boosted the sense of confined struggle.

Looking deeper, though, the game’s design makes it clear that its developer, Team Silent, wanted to aim higher than the status quo. Each and every design choice showed a focus on not only making the town scary, but also on making the horror specific to James and his own fears. As the story progresses, players learn that the death of James’ wife left him with severe emotional trauma. The process of his wife’s succumbing to her illness left James with warped views of the world around him, and the enemies he faces in “Silent Hill 2” reflect this in terrifying fashion. The nurse enemies, faceless and slashing away at whatever enters their immediate view, mirror how he saw the hospital workers during his wife’s treatment – uncaring and overly automated in their caregiving. The lying figures, trapped in sheets of their own flesh, represent his wife’s suffering and writhing in the sheets of a hospital bed. Even the iconic Pyramid Head is a representation of James’ guilt, a brutal punisher for his crime of killing his wife to put her out of her misery. The areas you explore throughout the town only enforce this feeling. From a dilapidated hospital to the hotel where he and his wife vacationed, James is forced to confront the representations of his trauma in locations tied to where they were born.