None of the Silent Hill titles have been lacking in the area of brilliant alternate endings, but none were so riveting as those found in Silent Hill 2. Even the methods through which the player received a certain ending were based on the slightest interactions during gameplay.

James Sunderland battles his way through the grotesque nightmare brought to life. All of which is a manifestation James' own guilt, brought own by the suppressed memory of his wifes death. The horrors of his inner torment become reality of course, through the spiritual encompass of evil (or sometimes good) that dwells within the living breathing town of Silent Hill.

I wont go into a detailed explanation of each ending, because Im sure if youre reading this, youre probably familiar with them.

Depending on which ending you get, James may or may not have actually loved his wife. In certain endings, he felt burdened by her sickness, and chose to end her life out of selfishness. In others, he loved her very much, and chose to put her out of her misery.

In each ending, he handles these self revelations in different ways. In one, he is overcome by his guilt, and chooses to end his own life. In another he makes peace with himself, and realizes that Mary loved him, and forgives him for his deed. There are others, in which we will discuss further on.

My favorite, and in my opinion, the darkest of the endings, is the "Maria" ending, in which James submits to his lust, and chooses to be with the physical manifestation of his own vision of what his deceased wife, Mary, shouldve been. Same body, same face, same voice, but with a completely different style. One that was much more provocative, suited to his taste.

For allowing the evil spirits of Silent Hill to conquer his soul, and for giving in to the temptations that were cast upon him, we can rest assured that this most likely wont be James' last visit to Hell.

Share with us. What are your favorite endings, and why?

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My favorite ending would be the canon ending "In Water" in which James drives his car into the lake , killing himself.
I said "canon" ending because when playing SH4 (ugh...) you can notice the superintendent of Henry's apartment block last name is Sunderland , and on his journal , he wrote that he had a son (James) and that he killed himself by driving his car into Toluca lake (the lake near Silent Hill).

Maybe i am preaching to the choir here , but meh.