#Silent hill 2 full#

As games scholar Andrei Nae writes in the article “ Immersion at the Intersection of Technology, Subjectivity and Culture: An Analysis of Silent Hill 2,” “In Silent Hill 2, we see James Sunderland from a third person perspective, sometimes from an angle in which we, as humans, could never position ourselves.” In other words, at times we appear to be literally seeing James from the town’s perspective, not his. It’s worth noting the role this cutscene plays in distancing the player from James. In fact, corpses scattered throughout some areas in Silent Hill 2 use the same design as James he’s literally part of the landscape of the town.Īs soon as James leaves the bathroom (our only gameplay option up to that point), the game jumps to another cutscene outside said bathroom, a wide shot showing James’s car parked askew, door still open. James shouldn’t belong in Silent Hill, but he does. At the very least, he’s so disconnected from the utter strangeness of the town that he ironically fits right in. James is so singularly focused that we immediately wonder if something is wrong with him. If you had taken a long road trip after receiving a letter from your dead wife and you made a pit stop in a bathroom, and said bathroom was filled with rust and feces, would you really spend that much time looking in a mirror? It’s as if the player is supposed to feel more horror than James himself. Outside of his mission to find Mary, James seems to barely exist. We don’t know what James did for a job, what he likes and dislikes, or even how he feels about his life. James reveals very few details about himself and his personal life - most of which come in pieces throughout the game and relate to his marriage.

There’s an intentional flatness to James, even in his personality (voiced by Guy Cihi). You can’t have a power fantasy if you lack power. It’s a little less nerve-racking to open the door to a creepy hotel building if you’ve got body armor and a plasma cannon. If James were a grizzled space marine like the Doom series’s Doomguy, we wouldn’t feel as afraid of Pyramid Head. When the game subverts those tropes, it’s a surprise.Īs Kirkland writes in “ Masculinity in Video Games,” “if spatial progression within video games satisfies traditionally male fascinations with expansion and conquest, Silent Hill repeatedly frustrates such pleasures.” It is, after all, an actual horror game and not an action game with horror elements. While he may not be a muscled soldier, he’s the sort of generic straight white male protagonist that video games have asked us to identify with for decades. James Sunderland is a brilliant character because he, well, lacks character. Yet Silent Hill 2 doesn’t revel in power fantasies it reverses them. It makes less sense that I, Mike, a large adult boy-child, would survive in the same scenario. It makes more sense that Master Chief can survive an endless horde of aliens running towards him. And because the characters are fantasy, we feel comfortable with their preternatural ability for violence.

They’re the fantasy of being stronger and more powerful.

#Silent hill 2 full#

Video games are full of “strong” male archetypes: God of War’s hypermasculine Kratos, Metal Gear Solid’s gruff Solid Snake, The Last of Us’s grizzled and distant Joel. With his plain face, plain hair, and flat demeanor, James is so generic that he could smother his wife with a pillow and never get caught. If the first thing you went to is “generic white guy,” congratulations. Seriously, those of you that played the game - describe the physical appearance of James Sunderland to me right now.