Use it, yes. Rely on it, maybe. Hit you with bad psychological symbolism like a goddamned episode of Dr. Phil tied to a 2x4 the way the second one did? Not even close.
The first used it's symbolism with subtelty, and it's plot left large portions unexplained - perfect in a game not about shock value, but the atmosphere of fear of the unknown (thus the fog and darkness). The second felt the need for in-your-face exposition about how the monsters were manufactured by the characters own psyche - of course, it never bothered to touch on how the hell their psyche's managed to manifest anything, let alone walking freudian symbols with giant swords, because that would've taken the focus away from the characters (or rather, their rather one dimensional past agonies) and back onto the fact that some majorly weird **** is going on.
Perhaps the original's lack of exposition was more a function of technological limitations and not intentional - frankly, I don't care. Intentional or not, the lack of clarity in the plot perfectly mirrored the game's tone of 'something in the darkness, hard to tell what'. The second lacked that, and lacked it big time.