I was never a fan of the RE style games; the endless meandering while searching for resources, constant backtracking to complete puzzles and move forward In the game. I've also never consumed a single piece of hellraiser related content in my 26 years on this earth.

I don't know what it was that lured me in to pick up a copy, but after fighting tooth and nail to find a physical copy in town I was absolutely hooked.

The scenery and atmosphere, the sound design, even (for the most part) the voice acting was just so engaging. I'm normally the "cut to the chase", run through the entire story on the first playthrough and come back to it for a more involved playthrough next year, type of guy. But I found myself exploring every last inch of the map, reading every note and listening to every voice memo. Sometimes even just pausing to take in the ambience in some of the more open sections.

Playing this on hard the first go round was a choice, and a choice I regretted many, many times. But now that it's over I'm so glad for every moment I got my ass handed to me and was ready to spike that controller (there were several). The entire 18 hours over the last 2 weeks felt like such a complete experience, unlike some unrelated genre games I've played more recently.

The devs definitely used some unnecessarily bullshitty combat sections to force resets and pad the play-time, but for as much as that bothered me in the moment; in hindsight it made me appreciate the advancements in the story that much more when I finally got through.

50$ I'd spend again, and this will be a Halloween replay next year 110%. Now to immerse myself into several decades of hellraiser media, apparently. Lol.

If you can handle gore, seriously, buy this game. My favorite horror experience since outlast.

I finished Silent Hill 2 last night and it's honestly one of the best games I've ever played. I'm still thinking about it: the details, the environments, the characters, the monsters, the puzzles. Everything about it got under my skin in the best way.

The deluxe edition comes with a digital art book, and while I was playing I decided I wanted a physical copy on my shelf. So I spent way too long turning it into a proper printable photobook, and I figured some of you might want one too.

👉 View the online photobook

What's in the download

1 - Photobook Edition

• A 152-page PDF of the finished book (lossless, opens as two-page spreads)
• 148 print-ready pages: 28 × 21 cm with 3 mm bleed, 300 dpi
• Front and back cover

2 - Art Book

• The original art book PDF, plus a version with every image upscaled 2×
• Every artwork extracted as its own file, in both original and upscaled versions
• The book's fog backgrounds

3 - Konami Portfolio

• 317 artworks from Konami's official Silent Hill 2 portfolio page, sorted into folders by artist

What I changed for the photobook

• Upscaled all the art 2×. The original images are only 1704 px wide, which prints a bit soft. Upscaled, they print sharp at around 330 dpi.
• Fog behind everything. Every page uses the book's own fog background, mirrored so it flows across the fold of each spread.
• Proper section openers. Characters, Monsters, Environment and Puzzles each open with a fog / title spread.
• A thin keyline round each artwork, so the pale pieces don't melt into the fog.
• It opens and closes at the lake. The first page is the overlook where the game starts, and the last is the foggy lakeside promenade.

Printing it yourself

I designed it for a 28 × 21 cm landscape layflat photobook (I'm using Photobox, 148 pages). The README has the exact settings. The main ones:

• Use a full-bleed frame of 28.6 × 21.6 cm on every page
• Turn off auto-enhance. It brightens the deliberately dark art and wrecks the mood
• Spine colour #3C2D2D. The book's font is Merriweather, if you want text on the spine

Download

👉 Download the full pack from Google Drive (about 5.7 GB, so grab a coffee)

My own copy is on its way. I'll reply to this post with photos when it's delivered, so you can see how it turned out in print.

All artwork © Konami / Bloober Team. This is a fan project made out of love for the game, and it isn't affiliated with or endorsed by either. If you haven't played it, please buy it. It deserves every sale.

Just got all these games at generous discounts I’m so hyped! Been waiting especially for a silent hill f discount🙏🔥 can’t wait to play all
These. I’ve beat re4 countless times on console so looking forward to trying the remake on pc. What games are yall getting during the steam sale?

I'm way into SOMA nowadays lmao. Gotta talk bout her tho.

First off I would love to give huge amounts of credit to her voice actress, Nell Mooney because she absolutely crushed the performance of Catherine. She made her sound perfect. She felt like a real human talking and had conversations feeling alive.

Okay. I want to talk about Catherine and why I love her inclusion in this game. A big reason I love Catherine in this game is because it's unique. In most horror games you would be by yourself and would have no person there to help and guide you, non the less talk to and have a friend. So having her be there makes the game feel 100 times better to me.

