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Silent Hill 2, Resident Evil 2, or Fatal Frame 2?
- Thread starter ULTROS!
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Silent Hill 2, no question. I think I spent almost 15 hours on my first playthrough because I took so much time exploring, and I loved all of it.
I never got to play Silent Hill 2 and have read so much about it. I wish it was on Steam or current consoles. Even as a PS2 Classic on PS4 it'd be great to have the opportunity.
Resident Evil 2 is a classic though.
Resident Evil 2 is a classic though.
The HD collection butchered the game, that's absolutely the worst way to play it.
This is the hardest poll I've had to do on here, but I'm going to have to pick Resident Evil 2 simply because of the amount of times I've replayed it over the years. They're all masterpieces
How can you even pick between re2 and sh2? Re2 is groundbreaking. One of the best action games ever. It's so infinitely replayable and exciting. Sh2 is a masterwork in the medium. It is the best written game ever in any language. It's beautiful. It's haunting.
No. Can't be done.
No. Can't be done.
For me it's RE2 even though I know deep down that SH2 is a better game. RE2 attained mythical status to me in the run up to its release because it was expertly advertised. Playing through RE2 as a 10 year old was completely enthralling and is still, probably, the most fun I've ever had with a video game. RE2 will always be top 3 all time for me.
Silent Hill 2 was in sense the first game for me who could design the sound to actually amplify the mood and emotional feeling of the game. The score is still one of the best, the same goes for storytelling and dialogues. The overall pacing and puzzles were also pretty great, but the clunky controls were always rather disappointing though,
I voted for SH2
I voted for SH2
I'm going to make a solid case for Fatal Frame 2 since it's losing by a lot, and I kinda' suspect far, far more people on Era have played Resident Evil 2 and Silent Hill 2 and not Fatal Frame 2 (not everyone obviously, just none of the FF games have sold over 1 million copies, so one can deduct that probably most people have not played Fatal Frame).
Fatal Frame 2 does a few things better than SH2 & RE2 outside of just scariness I guess is the popular opinion (to be frank, I don't really think RE2, SH2 or FF2 are all that scary, but I guess if I had to pick which of them I thought was scariest I would give it to FF2. One of these aspects is I actually think Fatal Frame 2 has the best setting and art direction of these games:
I'll post more actual pictures through this post, but Fatal Frame 2 uses several interesting motifs in the game, which range from audio to visual to story. I would actually go as far to say that Fatal Frame 2 has more attention to detail in its environments than RE2 and SH2 as well, and does more interesting things with its level design. The other games do interesting things too, but the layouts between locations in FF2 are consistently well designed and more varied than the other 2. RE2 suffers from keeping you in the RPD for too long in essentially an 8 circuit, and Silent Hill 2 has some brilliant level design like the Historical Society, but also a lot of things I don't think are as well designed as they could be, like the hallways crammed with nurses and rooms full of them in the hospital or weird obtuse puzzles like the orange can drinking sequence. FF2 has this level of care and meticulousness to it that the other two games don't have in terms of its game design.
I also think Fatal Frame 2 is the most creative with its scenarios. It does this sorta' design where nearly every room in the game is designed with something in mind that's unique and interesting, so every individual room of the game can stand-out in the mind and has something about it that makes it interesting, and often one or two things to do in every room which are sometimes very varied from each other, and a number of rooms provide unique moments exclusive to that room. Silent Hill 2 has some variety in bits, but you really are doing a lot of the same things thought the game (more focus on narrative and atmosphere than gameplay by far, but what you mostly do in the rooms in SH2 is about the same), while Resident Evil 2 is more mechanically robust but the actual variety of the game is only a bit better than SH2 with mostly the same thing to go on, limited enemy types, and only the occasional boss or puzzle to shake things up, some distinctly designed rooms, but it's mostly got a groove it relies on. Fatal Frame 2 meanwhile is comfortable and confident in switching itself up, experimenting and exploring interesting situations and possibilities.
Again, I'm not voting and I'm not really sure what I'd vote for even if I tried, but I think Fatal Frame 2 one of its big failings here outside of people taste is going to be in how many fewer people have actually played it.
