'' is the second installment in the Survival Horror Series . The game was released in North America on September 24 , 2001 , Japan on September 27 , 2001 , and in Europe on November 23 , 2001 . It was first released on the Sony PlayStation 2 and was later ported to the Microsoft Xbox and PC .
James Sunderland receives a letter from his wife, Mary, who died three years earlier, telling him to meet her in the town of Silent Hill . Even though he knows that Mary could not possibly be alive, James is drawn to Silent Hill. Since the main road to Silent Hill is blocked, James takes an alternate pedestrian route which goes through an old graveyard. A woman is there, reading the names on the tombstones in search of her mother. James asks the woman if he is on the right way to get to Silent Hill, and the woman tells him not to go there; there's "something wrong with this town." James tells her that he doesn't care if it's dangerous or not, he needs to look for someone in this town. He goes on and finally arrives in the town of Silent Hill. James sees blood trails on one of the empty roads, and a figure walking in the distance. He follows the mysterious figure, only to find out that it is an armless monster who's spitting acid. James takes a plank off a wooden fence and kills the beast with it.
James tries to find a way to Rosewater Park through the fog and monsters, but all the roads to Nathan Avenue are blocked. James finds the key to an apartment building which is near Nathan Avenue. Inside, he meets a young eight-year-old girl who runs away as soon as he sees her. Later, James sees a very intimidating monster known as Pyramid Head on the other side of a grate. While trying to find a way to Nathan Avenue through the apartment building, James also finds a disturbed young man, Eddie Dombrowski, who is throwing up in a toilet after finding a corpse in the same apartment. Jame tells Eddie he should leave the town before something bad happens. In another apartment, James finds the woman he saw in the graveyard, Angela, holding a knife, ready to slit her own wrists. James calms her down and asks her if she has seen his wife Mary. She says she didn't see her, and when James tells her that Mary's dead anyway, Angela panicks and leaves. In the next room, Pyramid Head is seen raping some monsters. James quickly hides from Pyramid Head by going inside a wardrobe. Pyramid Head suspects something, and approaches the wardrobe after killing his victims. James shoots Pyramid Head several times to scare him off. The monster flees. When James finally finds the exit to the building, Pyramid Head is there, raping another monster, and there's no way out for James; the door locked itself as it was closed. James battles Pyramid Head and manages to make him flee outside. James goes outside himself and finds his way to the park where he thinks he'll find his wife.
painting found in ''Silent Hill 2'']]
The Xbox version of the game, subtitled ''Restless Dreams'' (''Inner Fears'' in Europe ), featured an additional scenario where players controlled Maria. This level was included on the PlayStation 2 version when the "Greatest Hits" edition was released (known as the Platinum version in Europe, with the subtitle 'Director's Cut'). The title of the original scenario with James is called ''Letter from Silent Heaven''. The one featuring Maria as the protagonist is named ''Born from a Wish''. This scenario was also included in the ''Director's Cut'' version of the PC edition.
''Silent Hill 2'' does not have a direct narrative continuity to the First Game , but shares locations with the third game, and a few allusions are made to it in '' Silent Hill 3 ''. The Fourth Game expands upon some of the town's history as related herein, as well as introduces the character of Walter Sullivan, who previously was only mentioned.
As of 2006 two Sequel titles exist. Another is planned for the next generation PlayStation 3 console.
- All four ''Silent Hill'' titles contain references to the movie '''', with its surreal decay and blocked exits, echoes scenes from the film as well.
- The novel House Of Leaves and its use of impossible physical spaces may have been an influence on the series (especially in SIlent Hill 2 ), with its almost interminable corridors.
- The Cult Television Series '' Twin Peaks '' is said to have had an influence on many aspects of the games. Both the game and the TV series take place in a resort town. David Lynch's often dream-like sequences in the series are also very similar to the surrealist occurrences throughout the games. The book "Lost Memories" lists Twin Peaks as a main influence for the first three games.
- Throughout the series, it becomes clearer that there may be three levels of reality in ''Silent Hill''. The 'top level' is where people live out their lives as normal, bearing hardly any difference to any other town of its kind. The next level could be called '' 'Foggy' Silent Hill'' (or the '' 'Alternate' Silent Hill''), where an all-pervading fog obscures visibility to a matter of feet, similar to Stephen King's The Mist (a favorite story of one of the series' developers). Some monsters are apparent at this point, but the town environs are practically unchanged. The third layer down, where the real corruption of the reality lies, can be called ''Otherworld''. This darkness is not just a physical darkness, which is used to put the player on edge, but also corresponds to the kinds of monsters found here. This Otherworld is the rotten core of the town. However, the recent comic book adaptations only have two layers, with Silent Hill being in fact an abandoned and monster-infested ghost town. ''Paint It Black'' points out that cable, power, and phones all work within the city limits, and the stores are refreshed with food.