And I believe this is because of how they do Catherine as an AI. Any other game Catherine would be an AI you slot in your head and is constantly able to talk to you. Which would very quickly ruin any horror and suspense the atmosphere and game is trying to make. Making it so you can only talk to Catherine in safe spaces and by plugging your Omni tool in is an AMAZING choice. Because that way you are still alone you are by yourself most of the time walking around facing monsters. So when you see a room you can plug in Catherine you feel safe. Which is an amazing atmosphere and characterization in my opinion.

What really sold me is her character. Catherine is amazing well acted. I love her jokes, her teasing, her sarcasm and how she reacts to things. She is her own character and when you talk to her it feels like you're having a real life conversation. She doesn't downplay the situation or lie to Simon. The only times she does manipulate or lie to Simon is when she knows he will react in a bad way to a necessary choice. She does care about Simon but she also cares about the ark and those things very obviously conflict with themselves. Everytime I talked to Catherine it didn't feel like she was a plot device or was setting me on another wild goose chase. It felt like she was genuinely important and was going through the same situation. She reacts and feels bad when things don't go as she expects or planned. She hates having to make the choices she does but still does them because she needs too. She gets all excited and nerdy when she sees the arks prototype. These are all amazing characteristics that make me love her character. How she talks and reacts to Simon feels very real.

I also love how she reacts to Simon's anger and being upset. She doesn't want to upset Simon. She doesn't like that and wants to avoid it because she cares about Simon's well being and health.

But I also love that she has boundaries and limits. Her main priority is the ark. Above all she needs to send it to space and she won't let anything stop her even Simon. She's willing to go down to the abyss by herself to do it. And I love that because she's actually got motivation that she's herself cares about. It doesn't feel like she's only there for Simon. She's there for things for herself as well and has her own motivations that eventually become Simon's as well.

I love her character and how she's done in this game because she feels like her own character despite being in the Omni tool. And I love how the devs did her because while she's a huge presence and is there she's not overstaying her welcome and is only there in specific areas.

I love this character and game so much! As well as it's choices! But I want to remind you all that I haven't finished the game so please no spoilers! I only now have reached the abyss so no spoilers there please 🙏

Been waiting for this one since before New Blood took over. Very excited to finally play it.

Just tryna see what the fuss is about

Give me 17 more just like it. 10/10 atmosphere, exploration, story, weapons. 9/10 combat, enemy variety, and bosses. The gun handling can feel a little janky at first, but by the end I was headshotting everything with a head. It needs NG+ but I’m gonna play it again as is. Highly highly highly recommended. That’s three highlys, play it.

Seen a couple of these titles recommended in here today so thought I'd pass it on!

If you haven't already heard about this, read about it here.

This game ruled. It takes maybe 30 to 45 minutes to complete. I've been trying to play some scary games given the time of year, and I would rank this one up there. Honestly made me terrified in the short run time more than some other scary ones that I've played this year. 10/10 would recommend. Maybe it's just me, but I'm telling you, this is one of those horror games that I truly appreciated.

Try it out and let me know your thoughts!

So just to get it out of the way right away, I am going to be playing Silver Pines after hearing incredible things about the game. However, feel free to use my tastes to suggest further games, and ask anything you want.

Resident Evil Requiem: 9.5/10, personally perhaps my favorite Resident Evil game. These games have always struggled to strike the proper balance between action and horror, and this game is the one that I think has gotten it almost perfect with the separate character system. Grace sections are much more stressful with an emphasis on horror, while Leon sections are balanced more towards action, allowing me to get my fix of both without losing one or the other. Capcom has been trying to accomplish this balance for years, and I think this is a real success. My only gripe is that, while there are opposite sections to break up the gameplay so you never get too comfortable in either one which escalates tension, the back half has these sections few and far between. I also like how the story of the game deals with facing trauma and past guilt, and the use of Raccoon City feels natural instead of feeling overly referential, besides Mr X who I thought was way too shoehorned in. Also shout out to Graces VA, fantastic work.

