Transcript

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hello and welcome back to the Gaming Backlog Book club reminder. We do go into spoilers here and there, so if you want to avoid those, start at one of our previous episodes, play along and come back to this one once you’ve caught up.

So we started Silent Hill 2 remake and right off the bat, before you even see a menu, there’s a warning screen about the heavy themes in the game, which is so important and I’m really glad they did that. There’s even a QR code and link to help find resources.

That’s pretty invaluable in this day and age. Stay safe, everyone. It’s interesting also that they put it every time you load up the game. So it’s not just the beginning of the game. Really well done. I think that’s a good choice.

[00:00:41] Speaker B: Yeah, that is a good choice for them. As you said, in today’s day and age, with everything going on. Yeah, that’s a good thing to have.

[00:00:49] Speaker A: That warning also gave us a bit of a preview of how heavy and dark the elements of the story really are.

So I don’t think I was quite prepared for that. But reading the warning basically shifted me into another mindset right from the start to really step back and remember that this is a game, not reality. Long before you even take control of James.

[00:01:09] Speaker B: Yeah, it’s just a game still.

[00:01:12] Speaker A: It’s just a game.

[00:01:13] Speaker B: Yeah, it’s got some powerful. Yeah, it’s obviously quite a powerful.

[00:01:17] Speaker A: You know, it doesn’t help it its story, but doesn’t help that it’s very dark at many sections and you kind of need to play with the lights off to be able to see anything. So you get forced into that even if you wanted to play with the comfort of lights on around in many sections.

[00:01:33] Speaker B: Yes, that’s true. It is quite.

[00:01:34] Speaker A: That tells me it’s only going to get darker. Yeah.

[00:01:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I think you’re right. I think it is going to get.

[00:01:41] Speaker A: Buckle up. Question for you. Did you turn around from the bathroom at the lookout and see a road going away from the town?

[00:01:49] Speaker B: I did, yeah. I did that because there’s that like little trophy right at the start where it’s like you try to exit and it’s like, nope.

[00:01:56] Speaker A: Did you know that the trophy existed?

[00:01:59] Speaker B: I had heard like before we started playing this, like when it came out like last year or whatever the game about something about that. Because I had looked to almost start this game last year and I didn’t.

I had seen something about somebody saying like, hey, right at the start, just like turn around or whatever, and walk here, and then you’ll get this very easy trophy. I was like, oh, okay. And that kind of just stuck in my mind.

[00:02:25] Speaker A: Gotcha. One of the few things going in.

[00:02:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Also in games like this, like, anywhere where I can just walk, I’ll just walk.

[00:02:32] Speaker A: Yeah, right. That. That’s. And I would say you’re. You’re definitely more of a trophy hunter than I am in most games.

And so I have tracks that. You sort of had already heard something about that. But, yeah, similar. Very similar. I saw an open road and I just walked off just to see if they had some hidden collectible over there. And while. No, funny enough, you don’t get any collectibles. There’s that trophy. So pretty funny. You hit an invisible wall, basically, or it turns you around automatically.

Hey, I mean, you already know what kind of game you’re getting into. Why are you walking in the distance?

Maybe you just want to bail before you see if the story ends, you know, Before.

[00:03:11] Speaker B: Yeah, before it gets started, it’s like, nah, I’ll leave my. Leave my wife there. I’m good. I’m just gonna turn around now.

[00:03:19] Speaker A: So I mentioned last time that I had played a tiny fraction of Silent Hill 2 way back around when it released on PS2, but forgot everything about it. But once I started it up and began wandering the early areas, it all came flooding back. Maybe when I played back then, I was actually sucked into Silent Hill myself and my memories were erased when I came back. Yeah, it’s not likely, but how fortunate, because that doesn’t seem like a good place to be. And the intro. Walk into town. I know you haven’t played Resident Evil 4, but it reminds me. It feels so much like the intro to Resident Evil 4. Going through the woods, like, the creepy woods with no one there and some weird noises in the distance. And, you know, you reach that first save point in the well, the red note in the well, or the piece of paper, and then you eventually realize they are all some form of glowing red piece of paper, but in all types of different places. At first I was like.

[00:04:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that’s what. That’s what I was thinking too. I was like. I was curious on, like, if they’re just gonna be little safe points, like, are they just wells or.

I don’t know. Hopefully. I was like, I hope they’re random. And, like, sort of.

[00:04:27] Speaker A: Which is good, because, I mean, it gives you some.

Yeah, like, in a lot of. At least in the earlier Resident Evil games, it was all typewriters. I don’t know about some of the later ones.

And when I saw the well, I was just thinking is this the one save point style? It’s kind of odd. More creatively interesting if they do it just like attached to the environment you’re in. But I was wondering if the themes were there was a theme behind it. Like what significance is there to the well or. No, I think at the end of the day it was just a well, cool ambiance design choice that fits into wherever you are.

[00:04:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it was just a cool creepy ambiance and a creepy well in the.

[00:05:03] Speaker A: Middle of a forest and continuing on that walk. Right. Moving on. You get immediately warned by the girl in the graveyard to stay away from the town. But hell, you know, we’re going anyway. But imagine, you know, you already had the opportunity at the beginning to just turn around and go. Imagine if James just noped out of there and the game world credits right there.

It sounds like something that would be a funny kind of joke ending that Undertale would have done.

[00:05:28] Speaker B: Yes, it does. That would have been. That would be pretty funny. It just gives you the offer like would you like to return back now?

[00:05:34] Speaker A: It’s like, yes, okay, yeah, I’m over it.

And the. You know, I think one of my big things that I’ll just go and put out there right away is the walk speed and sprint speed in this are so slow.