- Though the town of Silent Hill is officially located somewhere in New England , there is a body of water in the town named ''Toluca Lake'', named after the real Toluca Lake in Southern California, near Burbank , North Hollywood , and Studio City . This serves as a roundabout homage to Director David Lynch ; Lynch is legendary for having eaten lunch at Bob's Big Boy restaurant every day for approximately seven years straight. That particular Bob's Big Boy is located in Toluca Lake, CA on Riverside Drive, just down the road from Warner Bros. Studios and Universal Studios .
- In ''Silent Hill 2'', a sign mentioning Historic Route 26 is shown. In the United States, Route 26 is located in the western mountain area of Maine on the New Hampshire border. The scenic byway is unique in that it connects with a New Hampshire Scenic Byway and passes through Grafton Notch State Park.
- One of the end songs in ''Silent Hill 2'', "Angel's Thanatos," is a reference to the Freudian idea of Thanatos . It is the desire to give up life and return to non-existence. The song precedes the ending in which James Sunderland commits Suicide .
- The German opera Die Tote Stadt very similarly contains a main character who laments after his dead wife, and encounters someone who looks exactly like her, and with only a slightly different name.
- "Silent Hill 2" has taken a lot of inspiration from David Lynch´s films '' Lost Highway '' and '' Blue Velvet ''. In ''Lost Highway'' the main character kills his wife but does not realize he has until he watches the murder in a VHS that is left in front of his house. After the killing in the movie appears the same actress that plays the wife but with blonde hair instead of black, and creates the same kind of questions to the audience than the duality of Mary and María. The presence of a mysterious creepy man mirrors Pyramid Head's character as well. The scene in which James is hidden in a wardrobe and sees the disgusting sexual situation between Pyramid head and two mannequins looks very much to a scene from ''Blue Velvet''. Is the one in which Jeffrey Beaumont is hidden in a wardrove and has to see like a vouyeur the disturbing rape. It´s really similar, and not strange knowing that the creators like Lynch´s movies.
- This ending in the game is acquired by the player and James essentially showing a will to live (healing injuries quickly, etc.), and showing remose for your actions (constantly examining Mary's picture, ignoring Maria, etc.). After the final battle with Mary's memory James is seen leaving the town, tracing a path through the graveyard, with Laura, while a letter of Mary's is read aloud. This ending implies that James has learned to accept Mary for what she was, and has enacted her wish in adopting Laura. This is supposedly the 'best' if not the most 'true' ending as James has learned from his mistakes and the efforts put forth by the town and its monstrous inhabitants seem to have been successful.
- To get this ending, the player must make James seem rather attached to Maria, and not Mary. This includes checking up on Maria constantly and not letting her get hurt much. It also involves completely ignoring Mary's speech near the end. After the game is complete James is seen leaving Silent Hill with Maria, but Maria pauses to cough a few times, suggesting that James has learned nothing from his experiences in Silent Hill and that the whole thing might happen again someday when Maria's sickness gets worse.
- After examining Angela's knife often and taking your time to heal damage, the In Water ending is activated. In this ending James takes an easy way out of the situation he finds himself in; he kills himself. More specifically, he drives his car into Lake Toluca. This act makes everything you, as the player, have done throughout the game irrelevant. James learns nothing and you earn nothing but the chance to play again. The last thing James says is, "Now we can be together."
- After completing the game once, multiple items appear in the game. These items are called: White Chrism, Book Of Lost Memories, Obsidian Goblet, Book of Crimson Ceremony. Once you obtain all of these items and beat the game it will activate this ending. In it, James rows to the center of Toluca lake, where the screen blacks out. There is speculation that he resurrects Mary. Other feel he is resurrecting a god (possibly Samael, Metatron, etc.).
- Just like the first Silent Hill game, the second has a UFO ending as well (this is only included in the 'alternate version' of the game detailed above). After completing a task similar to the one required of the first game's UFO ending, a UFO lands in front of James and, not only do aliens come out, but the first game's protagonist, Harry Mason, does as well. Harry and James swap questions about their lost loved ones and James is zapped and taken aboard the spacecraft. This ending is set up as a grainey black and white silent film. Dialogue is set up using intertitles and the sound is slow to react to the action, suggesting a live performance (such was the tradition of the silent film).
- After completing the game at least once, a Dog Key item becomes available. If you obtain this key, it can be used to unlock a particular room in the final area of the game. Inside is a small dog standing on a stool at a Kitschy computer console. James drops to his knees in anguish and exclaims, "So you're behind all this!" in Japanese. The dog then comes over and licks his face. A song consisting of pitched dog barks plays as the credits roll, accompanied by various humorous images of the game's characters.
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