The best non-Gamecube game...EVER!

[Weltall]

There's no question which game totally absorbed me.

This would be Silent Hill, Jr.

I would say that the mark of a good game, or any piece of entertainment, be it literary, film, etc, is that it makes me think about it after I've played/seen/read it. The mark of a truly great game is one that makes me want to research it further, not in the gameplay aspect, but to find other people, and sit around and analyze the story together, gaining all sorts of insight because the game just offers so much that you don't immediately notice. I love psychological kicks, and Silent Hill is known for that, but the second takes the cake. As far as an actual video game goes, it's pretty average. It's the least-frightening in it's own series, and it's not a terribly difficult game, but none of that matters to me, because the heart, soul, liver and lungs of this game are the storyline, the characters, and the very town in which it all takes place. Almost everything and everyone you see is a metaphor for an aspect of your character, and while that concept alone is nothing terribly special, it's the fantastic subtlety by which it is presented to you. Unless you're extraordinarily perceptive, you'll not even absorb a tenth of the game's depth on your first run through, and most likely, you're going to realize much of it while you're not playing. A truly great work of art can give you that sort of feeling, and Silent Hill 2 perhaps one of maybe a half-dozen games tops that I can say this about, and of those half-dozen, SH2 is definitely, unquestionably tops. I wonder if such a game will ever come along again, and while I'm saddened that so many people refuse to give this game a chance, I feel kind of special that I did, and that I found so much sheer pleasure out of it, and that I continue to, almost four years after I first played it.