You know, obviously this is a remake of a survival horror game from 2001, so it tracks. And even if it was made from scratch for the first time today, I’m sure they would deliberately make it slow like that anyway because it fits in everything else the game has going on and makes it trickier in terms of combat and evasion and all that. I guess we’re just conditioned to games like God of War where a sprint button means a full on linebacker charging forward rather than a snail’s pace walk shifting into a light jog that you wouldn’t even break a sweat with.

Yeah, I guess we’ll have to see how they implemented a sprint sprint function in Silent Hill F pretty soon here. I will say though, if you haven’t already done so, I do highly suggest going into the accessibility options and switching the sprint functionality to a toggle rather than a hold or whatever the default was. It’s a clumsy enough sprint function to begin with that it switching this made it way less tedious for me. I also went ahead and remapped the sprint from L1 to L3 just because that’s what I’m used to in More modern games.

I might consider moving the quick turn to a different button as well. But not quite sure which button to do that to yet.

[00:07:03] Speaker B: I. I’m not gonna lie just through this for this part of the playthrough. So far I haven’t really used the quick turn.

I think I keep forgetting it’s there.

[00:07:13] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:07:13] Speaker B: I’m just so used to turning around myself right. In the game.

[00:07:17] Speaker A: Right. It’s like trying to keep your head on a swivel when you have people constantly moving around you. I. I agree. I mean I’ve used it a little bit, but mostly when I pick up an item and hear a noise and I’ll click turn to like. Because you’re back, you’re facing a wall.

[00:07:32] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:07:34] Speaker A: But yeah, anyway, I mean it’s. It’s probably a little bit easier to just swivel that stick around.

Continuing on. You know the spooky vibe with the fog and the ambient music and the wind. Wind rustling through the wheat and all that sets the mood so early. I just knew we were in for a treat with this game. You know, you’ve got. It’s kind of a barren wasteland. That intro walk into town. I kept figuring there would be something around. You have like a small environmental puzzle to deal with. But that was all. All it really had. But once you get into the town proper, there’s a blood streak on the ground in front of the flower shop. I assume you’re like me. And with Most of the third person games in the last 15 years or so being chock full of things to pick up, whether they’re useful like ammo or puzzle items or just regular items or even just collectibles.

Did you go looking at every nook and cranny trying to find things but finding.

[00:08:28] Speaker B: Oh yeah, yeah. Really nothing. But yes I did. I was. Yeah, definitely looking every building. Like I actually got pretty early. There’s another trophy that you can get for.

It’s like something for like pushing on locked doors.

[00:08:45] Speaker A: Yeah, like the 50 locked doors.

[00:08:47] Speaker B: Yeah. And I got it really quick because obviously every door I’m like try. I’m like running into to like.

[00:08:52] Speaker A: Yeah, he just puts like a door and you get turned around. Yeah, yeah, I know. I looked in every, every spot and eventually just stopped searching really.

Like you know, they built a full map with alleys and roads that just lead nowhere into nothing. Which was surprising. But hey, that’s the limitations probably they were working with. It definitely does add to the atmosphere of the world being obviously the whole world exists, but it’s mostly devoid of anything, which creates kind of a creepy layer as well.

If you go.

I’m pretty sure I, you know, as I got further into the town section, I was starting to realize, okay, they’re actually just like slowly funneling you into where you need to be going in the first place.

But if you go to the right after walking into town after the flower shop and all that, eventually you can go down an alleyway into a series of backyards. Does that ring a bell?

[00:09:47] Speaker B: I think so.

[00:09:48] Speaker A: That section reminded me so much of Shaun of the Dead.

Hey James, we got red on you.

[00:09:55] Speaker B: I know what you mean. Yeah.

[00:09:59] Speaker A: Where they start throwing the vinyl records at the zombies. That is literally what came to mind when that came up.

If Shaun of the Dead had come up before, it would have been a nice Easter egg. Or you can use it as a weapon or something. It’s funny, obviously. I think these games are so far apart release date wise, that I can’t imagine it was part of the thought process behind the clicker noises in the Last of Us.

But the radio static you hear when an enemy is nearby sounds really similar to clickers if you ask me.

[00:10:27] Speaker B: Yeah, it is partially similar. Also that radio static like every time it comes on.

[00:10:34] Speaker A: Do you amazingly going to little like hairs on the back of my neck.

[00:10:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Like kind of stand up like, oh crap. Like where is it?

And I will say that the music right as you enter the town, like going through it at one point the music was not helpful. I was like sitting there playing and it is the phenomenal job. It is very creepy. Like.

[00:10:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Really makes you put that out there right now. Is that the music and sound design and sound effects of this are fantastic. I can’t imagine anyone doing anything better. It it like it is a constant scenario tense anxiety.

[00:11:12] Speaker B: It is very tense. Like the music starts like playing gets louder and I’m like, oh my God, where is something? I’m like, I’m sure there’s something coming up or like right behind me. And I don’t see anything in this fog.

[00:11:23] Speaker A: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They just did so, so well with that.

[00:11:27] Speaker B: Yes, they did.

[00:11:29] Speaker A: You know, eventually you pick up your health items. The syringe that you pick up absolutely does not look sanitary.

[00:11:37] Speaker B: No.

[00:11:37] Speaker A: I guess if James wanted to drug up to withstand the insanity he was seeing, that’s one thing. But no use clean syringes, please.

That’s not the right message to be sending.

[00:11:47] Speaker B: Yeah, those. Those look like they’ve been there for a long time.

[00:11:50] Speaker A: Yeah.

Quite rusty. Probably other things did you pick up the random notes everywhere.

[00:11:58] Speaker B: I did. Yeah. I would try all the notes that I saw.

I would pick up what I could. I’ll just. I’ve read everything. Like, I tried to go through and find this set. I would just search.

[00:12:07] Speaker A: So, yeah. And there’s.

[00:12:10] Speaker B: Read all the notes and there’s.

