KMGR of "Silent Hill Mobile 2"

Image by Roscoe Van Damme (In Memory of Maureen) via Flickr

Silent Hill Mobile 2 is another chapter in the psychological horror adventure. The idea is you are somehow caught between two worlds, the real world, and the "other world". The only way you will find out what is going on is to figure out how to travel between the two, then explore one world for items that can be used in the other world, and vice versa. Again, it's a story from multiple viewpoints in the same locations. If you dig this type of game, give it a try. On the other hand, on a mobile it seems to lose a lot of the "flavor".

The game starts creepy enough. There's a voice about "Karen" will take care of you. You woke up in a locker room, having no idea who you are or how you got there. You start to explore, and get clues and objects, which you then apply to various other items to open up more rooms and such.

There are actually two chapters, as you play as two separate persons. However, the interface is the same. Move mode lets you use the arrow keys to forward, turn left/right, or turn 180. Tap a key and you'll toggle between move mode and lookover mode. The lookover mode turns the cursor into a contextual pointer where you can then look or grab the object, or apply one of your inventory items to the object. One of the first objects you will pick up is the map, which you can access separately.



Some of the puzzles are quite obtuse, and extensive note-taking is needed to remember which clue or object can be used where. Some of the clues are quite obtuse as well. The graphics are dark and gloomy, but feels way too... recycled. You feel like you're playing Myst, except on a cellphone with much worse graphics.

Having played a bit of the first Silent Hill Mobile (i.e. Silent Hill Orphanage), this doesn't feel very different from that game. Feels recycled, in some sense.

All in all, the game does have that creepy feeling, but somehow the cellphone don't quite feel like the proper medium for this game.

Overall rating: 6.5 out of 10
Pros: creepy, not too bad of a exploration puzzle, got the silent hill feel
Cons: not THAT different from the original, exploration is still frustrating
Verdict: play if you are a real fan of the series. The rest of us... may want to skip it