Don’t forget that people are playing Silent Hill 2 for the first time

Silent Hill 2 is one of the best survival horror games of all time. When first released in 2001, it was ahead of its time with a nuanced take on the genre that expanded on its predecessor’s formula in bold and unexpected ways. It asked big questions with its narrative and allowed players to draw their own conclusions, while its characters were deep and flawed like few others at the time.

It’s hard to believe it came out back then, and aside from a few shaky combat and a faulty camera hampered by technical constraints, it’s still an exceptional game. It’s so far gone into gaming history that it’s easy to assume that every gamer you know has already played it and knows all of its twists and turns inside out. However, that’s simply not true, and the recently released remake will be the first time millions of people will be able to experience James Sunderland’s miserable journey in search of his dead wife.

I see these spoilers on my Restless Twitter feed

There are many reasons for this assumption. Silent Hill 2 is a legendary game and has long stood on a survival horror pedestal that few have been able to achieve. Whenever a horror game is close, we compare it to Silent Hill 2. Whenever a game explores psychological themes, we compare it to Silent Hill 2. Whenever a game is inspired by Silent Hill 2, as many do, we compare it with Silent Hill 2. You can see where I’m going with this. Silent Hill 2 is brought up in discussion so often and with such reverence that its many twists and turns have become a source of conjectural knowledge for gamers around the world.

Hell, before I played it myself, I was already aware of its biggest twists and some of the dark fates that await its characters, thanks in part to sequels I’ve played before that tried to emulate its awesomeness, or the excellent ones Criticism from the press and YouTubers alike. At some point, we’re entering strange new territory where spoilers simply don’t matter anymore, and that’s annoying for new players who don’t want their gaming experience tainted by a legacy they don’t know firsthand about.

We saw this with the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy. Aerith’s death has become an iconic part of gaming history and one of the first moments in which a video game was known for introducing a key character, leveling them up and learning to love them, and then taking them away. Suddenly the medium was no longer in a constant state of permanence, but could tell stories that made us happy, angry, and, in the case of Aerith’s sudden death, make us cry.

The remake made me cry too.

Fans seemed to forget that this would be the first time so many others would experience this story, and so Aerith’s death became a point of discussion before the first game came out. Is there a chance that Square Enix could reverse one of the biggest twists in gaming history, or would we be forced to relive this loss? The end result is more complicated and doesn’t matter much in the context or whether it was right that we gave it away in a remake intended not only for hardcore audiences but also for newcomers.

Spoiler: Be careful, you will be scared

This brings us back to Silent Hill 2 and how the eventual reveal surrounding James and his wife, as well as the true nature of the titular city and the monsters that roam it, was discussed long before release in a way everyone could see. The game was once old enough to allow spoilers, but now it’s brand new again.

Not for me, but for enough people that I want to be careful about what I say and when I say it. I play through the remake with a few friends who are watching curiously, and as I do I blurt out spoilers, naively assuming that they knew exactly why James came to this city and where it would take him.

In this echo chamber of my own making, spoilers no longer matter, but they should. So when you see people in your life on your timeline playing Silent Hill 2 for the first time, try to embrace their shock and surprise and avoid talking about spoilers that you might see as harmless. For others, they are anything but.