http://betterbracketmaker.com/#!/87106724dca15
So far, Resident Evil 2 handily defeated Tomb Raider in Round 1. So without further ado, on to Round 2!
Round 2: Silent Hill Vs. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage
Oh, this should be good.
Silent Hill is the inaugural title in Konami's psychological horror series. You play as Harry Mason, who finds himself in the fictional town of Silent Hill, USA as he searches for his missing daughter. Calling the game something of a mindfuck would be a massive understatement.
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage is the second game in the PS1 Spyro trilogy, and sees him face off against the eponymous Ripto, a sorcerer wreaking havoc across the land of Avalar.
Graphics:
Spyro 2's definitely a fantastic looking PS1 game. Considering PS1 3D is hit and miss a lot of the time, 3D games with distinct art styles tend to be the ones that hold up better. (Crash Bandicoot and Megaman Legends are examples of such games) The game is colorful, runs smoothly, and the characters animate pretty well, too. If I had to come up with a list of some of the best looking games on the system, I think Spyro 2 would definitely be up there.
Then there's Silent Hill. Everything's dark, grungy and very foggy. The textures are kind of crappy. The character models leave a lot to be desired. But, this is one case where these aspects arguably work in the game's favor, rather than against it. It actively adds to the dreary, unsettling and flat out surreal atmosphere of Silent Hill. You never know what's around the corner because you can barely even see what's around the corner. That being said... from an objective standpoint, Spyro 2's still the more visually impressive game here, and to be honest, as atmospheric as Silent Hill's visuals are, they haven't aged well at all.
Gameplay/Controls:
In Spyro 2, Spyro controls about as well as you'd expect him to. The analog stick moves him around, he can jump, glide, spew fire, and charge into enemies. It's simple, but it works.
Silent Hill, like Resident Evil, employs tank controls. While tank style controls may turn of a lot of people, they work pretty well in games where it's pretty obviously designed around said controls. Silent Hill is such a game. However, it's arguably harder to transition back to in this day in age than Spyro 2's controls are. Spyro 2, on the other hand, has something of a weird camera. It's not as bad as say, some of the early 3D Sonic titles on the Dreamcast/Gamecube, but it can be disorienting.
On the gameplay side of things, Spyro 2 is your standard 3D 32-Bit platformer. It's a lot more open than the previous game. There's no shortage of tasks to perform, gems to collect, or bosses to fight. Unlike the first game, where a lot of the collectables were really only there for the sake of... well, collecting, nearly all of the collectables in 2 have a purpose, be it accessing new levels or new attacks.
Silent Hill is a lot like Resident Evil. You're thrown into a strange place with a very small amount of weapons, limited ammo, and puzzles to solve. Of course, this is all strung together by the game's plot, and the relative insanity of it sort of serves as a nice motivation to go through the game. You never know what'll get thrown at you next. As far as gameplay goes... I'd call it a tie.
Replayability:
Both games actually have a decent amount of replay value. In Spyro 2, it's tackling those sidequests to unlock new abilities, and in Silent Hill (again, like Resident Evil; Noticing a pattern here) It's completeing the game under certain conditions to unlock new endings and bonus weapons to use in a New game. Overall, I'd give the nod to Silent Hill here, if only for it's extra content being more plentiful. Once you 100% Spyro 2, you're pretty much done with it, and getting 100% in the game takes nowhere near as long as doing everything there is to do in Silent Hill.
Hmm... so with Spyro 2 taking visuals, both being tied in the gameplay department, and Silent Hill winning out in replayability, these titles seem evenly matched.. I guess there's only one way to settle this fairly: A (best two out of three) coin toss. Spyro 2 is heads, Silent Hill is tails. Alright, I've got my quarter, so let's do this.
Round 1: Heads.
Round 2: Tails
Round 3: Heads.
Verdict:
And Spyro 2 wins by way of coin toss and moves on in the tournament. It really says a lot about the quality of these games and how unprepared I was to find how evenly matched the games were that it had to come down to a coin toss, of all things.
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