Silent Hill 2 on release had some mixed response, some loved it immediately but both from professional critics at the time and quite a few users there was middling response due to several aspects, such as it being too easy, the game lacking the dark scary atmosphere of the first game, the slower drawn out pace, and other things which some felt were downgrades from the first game (such as the thread mentioned, some wanted to see a connected storyline like the RE series had, which SH2 was almost completely separate from SH1's story, which disappointed many people). plus some just thought the story was confusing (complex game stories weren't common back then), I don't think SH2 was what a lot of people were expecting out of a sequel to SH1. I also think it should be noted the time frame it released it, it was releasing after 9/11, right before Halo 1, etc. It was kind of at the wrong place at the wrong time.
It also is a pretty good showing for how people shouldn't put too much stock into an initial critical response to a game. Silent Hill 2's reception bettered over time, I think SH2 was a bit ahead of its time so people weren't fully ready for it back in 2001. Also shows how expectations can be one of the worst things for artistic vision, because of people's expectations of what Silent Hill 2 could or should be after SH1 many in that moment didn't like SH2 as it wasn't what they were expecting, so they critiqued it for what it wasn't rather than for what it was.
This will be a controversial opinion, but while I love looking at the critical response to things, I think in a lot of ways the consensus immediately upon release is near useless due to several blinding factors, ranging from hype, to expectations, to sometimes the drive to be done by release tampering with the experience, to the mindset someone is in when experiencing a work. Some elements also age well while others age worse, but I think it's understandable why SH2 got mixed reception on release, and what that can tell us about video game critique and consumerism reviews as a whole. They have value for the consumer in the moment, yes, but they aren't necessarily reflective of the actual quality of a game for a number of factors.
