/vr/ - Retro Games

I don't understand why SH2 is praised so much, finished it recently for the first time and didn't like it. Maybe it's because it's been overhyped. My main problem is that the game is boring as fuck and a slog to play, the gameplay is terribly repetitive, environments are bland and uninteresting, puzzles range from tedious to cryptic and there are too many dumb moments.

Let's talk about the story because that seems to be why people praise it so much, first off the presentation is hit or miss but mostly miss, characters are awkward in a bad way and don't act or speak naturally at all. The symbolism is very over the top and in your face, there's no subtelty, "haha a raping room with phallic objects thrusting into holes, get it? Cuz' sexual rape and stuff". You are mostly in the dark for the entire game too and wondering why you should even care about all these random people.

Now about the big twist, spoilers ahead so stop reading if you haven't played it.

Yes it's cool and thought provoking but I don't like how it's executed, a casette tape? Really? And somehow James doesn't remember anything? The game deliberately hides crucial information from you if not outright feeding you falsehoods (Mary died 3 years ago) just to make it work. I felt cheated, it would have been better if James was aware of his deeds but the player wasn't. It's quite underwhelming too, Pyramid head, other characters, the town, the whole rape and abuse symbolism, it builds up to some big revelation that James is some kind of monster but there is no payoff, "duh, I forgot that I euthanized my suffering wife, sorry".

To sum it up I felt like I played a shitty game that purposefully mislead me just to awkwardly drop a twist at the end that's supposed to retroactively make it good. Since the game is untouchable due to it's cult classic status I don't expect anything more than buzzwords but it would be nice to have a discussion that's not clouded by brainless praise.