[00:12:13] Speaker A: Especially in the town, like, in the businesses in town, like a bar and a coffee shop and wherever else.

I’m not sure if this will hold up, but my theory so far is that those notes are actually all talking about you being the strange man.

And if that’s the case, you’ve probably already been here before, and for whatever reason, you end up in your own little world.

[00:12:35] Speaker B: I get that. There was. I can’t remember. Yeah. There was one specific note.

[00:12:39] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:12:40] Speaker B: That really. Yeah. That really made me think, like, oh, is this, like, talking about me, like, back. Yeah, there was definitely. There was one specific one from the bar or somewhere. The bar, the record shop.

One of those two. There was definitely a note where I was like, is this me? And I’ve just, like, come back. Which makes sense because it’s. Different place now. The other world or whatever. Maybe Silent Hill.

[00:13:09] Speaker A: And so, I mean, it makes you wonder, okay, if that is about you, how many times have you been here or have you just always been here, and you just get restarted or respond or whatever at the beginning of the journey. Every time.

[00:13:20] Speaker B: Like, it’s like Groundhog Day.

[00:13:22] Speaker A: Well, yeah. Yeah. Huh. Ground. Which had. Fantastic, funny movie.

[00:13:27] Speaker B: Great movie.

[00:13:28] Speaker A: Huge fan of Bill Murray and all the shenanigans that happen in there. But I don’t think you want to be in Groundhog Day here.

[00:13:35] Speaker B: No, I wouldn’t. I’d rather have that Groundhog Day of the movie. Not this one.

[00:13:38] Speaker A: This would be horrible. For sure. For sure. But I guess we’ll have to just keep playing and find out what happens there. You know, even just thinking back on the sound effects, right? So the sound effect when you’ve either killed and cleared all the enemies in your immediate vicinity or run away and escape them is super unsettling.

Like, this is supposed to be my signal that all is well in the world for a few moments now, but, nope, it’s scary as hell. The first couple of times I heard it, I felt like I was about to get ambushed and did either a quick turn or swivel around to try to see what else was there.

Then you eventually get used to it, but it’s.

No. No more comforting than anything else.

[00:14:17] Speaker B: No.

[00:14:18] Speaker A: Also the. All the squelchy noises, the monsters make is disgusting.

I don’t get it. It’s there just, like, as they move around. Like, they don’t even really make noises. It’s just their movements make it. I don’t think I’ve ever thought more times than in this game, in this first section, in any other game, maybe even any other movie. It’s just constant.

[00:14:42] Speaker B: It is there. And they’re weird. These. The line. Lying figures, I think is what they call them. Lying figures. Like, the first ones that you face.

It just. Yeah, they just look. I think it’s like they’re in a. It’s like a straight jacket made of skin around them all. And it is just. It’s very creepy. Very.

Yeah, quite terrifying.

And then they spit at you and they can headbutt you and.

[00:15:12] Speaker A: Yeah, not great. Speaking of. Ew. Sticking your arm deep into a hole, making the same squelching noises was gross. Based on my limited horror media knowledge, I obviously expected it to either be grabbed, have some terrible damage done to the arm in one form or another or something, but fortunately, you just find the jukebox button.

[00:15:35] Speaker B: Yes.

Yeah. You find.

There’s a. There’s a couple of these. Yeah. First. And you find the jukebox button and.

[00:15:42] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:15:43] Speaker B: Yeah. As you said, putting your hand in a wall, having some weird faces being made.

[00:15:50] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:15:51] Speaker B: Which I don’t blame. I don’t blame James, as I would probably make the same faces, for sure. Oh. I’d also look for something around. I’d be like, can I stick that in the hole instead? And, like, try and pry something out, not put my hand in.

[00:16:02] Speaker A: Right.

[00:16:03] Speaker B: Because I’d like to keep it.

[00:16:05] Speaker A: When you got to the part where you have to go to the Woodside apartments, once you have the key, how did you approach that?

Because you pick up the key and then the fog rolls in with heavy wind, and the street’s full of monsters. I literally just sprinted the whole way and weaved around to avoid all the enemies. Because f that, if they’re outside and not blocking your exit, I’d say digital.

[00:16:29] Speaker B: Exactly. I just sprinted. I think I may have hit one once just to give myself a little room. And then I just kept sprinting to the door.

Because the wind, when that wind picks up, it is also loud. Like, they.

It was loud, and it’s hard to hear everything else. And then. Yeah, the fog is really up. And. Yeah, I just ran. I think I hit one to get it sort of out of the way or just, like, daze it, like, and then just. Yeah, sprinted into the apartment.

[00:16:57] Speaker A: In the end. So once you’re in the Woodside Apartments, the second you walk up and see a room full of mannequins, the hair on your neck immediately sticks up because you have to expect to get attacked by one.

But nothing happens at first. And then once you grab or examine something, of course you aren’t attacked by just any old mannequin. It’s a freaky mannequin monster made of conjoined legs and torsos.

At least you get a flashlight out of it.

[00:17:25] Speaker B: I hate those mannequins. I hate them. They hide. They try and ambush you. So that’s the only, like, key thing is if you can find them kneeling. I’m not. This is like, yeah, standing up a little bit ahead at one point, I’ll just say no, because we’ll get to it. You get a gun at one point, and I would just. If they were hiding or whatever, I would just shoot it in the leg. And if you shot them in the leg, like, either one or both, it just goes down to a knee, and then I just smash it. And then you’re okay.

[00:17:56] Speaker A: Yeah. I also hate, hate, hate the mannequins.

[00:18:01] Speaker B: Yeah, there were times where I. I got. They jumped on me, and, like, I didn’t even know they were there, like, at all.

[00:18:08] Speaker A: And they’ll. They’ll. They’ll. They’ll be hanging out near where you enter a room or something, and then they’ll run off and try to wait to ambush you from somewhere else.

