I have the fear: A TRUE horror game.

What strikes my fancy a bit more with the Silent Hill series than the better-recognized Resident Evil series is the way the game really gets down to your bones and creeps you out. While zombies chasing you down a ruined city block can certainly give you an adrenaline rush, the RE games are more like action movies than horror flicks. Silent Hill captures the essence of great horror books and films, leaving you trapped in not only a warped ghost town full of beasts of hell, but also in your own desolation and confusion.

In the second installment of the Silent Hill series, you play James Sunderland, a man drawn to the demonic town by a mysterious letter sent by your wife, Mary. Problem is, Mary died a while back from a bizarre malady. Still, driven by far-fetched wishes and an odd haze of confusion that makes it hard to determine what's real and not, you head to the quiet resort town that was a favorite place of you and yours.

The game wastes no time in throwing you into the thick of things. Without any large-scale opening or introduction you're thrust into control of the main character, in a decrepit rest stop near the town. As you leave the bathroom James kicks into gear, reading the eerie letter he received.

Of course it would be a bit unrealistic to simply have James bring a gun, or to expect him to continue or not be surprised when confronted by flying vampiric creatures or human-ish enemies covered with a strange layer of skin. The first game had the benefit of placing you in the town due to an untimely car crash. This one relies on the character making conscious decisions to enter the town. First you make your way from the restroom down a beaten path to a graveyard on the outskirts of town, where you meet another person who seems to have things in control and warns you of the emptiness and evilness of the town ahead. Before you're confronted by anything harmful and forced to find a melee weapon, you've already made your way into town and are well on your way to seeking out your wife.

What follows is a path into the unknown, a world where your nightmares take shape and haunt you every step, a world where your sanity is constantly in question. The main character is a very withdrawn one, and though you ARE him he himself (and consequently you) aren't privy to the truth of his past and present state.

The puzzles are quite the challenge at times, right on par with the PS-One original. A new feature that allows you to change the puzzle difficulty setting insures that once you've solved them they won't be easy to do again. The battles can be quite straining, but luckily you have the familiar radio from the first game to warn you in advance when something is near. Also returning is the lovely pocket flashlight, born to new brilliance with the PS2's lighting capabilities.

Speaking of the PS2's capabilities, the graphics are awe-inspiring. The fog, used in the prior game simply as a way to cover up the loading of objects in the background, is now a realistic element, swaying and flowing as you walk through. There is something different about the PS2 that almost adds more depth to things. The previous games on the PS-One seemed merely an emulated 3D, the power of the PS2 allows scenes to spring to life, as if you were watching hazy images of REAL things, not realistic creations. The CG sequences have photo-realism and, while they may not be on par with something like the Final Fantasy movie, the movements are incredibly realistic and convince you you're watching actors, not computer generated people.

The storyline packs as much as punch as the first, and offers you an even better look at the dark history of the quiet resort town. While the first took on a focus of abolishing the plague of evil overtaking the town, this one stays right on task with finding Mary, at all costs. James is navigating the town as it is, not coming to terms with things. Also this game has several "normal" people moving throughout the city, rather than just two or three. All have been called to the town for some mysterious reason, and these character's storylines make up many of the plot twists you will encounter. Again the game runs about 4-7 hours, a little longer than the first, but not long at all by today's games standards. While a little disappointing this makes the game more like a lengthy movie, which is quite interesting.

The movement is just like any horror survival game, you can easily run into walls and it's hard to either spin around or take sharp turns. You'll get the hang of it though, and it only causes problems a few times.

The music is another amazing aspect of the game. I've checked my local video game store on a nearly daily basis since September when SH2 was released, and every time I check for the soundtrack. Finally the other day, over half a year later (I'm too lazy to buy it online, I'll admit...), they had it in and I picked it up immediately. It is a GREAT soundtrack, and it's nice that they have some modern heavy rockish music in there as well as the creepy orchestral/synthesized/piano tracks. Laura's theme, the song used on most previews, is the best of them all and just listening to it makes me want to play the game all over again.

The best thing about this game, however, is still the atmosphere. In my opinion there are no other games, movies, or books that can capture what Silent Hill and its sequel have captured. "Jacob's Ladder" comes fairly close, but I think SH and SH2 hit the creepiness factor a bit more on the nose. My girlfriend constantly harasses me when she catches me sitting in the dark with the sound cranked playing this game (and based upon the fact I took two days off of work simply to buy and play this game, she's had several chances to give said harassment) but these are the only games that can TRULY creep me out. If I was alone in my house in the middle of the night, it would be difficult (but lots of fun) to play these in the dark without looking over my shoulder every few moments. The Resident Evil games are great, but they are not NEARLY as dark as these are. When the radio is blaring and a creature is right at your back, you'll enjoy every thwump your crowbar makes into its lifeless body and every splat of blood that hits the ground as if you were beating your lifelong enemy to death.

SH2 also boasts several endings, 5 to be exact. Unlike Silent Hill 1 these aren't merely "Bad -", "Bad +", "Good -", "Good +" and based upon a few factors. They are determined by the very way you play the game. I managed to get the "best" my first time because, from what I understand, I trusted no one and followed my own mind, and I looked at the picture of Mary and the letter she sent several times to stay on task and see if they did anything. Depending on if you rush through or not, what items you examine, and how much time you spend with certain characters your ending will be different. This insures I will play through the game at least 5 times to see the endings, and possibly more since you have to actually play the game a specific way to achieve these.

Adding to the replay value is the options to change action and puzzle difficulty separately, letting you choose the method of play best suited to your liking. The only thing that lowers the replay value is that the puzzles can be quite long and one won't want to do them again and again...

Silent Hill 2 isn't a game that you can pop in and play for a short time, like Grand Theft Auto III or even Metal Gear Solid II. It's also not an epic RPG like Final Fantasy X. But it IS a truly scary game that holds its own, and if you're a fan of the horror survival genre this is one for you. It did NOT ruin the first in any way, in fact it added to it by giving you more details on the town. If you want to be seriously haunted by a game for a while, Silent Hill II is for you.