This week on FPS, we have a commentary from Matthew Schwager that approaches Silent Hill 2 as a game about mapping and uses that lens to explore its themes of trauma and the influence butoh, the Japanese dance of shadows, had on the game's design.
"Despite appearances, Silent Hill 2 is not a game about narrative but rather about mapping, or wayfinding. The constricting fog foregrounds this and makes mapping an urgent rather than implicit matter. The primary tools of the game, the ones that end up writing the town, confirm this. As James walks, he finds more map segments to add to his original one. No matter what he pursues or discovers, James actively finds his way through Silent Hill’s quarters and his main weapon is not gun or stick but the constant rendering blade of a flashlight, which illuminates both object and setting. From large to small, this game is a game of mapping."
Read the whole article at http://www.firstpersonscholar.com/a-place-of-walking/.