And of course, they combine that with, like, a light going out or something. And so far.

[00:18:20] Speaker B: Oh, God, that was that. Yeah, there was that section that was.

[00:18:23] Speaker A: So far. I’m definitely no good at avoiding the mannequin attacks. I almost always get hit at least once in an encounter, if not many times. They can dodge your swings, so whenever they’re. They’re guarding a health item, it’s almost like it’s not even worth trying to. Getting the health item since I need to use it immediately after fighting them.

I. You know, hopefully practice makes better and I can conserve more health that way, but they suck. But, yes, the shooting in the legs and then smacking them or just unloading a full clip to knock them down is a. Okay with me.

[00:18:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it was. They. Yeah, they were.

They were very annoying.

[00:19:04] Speaker A: There were. There was a point at some point later where in the Blue Creek Apartments, you’re going through, like, a long hallway, but you have. There’s a couple routes around the hallway. And I just walked through a hole in a wall and then saw one that was trying to ambush me from the other route you could take.

And I was able to ambush it, smack it.

I tried to not use bullets on that one just to save up and.

But no, it still smacked me around.

Still had to heal.

[00:19:33] Speaker B: That’s. That’s the other thing. I will.

For me, there was a part I didn’t know. Like, I thought maybe if you saved. If you didn’t. If you low on health, if you saved, it might reset your health. It does not.

[00:19:44] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:19:46] Speaker B: Just because I’ve seen that obviously in other games. Like, there’s a bunch of other games where you play or if you reach a safe point, like, so that doesn’t help. But I would use. At one point, like, going into those apartments, I had like seven health drinks.

But then, like getting. I kept going down. I like went down to like one or two. Like, I was just like. I searched through like everywhere in those apartments, in both of the apartments to find what I could.

Bullets and medical. Like, yeah. Drinks and syringes. Because.

Yeah, as I said, you get hit a few times by a mannequin. It’s like, basically what you’re critical. And sometimes if you use them, it doesn’t even fully heal you Right. Either. And I was like, oh, God.

[00:20:25] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:20:26] Speaker B: I was like, I guess this is why it’s. It’s survival horror. So I get that.

[00:20:30] Speaker A: But I’d say I probably played around.

I guess it’s still early on. In the early sections, you don’t have that many encounters, so I probably played like at least 30% of this section with the red damaged border around the screen.

[00:20:45] Speaker B: Yeah, there were times where I just was like, I don’t want to heal because I don’t have that much and hopefully I can just get through some enemies.

[00:20:52] Speaker A: But yeah, I would try to not top off until I was really damaged.

[00:20:56] Speaker B: But I will say this is another thing. Like, you talk about the sprint speed, the dodging is atrocious.

Oh, my God, the dodge. James’s Dodge.

[00:21:06] Speaker A: Yeah, it. It’s. It’s very. It kind of. It feels like there’s some input lag to it or obviously, okay, this is more like souls, like, but if you take a swing, you can’t cancel the swing into a dodge. Like, I don’t know. Quality of life would be for. For my personal taste would be if you could dodge it a little easier. I felt like half the time I’d hit the dodge and then maybe I’m just bad at timing it, but the mannequin would fly into me anyway.

[00:21:31] Speaker B: There. Yeah. There were also Times where I would hit dodge to the side, but he dodged backwards. And I was like, I don’t want you to dodge straight back. Like I want you to go to the side away from the attack.

But he goes backwards and then the thing just jumps into me and I’m like, that’s not.

[00:21:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And so, okay, obviously before that moment where you meet your first mannequin in the apartments, you know, even with all the foggy streets and the music and everything, this game really sets the tone. And of course, Silent Hill as a franchise is famous for being best in class levels of dark and anxiety inducing.

But wow, experiencing it is something else. And the mannequin monsters specifically got me fully into agreeing with that. And we haven’t even come across the enemies we knew about before starting the game yet at this point. So Pyramid Head and Nurses can’t wait. And simultaneously not looking forward, but definitely looking forward to those enemies.

[00:22:26] Speaker B: Yeah, same. It’ll be fun. Terrifying once we meet them.

[00:22:31] Speaker A: Yeah. I did have in the Woodside apartments a bit of satisfaction. I did it. I found a bathroom mirror that wasn’t shattered.

I’m so proud of this accomplishment. I want to thank Konami, Bluebird Team James and that random newspaper reading guy in the Woodside apartment complex. Couldn’t have done it without them.

[00:22:51] Speaker B: Nice.

[00:22:52] Speaker A: Soon after, we do find Pyramid Head. But rather than going after you, he’s just standing there, not moving through the gate or wall in the apartment building. And that’s super unnerving and scary. And up until I finally faced him, I was so nervously, cautiously looking around every corner and walking so slowly, thinking.

[00:23:13] Speaker B: He’D just pop out.

[00:23:15] Speaker A: I was expecting at some point. Yeah, I was expecting that for sure.

And then when you come back from grabbing the handgun and there’s a dead guy in a chair that wasn’t there before with the bright TV in his face. That key that wasn’t there before inviting you to go into the part of the building where Pyramid Head was. That’s another level of shivers right there.

[00:23:33] Speaker B: I was kind of hoping he was going to grab the towel off. I wanted to see who it was, but. Oh, it didn’t do that.

[00:23:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, who is this guy?

[00:23:40] Speaker B: I will say so. Before that part, there’s.

I think it’s actually the apartment just before that. Maybe there’s one of the apartments where you walk in. There’s a bunch of balloons that says like welcome home or something.

[00:23:54] Speaker A: Yes. Huh.

