I played the Silent Hill 2 remake and cried and winced many times. That’s not bad for an accurate remake of a 23-year-old horror game that most people know even if they’ve never played it. That’s mainly thanks to the Mannequin, an enemy that looks like a leg with an extra leg on top. They have a horrible habit of just standing in plain sight, tucked into a corner, or nestled against some shelves. Even though it looks perfect, it’s somehow very easy to miss. “Let’s explore this dark and empty room, LEGSINMYFACE! Oh God, why are there so many legs on my face!
Just a few hours into the game, I ended up standing outside a room for so long, nervously peering inside to see if I had extra limbs, that I ended up twitching and wrecking my life. Even without the leggy jump scares, Silent Hill 2’s atmosphere and overall mood is grimy and foreboding tense anticipation. Sure, it owes a lot to using the original like a mold and pushing out an exact reproduction rather than sculpting a new one, but it works well – the darkness only makes the situation worse A weak flashlight, and a screeching grinding loop all around. Your nerves will be stimulated while you explore, giving you a satisfying horror experience.
Satisfied is probably not the first word you’d expect to use to sum up a game famous for its murderous nurses and sexually repressed purgatory, but it’s the perfect word to describe my experience. That’s a word. It’s a big, well-done interpretation, perhaps a little too safe in its careful replication, but in doing so it (re)creates a great horror game full of pace, variety, and moody foreboding. did.
Remaking a game that’s embedded in almost everyone’s subconscious, whether you’ve played it or not, is always going to be a bit of a poisoned chalice. Even outside of the die-hard fan base, almost everyone has some idea of the main points of the story, the background, the monsters, etc. Do you risk backlash by reinterpreting and changing things, or do you just play it safe and follow what’s already out there? Bloober Team is firmly in the latter, and that’s a good thing But I was often struck by how closely it followed the original. As a result, the puzzles have been remixed and some very small changes have been made to things like boss fights, but otherwise it’s more of a reenactment than a remake. It suggests either a fear of changing something or a rigidity that prevents it.
Be particular about the source
(Image provided by: Konami)
simple facts
Release date: October 8, 2024
Platform: PS5, PC
Developer: Bloober Team
Publisher: Konami
I think it would have been nice to see some little updates here and there, like tweaks to the characters, dialogue, plot progression, etc. Following the original so closely feels off in some ways, and moments that recreate the story and game design from 2001 can feel awkward. Some later areas also feel a little bloated, but this is often to flesh out minor puzzles or areas that could have been better cut. But that’s not a big problem, and there are some changes that could lead to improvements, such as more subtle facial animations and performance. At first all the characters speak in a subtle, almost imperceptible, dream-like way, as if they know something is wrong but are not awake enough to fully understand it. This really helps sell Silent Hill as a predatory entity and disorients the prey it lures.
Overall, updates are mostly very non-invasive. It has better controls, an updated camera, and an overall look that is a bit degraded by today’s standards. For example, the small pool of monsters (basically the three core creatures that make up 90% of the game) loses a bit of mystery at higher resolutions. Something like the reclining figure wearing the wreath had a much more membranous, amniotic feel (to me) than the original straitjacket look, but here it’s more straight vinyl. Shows the appearance of a manufactured gimp suit. I know it’s technically in line with designer Masahiro Ito’s intent for the original body bag, but the sharper clarity here doesn’t seem to have been created by the technical limitations of the original game. It lacks the ambiguity of interpretation. The nurse, perhaps Silent Hill’s greatest contribution to popular culture, doesn’t actually appear here either. They are dangerous and scary because they can kill you, but they have little charisma. Other than a ready-made head-shaking animation, their movements don’t have much threat or character.
(Image provided by: Konami)
When it first opened, I was worried that the clarity of 4K would remove the foggy uncertainty and fear. When you first explore the town, it feels like you’re exposed to a game where the town is so clear and visible that you’re frustratingly squinting through the fog. But fortunately, it doesn’t last long. Once you reach the first large indoor area, the Wood Side Apartments, the game takes a frightening turn for the worse. This is a good thing here. And as soon as you start exploring the peeling room, things plunge into filthy, dark depths from which they never recover. (Again, a good thing.)
Wood Side Apartments also establishes an overall structure that repeats throughout much of the playtime. That means splitting your time between solving large interconnected puzzle hubs and exploring more open areas of town. For example, getting around the peeling walls in Woodside revolves around finding the clock and finding the three hands needed to set the time. Each hand is linked to a different door, and behind it is a small sub-area with its own puzzle theme to keep track of. In this case, each counts the wings of a moth, balances a weight and pulls a chain.
In general, all the interiors follow the idea of a doohickey with one large central puzzle around which various mini-puzzles get numbers, decorations, and other things you need. Most of the time there are clues to interpret, some fun detective work, and sometimes you just need to find a key, so there’s a lot of variety. That said, it can get a bit tiring in the later stages, especially when you’re lugging around multiple belongings and rattling around levels with your pockets stuffed with junk that has to go somewhere.
Let’s solve the puzzle
(Image provided by: Konami)
I don’t think I’ve ever played a game with so many puzzles that wasn’t explicitly a “puzzle game.” Even if you added 7 and Village to all the recent Resident Evil remakes, it wouldn’t even be half as many as the Silent Hill 2 remake has. By the end, it may feel like you’ve been working on the puzzle for hours on end. Most of them are fun to solve, but there are a few that feel busy, disjointed and sluggish, or choose the least intuitive answers possible, and I still occasionally talk about them. I thought about it and muttered, “Really?!” To myself.
Mostly, though, the interior of Puzzle Hub is broken up by exploring sections of the open city, with nice ebbs and flows between “oh, you’re going to die” hallways and “run away now” streets. I am creating it. Combat is a combination of awkward pipe swings and wobbly aiming, and protagonist James Sunderland is skilled enough to take out single enemies with planks and pistols without too much trouble, making attacks somewhat difficult. It also takes the help of evasive movements to avoid it. But when you’re dealing with multiple critters or in a small space with poor lighting, things can quickly go south if you flap anything that passes in front of your flashlight.
In terms of challenge, hardcore players may want to kick the difficulty up a notch. I always had an unnecessary excess of ammo and often found myself limping from one health drink to the next in internal sections, while another player I spoke to said that for most of the game, I had over 30 healing items. This could be due to a patch that dropped during my playthrough, or it could be due to different playstyles. I compare hoarding ammo and cluttering piles with pipes to carefully stealthing and headshotting to avoid contact. most enemies.
(Image provided by: Konami)
More endings are coming!
The original Silent Hill 2 had six endings, but the remake has eight. Like its predecessor, there are only three at first, and the rest can only be unlocked by a combination of first getting all three starter options, and then finding and using new items in NG+.
In any case, we encourage you to experiment with almost every aspect of controls, gameplay, UI, and appearance, as well as the plethora of options for adjusting the challenge. The only thing I really wanted to change and couldn’t was the strange decision to have James automatically draw his weapon when an enemy was nearby. This completely undermines the ambiguity of the iconic radio, which was intended to warn of danger more generally.
No matter how you approach it, Silent Hill 2 is an atmospheric and challenging horror game that rivals the Resident Evil remake that reinvented the classic. The strict adherence to the past feels a bit constrained at times, and it lacks a few points as a result, but it does a good job of recreating the feel of the original. Despite a sprinkling of minor issues, the negativity stems from the belief that the new Silent Hill 2 Remake could have been better, rather than anything actually being bad. The whole thing ultimately pays off, and does a good job of making the series feel meaningful and relevant in a way it hasn’t felt in years.
Silent Hill 2 was reviewed on PS5 using a code provided by the publisher.
