History YMMV / SilentHill2

* WTHCastingAgency: This was how a majority of fans reacted to the change in voice actors for the HD Collection, with Creator/TroyBaker replacing Guy Cihi as James Sunderland and Mary Elizabeth [=McGlynn=] replacing Monica Horgan as Mary being particular standouts. In the formers case, it’s not that Baker’s a bad voice actor (quite the opposite, really), rather many felt he was miscast in the role, believing his gruff antihero portrayal didn’t fit James’ overall character. The latter was criticized for sounding too deep for the soft and gentle portrayal of Horgan’s Mary. Even Elizabeth [=McGlynn=] noted her voice was too deep, but the producers cast her anyway.

* WTHCastingAgency: This was how a majority of fans reacted to the change in voice actors for the HD Collection, with Creator/TroyBaker replacing Guy Cihi as James Sunderland and Mary Elizabeth [=McGlynn=] as Mary being particular standouts. In the formers case, it’s not that Baker’s a bad voice actor (quite the opposite, really), rather many felt he was miscast in the role, believing his gruff antihero portrayal didn’t fit James’ overall character. The latter was criticized for sounding too deep for the soft and gentle portrayal of Mary. Even Elizabeth [=McGlynn=] noted her voice was too deep, but the producers cast her anyway.

* WTHCastingAgency: This was how a majority of fans reacted to the change in voice actors for the HD Collection, with Creator/TroyBaker replacing Guy Cihi as James Sunderland being a particular standout. Not that Baker’s a bad voice actor per se (quite the opposite, really), but many felt he was miscast in the role, believing his gruff antihero portrayal didn’t fit James’ overall character.

* WTHCastingAgency: This was how a majority of fans reacted to the change in voice actors for the HD Collection, with Creator/TroyBaker replacing Guy Cihi as James Sunderland being a particular standout. Not that Baker’s a bad voice actor per say, but many felt he was miscast in the role, believing his gruff antihero portrayal didn’t fit James’ overall character.

* WTHCastingAgency: This was how a majority of fans reacted to the change in voice actors for the HD Collection, with Creator/TroyBaker replacing Guy Cihi as James Sunderland being a particular standout. Not that Baker’s a bad voice actor per say, but that many felt he was miscast for the role, believing his gruff, antihero portrayal didn’t fit James’ overall character.

* WTHCastingAgency: This was how a majority of fans reacted to the change in voice actors for the HD Collection, with Creator/TroyBaker replacing Guy Cihi as James Sunderland being a particular standout. Not that Baker’s a bad voice actor per say, but more that many felt he was miscast for the role, believing his gruff, antihero portrayal didn’t fit James’ overall character.

* JerkassWoobie: While how sympathetic James is a matter of debate amongst fans, there is no doubt about the plight of these two characters he meets on his journey through Silent Hill:
** Even in a game where depression is a central theme, Angela Orosco stands out as an exceptionally pitiful character. From a young age, her alcoholic father Thomas — and her brother, in the novelization — raped her repeatedly, and her mother only exacerbated the hopelessness of her plight by telling her she deserved it. She killed her father in self-defense before fleeing to Silent Hill, struggling with thoughts of suicide, and finds herself tormented by a monster she believes to be her father. The last time she meets James, she asks for him to return her knife and ascends a burning staircase to her demise when he refuses.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: This is universally agreed to be the best game of the whole Silent Hill series, but it’s also the game that introduced the concept of [[TragicHero the hero having to own up to their a tragic backstory as they enter the town]], a plot point that would become increasingly controversial in later installments such as ''[[VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming Homecoming]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/SilentHillDownpour Downpour]]'' for instance. It was much better received here as the [[VideoGame/SilentHill1 games before]] [[VideoGame/SilentHill3 and after]] [[VideoGame/SilentHill4 this one]] developed by Team Silent didn’t focus so much on the characters being flawed individuals but rather as capable fighters trying to survive against the hoards of monsters, making James’ struggle and the twist that inspired him to go to the town felt suspenseful and unique. Once the games were exported to American developers they started focusing ''too'' much on them being flawed people with tragic backstories that it became very tiresome and predictable.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: This is universally agreed to be the best game of the whole Silent Hill series, but it also the game that introduced the concept of [[TragicHero the hero having to own up to their a tragic backstory as they enter the town]], a plot point that would become increasingly controversial in later installments such as ''[[VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming Homecoming]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/SilentHillDownpour Downpour]]'' for instance. It was much better received here as the [[VideoGame/SilentHill1 games before]] [[VideoGame/SilentHill3 and after]] [[VideoGame/SilentHill4 this one]] developed by Team Silent didn’t focus so much on the characters being flawed individuals but rather as capable fighters trying to survive against the hoards of monsters, making James’ struggle and the twist that inspired him to go to the town felt suspenseful and unique. Once the games were exported to American developers they started focusing ''too'' much on them being flawed people with tragic backstories that it became very tiresome and predictable.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: This game is universally agreed on as the best game of the whole Silent Hill series, but it also introduced the concept of [[TragicHero the hero having to own up to their a tragic backstory as they enter the town]], a plot point that would become increasingly controversial in later installments such as [[VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming Homecoming]] and [[VideoGame/SilentHillDownpour Downpour]] for instance. It was much better received here as the [[VideoGame/SilentHill1 games before]] [[VideoGame/SilentHill3 and after]] [[VideoGame/SilentHill4 this one]] didn’t focus so much on the characters being flawed individuals but rather capable fighters trying to survive against the monsters, making James’ struggle feel suspenseful and unique. Once the games were exported to American developers they started focusing too much on them being flawed that it became very tiresome and predictable.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: This game is universally agreed on as the best game of the whole Silent Hill series, but it also introduced the concept of the hero having to own up to their a tragic backstory as they enter the town, a plot point that would become increasingly controversial in later installments such as [[VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming Homecoming]] and [[VideoGame/SilentHillDownpour Downpour]] for instance. It was much better received here as the [[VideoGame/SilentHill1 games before]] [[VideoGame/SilentHill3 and after]] [[VideoGame/SilentHill4 this one]] didn’t focus so much on the characters being flawed individuals but rather capable fighters trying to survive against the monsters, making James’ struggle here feel suspenseful and unique. Once the games were exported to American developers they started focusing too much on them being flawed that it became tiresome and predictable.