[00:23:56] Speaker B: So there’s actually a trophy for that. And I tried to get it. I tried this twice. I actually reloaded twice the game. So if you. You’re supposed to, like, shoot all 11 of the welcome home balloons, you’re supposed to get it. I did it twice, and it. The trophy never triggered. So I was like. I then just reloaded again because I was like, I don’t want to waste these rounds. Like, I’m not gonna.

[00:24:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. I mean, if it’s not gonna reasonable.

[00:24:19] Speaker B: If I’ve tried it. Yeah. Twice, and it’s not gonna trigger the trophy. I was like, I don’t know if I’ve done something wrong, but I was like, right up against them and I was like, shooting a shot each one. One time. Yeah.

[00:24:30] Speaker A: But interesting, I assume.

[00:24:33] Speaker B: I was like, yeah, I was like, I’m not gonna keep trying this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:24:37] Speaker A: No, I. I figured that was just adding, like the story of that one room to the.

Didn’t think to shoot. Shoot the balloons. I’m not wasting my ammo on balloons.

[00:24:47] Speaker B: No, as I said, I. Then when it. As I said, I tried it twice. It didn’t trigger both times. And I was like, okay, I’m just gonna reload one last time from where I was and save everything and not even try, just.

And I had a lot of ammo.

Getting up to the last fight, I almost.

[00:25:04] Speaker A: Only once I got to a section with a ton of mannequins, I started shooting one of those long hallways just because I didn’t have enough health to fend them off the fight.

But, yeah, I had like 80, 90 rounds, I think by the time I got to the end of this section.

[00:25:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I think I had 100 rounds. Yeah.

[00:25:23] Speaker A: Were. Were you like me? And with every enemy, once you knock them down, just keep smacking them. Long past when the radio silence static.

[00:25:31] Speaker B: Stops, I just keep stomping up.

[00:25:33] Speaker A: Yep. For the. That, that, and stay down kind of fear. Creepy.

[00:25:39] Speaker B: I’ll also say that for these lying figures. And then also here you meet new figures and the blue peak ones called Venom.

[00:25:46] Speaker A: Exploded ones.

[00:25:47] Speaker B: Very similar, but they explode. Um, Dude, I didn’t think it takes quite a lot of hits to bring them down. For something that’s like the first enemy you feed and meat in a game, it takes a lot of hits.

[00:26:01] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:26:01] Speaker B: I was like, oh, my God.

[00:26:03] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think I had mentioned they’re.

[00:26:05] Speaker B: Not the easiest things to defeat.

[00:26:07] Speaker A: Yeah. I think I had mentioned in the previous episode that I thought I knew that there was a pipe in this game. I guess I misremembered because it’s a 2×4 with some nails in it.

It’s a very sturdy 2×4 piece of wood. I would expect something like that that’s so old to get splintered and almost immediately whack in some heavily padded Whatever meat blob these things are.

Yeah, that, that. So at some point, the cell room where someone was locked inside and the guy was watching through the cupboard added an extra layer of creep. Not that there’s not enough here.

You know, as if the general terror and everything wasn’t bad enough, we have truly sick people living in this town too.

But that was. That was kind of a fun puzzle to solve there. Being stuck in a creepy prison when there’s. Okay, there’s a part where you’re just finishing up the Woodside Apartments, about to go into the Blue Creek Apartments, when you’re in apartment 201 and you’re hiding in the closet because Pyramid Head walks in.

I’m so confused why Pyramid Head doesn’t just pulverize you when you start shooting him from the closet a foot away and he knows you’re there. Maybe it’s like a power play. Like, you’re not doing anything to me. I can destroy you whenever I want to. But, like, does this thing have its own motivations or is it not just out to kill you? Like everything in a horror game is.

[00:27:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. I didn’t know. I remember when that scene was going on and happening and James just. I was like, don’t shoot. Don’t shoot. He starts shooting. I was like, man, you dumbass. Why are you shooting, like, in the helmet?

[00:27:48] Speaker A: Shoot him in the foot. At least. Do something.

[00:27:51] Speaker B: I was also like. I was also like, if this was real life and you shot something that big of metal, those bullets would probably ricochet back at you.

[00:27:58] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Most likely you get a little bit of luck because it’s a triangular semi shaped thing. Maybe it goes in either direction. But like, come on, we’re sure I don’t know any intelligence? A little more common sense.

Common sense. That’s the word I’m looking for. And yeah, okay, so there’s that. Right. And then you get into the Blue Creek apartments, and I think the mood here was great. It’s, you know, you’re in this other world area. The total restructuring of the building with your various actions and puzzle solving makes me really want to know what’s actually happening. Because why do you know, you’re in a. Whatever room and you turn a crank and then the room is no longer modernized and super disgusting.

Yeah, I don’t know. It’s.

Maybe we’ll find out. Maybe we won’t.

[00:28:45] Speaker B: Maybe. I will say just quickly. I actually want to go back quickly to the Woodside Apartments. The final puzzle.

The. Do you remember the final one?

[00:28:52] Speaker A: The coin cabinet, the poem one. The. Yeah, the poem one poems in here, actually. But the coin cabinet.

[00:28:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I will say, actually, before the multiple puzzles, we’ll get to the other two in the Blue Creek. But the ones, like, they’re pretty. Actually entertaining, the puzzles. And I did enjoy this coin cabinet one, figuring out, like, through the poems, like.

[00:29:10] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:29:10] Speaker B: Who. What coins go where.

[00:29:13] Speaker A: Yeah. It’s nice. It’s not just a simple story. Grab an item and put it here. It’s a.

Grab an item and then figure out what to do with it to actually.

[00:29:20] Speaker B: Make it work on the final standard. Like, the final one. It tells you, like, basically, like, who do you think’s at fault?

[00:29:30] Speaker A: Yes.

[00:29:30] Speaker B: Who did you say was at fault?

