love and how much they can hate at the same moment in time. Let�s look at the main character a bit more for now though.
The protagonist of the game is a man named James Sunderland as I said earlier. James is your average man, about six feet tall or so and about 170 pounds maybe. He is definitely not your action hero. As James progresses through the game, he encounters strange monsters that have overtaken the once peaceful town, and must use very unfamiliar weapons to defeat them. James eventually finds a pistol, shotgun, pipe, board with a nail through it and a few other weapons. He isn�t very skilled with the use of weapons, so it is actually much better to run from your enemies rather than try and kill every single thing.
The enemies are fun, and finding them is fun too. Stumbling across a monster in the dark is always an unpleasantly disturbing surprise; however James has a few tricks up his sleeve. Early in the game, James discovers a radio that emits static when he approaches enemies. By using the static, James can avoid most confrontations and save his pasty white skin. The games sound is an invention in itself, no other game in the genre has ever relied on sound as much as Silent Hill and they create innovative ways to implement it. In the PS2 version, they used a program called S-Force to create 3D sound on a regular plain old TV. The sound is better however in the Xbox version especially with Dolby Surround Sound.
The characters are all true to life, realistic beings that portray emotions and express those feelings. And fortunately, the voice-acting of which the game relies heavily is on the ball and works well. There are some strange dialogue problems though; the patented �William Shatner Dramatic Pause (TM)� is in full effect with nearly half of the game having dramatic pauses that interrupt the plot in hopes to build up drama. However, it isn�t implemented very well, as there are subtitles, which you will have most likely read by the time they start speaking again. A small weakness in comparison to all the goodness though.
The characters in the game maintain there realness by having incredibly detailed models. Maria and James specifically are very well designed, each successfully portraying each human emotion you can imagine. The other characters in the game are very nicely animated as well; however they aren�t nearly as pivotal as James and Maria are to the overall plot. The monsters in the game are amazingly creepy. The straight-jackets, mannequins, pyramid head and other monsters are all uniquely designed and I assure you that you won�t find them in any other game. Freakishly slimy and shiny as they creep through the night- it brings tears to your eyes and chills down your spine.
Night, day, fog and rain. Time and weather progresses as you play Silent Hill, just as it does anywhere else. It may be dark and raining when you enter a building and explore, but when you leave it may be light and foggy. It is an interesting thing to remember how many times the weather changed as you play through the game. By the time you get to the end (which took me about 7 hours my first time), you realize everything that has happened, all the changes in the game and have a sudden and complete understanding of the events in the game. And then you play it again to get another ending. And then you play it again to get another ending. And then�well there are 5 endings, unlike the most common opinion that there are four (to get the fifth, you have to get the other four and collect a series of difficult to find objects). There is also the Xbox exclusive mini-game, the Born from a Wish mission. This is simply a minor distraction that unfortunately reveals nothing new and is something more hardcore fans will find enjoyable.
On the surface, just another survival horror game, but for those willing to give it a chance it turns into an extremely deep and psychological game for those willing to give the game the time of day.
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