

Silent Hill 2 does not use a heads-up display to check James' health, location, and items, the player must enter the pause-game menu to review his status. The default control for Silent Hill 2 has James moving in the direction that he is facing when the player tilts the analogue stick upwards. The game features a third-person view, with various camera angles. The objective of Silent Hill 2 is to guide the player character, James Sunderland, through the monster-filled town of Silent Hill as he searches for his deceased wife.

The game was followed by Silent Hill 3 in 2003. It is often considered to be one of the greatest horror games ever made and among the greatest video games of all time, as well as a key example of video games as an art form. However, it received criticism for its controls and voice acting. During release, it was widely praised for its psychological horror story, use of metaphors, symbolism, and taboo topics, overall atmosphere, graphics, monster designs, soundtrack and sound design. Within the month of its release in North America, Japan, and Europe, over one million copies were sold, with the greatest number of sales in North America. In contrast with the previous title, whose narrative concerned cult activity, Silent Hill 2 focuses directly on the psychology of its characters. Its narrative was inspired by the Russian novel Crime and Punishment (1866) by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and some of the influences on the game's artistic style include the work of film directors Adrian Lyne (specifically Jacob's Ladder) and David Lynch, among others, as well as painters like Francis Bacon and Andrew Wyeth cultural references to history, films and literature can be found in the game. Work on Silent Hill 2 began in June 1999, soon after Silent Hill had been completed. A remastered high-definition version was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2012 as part of the Silent Hill HD Collection. In 2002, it was ported to Microsoft Windows and re-released on PlayStation 2 as a Greatest Hits version, which includes all bonus content from the Xbox port. An extended version containing an extra bonus scenario, Born from a Wish, and other additions was published for Xbox in December of the same year. The second installment in the Silent Hill series, Silent Hill 2 centres on James Sunderland, a widower who journeys to the town of Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his dead wife informing him that she is waiting there for him. The game was released from September to November, originally for the PlayStation 2.

Silent Hill 2 is a 2001 survival horror game developed by Team Silent, a group in Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, and published by Konami.