[00:29:32] Speaker A: You know what? I literally flipped the coins around until one. I know I had the three coins there, and I just moved the coins around until one of them worked.

[00:29:41] Speaker B: So I don’t remember, because for the last one, it’s like, whoever you move up to the top is who you think is at fault for the whole thing.

[00:29:49] Speaker A: I didn’t read that as literally as I should have.

[00:29:52] Speaker B: It was like, do you fault the man for going up to the lady with his sword. Like, sword to. By his side, and then she freaks out and runs away to the tree or to the flower where then she gets bit by the snake? It’s like, do you.

Yeah. Do you blame her for running away and running to the thing and not seeing the snake and getting bit? Or do you blame the snake for biting the woman? Like, it was like, who you blame? And I guess you could pick anybody.

And I get. I.

I have a feeling it might have repercussions. Change stuff late. Yeah. Repercussions later on.

[00:30:30] Speaker A: I mean, that seems like a pretty random thing to have story effects, but I think you wouldn’t put it past them.

[00:30:38] Speaker B: No, I wouldn’t. I think there’s. Yeah.

[00:30:41] Speaker A: Well, I guess we’ll see.

[00:30:45] Speaker B: Yeah, we will.

[00:30:46] Speaker A: But. Yeah, the. I mean, the puzzle design is great. I. I totally agree with that.

[00:30:49] Speaker B: It.

[00:30:49] Speaker A: It adds a lot of. It’s nice. I’m just really glad that there’s no enemies in puzzle rooms.

[00:30:55] Speaker B: So am I. I’m not. Yeah. There are a few times where I thought I was gonna have to, like, I do part of the puzzle, and then something was gonna come out at.

[00:31:02] Speaker A: Me and jump at you.

No, thanks.

And then. Yeah. Okay. And so in the back at the Blue Creek Apartments, you get a fair way through. And then Graveyard Girl Angela turns out to be creepy and disturbed as hell. She’s not warning you. Away from the city. She’s just.

I don’t even know what she is. She’s lost it.

[00:31:26] Speaker B: Yeah, she was.

She was a little bit terrifying. Yeah, she definitely has lost it.

Lying there on the ground with a.

[00:31:34] Speaker A: Knife, looking into a giant wall.

[00:31:37] Speaker B: Just looking.

[00:31:37] Speaker A: Floor to ceiling. Mirror. Yeah, mirror.

[00:31:39] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:31:40] Speaker A: And mumbling random nonsense. Yeah.

Will she come back as a boss? Don’t know. Will she come back already dead? Don’t know.

Why? Will we ever see her again? Don’t know. But she left a mark.

[00:31:56] Speaker B: Yeah, she did.

[00:31:59] Speaker A: And even walking down the hall after seeing Angela, the sound of the heavy footsteps and the metal dragging is so foreboding. And I felt like I was about to run into Mr. X from Resident Evil 2 because he likes to pop through walls like the Kool Aid Man.

I half expected Pyramid Head to do the same.

[00:32:20] Speaker B: I. I was too. I was expecting, like, you just walk. And then he just. I didn’t know if he would chase me or if he’d just like run through, like come through a wall in front of me and then just walk across me right in front.

[00:32:30] Speaker A: I did expect a chase sequence of some sort, and maybe you still get one because, you know, you’ve gotten to this point, you don’t actually kill Pyramid Head in the boss fight.

You just run away. Run away.

Taking shots.

Yeah.

[00:32:47] Speaker B: The air alarm, like, goes off.

[00:32:48] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:32:51] Speaker B: The air raid alarm. He just walks away. He just stops fighting you and just walks away.

[00:32:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Which. I mean, is that. Is that somebody else that’s giving him orders that’s calling him off and is watching the whole thing? If so, there’s like a creepy Truman show thing going on. There’s probably a better analogy for that.

Yeah. It’s. Don’t know. Or he just got bored and heard a weird noise and decided to walk around. Or maybe that thing just happened by itself randomly and he. The pyramid reverberates the noise in a really annoying way.

How was that fight for you? I. I was able to get through it in one try by sheer luck.

[00:33:20] Speaker B: The.

[00:33:21] Speaker A: Once again, the sprint toggle that I was using kept jamming up and so he’d get really close and almost grab me and I’d finally be able to sprint away.

Just kept knocking shots and doing. And then he grabbed me.

I was able to get off and the air raid siren went off. And I was stoked.

[00:33:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I died a Couple times. But I died only a couple times because as I said, like the dodge mechanic, I would try and dodge sideways to avoid his overhead thing, and instead James would dodge backwards, but his sword would still reach.

And then.

[00:33:53] Speaker A: Well, it’s a long sword. He’s got clouds. Yeah.

[00:33:56] Speaker B: No. So there are a couple times where, yeah, I. I died like twice.

And then the final. Like, my third time I tried it. It was two times. I died when I shouldn’t. I honestly shouldn’t have died. It was just like. Cause I was. I was able to sprint away and get away from him, but it was just like when I’m shooting him, shooting him, like, I’d unload, like at least five to six rounds into him. And then when he got close enough, I’d be like, okay, I’ll dodge. And it was just unfortunate of the dodge would not go the way I’d want it to, so. Right. And then on the third try, I got everything perfect. I didn’t have to heal. I didn’t have to do anything. I just was able to shoot him.

Got him.

Yeah, yeah, Perfect. And then just got through the fight and it was pretty quick. And he, like, it wasn’t too bad Again, when I got my dodges correct, I was fine.

[00:34:40] Speaker A: Oh. See, I think maybe the reason I was able to get a first try was I didn’t let him get close enough to even need to dodge. I was taking like two, maybe three shots and then sprinting.

[00:34:49] Speaker B: Oh, no, I was. I was. You’re going up close and personal shots and then. Yeah.

[00:34:54] Speaker A: Wow.