* ShrugOfGod: The game's creative director has explicitly stated that, regardless of ''Silent Hill 4'''s effort to force his hand, there is no official "canon" ending to the story, leaving players to choose the one they personally feel gives the best closure.

* {{Hatedom}}: You would be very hard pressed to find an older player who likes Laura. In fact, most avidly ''despise'' her due to her bratty nature combined with her antagonistic role. Not helping is that the clearly best ending of the game, the ''Leave'' ending, has James taking Laura with him, invoking the possibility that he will adopt her.

* JerkassWoobie:
** Angela. Her rude and cynical behavior is because of her horrific past. In fact, due to said horrific past, she's more of a straightforward example of TheWoobie.

* TheScrappy: Laura. Fans hate her for her seemingly unjustified attitude (especially when she kicks an important key away from James and stomps on his hand). [[spoiler:It turns out that it ''is'' justified, particularly from a child's point of view, when you come to understand what's ''really'' going on.]]

* BetterThanCanon: With the sketchy reputation and development of the HD Collection and the increasing efforts from modders fixing the ailing PC port of the game, many consider the fan-made ''Enhanced Edition'' project as a superior alternative to the HD Collection as it retains the game's original features with far less bugs and unnecessary changes.

** While not exactly a disaster, the PC version has a few issues. Music skipping can be solved with a fan patch, and the game isn't designed to run on multi-core machines so you get voice de-synching and other issues if you don't manually set it to run on one core (CTRL+ALT+DEL>Processes>Set Affinity).

** Eddie is revealed to have been mercilessly and viciously tormented for his weight and his apparent mental slowness. While he certainly didn't deserve to be treated that way, he ends up blowing his audience sympathy with how he deals with his issues: [[spoiler: The end to his arc, unlike Angela's quiet, suicidal desperation, involves him gloating about slaughtering a dog and crippling a bully that was mean to him, blaming all of his cruelty on being bullied without any Silent Hill-induced self reflection at all.]]

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: While in the West the game is held in high regard and is considered pinnacle of the series as described above, it wasn't all well received in Japan and it, in fact, kind of bombed. This was mostly because Japanese fans were expecting a direct sequel to ''VideoGame/SilentHill1'' instead of what they deemed to be a spin-off with tenuous links to the first game at best. ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'' did fare better in Japan due to having stronger links to the first entry, in there West it had more of lukewarm response since across the pond, the lore about The Order is generally considered one of the dullest aspects of the series.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: While in the West the game is held in high regard and is considered pinnacle of the series as described above, it wasn't all well received in Japan and it fact kind of bombed. This was mostly because Japanese fans were expecting a direct sequel to ''VideoGame/SilentHill1'' instead of what they deemed to be a spin-off with tenuous links to the first game at best. While ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'' fared better in Japan due to said game having stronger links to the first, in there West it had more of lukewarm response since the lore about The Order is generally considered one of the dullest aspects of the series across the pond.

* HoYayShipping: You'd be surprised, what with the many AlternateCharacterInterpretations, that James was gay all along and that Pyramid Head is the physical manifestation of his pent-up emotions, people tend to [[http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&q=Pyramid+Head+x+James#/d64ygl pair]] [[http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&q=Pyramid+Head+x+James#/d4loop them]] [[http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=Pyramid%20Head%20James&order=9&offset=120#/d2l07o3 up]] [[http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=Pyramid%20Head%20James&order=9&offset=72&offset=72#/dm4fzw A LOT.]]

** Angela. Her rude and cynical behavior is because of her horrific past.

* AwesomeMusic: