Croik catches up to 1999!
This weekend I sat down and played Silent Hill 2 from start to finish all at once, beating it for the first time ever. I've actually owned it for years, but always got stuck at the apartment building (yup, that early on). So this time TK was my walkthrough buddy. Which may have killed the experience a little (that and not playing it alone, at night, with all the lights out and headphones on - as the walkthrough would have suggested), as in the end I didn't find it as scary as I was hoping to. But it wasn't bad.
I've never really been into survival horror as a genre, to be honest. I rented Silent Hill 1 and Resident Evil 2 back when they first came out and never got far. Some of that was the creepiness but mostly it was the controls. These days survival horror fans tell me that the controls sucked on purpose, because it was scarier when your character was weak and couldn't react as quickly as you wanted them to, but to that I say BULLSHIIIIIIT. When I get damanged by a monster because the controls are too clunky for me to line up my shot properly, I skip "scared" and go straight to "pissed." Bad controls are not scary, they're a nuisance. I think I spent half the game dancing around items on the ground, trying to get James to pick them up. That is not scary.
Of course, it wasn't until after I'd finished that I realized I could change the controls to 2D. But I wonder if that would have bothered me even more, because without the poor controls it would have been too easy.
But in any case, the draw of SH2 is the story, and while it is pretty good (in terms of survival horror games) I couldn't get into it that much because James was so damn unlikable. Maybe it was the voice acting, but despite all the crazy shit going on in the game, he never seemed like HE was scared, so it was hard for me to empathize with him. It kinda annoyed me when, after beating to death dozens of hellspawn, James would look at a human corpse and think, "Who could have done this?" WHO DO YOU THINK?? THE TOWN IS COVERED IN ZOMBIES!! I think I would have rather played as crazy Angela, at least she was interesting.
Plus I know the game was going for some kind of repressed sexual frustration tone, but James was so dopey I couldn't imagine him even having a sex drive, so I probably wouldn't have picked up on the significance of it if I hadn't already known going in.
I guess it's one of those things where I should have played the game when it was new to really appreciate it. I know a lot of people say it's one of the best games ever, but while I did have fun I can't say the same thing. But at least now I can say I beat it! I'm wondering now if I should give Homecoming a chance, but I've heard mixed reviews.
I also played the Dissidia demo, and I have to say I wasn't terribly impressed with that either. It seemed like I spent most of every fight just trying to close the distance between me and my enemy. The number of different attacks you can do seem really limited as well. Has anyone played the Japanese version? Is it really worth it? Because after all this time the only characters in the game I can bring myself to give a shit about are Zidane, Terra, Kefka, and Gabranth, so if fanservice is all the game has to offer I'll probably skip it.
I've never really been into survival horror as a genre, to be honest. I rented Silent Hill 1 and Resident Evil 2 back when they first came out and never got far. Some of that was the creepiness but mostly it was the controls. These days survival horror fans tell me that the controls sucked on purpose, because it was scarier when your character was weak and couldn't react as quickly as you wanted them to, but to that I say BULLSHIIIIIIT. When I get damanged by a monster because the controls are too clunky for me to line up my shot properly, I skip "scared" and go straight to "pissed." Bad controls are not scary, they're a nuisance. I think I spent half the game dancing around items on the ground, trying to get James to pick them up. That is not scary.
Of course, it wasn't until after I'd finished that I realized I could change the controls to 2D. But I wonder if that would have bothered me even more, because without the poor controls it would have been too easy.
But in any case, the draw of SH2 is the story, and while it is pretty good (in terms of survival horror games) I couldn't get into it that much because James was so damn unlikable. Maybe it was the voice acting, but despite all the crazy shit going on in the game, he never seemed like HE was scared, so it was hard for me to empathize with him. It kinda annoyed me when, after beating to death dozens of hellspawn, James would look at a human corpse and think, "Who could have done this?" WHO DO YOU THINK?? THE TOWN IS COVERED IN ZOMBIES!! I think I would have rather played as crazy Angela, at least she was interesting.
Plus I know the game was going for some kind of repressed sexual frustration tone, but James was so dopey I couldn't imagine him even having a sex drive, so I probably wouldn't have picked up on the significance of it if I hadn't already known going in.
I guess it's one of those things where I should have played the game when it was new to really appreciate it. I know a lot of people say it's one of the best games ever, but while I did have fun I can't say the same thing. But at least now I can say I beat it! I'm wondering now if I should give Homecoming a chance, but I've heard mixed reviews.
I also played the Dissidia demo, and I have to say I wasn't terribly impressed with that either. It seemed like I spent most of every fight just trying to close the distance between me and my enemy. The number of different attacks you can do seem really limited as well. Has anyone played the Japanese version? Is it really worth it? Because after all this time the only characters in the game I can bring myself to give a shit about are Zidane, Terra, Kefka, and Gabranth, so if fanservice is all the game has to offer I'll probably skip it.