Fatal Frame 2 does a few things better than SH2 & RE2 outside of just scariness I guess is the popular opinion (to be frank, I don't really think RE2, SH2 or FF2 are all that scary, but I guess if I had to pick which of them I thought was scariest I would give it to FF2. One of these aspects is I actually think Fatal Frame 2 has the best setting and art direction of these games:
I'll post more actual pictures through this post, but Fatal Frame 2 uses several interesting motifs in the game, which range from audio to visual to story. I would actually go as far to say that Fatal Frame 2 has more attention to detail in its environments than RE2 and SH2 as well, and does more interesting things with its level design. The other games do interesting things too, but the layouts between locations in FF2 are consistently well designed and more varied than the other 2. RE2 suffers from keeping you in the RPD for too long in essentially an 8 circuit, and Silent Hill 2 has some brilliant level design like the Historical Society, but also a lot of things I don't think are as well designed as they could be, like the hallways crammed with nurses and rooms full of them in the hospital or weird obtuse puzzles like the orange can drinking sequence. FF2 has this level of care and meticulousness to it that the other two games don't have in terms of its game design.
I also think Fatal Frame 2 is the most creative with its scenarios. It does this sorta' design where nearly every room in the game is designed with something in mind that's unique and interesting, so every individual room of the game can stand-out in the mind and has something about it that makes it interesting, and often one or two things to do in every room which are sometimes very varied from each other, and a number of rooms provide unique moments exclusive to that room. Silent Hill 2 has some variety in bits, but you really are doing a lot of the same things thought the game (more focus on narrative and atmosphere than gameplay by far, but what you mostly do in the rooms in SH2 is about the same), while Resident Evil 2 is more mechanically robust but the actual variety of the game is only a bit better than SH2 with mostly the same thing to go on, limited enemy types, and only the occasional boss or puzzle to shake things up, some distinctly designed rooms, but it's mostly got a groove it relies on. Fatal Frame 2 meanwhile is comfortable and confident in switching itself up, experimenting and exploring interesting situations and possibilities.
Again, I'm not voting and I'm not really sure what I'd vote for even if I tried, but I think Fatal Frame 2 one of its big failings here outside of people taste is going to be in how many fewer people have actually played it.
I know of so few people who has played this series, and it's usually the first one they've played and a handful having played 2 (and even less 3 or Maiden, let alone Mask). Such a shame that it's treated the way it is. It deserves so much more :(
Nice post.I'm going to make a solid case for Fatal Frame 2 since it's losing by a lot, and I kinda' suspect far, far more people on Era have played Resident Evil 2 and Silent Hill 2 and not Fatal Frame 2 (not everyone obviously, just none of the FF games have sold over 1 million copies, so one can deduct that probably most people have not played Fatal Frame).
Fatal Frame 2 does a few things better than SH2 & RE2 outside of just scariness I guess is the popular opinion (to be frank, I don't really think RE2, SH2 or FF2 are all that scary, but I guess if I had to pick which of them I thought was scariest I would give it to FF2. One of these aspects is I actually think Fatal Frame 2 has the best setting and art direction of these games:
I'll post more actual pictures through this post, but Fatal Frame 2 uses several interesting motifs in the game, which range from audio to visual to story. I would actually go as far to say that Fatal Frame 2 has more attention to detail in its environments than RE2 and SH2 as well, and does more interesting things with its level design. The other games do interesting things too, but the layouts between locations in FF2 are consistently well designed and more varied than the other 2. RE2 suffers from keeping you in the RPD for too long in essentially an 8 circuit, and Silent Hill 2 has some brilliant level design like the Historical Society, but also a lot of things I don't think are as well designed as they could be, like the hallways crammed with nurses and rooms full of them in the hospital or weird obtuse puzzles like the orange can drinking sequence. FF2 has this level of care and meticulousness to it that the other two games don't have in terms of its game design.
I also think Fatal Frame 2 is the most creative with its scenarios. It does this sorta' design where nearly every room in the game is designed with something in mind that's unique and interesting, so every individual room of the game can stand-out in the mind and has something about it that makes it interesting, and often one or two things to do in every room which are sometimes very varied from each other, and a number of rooms provide unique moments exclusive to that room. Silent Hill 2 has some variety in bits, but you really are doing a lot of the same things thought the game (more focus on narrative and atmosphere than gameplay by far, but what you mostly do in the rooms in SH2 is about the same), while Resident Evil 2 is more mechanically robust but the actual variety of the game is only a bit better than SH2 with mostly the same thing to go on, limited enemy types, and only the occasional boss or puzzle to shake things up, some distinctly designed rooms, but it's mostly got a groove it relies on. Fatal Frame 2 meanwhile is comfortable and confident in switching itself up, experimenting and exploring interesting situations and possibilities.
