Review – Silent Hill 2

When Konami revealed that the Silent Hill franchise was finally making a huge comeback, I was both excited and extremely sceptical. It had been ten years since the cancellation of Hideo Kojima’s P.T., and even longer since the last mainline title, which wasn’t exactly a good game itself. We have had a huge amount of announcements, but the biggest of them was a remake of the most famous game in the series, Silent Hill 2.

However, the return of Silent Hill has been relatively mixed so far. Ascension was a microtransaction-filled disaster that has been swept under the rug. Whilst The Short Message actually provided something that whilst flawed provided a compelling enough narrative. Plus the developer of the remake didn’t give us the most hope; however, they pulled through and delivered one of the best remakes we’ve seen.

Return to Silent Hill

Three years after James Sunderlands’ wife Mary dies from an illness, he mysteriously receives a letter from her. Telling him she is waiting at their special place in the town of Silent Hill. However, after arriving at the titular town he soon realises something is not quite right. The town has long been abandoned, an unnatural fog encompasses the whole town with no one around at all and worst of all it’s overrun by monsters. Regardless, James heads into the town to find his wife.

The story of Silent Hill 2, back when it first launched, was a masterclass, with plenty of twists and turns, whilst dealing with themes of trauma, abuse and self-harm, that were a rarity back then, and still holds up incredibly well today, with impeccable twists and great character and world building. It really paved the way for some of the best modern psychological horror games. Games like Signalis, SOMA and Mouthwashing owe their entire existence to Silent Hill 2.

It was absolutely critical that Bloober Team would recreate this story perfectly and for the most part it does. Every iconic moment of the original release is still here. The story is largely the same but with a few sensible tweaks to expand it out just a little bit more whilst staying faithful to the source material. This is very much in line with the Dead Space remake in terms of how it delivers the same story.

Gameplay

Silent Hill 2 has you exploring the titular town in search of Mary. From the rain-soaked streets shrouded in a dense fog to apartment buildings, hospital and otherworld. Exploration of each of these zones is tense, full of secrets, puzzles and monsters to encounter. Exploration is the most important aspect of Silent Hills gameplay loop and the delivery is. Despite being a fairly linear experience; Bloober Team have done a great job of making the town feel larger and lived in. Areas that were previously closed off are now accessible with streets stretching out further than before. However; it’s also a fairly linear title, there is a clear path to follow. You won’t be getting lost, thanks to the well-crafted map that James will often make notes on.

One of the biggest parts of the survival horror genre is actually the puzzles, and for the most part, horror games have slipped on this. Not here though, puzzles are a central pillar of the game design. I played on the game’s harder puzzle difficulty and this seems to not only remove a lot of the hints but overhaul the puzzles making them much harder. Forcing me to pay much closer attention to the environments and hints given in the riddles. It’s nice to have a horror game focus a little on the puzzles again even if they are sometimes a little too obtuse. If you don’t mind some obtuse puzzle design then absolutely bring this up to hard.

Whilst exploration and puzzle solving are the biggest part of the original Silent Hill 2 and largely the same here as well the core gameplay is where Bloober have taken the most risks. Forcing more close-quarters encounters than ever before and completely overhauling the mechanics to make it also feel a little bit more modern, no longer having to battle with the controls. James can dodge and perform basic combo’s and that’s about it for the melee combat. You will also gain access to a rather small collection of firearms as well and they all feel fine, dealing a good amount of damage and able to stun enemies with ease. Giving you an opportunity to finish them off in melee or take out larger groups.

Whilst the results aren’t exactly spectacular they are at the very least functional. Bringing it closer in lin to the Resident Evil 2 Remake but not hitting those stunning heights.Nothing about the combat is particularly exciting but it achieves it exactly what it sets out to do.  At it’s best it can be very intense with mannequin enemies scattering the place, hiding behind corners ready to ambush you. In these moments. At it’s worst the core gameplay is just a touch repetitive. To the game’s credit combat was never the focus and a lot of work has been done to make the regular enemy encounters feel that more special.

For the vast majority of the game you will be dealing with some of the more basic enemy types. This does eventually start becoming a chore as they all have the same attack pattern, if you played Callisto Protocol it’s pretty similar in the approach to melee combat. However; when new enemy types like the nurse get introduced in the second half it becomes all the more exciting again with different variations of each enemy type being added. A lot more challenging with some unpredictable attack patterns and longer attack chains to watch out for.

I don’t want to spoil too much about them, but boss fights are also a significant step up from the original which were really basic. Here though they provide the game’s most unique and engaging moments and this is when the gameplay of Silent Hill 2 goes from good to great. I was on the edge of my seat for a lot of these. However; I was hoping for a better final boss which didn’t hit land as much as the others.

Playing on the game’s “normal” combat difficulty (difficulty is separated between combat and puzzles) I didn’t find myself being challenged. I didn’t die once in my playthrough and ammunition and health supplies were abundant, by the time I reached even the halfway mark I was sitting at around 100+ pistol bullets and a couple dozen health supplies. By the final stretch, I was so stocked up on supplies it would be impossible for me to fail at any point. Regardless of this, I would actually recommend normal on your first playthrough as it keeps the pacing going as the story is the driving force behind the game.

