Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Celebrating All Things Spooky: Whispering Willows

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video games  1 Response »  Tagged with:
Oct 212019
 

Over the weekend, I played the side-scrolling horror adventure game Whispering Willows.

Whispering Willows puts you in the shoes of Elena Elkhorn, a girl who heads to the mysterious Willows Mansion after her father goes missing there.

She soon learns she is descended from a shaman who once lived in the area and has the ability to enter the spirit realm. This ability is a core part of the gameplay, because as you explore the mansion and its grounds, you’ll need to frequently leave your body behind to solve puzzles in areas you can’t reach.

Entering spirit form also gives you the ability to talk to ghosts, which sometimes just provides a bit more dialogue but often plays a role in the puzzles you must solve.

Numerous notes left behind by various characters flesh out the story of what happened in the mansion, and it really is a somber story. Once again, this is a horror story that ends up feeling more sad and haunting than anything else. Overall, I enjoyed it, although the final sequence feels a bit rushed.

Click for Whispering Willows spoilers
It felt to me like Wortham gave up a bit too quickly. I liked the idea of showing him how past events would have gone if he hadn’t reacted the way he did, but I thought some of those moments needed more weight, especially when he learned that Flying Hawk really would have helped him talk to his wife again.

He’d been built up throughout the story as the driving force behind all the terrible events there, so really having him see the consequences of his actions would have made the climax feel stronger.

Meanwhile, the gameplay is pretty solid. It’s simple and the puzzles are fairly easy, but it has that nice gameplay loop I like of getting keys to unlock doors and gradually being able to explore areas that were blocked off before. The final chapter had some frustrating parts, but not enough to damage my impression of the game.

I’m not sure I’d necessarily call Whispering Willows a horror game, but it’s certainly a spooky one that has its share of creepy moments.

So if you want a spooky game about ghosts, a haunted mansion, and the tragic events that occurred there, it’s worth giving Whispering Willows a try.

Celebrating All Things Spooky: Born from a Wish

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Oct 182019
 

Are we still talking about Silent Hill 2? That’s right, we aren’t done yet.

The version of Silent Hill 2 I played was the Greatest Hits version, which includes the sub-scenario Born from a Wish.

Born from a Wish is a short prequel in which you play as Maria prior to her meeting up with James in Silent Hill 2. This is an interesting decision for a side story, considering the nature of Maria.

It’s short, taking about an hour to complete (a little more or less depending on how much you explore the town), and it mainly focuses on Maria’s encounter with a mysterious man named Ernest Baldwin. Maria, who is searching for a way to escape the insanity of Silent Hill, begins exploring the Baldwin mansion and learning more about Ernest.

Since it’s so short, there’s not much I can say about the story without spoiling it. I will say that it feels a lot different than a typical Silent Hill story. Like the main story of Silent Hill 2, it’s also sad.

More than anything, it raises questions about Maria. From Silent Hill 2 alone, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that Maria isn’t a “real” person in the same way the others are, but Born from a Wish shows that she has her own hopes and fears – and that she might be concerned, on some level, about the nature of her existence.

Gameplay-wise, it’s pretty much just more Silent Hill, and that’s always a good thing.

So if you have time and a copy of Silent Hill 2 that includes it, it’s worth playing through Born from a Wish to see a side of Maria that doesn’t come through in the main game.

Celebrating All Things Spooky: Silent Hill 2

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video games  7 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Oct 162019
 

With as much as I like the Silent Hill series, it might surprise you to know that this month was the first time I ever played Silent Hill 2.

I got into the series by watching Let’s Plays, so I was familiar with the game and its story, but I hadn’t actually played it myself.

This year, however, I picked up a used copy of Silent Hill 2 (and 3!) and sat down to play it as one of my spooky October games.

Silent Hill 2 is a fantastic game and one of the best survival horror games out there. I know everyone says that, and I still personally favor Silent Hill 4, but Silent Hill 2 really is great. It’s mechanically sound, and its structure and game design are still fantastic.

When I think of the Silent Hill gameplay formula of exploring, solving puzzles, and unlocking doors while following clues or trying to reach your actual destination, Silent Hill 2’s structure perfectly demonstrates what I have in mind.

That might sound a little weird, but that’s really one of the things I love about this genre.

The atmosphere is great, too. Silent Hill 2 isn’t the sort of horror game that’s filled with jump scares or will have you hiding in dread, but it builds up a wonderfully unsettling atmosphere. The nurses in particular stood out to me. I had never realized just how freaky the Silent Hill 2 nurses are until I had to stand there, waiting to strike while they lurched closer and closer.

A lot of modern survival horror games choose to make you a helpless protagonist instead, but games like Silent Hill are proof that you can have the ability to fight back but still never quite feel safe.

And can we talk about the radio? The radio is a great gameplay feature, because it lets you know when there are monsters nearby, but that also increases the tension. Whenever I heard that radio crackle, I knew I couldn’t let down my guard.

Story-wise, Silent Hill 2 isn’t disturbing so much as sad. It’s really a sad story, not only for James, but for the other characters as well. Even though I knew how everything goes, I still loved watching each scene and even thought of some new things about the story’s foreshadowing that hadn’t occurred to me before.

Click for Silent Hill 2 spoilers
I had always wondered why Silent Hill 2 references Walter Sullivan not once but three times. They can’t have planned his role in Silent Hill 4 that far back, right? As of Silent Hill 2, he’s just a random backstory character, yet he gets undue attention.

Then last night, as I was finishing it up, it occurred to me: it’s foreshadowing the truth about James.

Walter is a murderer. He’s seen Pyramid Head. He has a grave in the graveyard.

What if the recurring references to Walter are meant to point toward the inevitable conclusion, that James, who has also seen Pyramid Head and has a grave in the graveyard, is also a murderer?

Regardless, I like it, not only because of the connections to Silent Hill 4, but also because the quiz show part of the game is so bizarre and surreal.

In short, Silent Hill 2 is a fantastic, atmospheric survival horror game that still holds up well today, and if you haven’t had a chance to play it, I really recommend you do so.

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