I am convinced that the smallest change of Silent Hill 2 remake is its smartest

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I am convinced that the smallest change of Silent Hill 2 remake is its smartest

The Silent Hill 2 Remake makes many changes to the original game, some big and some small – but the most inconsequential change can have the biggest impact. Although the history of Silent Hill 2 is left intact from beginning to end, you will find various changes throughout: James’ meeting with Eddie and Laura, for example, has been moved to the movies instead of the bowling alley, and Maria has a little more interactive dialogue, but the general story Arc is basically identical.

The combat has undergone its share of game-changing alterationstoo. The switch to a third-person perspective has far-reaching implications for gameplay, and the updated shooting mechanics feel completely different – but at the end of the day, they get the same point across. What really makes these Silent Hill 2 Remake A fresh experience is the introduction of a completely new puzzle system that forced me to pay attention, preserving its predecessor’s replay value while establishing its own identity.

How the remake of Silent Hill 2 changes its puzzles

The simple, complicated

When I first started playing the Silent Hill 2 Remake, I started following the route I always had in the original: get to the van on Saul Street, go to Nellie’s for the key, and go to Wood Side Apartments. However, when I first came to Nellie’s, I ran into a roadblock I didn’t expect: I had to fix a broken jukebox machine to get the wood sided keys. To do this, I had to go first to the record store, then to Saul’s apartments, none of which were explorable in the original game.

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I had to solve further puzzles at each of these locations, navigate the twisting, condemned corridors of another apartment building before I even made it to the wood siding, and piece together two halves of a broken record to make a Whole. This was, I would soon find, a microcosm for those Silent Hill 2 Remake’s approach to puzzles: The broad strokes were largely the same, but the finer details were expanded and complicated in the remodeled version..

You will still fix their clocks, but first you will have to find all the hands. Later, at the Lakeview Hotel, you’ll be collecting princess figurines to put in the oversized music box, but you’ll have to navigate them through a sort of maze before you can claim your prize. These diversions are not always welcome; At times, they made the game drag out as it presented tangential lore that added little to my experience.

In the scheme of ​​things, the changes are so inconsequential that if you just played Silent Hill 2 Once and a few years have gone by since, you may not even notice them. Compared to the updated graphics and completely revamped combat, they escape notice. Their similarities to the original versions help them blend seamlessly into an otherwise perfectly faithful adaptation. They do not change the core meaning of the game, the symbolism behind the cryptic puzzles, in any significant way. But what they did, every time, was Make me pay attention to what I was doing.

Experiencing Silent Hill 2 for the first time again

The remake’s puzzles require attention


James from Silent Hill 2 remake with a monster
Custom image by Katarina Cimbaljevic

Here’s the thing: I played Silent Hill 2 Some time before the remake was even announced. I was confident that I could play through the entire remake without ever getting stuck, without once looking up a puzzle’s solution or having to retrace my steps to see what I’d missed. The only reason I thought so highly of my own abilities was because I assumed the puzzles and boss fights would be exactly the same; I didn’t see the changes coming. And Time and again they left me speechless.

It seemed like the remake’s most inconsequential change was my favorite thing about it. Because I do not know all the puzzle solutions and jump scares from the top of my head, I had to pay attention to everything. I had to search every memo for clues, search every room completely for things. The result was that I experienced these Silent Hill 2 Remake with heightened intensity. It wasn’t like my whipped replay of the original version; It was like I was playing it again for the very first time.

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Every emotional story moment hit me like a truck, and jump scares I should have seen coming nearly sent me flying out of my seat. I take pride and satisfaction in solving each new puzzle, where the same old one would leave me scoffing at each long ago. It was difficult to place these Silent Hill 2 remake down – I was looking for the next dopamine hit from each successive puzzle, and was constantly clamoring to see what was coming next in the story, even if I knew exactly what was about to happen.

Silent Hill 2’s puzzle changes also work in reverse

Remake first timers will find a lot to love about the original


Silent Hill 2 remake and HD picture with two characters

I came to the Silent Hill 2 Remake as a veteran fan, and enjoyed the changes to its puzzles because they made me experience the game as for the first time. But for series newcomers who have absolutely no experience with the original, The changes will work much the same in reverse. Although the remake is as faithful as such a thing can be, there is still value in playing the original Silent Hill 2Not just to note how groundbreaking and technologically impressive it was for its time. But why would someone who played the remake ever seek out the original Silent Hill 2?

Just as the different puzzles piqued my interest during the remake, So too will the original game’s puzzles demand the attention of anyone looking for them after playing the remake for the first time. Certain story beats will be as unexpected to them as they were to me in the remake. They will hit with the same emotional punch as they did during the player’s first run of the remake. While there is value in playing both, it really won’t matter if you’ve played the original Silent Hill 2 Or the remake first – whichever one you move on to next, it will feel fresh and new.

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