Psychologist Breaks Down Silent Hill 2’s Endings

Alexander Kriss is a clinical psychologist and author based in New York, and has written extensively about games, and the effect games can have on their players. He’s also a lifelong fan of Silent Hill 2, and has written about the game and its characters in his book The Gaming Mind.

Today he’s breaking down each of the game’s endings, including the two new endings in the 2024 remake, and analyzing what the methods used to unlock them say about the player. Alex also discusses the legacy of Silent Hill 2 as a game that ‘watches’ the player’s every move.

What does a psychologist think of the monster design in Silent Hill 2, and what do the various endings really mean, for both the characters and the player?

What does Alex, a lifelong fan of the original Silent Hill 2, think of the 2024 remake and its reworked characters, cutscenes and art style?

00:00 Intro
01:01 Faceless Monsters
02:11 Pyramid Head / The Red Pyramid
04:18 Alex’s Personal Connection to Silent Hill 2
05:07 Why How People Play Games Matters
06:10 How Alex Played Silent Hill 2
08:00 Leave
09:46 Maria
11:21 In Water
12:00 Rebirth
13:35 The New Endings
14:02 Bliss
14:49 Stillness
15:19 The Backseat Theory
18:25 Interesting Ending Mechanics
19:39 Other ‘Meta’ games
20:33 The Legacy of Silent Hill 2
21:48 Outro

Check out Alex’s books:
Borderline: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/739152/borderline-by-alexander-kriss/

The Gaming Mind: https://theexperimentpublishing.com/catalogs/spring-2020/the-gaming-mind/