Essays 01 September 2022, 15:40

Pain Instead of Entertainment: The Most Painful, Heartbreaking Games

Games are not only fun and entertainment. There are titles that will test your sensitivity, induce tears or simply depress you. Even so, they are still worth knowing!

Silent Hill 2

Genre: survival horror

Developer: Konami

Release date: September 28, 2001

Each entry in the Silent Hill series is an extremely dark and gloomy experience. But it's hard to find a more depressing and poignant story than the one from part two. In addition, the plot has a few layers, as each encountered side character has a terrible past, which is presented in a not-entirely-literal way. First, we have to face the past of the main character – James Sunderland – who comes to Silent Hill called by his recently deceased wife. A stay in a foggy town turns out to be a form of penance for him in purgatory and maybe even hell, given his secret desires and what actually happened to his wife.

Then we learn about Angela and Eddie's stories, as if they were just random characters – when we learn what they had to go through, however, it's as difficult to forget about it as about James' origins. Silent Hill 2 tackles child molestation, mental abuse and bullying due to different appearance, as well as bulimorexia, depression or suicidal tendencies in an extremely subtle, but at the same time powerful way. Neither of these stories has a happy ending, neither improves the mood. This game is depressing from beginning to end, but at the same time it's incredibly riveting, seemingly in much the same fashion as is the case when people stop to watch a car accident. The creators of Silent Hill surely knew what they were doing.

Silent Hill 2 in our encyclopedia

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Silent Hill 2