[00:34:55] Speaker B: Like, I’d sprint further away. Like, have it slow down because obviously, like the reticle for the gun, if you’re moving, it gets bigger. So I’d like stay still, let it get smaller. Shoot, shoot, shoot. Like the leg hip area as much as I could. And then when he got close, we’d either run a little bit or as it do the tech, just dodge it and then move away. As I said, the third try, I got it, like, perfect.

[00:35:22] Speaker A: Well, pyramid head, at least. Pyramid head. Round one is behind us.

[00:35:26] Speaker B: Is behind it. Yeah. Round one.

[00:35:28] Speaker A: I am curious to know what it’s going to take to take him fully down, because I can’t expect that that was the end of him. I do find it at this point, you know, finishing off the. This first section, kind of interesting that, yeah, obviously James has this overarching goal of I’m going to find my wife in Silent Hill. But he’s not really, as far as I can tell, going off of clues that make Much sense and seems to be at least partially aimlessly wandering around into derelict buildings and businesses and just winging it based on what he finds there. Oh well, if I’m suspending my disbelief about the monsters existing, I suppose I can also do so for the wandering.

Yeah, I did. I did this a little bit in Death Stranding. I did play some of this on death PlayStation portal out of sheer necessity. And while I didn’t expect it to be a great experience, I can definitely confirm it wasn’t that great of an experience. I had to turn the in game brightness up since the screen itself isn’t all that bright and the claustrophobic nature of the game didn’t feel good on the cramped screen. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it well enough On Resident Evil 2 Remake, the sections of that that I played over there. But part of it might also be that I was primarily on my route B of that and knew what was coming more or less rather than the first time around.

I don’t recommend playing this on Portal. It needs to be on a big bright screen in a dark room to see anything.

[00:36:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. I’ve just been playing.

[00:36:53] Speaker A: I’m sure. Yeah, I’m sure you haven’t tried it, but occasionally.

[00:36:56] Speaker B: But I will say it looks. Yeah, they’ve done a great job. The graphics. It all looks really good.

[00:37:00] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.

[00:37:01] Speaker B: Like, it does look really good.

I will say quickly too, for wind or whatever. We get to little final bits here for the Blue Creek apartments. I’m not gonna lie. I was very proud of myself for the clock.

For like the grandfather clock puzzle. I got them. First try each hand. Like each hand, first try.

[00:37:21] Speaker A: Did you. Are you playing on.

I think it’s a really cool idea that you can change the difficulty of combat and puzzles separately in this.

[00:37:32] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:37:34] Speaker A: Implementation. Yeah. Same I have on Normal or standard or whatever it’s called.

[00:37:37] Speaker B: Yeah, standard.

[00:37:38] Speaker A: But I think it’s a really unique thing. Like some people might really like the action of a horror game but hate solving puzzles and you set it on the lite version or vice versa. I think more games should be using that kind of concept. To be honest, I’m surprised it hasn’t. I’m wondering if it was around in the original release, might look that up, just for curiosity’s sake.

[00:37:59] Speaker B: I doubt that. I doubt that. Doubt that. Back in those days when like everything. Remember if it was the. If it was do this the way we wanted. Yeah. Do the way. Like.

[00:38:09] Speaker A: Maybe I’ll take a look.

[00:38:11] Speaker B: Yeah. But no. Yeah. I was just proud of myself. I was Able each hand I got first try by looking at the little clues that on the wall.

[00:38:19] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:38:21] Speaker B: Actually wasn’t too. Even on standard. I was like, it’s actually if you know how to read an actual face of a clock.

[00:38:27] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is not a guarantee these days.

[00:38:30] Speaker B: I think it’s not with people. With everybody with Apple watches. It is not.

[00:38:34] Speaker A: But yeah. Well. So you have to have at least some sensibility to the way that the world worked before digital clock also.

[00:38:44] Speaker B: I love. I was just gonna say quickly again, like to get the second hand and the minute hand.

The hand wasn’t. The minute hand was in.

[00:38:54] Speaker A: The minute hand was in the moss.

[00:38:56] Speaker B: Oh no, I thought that was in the toilet.

[00:38:59] Speaker A: Yeah.

That was another lovely.

[00:39:02] Speaker B: That was even. That was worse than the.

[00:39:04] Speaker A: Oh, way worse than the hole. Yeah.

Are you kidding me? Like, and. And you know, they added the graphic layer of what his hand looked like afterward too and show it to you up close.

[00:39:14] Speaker B: Like the part of it though I love is that you do that and then you see Angela like five minutes later and his hand looks fine. I was like, what did you wipe it on?

[00:39:22] Speaker A: Probably on one of the lying figures.

[00:39:24] Speaker B: You know, you like offer to help get her up. And I was like, I would not want to touch.

[00:39:27] Speaker A: Wipe it on a mannequin. Well, she. She doesn’t know what’s going on either.

[00:39:31] Speaker B: I know.

[00:39:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. The. The toilet was nasty then in the moth room. It was in the moth room. Yeah. You get the. There’s the one with a green smud like glow in the dark. Smudge in the wall like looks like.

[00:39:45] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:39:46] Speaker A: How many more holes in walls do we have to. And toilets to stick James’s arm into?

He’s going to want to amputate a.

[00:39:53] Speaker B: Body into this thing. Yeah. This is also. I’m. I’m assuming this is also in the original, but I am curious on if this is like sticking your hands. The hole in the wall is more new to this remake because you can do the facial expression.

[00:40:07] Speaker A: It could be more. I mean obviously you could. Yeah.

[00:40:13] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:40:13] Speaker A: Or you. Or you still did it and you just didn’t get as much detail out of it. But yeah, maybe look it up on YouTube. I have to say it’s really refreshing to play a semi linear game like this again after a while. I like how it gives you the opportunity. Opportunity to really get lost and explore. But it eventually funnels you to where you need to be by just having a bunch of paths unavailable. This goes for exploring puzzles, exploring and I’m really enjoying that aspect so far.

