I love the maps in Silent Hill 2. They're such an oasis in the midst of the terror. When you find a map of the area you're in, you suddenly have some measure of security at last; you can work out where you are, you can plan where you're going.

I also love the way James marks up the maps as you go. It's part of the reason I ended up becoming so attached to him, I think; I found his little scribbles on the map endearing, and I appreciated how helpful they were to me as the player! It felt like he was on my side; it felt like we were in this together.

Of course, once the game has established the map as a welcome source of security, it can mess with your head by withholding that security from you. Unmapped areas, places where it's too dark to check the map, places where you don't actually obtain the map for a long time: they're all excellent ways to distress me.

I was so unhappy, the first time I played, when the hospital switched to the nightmare version and all the markings on my map vanished. The more doodles I had on my map, the more secure I felt; it was the only thing that made me feel safe in the game! Throwing you into a different version of the hospital and erasing your existing knowledge of it is a great way to rip your understanding of this place out from underneath you and plunge you back into fear of the unknown.

The maps also create interesting opportunities for subtle worldbuilding. An unsettling detail I didn't notice on my first playthrough: the prison morgue is not included on the prison map, suggesting this is not an entirely above-board affair. Although I should probably have guessed that from the fact that their corpse disposal system appears to be 'just shove the corpses in a big hole'.

There's no real point to this page. I just wanted to talk about how much I like the maps in this game.

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