James Sunderland saw horrors beyond imagining when "Silent Hill" first appeared for PlayStation.
But that 1999 game was a walk in the park compared to the chills delivered by "Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams," developed by Konami for the Xbox.
I felt those chills over and over, playing in the dark, as horrible chattering monsters appeared suddenly from thick banks of roiling fog enveloping the all-but-abandoned community.
Sunderland has returned to the town of horrors after a mysterious communication from his wife, who has presumably been dead for three years. Sunderland has been unable to restart his life after an illness took his beloved Mary, leaving him in a constant state of mourning.
In the letter, she tells him she will be waiting for him — in Silent Hill.
When Sunderland wanders into town, he soon meets a woman in a graveyard who gives him some cryptic information. Otherwise, he shares the town only with the horrors that now own its rusted and ruined buildings and a handful of humans on hand for their own strange reasons.
The game calls for two divergent talents — the ability to kill monsters and to solve puzzles. Weapons are limited to the stick and a pistol, and Sunderland isn't exactly a whiz with either.
You roam the town, figuring out how to get around barricades, collapsed roads and other obstacles to progress through the game. Along the way, you find clues to what has happened.
In many games, the story is almost an afterthought to the action. Not in "SH2." Here, the story — and Sunderland's efforts to overcome the horror he finds — is complex. The end is strange and might not satisfy everyone.
Can you say "Silent Hill 3"?
Graphics get a B+. The zombies and other creatures you must deal with are really awful, the stuff of dark dreams. The town is a horror from end to end, and the ever-present fog is precisely rendered and a perfect addition to the already spooky atmosphere.
Control gets a B. While you'll get the hang of moving Sunderland around, I really didn't enjoy the joy stick control of his actions. It works, but it's hard to be smooth. It could have been better.
Sound gets an A. The cries, the scuttling sounds, the horrible noises echoing from within the fog are excellent and make a huge contribution to the overall fright factor, which is considerable.
One caveat — this is absolutely not a game for children. Aside from the fact that it will scare the pants off adults, it deals with a variety of topics as it develops that are in no way suitable for young children.
That said, "Silent Hill 2" is a marvelously engrossing creation for those old enough to deal with the mature themes it portrays.
"Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams" is rated M, for ages 17 and older.