I am currently on a second playthrough on Hard difficulty for combat and this feels much harsher and in line with what hardcore survival horror fans would be looking for. Resources are scarce and combat encounters are much more difficult. You will be on the edge almost the entire time trying to find more ammo and healing supplies. However; I would recommend keeping this for a second playthrough. The story comes first in Silent Hill 2.

So is Silent Hill 2 Remake actually scary? For the most part… yes! The opening half builds up tension incredibly well with some solid scares on top of that. However; some of the scares do wear off and become more annoying, namely placing mannequins all over the place and it just became more comical than scary. Then after a key moment, the game just becomes incredibly oppressive, and the second half was a brutally long gauntlet of horror and suspense that was masterfully crafted. Keeping me hooked at every moment. I didn’t think Bloober Team had it in them to deliver such a stretch of horror but it is a shame they stumbled on some jump scares.

A UE5 Showcase

Despite my criticisms of Bloober Team if there’s one place they have always excelled at it’s creating a moody atmosphere and detailed environments.   Pushing the limits further with each of their games peaking with Layers of Fear… until now. Silent Hill 2 looks absolutely stunning with incredibly detailed environments and some of the best character models of the year. Recreated in Unreal Engine 5 this is arguably one of the best looking games out there right now. Occasionally let down by some rough performance and the signature stutter when transitioning between areas though it didn’t take me out of the experience much.

Bloober has managed to retain that same oppressive feeling of the original game. Visibility is incredibly limited whether the world is enshrouded in a thick fog, or you are pushing through overwhelming darkness with your light only pushing mere feet in front of you. Even James’ flashlight which you only get a few hours in doesn’t illuminate entire rooms and keeps it suitably dark. Normally I don’t like it when a game is dark just for the sake of being dark, however, it’s done just right here.

Whilst the gameplay is fully supported in ultrawide which immensely improves immersion into the game world cutscenes are unfortunately rendered in 16:9 which is a bit of a shame as the framing and cinematography is amazing. The iconic scene of Angela and James in the apartments is further enhanced by modern techniques. Not only that, it’s interesting to think that the mirror trick of literally duplicating the world isn’t needed here. A mirror functions as a mirror with no tricks, yet has the same results. Just showcases how impressive the original was 20 years ago.

Sound design is also superb. With some absolutely stellar environment. Constantly playing tricks with some great details that become more apparent on repeat playthroughs. Akira Yamoaka returns to help deliver a new arrangement of the iconic soundtrack.  All of this is helped along with a great cast that really captures the dark and depressing nature of Silent Hill. There are some occasional rough line delivery, namely with Angela but it’s never enough to undermine the story or pull me out of the experience. However; this is minor and any rough line delivery is often followed up with some great voice acting.

Silent Hill 2

As a whole, the Silent Hill 2 remake is a bold and ambitious project. By the end of my playthrough, my save registered around 15 hours, with a huge amount of exploration completed. This is much bigger than the original release, almost doubling the playtime for the average first playthrough, and for the most part, this works. It allows Bloober to really delve deeper into a lot of the locations which feel like footnotes in the original by comparison. It does drag its feet occasionally with a few sections being extended for a touch too long with exhaustive combat sections, overly long puzzles or repetitive design. However; this never becomes a serious problem and whenever the game feels like it’s starting to lose grasp something happens to pull you back in.

Just like the original, we have a wide variety of endings to achieve, based on your actions throughout the game; some subtle, and some not so subtle. Going into NG+, you won’t carry over any weapons, ammo or health supplies, but you will find some new things to uncover. Sadly though, there’s not much in the way of new weapons, in New Game+, which would go a long way to increase that replay value even further.

Would I recommend the remake over the original? This may be a cop-out answer, but no. I would recommend anyone to try to play both if they can, although I’m aware of the hurdles nowadays. While the story and design are largely the same, how they accomplish the goals is different, and some things still hit differently. I don’t see the remake as a replacement, but something that can live alongside the original.

The Silent Hill 2 remake surprised me in the best of ways. It managed to overcome the development team’s shortcomings, as well as a ton of unnecessary pre-launch skepticism, whilst delivering a faithful yet bold new remake. It allowes for a much wider audience to be able to experience such a timeless narrative. Whilst the gameplay does have its issues, just like the original, this is still one of the most compelling video game stories of all time, in a brand new and astonishing horror experience.

A creepy yet breathtaking display of technology, respect to the original, art direction, and more.	The core gameplay mechanics do get a touch repetitive but strong level design and engaging puzzles bring it back up.
Akira Yamaoka delivers a refreshed version of the legendary soundtrack, whilst the voice cast does a mostly stellar job.	A faithful but bold remake that expands on the original whilst providing a fresh experience for both newcomers and veterans.
Final Verdict: 9.0

Silent Hill 2 is available now on PC and PlayStation 5.

Reviewed on PC with an RTX 4070, Ryzen 7 7800X3D and 32GB RAM.

Check these out!