This was a game I played back in 2012 when I got a PS2 copy for it, I did eventually finish it in 2014 and still didn't think that much of it but now having finished the game for the first time in 10 years while also replaying SH1 a few weeks prior, I'm still struggling to figure out this notion that SH2 being considered an "amazing game" and "better" than SH1 even comes from. I consider SH2 to be a medicore game in every respect except music and visuals.
I'll start off with what I like before I start getting to the negative and lukewarm parts, in terms of visuals, I do prefer SH2 over SH1, I also like the visuals of the latter game but I prefer like the grimy and dirty PS2 look of SH2. The character models are detailed and the designs of them have them look a bit on the normal side without them looking sterotypically attractive like in a Hollywood movie. The fog is also much more dense and detailed than SH1 and as a result the early game of SH2 can be pretty creepy because it's that much harder to see what's in front of you since the fog itself is so much thicker now.However one negative with the visuals is with the cutscenes while better directed from a cinematography standpoint has an odd habbit of showing some parts of the cutscene in FMV form and other parts of it in engine, it just makes for a weird inconsistency. Games like Soul Reaver 2 and Metal Gear Solid 2 managed to consistently put their cutscenes in engine and not randomly shove in FMV parts then in engine.
The music as usual for Akria Yamaoka's SH music is fantastic and the background music fits the cutscenes well while also being chill and relaxing to listen in their own right.
The story however I am lukewarm on, it's not "bad" but I feel it's overhyped. Most of the characters have little screen time to get attached to any of them and the only one I came close to being so with was Eddie since he just enjoys being a gultonous, violent psychopath. The rest of the characters are just kind of "there". Maria is a sexified personification of James' wife and never really goes past wanting to have his way with James, Angela is just an abused child and Laura I guess is supposed to the child James and Mary could've had together? They aren't terrible characters but they aren't great either. I also prefer SH1's approach of having an actual villain since I'm not sure how much of SH2's story is actually happening or if it really is all in James' head.
Speaking of James Sunderland, much of his personality is dependant on how you act towards Maria and in the game, meaning that cutscene James is hard character to even root for since he's a blank slate for the player. He's not really all that different from a silent protagonist with dialogue. I wouldn't want him to be silent but at the same time compared to Harry's drive to protect his daughter, James I found dull. I also never found a character as interesting as Lisa Garland or a scene that rivals her death from SH1.
The gameplay however is where many of my issues with SH2 comes from. SH1 was by no means an amazingingly designed game but it got the job done. SH2's combat is considered "bad" but intentionally designed but I argue it's just brainless and boring on normal difficulty. SH1's normal wasn't the most balanced but SH2's normal is somehow worse.
SH2's gameplay feels borderline brainless. At first, I was using melee to attack enemies to save ammo and I got less ammo and healing items by comparison to SH1, but by the time I got to Brookhaven Hospital, I disocovered most if not every enemy can beaten with 3 pistol bullets and one round of a pistol has 10 shots, so with one round, I can kill 3 enemies and the enemy count never gets higher than 3 in SH2 on top being showering with lots of ammo. At least SH1 enemies ran towards, grabbed and ganged up on you. In SH2, it's esstentially a game in of itself if an enemy can even land a blow on you.
The Lying Figure isn't even a great enemy but it will be used over and over again throughout the game as if the devs are super proud for making him and he always can be taken out in 3 pistol bullet shots maybe 4 or if it decides to lay down around crawl fast on occasion.
The enemies in the SH overworld are Lying Figures and Nurses and since you have to try hard to get hit by them, it's easy to stockpile massive amounts of ammo and healing items making the game even easier. Compare that to SH1 where enemies in the overworld moved fast, flew and can even grab you making the player be that much on the move.
Due to all of this, nothing in SH2 was even a threat for me anymore, enemies and bosses were pushovers and the only "hard" fight was dual Pyramid Head but that was because the shotgun had a long windup time before it can be fired and the Hunting Rifle had for shots before reload so I had to use the pistol and that did less damage making the fight longer.
The level design in SH2 is shockingingly poor too, SH1's wasn't amazing by any means but SH2 has so many doors that can't be open that it was almost starting to become a running joke. Why do you even have door textures at all if you can't even open the doors? You might as well have them be generic wall textures. That and I had a harder time finding key items or noticing lock doors, this could be me being so bored that I played sloppily but I felt the first game did a better job at tell me what is or isn't interactable.
Overall, I wouldn't consider SH2 to be a terrible game, but time hasn't made me any less lukewarm on it.
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