Silent Hill Townfall: 9/10 specifically before patch 1.4. I really enjoy the stealth gameplay, early in the game it starts out with limited options before opening up while still requiring good resource management and smart pathing for an optimal late game experience. It also balances itself out with stealth focused sections (Zoe), action focused sections (Richard) and both (Simon). The Weight is also a solid stalker enemy, while I do wish they toned down his AI, he requires careful play and paying attention to the CRTV to make sure you can complete objectives, while also having the IV for second chances in case you do get caught. The whole gameplay loop is incredibly overwhelming and tense, which I really like for a horror game that I want to overwhelm me. I also love the puzzles in this game, especially the mid game and end game puzzles (which is one of the reasons I will only play before patch 1.4), a lot of them require you to pay attention while also putting yourself in the position of the characters during those scenes, which I found brilliant. The story itself is also really well done, I genuinely couldn’t figure it out until the very end reveals and when I did, it landed hard. A lot of the game becomes clear at the end, which I think works perfectly. My only gripe is honestly enemy designs, most of them are kinda weak for Silent Hill. Honestly before patch 1.4 I would’ve given this an 8.5, but seeing how upset I got after that patch took away so much of what I love, it honestly became a 9/10 for me before that patch, and an 8/10 (or maybe lower) on the new build.

Fatal Frame 2: 8/10 a solid horror game that sadly received none of the recognition that it deserved. It maintains a very unique gameplay style while also feeling intuitive and fun (this coming from someone who didn’t understand the gameplay for half the game and then realized I was stupid) only complaint that I have is that some enemies can feel a bit too tanky especially with weaker frames, but that enforces a lot of resource management and choosing which enemies to engage with. Also, my god, can more horror games PLEASE have side missions? I genuinely loved that this game had some side content for me to break up the main story with, which enforces more exploration as well as letting you get more immersed in the world, I don’t think this works for every horror game but I just think some would get a lot out of this. The story is still really good, it’s a classic so there’s not much to add, though I do wonder what the new endings actually mean in terms of what the remakes were planning on doing. That said, there isn’t much of a chance for another remake due to the sales sadly, so I guess that will probably go unanswered.

Hellraiser Revival: 6/10 I’m gonna be honest, I went in expecting a lot and came out a bit disappointed. Aesthetically the game nails it, though I couldn’t help but notice a few times where it maybe held back (for example in the club where a bunch of people are supposed to be having sex….while clearly clothed?) though I also understand the idea of not overdoing it and balancing the sexual and the horrific, pain and pleasure. I also found the story to be good, it also balances well the Hellraiser themes of pain and pleasure with themes of codependency and toxic relationships, which I think worked very well. That said the gameplay…idk it just didn’t click with me. It was more action focused but didn’t feel as smooth or polished as a resident evil, and didn’t have enough enemy variation either, you pretty much meet the most threatening enemies during the first section. I did like the labyrinth chases scenes at least, love that boy Chatterer. But yeah, just didn’t feel this one tbh.

What do you guys think of the Hellraiser game?? It looks good, I haven’t played it yet though. I’ve heard it’s pretty wild

Follow up of my last post about SOMA, I got to omnicron.

And I got to the part in SOMA where we copy our brain into the power suit. First off insanely fucked up thing to do in the first place. I understand Catherines choice, it was 100 necessary for their goal. It was a necessary evil and the fact she hated doing it helped.

Hearing Simon yell at her made me upset because she has no choice. I'd probably make the same choice in her shoes. She needs to get to the ark.

But secondly, I made the choice to keep OG simon alive because I believe it should be his choice whether to live or die. I can pull the plug, sure. But I'd want it to be my choice when OG simon wakes up in a few days he will be alone but he should be able to choose whether he wants to keep living or end his suffering. Because he could continue to live and find peace if he tried. And if he wants it to end... He can do that just the same.

I'd love to hear the choice you all made and why because it just felt there wasn't a right choice. But I felt it should be OG simons choice. But I'd love to hear whether you killed him or kept him alive and why. So let me know!

Also still playing through and just got to the ocean floor so no spoilers please!

I'm not someone who typically plays horror games, but I wanted to challenge myself to play something scary, especially for the Halloween season. Tried out Silent Hill 2, and I just finished it. Proud of myself because I was worried i'd be too scared to finish it, but I got through it. Took me about 20 hours, and I got the "leave" ending.

This game is amazing overall, and I can't believe it wasn't nominated for GOTY in 2024. The gameplay, the story, the themes and overwhelming symbolism, the design and atmosphere, I really loved everything about it.

The whole segment between the Historical Society and the Eddie boss fight (basically Toluca Prison and Labyrinth) literally made you feel like you were navigating the depths of Hell. When I first entered the yard in Toluca Prison, good lord it was just pitch black, i was terrified.

I think this game might be my foot in the door for the horror genre, i'm interested in checking out other games in the genre now....after a break lol.

Hi, quick question.
Is Tomented Souls a good game?
Would you recommend it?