497 Words About: The Fog in Silent Hill 2
You’d think, after watching double-digit numbered playthroughs of Silent Hill 2, and even watching a friend play it on his original Playstation 2, I wouldn’t have been surprised by the fog. And yet moving James Sunderland into the first steps of the wooded-path that led to the town of Silent Hill, I was left agog at how quickly the world was swallowed up.
This wasn’t fog, this was congealed cigarette smoke composed of dense pixelated madness.
I recently downloaded the PCSX2 Emulator on my PC, in no small part because I wanted to finally play Silent Hill 2. It took some finagling, but I managed to get everything working and just play the game.I have a Playstation 2, but I dropped…too much money on building a PC and I intend on getting my money’s worth.
Also, better frame rate and resolution.
Just saying.
It only took a few minutes of me controlling James Sunderland to realize how, and why, the fog that encompasses the town has left players haunted, disturbed, and terrified by this sleepy hamlet.
It’s not enough that the fog is dense. There are plenty of horror games (some great, others, well…not) that have included darkness and obfuscation (including fog) to create paranoia and fear in the player. Many of these games employ darkness on its own and allow limited visibility to move through a stage or level and hope that a Licker or Safehead aren’t hiding around the next corner. The fog in Silent Hill 2 doesn’t give the player that option, rather it consumes the environment so that James only has, at most, a few feet of visible world in his immediate radius to determine where he’s actually going. On the one hand this can make finding the next narrative point frustrating, but as many critics and fans of the series have argued, as I’m about to, that’s largely the point.
James Sunderland has arrived at Silent Hill because he’s destroyed emotionally following the death of his wife Mary, who’s invited him to the town three years after her death. James is a man who’s unsure where he is, figuratively and often literally, and as he’s processing all this confusion and guilt the fog begins to torment him. Whether it’s the sounds of animals growling in the haze, or grotesque figures who appear and disappear randomly, the fog chips at James’s, and thus the players' ability to find any semblance of direction. Silent Hills’ fog is one of the best examples I’ve ever seen in a videogame of using environmental elements to test player conviction, as well as build an aesthetic atmosphere.The fog, simply put, builds a growing horror.
It’s not just that the fog is scary.
It is.
But beneath its superficial element is a question.
The horror becomes losing myself in this haze, and eventually I have to ask whether or not I’m still in any control of where I’m going, or why I’m going the direction I am.
Joshua “Jammer” Smith
7.15.2024
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