Again, I'm not voting and I'm not really sure what I'd vote for even if I tried, but I think Fatal Frame 2 one of its big failings here outside of people taste is going to be in how many fewer people have actually played it.
I've started the first Fatal Frame last month, I need to finish it and play FF2. I'll have to play the PS2 version though. I hope it's not too inferior to the Xbox version. It seems the remake on Wii is great too but I'd like to experience the original first.
RE2 is the reason i went back to gaming back in 1998, it's an amazing game.
SH2 is my favorite game ever, it's a masterpiece and a landmark for the medium, it's smart, it's emotional, it's fucking brilliant so it gets my vote
SH2 is my favorite game ever, it's a masterpiece and a landmark for the medium, it's smart, it's emotional, it's fucking brilliant so it gets my vote
Haven't played FF2, but RE2 is excellent and the one I'd most likely start if you gave me the option to boot one up right now (I played it for the first time a few months ago and it absolutely holds up), but SH2 clinches it for having more of a lasting impact on me, it's a beautiful game. It has maybe the best soundtrack ever composed too.
Never played Fatal Frame so sadly I can't judge it but while I prefer playing Resident Evil 2 to Silent Hill 2, the latter is the best game in the franchise, or at least the most groundbreaking. Heck, very few survival horror games have matched it since it first came out in my opinion.
I'm looking forward to REmake 2 but I do hope more horror games go back to third person and use SH2's style of mixed camera angles, it was perfect in controlling the atmosphere and tension the developers wanted.
I'm looking forward to REmake 2 but I do hope more horror games go back to third person and use SH2's style of mixed camera angles, it was perfect in controlling the atmosphere and tension the developers wanted.
It's funny how much I dislike japanese horror which excludes FF2 from my choice immediately but I can't choose between RE2 and SH2 both developed by Japanese companies.
I love SH2 - and will be flayed for this - but it's just such a clunky feeling game. This was generally agreed upon when it was released and then has slowly been eroded from the narrative by fans.
or, in executive summary:
RE2 on the other hand still plays great. So they're both outstanding but it's pretty clearly RE2.
The FF games are great but they're not on the same level as far as I'm concerned.
Always a big problem with these polls (and democracy in general). It would be great to have a tool that had you check the boxes of games you'd played so the votes could be subset analyzed - but that it almost certainly asking for too much lol
Rest of this is a great post as usual golem
or, in executive summary:
RE2 on the other hand still plays great. So they're both outstanding but it's pretty clearly RE2.
The FF games are great but they're not on the same level as far as I'm concerned.
Always a big problem with these polls (and democracy in general). It would be great to have a tool that had you check the boxes of games you'd played so the votes could be subset analyzed - but that it almost certainly asking for too much lol
Rest of this is a great post as usual golem
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FF2 is the scariest game period.
SH2 is the most significant and monumental.
RE2 is the best gameplay and feature wise
SH2 is the most significant and monumental.
RE2 is the best gameplay and feature wise
I've only played Resident Evil 2 but I quite like it. My biggest problem with it is that I think the game gets less interesting towards the end (gameplay-wise). I'm really excited for the remake.
Silent Hill 2's story looks intriguing, but I'm not sold on the gameplay, from what I've seen.
I don't really have an interest in FF2, tbh.
Silent Hill 2's story looks intriguing, but I'm not sold on the gameplay, from what I've seen.
I don't really have an interest in FF2, tbh.
Why did you make me choose between Resi 2 and Silent Hill 2? You monster! I went with Resi 2, can't vote against Resi, but Silent Hill 2 is the closest I'd get to voting against it. Two undisputed classics, imo.
Resi 2 is pulpy, shlocky, action horror that still manages to have a great atmosphere. Silent Hill 2 is more a kind of creeping fear that gets under your skin, it deals with mature themes excellently and is a perfect psychological horror.
I respect the hell out of the Fatal Frame games too, I just don't love them like I do Resi and Silent Hill. Very original, and genuinely chilling, but quite slow paced....a little too slow.
Resi 2 is pulpy, shlocky, action horror that still manages to have a great atmosphere. Silent Hill 2 is more a kind of creeping fear that gets under your skin, it deals with mature themes excellently and is a perfect psychological horror.
I respect the hell out of the Fatal Frame games too, I just don't love them like I do Resi and Silent Hill. Very original, and genuinely chilling, but quite slow paced....a little too slow.
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