James Sunderland is a character in the 2001 video game Silent Hill 2.

James Sunderland has received generally positive receptions from publication critics for his characteristics within the wider world of Silent Hill 2. Chris McMullen of The Escapist expressed that the 2001 horror game effectively displayed how the purgatory-like world, filled with "confusion and distress," was shaped by James' mentality and state as an unreliable narrator. ^[1] Likewise, Game Informer writer Blake Hester felt that James' deteriorated mental health and personal guilt was important in context of the "nonsensical" level design and building architectures and that James' in-game footstep sounds in contrast with the overall silence terrified him. ^[2] Vice contributor Andy Kelly stated that he was fooled into thinking that James was fooled into being sympathetic for him in an instance of "a cheap trick, but an effective one," that he is "the very definition of an unreliable narrator, and he fooled me. Big time". ^[3]

The authors of various gaming publications have argued that James Sunderland as a "generic white person" helped to enhance the horrors and story of Silent Hill 2, although opinions on the character himself vary. ^{[4] [5] [6]} For instance, Ashley Bardhan from Kotaku compared Sunderland to Ethan Winters from Resident Evil, criticizing both characters for being "bumbling" and "regrettably uninteresting" to the extent that she was unable to find anything to "admire or empathize" about them compared to their missing wives. ^[4] A writer for The Fandomentals named Brion recognized the inclination to think initially that James being a "tall, blonde, white, and even faintly handsome man" makes him a hero, that he loved the game subverting such expectations by revealing him as the "least competent hero ever devised". He also felt that the theme of toxic masculinity based on James' actions were "near flawless" in execution, highlighted particularly by James " robb[ing his wife Mary] of any agency over her own death" by choosing to kill her. ^[5] Mike Druker, who wrote a book analysis for Silent Hill 2, said that the protagonist "is so generic that he could smother his wife with a pillow and never get caught. You know, like he actually did". He noted that James being a "figurative and literal fog" to the point where players lack true understanding over him despite controlling him makes the game's psychological horror aspect "fun" due to its open-ended nature. He continued that James was not an antihero like Kratos of the God of War series but the "perfect villain" because of him being "unassuming, a little boring, and entirely rotting from the inside". ^[6]