[00:40:40] Speaker B: So am I. I will say. Yeah. Cause I was a little. When I first.

First walked into the city of Eastern South Vale, like, I was like, oh, my God, can I go every which way? I was like, that’s gonna take me forever. And then, like, I just walked down and then. Yeah, you’d have, like a big wall of like, just white sheets, like, blocking it or whatever. And I was like, okay, cool. So that’s blocked off. Can’t go. Okay. All right.

[00:41:03] Speaker A: Yeah. And, you know, I. While I noted down that, like, maybe halfway through this section, I was feeling like I was getting used to the controls pretty well, you know, at that point, I had accidentally used a healing item while at full health at least a few times that I.

[00:41:19] Speaker B: Thank you. That reminded me that. I’m not gonna lie, there was a couple times I did that. It pisses me off. Like, I’ve accidentally pressed. Cause I think there not just playing this game, there are other games I’m playing where Triangle is not that and it’s searching or doing something else and I accidentally hit it and I’m like, why am I able to heal?

[00:41:37] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:41:37] Speaker B: Again, fully if I’m at full health?

[00:41:39] Speaker A: Yeah. So, yes, I think this is a matter of.

At least for me, the time when I wrote it, when I wrote it down, because I was like, this is not good. Because when you examine an item and then you click the read option, that’s what. So you examine it with X, but then you have to read it with triangle. So I was trying.

But then also healing, when you’re not doing anything uses triangle. So sometimes I wanted to read something before and I clicked the read button before examining it and screwed it up and wasted a healing item. And that’s not ideal in a game with limited resources and limited save points. So you can’t even respawn and recover your healing item that you used by mistake when you were at full health.

Yeah, that annoyed me. That happened to me also.

I don’t remember which game specifically it was. So when I was playing Bloodborne many years ago, this kept bothering me too, because you have your. I think triangle.

I think triangle is your healing. Trying to remember exactly. There’s one option that’s a healing. And then up on the D pad is your getting new blood bullets, basically.

And whatever other game I was playing at the time, I don’t know if it was Spider man or something, used one of those buttons for healing. And so I kept using trying to heal, but I’d end up using these blood bullets. And you end up losing your other resource. And it just really bothers me. So I don’t. I don’t like games that use triangle to heal. I think that’s the end of the story for me.

[00:43:06] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I agree on that. As I said, I’m not playing. I’m playing other games.

[00:43:11] Speaker A: Some other option.

Yeah, but, yeah, so that was a bit annoying. And as far as the controls go, like, yeah, I can, like, move around well enough and I haven’t used a. Since then. I haven’t wasted a healing item like that because I’ve gotten used to it, but I just can’t dodge well, especially if it’s a mannequin. So I hope there are some slower enemies in the future.

[00:43:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I’m still working on the dodging, definitely.

[00:43:41] Speaker A: Well, to cap off this first section of Silent Hill 2, I’ll pull a bit from forgetting Sarah Marshall, where Peter, who is played by Jason Segel, is writing songs and singing to himself with his piano and goes, see a psychiatrist. I hate the psychiatrist. You need to go see one.

Which little did I know, is him referring to Silent Hill 2? Because. Yeah, James, buddy, you need to go see one. This is not the place you should be.

[00:44:09] Speaker B: Just one little quick, funny story that I had while I was playing this. Just randomly, I was playing it and I was in the apartments and I was like, I just fought a lion figure, and I think there was a mannequin, another lion figure around, and I was like, walking through and I, like, saw it and I was going to attack it. And then my freaking smoke detector downstairs beeped. Oh, at the same. It like, beeped as a lion figure started to, like, attack me. And it scared the living crap.

I. I literally.

I lose. Like, what the was that? Am I like, I had a cat next to me, one of my cats next to me. He just ran, jumped up and ran.

[00:44:51] Speaker A: I was going to ask how cats reacted.

[00:44:53] Speaker B: Yeah, they one, they hate the smoke detectors. But yeah, it just beeped because it’s like, low battery. And I was like, oh, my God.

So I went over to it and I paused the game and like, instantly went over and just hit the hush button on. It was like, no.

[00:45:07] Speaker A: And then you. You smacked on that lying figure for like 10 minutes out of pure.

Yeah, it’s already dead.

[00:45:14] Speaker B: And I was really.

[00:45:14] Speaker A: Nope.

[00:45:15] Speaker B: I’m just gonna keep. Make sure it’s fully, fully, fully dead.

[00:45:17] Speaker A: Wow. Wow. Okay, so note to self, hush your smoke detector.

[00:45:23] Speaker B: I was like, does it really have to happen while I’m playing a scary game, a survival horror game? Like, not something fun.

[00:45:27] Speaker A: I don’t know if it would have helped or made it worse to use headphones while you’re doing that. It might have drowned it out, but also might have made it sound farther away and even creepier.

[00:45:36] Speaker B: Yeah, true. Yeah, that was just a like a quick footage.

[00:45:40] Speaker A: I’m glad I haven’t had to deal with any of that yet. So for next time and again, don’t want to spoil anything. So just using as generic of a name of a location as possible. Our goal by next time is to play up until you complete the hospital section. Apparently there are two pieces of hospital, so just keep going through the hospital. Once you finish that, save and quit and hang on for next time. Thanks everyone.

[00:46:01] Speaker B: Yep, thanks everybody for listening. Have a good one.

If you want to follow along and discuss our playthrough of native games on the Gaming Backlog Book Club Podcast, please give us a follow on your podcast platform of choice. Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Amazon Music or Pocketcasts, as well as our Discord and Instagram account under the same name. Thanks.