With publication Silent Hill 2 remake, fans will rediscover the tragedy of why the main character James Sunderland killed his wife Mary.
2004 as one of the most harrowing and chilling horror games of all time. Silent Hill 2 is back in the conversation thanks to Konami’s new PlayStation 5 version (which has become the industry’s punching bag over the past few years) and Medium studio Bloober Team.
The title follows series protagonist James Sunderland as he is called back to the mysterious town of Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his long dead wife Mary.
Why did James kill Mary in Silent Hill 2?
One of the biggest plot twists in gaming history takes place Silent Hill 2when the protagonist James Sunderland is revealed to have killed his wife Mary.
All the time Silent Hill James was until now labeled as a miserable widower, having lost his wife to a devastating illness before the events of the games.
It continues Silent Hill 2 remake, as the franchise character returns to the fog-shrouded town of Silent Hill thanks to a mysterious letter he receives from his long-dead wife.
James spends much of the game traversing the horrors of this terrifying video game realm, searching for the origin of the letter and recovering his tragic past. This eventually leads the player to discover that James actually killed Mary.
James is revealed to have killed his wife while she was suffering from a debilitating illness that had been talked about a lot in the game up until that point. After Mary received her prognosis, James became more of a part of her life and had to care for his sick wife more and more every day.
Eventually, he grows tired of this and builds a grudge against the woman he once loved as she slowly disappears into a shell of her body in bed.
Mary makes it clear that she might want to die, knowing that James is wasting precious time of his life spending days at a time by her side. However, she is also conflicted knowing that when she died, she would have given up, leaving behind a mortal coil and the man she loves so much.
James eventually takes matters into his own hands and does what he sees as putting his wife out of her misery with quote/unquote euthanasia.
The true reality of his death is murkier than this. Mary never directly tells James that death is what she wants, and she is conflicted about the idea of possibly ending her life. This essentially makes James a murderer and is meant to make the player question their empathy for the in-game widow, especially since they’ve gotten him to this point in the game.
It is this complex insight that does Silent Hill 2 and its recent remake is one of the most dramatic and unforgettable video game stories in the history of the medium.
Depending on which endgame the player gets, this could leave James in multiple spots. The most traumatic of these epic finales sees James succumb to his guilt and grief and take his own life after contemplating the reality of his selfish act.
Silent Hill 2 Remake is now available for PlayStation 5 and Windows PC.
