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Silent Hill 2 vs Resident Evil 2

Both are absolutely awesome games, but imo SH2 takes this pretty easily. The atmosphere and tension that game created is just unreal, not to mention the WTF monster designs, and a pretty solid plot. Personally, for survival horror games, I think being in the role of some ordinary guy (or girl), and not some soldier or secrent agent badass armed to the teeth with Rocket Launchers and other heavy weapons create a much more intense atmosphere for these type of games.
 
Polioliolio said:
Stop that!
Saying things like that is why RE went action Hollywood goofy and we now have RE6.
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Ive never heard anyone be pleased to have found a herb, but they cant pick it up because they have a ligher and a clip of shells. So they have to go all the way back to a chest.

Imagine RE2 with RE4 inventory system.
 
Easy answer: Silent Hill 2. For me Resident Evil 2 was a bit of a disappointment after the slow-burning, creepy brilliance of the original.

Far trickier question would be Silent Hill 2 v Resident Evil. Desert Island games the both of them.
 
Oh man this is an extremely hard choice .. this is even harder than Kamiya vs Mikami.

My RE bias will make me say RE2, but SH2 is a masterpiece as well. Both games are equally memorable and equally important in gaming's history imo.
 
Which is the better game when it comes to mechanics and design? Resident Evil 2.

Which is the better game when it comes to storytelling, atmosphere, and horror? Silent Hill 2.
 
Silent Hill 2 for sure. Amazing graphics (for its time), great story, insane atmosphere. RE2 is just boring. I was very disappointed when I was finally able to play it with the PC port.
 
Silent Hill 2 has the best plot, in-game narrative and atmosphere I've ever seen in a videogame, so I'll go with it. It's still a really nice game to look at, and the soundtrack is top notch too .

It's hard to compare them though, both approach the survival concept in different ways. RE2 is a game that conveys tension by offering limited ammo and health items, whereas Silent Hill 2 offers a ton of them (even in higher difficulties the game is too easy, puzles aside) and instead solely relies in its atmosphere.
 
RE2 is a great iteration on a great game. SH2 is a standard-bearer for the genre so I gotta go with SH2.
 
Played a bit or SH2 and couldnt get into it.


Loved RE2 so much though played it so many times.

Very sure I finished a Leon playthough in under an hour when i was like 14. Was like 58:02 or something. Checked the speed run records like a year ago and its all just over an hour the records are at so thought that i just didnt remeber corretly or some shit. Wasn't till a few months ago my friend who was with my when I finished it said to me " oh mind you finsihed that in under an hour once" so who knows.

Wish i could go back now and checkit or something lol.
 
MormaPope said:
Which is the better game when it comes to mechanics and design? Resident Evil 2.

Which is the better game when it comes to storytelling, atmosphere, and horror? Silent Hill 2.
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Well i don't remember RE2 mechanics to be that groundbreaking, to be honest.
The way SH2 calculated which ending you'd get, was more interesting to me.

Although the two scenarios were pretty greatly integrated.
 
I can't play SH2 any more as it just makes me feel awful. Seriously, something about that game makes me incredibly depressed in a way no other has. Everything from the menu sound effects, to the music, to the relentless fog and darkness, just siphons the happiness from me.

RE2 on the other hand is a complete blast that I'm halfway through playing over for about the 5th time.
 
Silent Hill 2 - Blah. Overrated and the definition of not scary, but at least it had good puzzles.

Resident Evil 2 - Eh, it's no RE1, but its fun. A few good jump scares, but eh. Good to go through as a game.

Guess I'd choose RE2, but neither is the best in their respective franchise.
 
Nemesis_ said:
Both are the most overrated in their respective franchises.

But honestly, they're so different I could never pick. Love them both.
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This is the absolute truth.

I feel the same way too. I always floated towards RE for more John Carpenter and Romero feels and Silent Hill for the David Lynch tones.
 
The "Survival" portion goes to RE2, no contest. But the actual "Horror" is SH2 all the time.

RE2 is an incredible game, but to me SH2 is one of the best pieces of entertainment this industry has ever produced.
 
Neither are the best game in their respective franchises. That being said, RE2 by far. SH2 was my least favorite of the Team Silent SH games, where RE2 is right behind REmake as far as classic RE goes.
 
RE2 is like a 2 hour game. A really good 2 hour game, but still...

SH2 has better music, atmosphere, story, art direction; the list goes on.
 
Both masterpieces for different reasons.

RE2 if you like more action.

SH2 if you are more into the more psychological/surreal aspect of games.
 
