Why Isn't Silent Hill 2 Scary Anymore?

When I first played Silent Hill 2 while in middle school, it scared me half to death. The story was terrifying, the gore brutal, and the fear tangible. That's why I was excited about getting the opportunity to relive the experience recently on my old Playstation 2--surely this would be a great start to my research into the nature of horror video games. But when I started again, I couldn't help but feel something was different. I no longer jumped at every fright, monsters emerging from the thick fog didn't perturb me, and my heart rate barely ever even elevated. So the question is, what changed? Have I just grown older and become more mature? Or is there another factor that brought Silent Hill 2's fright factor down over time?

The plot of the game itself is actually scarier to read than I found it to play. The player controls James Sunderland, who arrives in Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his deceased wife Mary. After encountering a varied cast of characters ranging from fearsome monsters to every horror tale's requisite scary child, it is revealed that James himself killed his wife 3 years earlier. The trip to Silent Hill and the monsters who attacked him were his way of punishing himself for his crime. Along the way, the player encounters the classic horror themes of rape, murder, and outright brutal violence. On paper, this is at least unsettling if not outright scary. Clearly, the plot is not the problem here.

Like the plot, upon my most recent playing of the game the setting was still appropriately creepy. Much of the game is spent in abandoned buildings or wandering through a thick fog. With no on screen heads up display or health meter, the entire screen is devoted to James' wanderings. Monsters attack rapidly from out of the fog or around corners, which in theory should make the player jump. At least it did while I was in middle school. It is this distinction which led me to my conclusion: the graphics are lacking.

In 2001, some of the monsters looked downright terrifying. It was easy to imagine that it was me wandering through the fog, totally unaware of what was about to happen. But 8 years later, having been exposed to the advanced graphical capabilities of next generation consoles, players are conditioned to have higher expectations for graphics. Monsters that once appeared scary now appear blocky and undefined. The fog, which once seemed realistic enough, now is a white sheet covering the map. The blood which seemed so gory, now just doesn't have much of an effect on me.

Overall, this experience of replaying an old game has underscored the importance of graphics in how we interact with a game. When they are new and still shocking the game can be scary. But when they are old, and we have seen better versions, the player has a much harder time getting into the game. At the end of the day, a horror game is only as effective as the affective response it draws from the player. And, at least in the case of Silent Hill 2, the graphics are no longer good enough to draw much of a reaction from me.