![]() ![]() And hey, didn’t Harry basically do this with the new Cheryl in the first Silent Hill game? So why couldn’t this work out for him? On the surface, he has what he sought to get by visiting Silent Hill – he found at least some version of his lost wife. In the “Maria” ending, James leaves Silent Hill with Maria to pick up where he left off with Mary. But this ending allows Silent Hill 2 to play out like a fable and it shows off James’ weakness more than any other ending (though “Rebirth” does a good job of showing James at his most desperate). ![]() It is so obvious to the player that going off with Maria, a manifestation of Mary who is more seductive, is not a good idea that it seems like a traditional dead end, rather than a true finale to the game. The third option on a first-time playthrough – the “Maria” ending – is perhaps not treated as a fully-fledged ending because it has a typical “bad” ending nature to it. The progression from an amnesiac state of trying to find his wife, to learning that he is responsible for her disappearance and ultimate death, is a dark but natural development by the plot. In a way, this is more realistic, because his visions of the town of Silent Hill were so distressing and corrupted that he will never see life the same way again. The second option doesn’t just draw a line, it completely severs the story at the root, with James deciding that the events of the past are inescapable for him. The first option attempts to draw a line under James’ traumatic experience in Silent Hill, yet we know that there is little chance James can go on to live a normal life (Laura perhaps can, since she is unable to see the “monsters” in Silent Hill because of her pure soul). These endings represent a fairly clear dichotomy – James as a benevolent spouse who blames himself too much and learns self-forgiveness, and James as an egotistical monster who realises he is irredeemable and wants to prevent himself from doing more harm. In “In Water,” James cannot forgive himself for what was an act spawned from disgust towards his terminally ill wife, Mary, and he drives into the lake with her body in the trunk of his car to commit suicide. ![]() ![]() For the uninitiated, in “Leave,” James walks away from the town of Silent Hill, having forgiven himself for mercy killing his wife and then embarks toward a new life, potentially with a new daughter in the form of Laura. I came across a GameFAQs forum post a few weeks ago arguing over whether the “Leave” or “In Water” ending was the most satisfying. And when I get around to Silent Hill 2 - one of the survival horror genre’s all-time classics – I know which ending I’m looking forward to the most: Maria’s. I’m finally breaking through my fear and chipping away at this considerable horror backlog. Instead, I would pore over explanations of the plot and peruse fan sites and forum posts, trying to squeeze out as much information as I could about these absurd worlds without actually taking a character’s fate into my trembling hands. I’ve always been fascinated by the gross, contorted monsters in series such as Resident Evil, Forbidden Siren and Silent Hill, yet I was too scared to even put the discs in my games consoles. My relationship with horror games has been quite a complicated one. ![]()
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