Resident Evil 2 > Silent Hill 2... but

Silent Hill 3 > Resident Evil 2 > Silent Hill 2

I always had way too much ammo in Silent Hill 2. RE2 was usually more tense because you had to hold back on using ammo. RE2 had better use of music. I hated that there was so much silence in Silent Hill 2. Also, RE2 is more enjoyable for me to play whereas Silent Hill 2 was more depressing.

Pyramid Head vs Mr X is about a draw. However Lickers were scarier than any secondary SH enemy.
 
angelic said:
Ive never heard anyone be pleased to have found a herb, but they cant pick it up because they have a ligher and a clip of shells. So they have to go all the way back to a chest.

Imagine RE2 with RE4 inventory system.
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You're not meant to be pleased, you're meant to be stressed out by it. Because it means doing risk management in your head over whether its even worth it to get back to the chest which might have half a dozen zombies between you and that chest. You're meant to go, "Aw man, I could really use this, but is it worth it..."

It's the same idea that FROM would eventually utilize with the bonfires in Dark Souls.

Same reason ink ribbons existed. It's all about keeping the player tense, anxious and therefore invested emotionally. Unlike the headshot dealing, suplex landing, egg guzzling, TARDIS sized attaché case providing hand holder that is RE4. RE4 is a fine action game, but it pretty much sucks at being a survival horror game.
 
Silent Hill 2 is just on a whole different level to any RE game in terms of the impact it had on me, how scary it is, symbolism, art direction etc.

I think it'd be closer if we were to compare SH2 and REmake, but SH2 would still win for me.

RE2 is one of my favourite games ever and amazing in its own right... and I actually think that the classic RE games are more "survival horror" than the old SH games, in that there is more ammo conservation, enemies tend to be more physically threatening, health kits are more scarce etc, but it still just can't really compare to the greatness of Silent Hill 2.

I'd also pick the original Silent Hill over any RE game including RE2.
 
Silent Hill 2 has better story, characters, atmosphere/setting, replayability. I'd say they're equal in gameplay. Silent Hill 2 wins and it's not really close. Love RE2 though, SH2 is just one of the GOATs.
 
angelic said:
Ive never heard anyone be pleased to have found a herb, but they cant pick it up because they have a ligher and a clip of shells. So they have to go all the way back to a chest.

Imagine RE2 with RE4 inventory system.
Click to expand...

If a horror game tried to please the player it wouldn't be a horror game.
 
Both are one of my favorite games of all time... but SH2 had the better "everything" on RE2.

Although I find RE2 more fun to play, but yeah I prefer SH2.
 
Aaron-Lagann said:
Survival Horror... What happened, man? What happened!?
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AAA happened. Horror requires subtlety and when given gigantor budgets, people feel like they have to put that money on screen to justify the price tag. Games that flashy tend to lack in subtlety. So, now we get AAA ex-survival horror action games (that are fully fleshed out, but aren't scary) and indie actual survival horror games (that are scary, but tend not to be fully fleshed out.)
 
Oh c'mon guys. there's certain questions that just don't have a correct answer. It's like asking a parent which of their children they love more.

Both have their merits and both have given me hours upon hours of pleasure.

Please don't make me choose...

Lupin3 said:
Haven't played SH2, yet! How well does it hold up today?
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What on earth are you still doing here then? Run, run as fast as your little legs will carry you and don't look back. Get the game bought and completed immediately.

How does it hold up today? It may be slightly dated graphically but it is the epitome of horror games and the standard by which all other horror games are measured.
 
SH2 has the best atmosphere, but the gameplay of the good Resident Evils is better than SH. Searching through countless, identical looking corridors is way too annoying compared to the level design of RE, especially since each of them features 40 doors, of which 39 are forever locked respectively and hence add unnecessary tedium..
 
RE2 wins by a land-slide for me.
It was the first Resident Evil game I actually got to play (I watched a friend play most of RE1 but didn't get to play it myself until much later) and I absolutely loved it.
The characters, the story, the monsters - it was all great stuff! Plus being able to play through a slightly different story from each character's perspective (and the bonus hidden characters!) was a really cool feature, especially at the time.

Silent Hill 2 on the other hand, was incredibly disappointing to me.
I loved the original Silent Hill but when I finally got around to playing SH2 (the enhanced 'Restless Dreams' version for the original XBOX, specifically) I really didn't enjoy it.
With the exception of Pyramid Head, I found the enemies to be more comical than threatening (Like the armless creatures that try to projectile vomit on you? Yeesh!) and I wasn't a huge fan of the story or any of the characters in the game.
I did play it to completion in the hopes that it'd pick up near the end but I wasn't impressed. I recently played through Silent Hill 3 for the first time and really liked it so I'm thinking I might give SH2 another chance as most other people seem to love it. *shrug*
 
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