10 Gaming Moments IMPOSSIBLE To View The Same Way After This

3. James Breaks The Fourth Wall During The Opening Scene (Silent Hill 2)

gaming gaming
Konami

Silent Hill 2 is a game where a lot of messed-up stuff happens, with troubled protagonist James Sunderland suffering strange visions and hallucinations, all the while fending off terrifying monsters in the titular, fog-smothered town.

Needless to say, it's an unsettling experience, but unbeknownst to most players, one of the creepiest moments in the story happens right in the opening cutscene.

Roughly a minute into the game, there's a great shot of James staring at himself in the mirror, which has become quite an iconic frame in the two-decades since the title released. However, as discovered by a Redditor who cranked up the brightness of the image, it turns out that James isn't looking at himself at all - ominously, he's gazing straight at us, the players, a detail that isn't visible during normal play.

Silent Hill 2 James Sunderland mirror
Konami

Whether an intentional design choice or simply an optical illusion (as some players believe), it nonetheless works as a reminder of how fractured James' psyche has become, and either way... you'll never view this intro scene in the same way again.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.