A surprisingly fresh take on a survival horror classic

The Silent Hill 2 Remake, developed by Bloober Team and published by series originator Konami, had a Herculean task before it. Any time such a beloved classic is subjected to the remake treatment, it inevitably opens itself up to unfavorable comparison. This is only exacerbated by the marketing of the remake, which consistently misrepresents the focus and nature of the game, and you have a recipe for disaster.

I am of the opinion that A remake can never replace an original. No matter how clunky the original’s combat, how stilted its voice acting, how blocky the graphics – and no matter how flashy the remake – I maintain that there is always value in seeking out and playing the classics, especially something as groundbreaking as Silent Hill 2. (And sometimes, the clunkiness is the point.)

The best thing a remake can do is build on the original. Instead of trying to offer an equivalent experience, or worse, better, it should try to be similar, but distinct, to offer something new, whether it’s your first or your fiftieth time playing. Fortunately, it is a tall order, however It’s one that the Silent Hill 2 Remake delivers surprisingly well. I don’t always agree with the choices it makes along the way, but it manages to impress me, surprise me, and leave me wanting more at almost every turn.

Quiet Hill (almost) just as you remember it

The SH2 remake made me deja vu

It should come as no surprise that All the plot aspects of Silent Hill 2 are left completely intact in the remake. This is the same horror story that fans are surely familiar with: James Sunderland receives a letter from his late wife urging him to come back to Silent Hill, a small lakeside retreat where they once spent a pleasant vacation. But he finds only a ghost town, shrouded in fog and populated almost exclusively by twisted monsters. As he searches for Mary, he descends deeper into his own fear and guilt, eventually coming to face some uncomfortable truths buried deep in his own psyche.

This is supported by Pitch-perfect presentation across the board. The Silent Hill 2 Remake nails every aspect of the original’s creepy atmosphere: the dreamlike voice acting, the Dutch angles, and the thick layer of fog that blankets it all. Silent Hill looks gorgeously grotesque in 4K. All the big set pieces, from the opening sequence in the cliffside parking lot to the long row across Toluca Lake, are stunningly rendered and leave a lasting impression of terror and angst.

The Silent Hill 2 Remake replaced fixed camera angles with a more standard third-person point of view. The original version uses forced perspectives to create dread: you can never really see what’s coming around the corner until the game wants you to. The remake instead uses impenetrable darkness and some clever enemy AI tricks to the same effect. Jacob’s flashlight is weak, and always seems to flicker when you need it most. Sometimes, you will recognize a monster in the corner of your eye for just a fraction of a second, before it throws away and hides.

Akira Yamaoka, the original game’s composer, also returned for the remakeAnd all the skin-crawling crawls, screeches and scratches sound just as terrible as ever. The haunting sound design is supported by an immersive new system of haptic feedback, in which the controller rumbles as Pyramid Head drags his knife around the floor above you, or pitter-patters lightly as you walk through the rain.

in short, The Silent Hill 2 Remake strikes the same perfect balance between Creepy atmosphere, moral strife, and emotional honestyMaking excellent use of the PS5’s hardware to do so. I was faced with the same elements of the story and afraid of the same dark corners as I always was.

The only major difference is that There are two new endings in the remakeAnd I can hardly fault the Bloober team for wanting to expand in that direction. I hardly even noticed the other miniscule changes, which mostly just consisted of rearranged story scenes – necessary to preserve the pacing in this slightly more take on the Silent Hill 2 History.

The Silent Hill 2 remake demands your attention

Remixed puzzles and story elements

When I first started these Silent Hill 2 Remake, the well-executed familiarity of its opening chapter lulled me into a sense of calm. When I did the long walk into town, muscle memory took over, and I started following the same route I always took in the original version. But I soon noticed that something was missing: I hit a road block that I had never seen before. I had to fix a broken jukebox before I could pick up the apartment key.

This is probably the single biggest change made by the remake: The broad strokes of his puzzle solving are the same, but the details are completely different. You’ll still place grandfather clocks in the Woodside Apartments, but you’ll have to find all the hands first. The order in which you explore some rooms has been rearranged, and some story bits take place in slightly different locations.

This had a fascinating effect on me: It forced me to pay attention to the remake In a way that would not be possible when replaying the original for the thousandth time. Without knowing the answers, I had to study the maps carefully and relearn all the bosses’ new movesets. The result was that I survived Silent Hill 2 With a heightened intensity, almost as if I were playing it for the first time Again.

The new puzzles aren’t all good – there are more of them in the remake, And this makes it drag in some places. In particular, the Brookhaven Hospital and Toluca Prison segments were a bit longer than I would have liked them to be. They reveal some extra knowledge tidbits, but it’s not always worth the effort – learning about the hospital director’s own declining mental health didn’t really add anything to my experience. Even so, the detours are generally short, and the action always picks back up soon after.

The combat of the Silent Hill 2 remake is different, but effective

No complaints here

Combat was probably the most controversial aspect of these Silent Hill 2 Remake. A heavily edited trailer from earlier this (by PlayStation), dubbed the remake’s “Combat Reveal“, presented it as a camp-standard third-person shooter, with Jacob running and gunning down bubble nurses as he jumped between buildings. Many bristled at the idea that a game like Silent Hill 2 would need a “Combat Reveal“In the first place – His clunky combat sends home the idea that James is, at least physically, an average Joe thrust into a world of horror. Out of his mind.

But be sure, The combat is just as challenging in the remake. Sure, it’s a little snappier, and the enemies move a little faster. But James doesn’t have any fancy new maneuvers: if anything, his aim is worse. You really need to stand still and time your shots carefully to avoid depleting your severely limited ammo reserves. When enemies hit you back, they hit hard, and you have to run away and quickly recover (while also rationing your healing items) to stay alive.

The difficulty extends to boss battles, tooWhich I found harder than in the original Silent Hill 2. The bosses seem to move much faster, and getting a shot is much tougher. Enemies that I defeated easily on my first-ever playthrough took me several tries this time around.

Honestly, the biggest complaint I can dredge up about the combat is that The camera movement is a bit wonky. When James uses a melee attack, the unit lunges forward violently with it, making it easy to lose the enemy he targeted in the Chaotic Whiplash. But in practice, this only adds to the challenge, reflecting James’ pain and panic as he is rocked by the physical manifestation of his own guilt.

Final Thoughts on Silent Hill 2 Remake & Review Score

8/10: A pleasant surprise on all counts

In an October stacked with incredible horror releases, Silent Hill 2 stands out. Not only because of the brand recognition (though it is strong), but because of its deft handling of its difficult subject matter and psychological horror presentation. The Silent Hill 2 Remake is filled with great fear and concern for its source material. Without a modern remaster, this is a perfectly acceptable way to experience Silent Hill 2 For the first or the fiftieth time.

It will never replace the original, but the Silent Hill 2 Remake has enough new to offer that it deserves its place in the series canon. In faithfully recreating the original game and providing new surprises for returning players, it justifies not only its own existence, but also the viability of a large-scale. Quiet Hill Revival. If this is the start of a longer collaboration between Bloober and Konami, I’m looking forward to what comes of it next. For now, you can find me starting my second game of Silent Hill 2.