Silent Hill 2
- Game mechanics – 90%
- History – 90%
- Music – 90%
- Graphics – 90%
Summary
The remake of Silent Hill 2 came to silence doubts and give us a very good reimagination of the original game that maintains the bases of its interesting story but expands it in an organic and great way. In addition, it uses modern technologies to immerse us fully in its world of psychological terror, which gives us hope for the future of this saga that was dormant.
- Genre: Survival Horror
- Platform: PS5, PC
- Premiere: 10/08/2024
- Publisher: Konami
- Developer: Bloober Team
Since a remake of Silent Hill 2 The prospectus was controversial. Firstly, due to the decision to give the project to Bloober Team, who have a somewhat irregular track record. Then came the advancements and concerns increased due to perceived quality.
Now thanks to Konami I had the opportunity to play this reimagining of this title and I can say that all doubts were dispelled. Bloober Team managed to do justice to the original while carefully extending its already quite interesting story.
The important thing about our review of Silent Hill 2
What is Silent Hill 2 about?
Silent Hill 2 puts us in the role of James Sunderland. He arrives at the eponymous town to look for his wife after receiving a letter where she tells him that she is waiting for him in her special place.. The strange thing about this is that his wife passed away three years ago, so James has to get to the bottom of this.
What follows is a journey through a town with practically no inhabitants, but full of grotesque creatures. Throughout the trip, James also has contact with other people who came to the place with their own objectives. The mystery of the town and what brought each person there unfolds as we play with very interesting and shocking twists.
Those who played the Silent Hill 2 original you should know that in general the story is the same. However, Bloober Team took the opportunity to give more weight and context to the rest of the characters James meets on his journey.. In addition, it also allows us to delve deeper into his way of thinking and his relationship with his wife through some additional scenes.
It is also loaded with many new notes scattered throughout the settings that give us a glimpse into the history of the town. Not to mention, several have their own grim and uncomfortable narratives to draw you further into this atmosphere of psychological horror.. Just like 23 years ago, the story is what shines the brightest.
Gameplay remains focused on exploration and puzzles
One of the first advances of the gameplay of Silent Hill 2 It focused entirely on its combat which led to believe that they would deviate from the more methodical and slow gameplay of the original. However, the remake is also more focused on exploration and solving puzzles to advance.
Most of your time you will be looking for keys and various objects to open different doors that will take you to your next objective. This is almost always related to puzzles that are quite varied as well as challenging. I played at the normal level of puzzles and I still had to use my brain a lot to solve them, since the answers are never obvious.
Of course there is also combat and I find it to be much more consistent than in the original. The first Silent Hill 2 gave you enough possibilities to avoid confrontations. Practically outside of the bosses it was not totally necessary to fight. While the remake, while keeping it optional, no longer makes it so easy to escape from the various creatures that roam around.
The monsters here are much more aggressive and more intelligent. Not to mention that the game now doesn’t pause completely when you view your inventory, your map or pick up items. So if you want to calmly analyze your next move, you’ll have to make sure you eliminate any threats.
That said, the combat is pretty basic, although honestly not even Silent Hill 2 shined in this regard. You have a melee weapon and as you progress you find some firearms. Since this is a survival horror, bullets are very scarce, so a combination of both is your best option to survive. In some ways his combat is similar to that of The Callisto Protocol.
Silent Hill 2 gives us a much larger town
From the Silent Hill 2 original you could explore the town in certain sections. Bloober Team rescues this but gives us more objectives to complete and areas to explore. Now you can enter several of its buildings, which keep objects that could be very helpful for your trip.. Of course you will have to evaluate if it is worth taking the risk.
There are also certain optional puzzles scattered around that you could easily overlook. It is highly recommended to explore when you have the opportunity, although it is also riskier than in the original. In my opinion there are more monsters and as I mentioned, it is now more difficult to avoid them.
Additionally, the city feels much larger with longer streets and more open sections than in the original. This gives Silent Hill 2 a more gloomy touch when seeing so many abandoned places and in different states of decomposition. Without leaving aside the terrifying messages written on floors and walls.
This expansion also reaches the main stages of the game. Fans of the original will remember that there are three main locations where most of the action takes place. They all received alterations in the remake which makes us spend much more time on them.
Additionally, Bloober Team plays with what fans expect in a very creative way. Practically everything from Silent Hill 2 is there, but they change some events and some locations to make it a fairly fresh experience even for those who know the original inside and out.
The atmosphere is still king here
Something that should be taken into account by those who approach it for the first time. Silent Hill 2 is that it is a game more focused on creating an atmosphere. Bloober Team understood this perfectly and gives us a title that makes you feel very uncomfortable at all times, helped by modern technologies.
My playtime was on PS5 which makes great use of the DualSense to contribute to the fear factor. Radio static comes from their speakers, telling you that enemies are nearby. In addition, its haptic response makes you feel the creak of the decaying floors and even the footsteps of a certain tireless hunter roaming around.
Inside closed spaces the environment is excessively dark, which makes you feel very uncertain about what may be hiding in the shadows.. Even when you have your flashlight, it only illuminates a small part, so you must be very methodical with your progress if you don’t want to come across an unpleasant surprise.
Silent Hill 2 It is not a game to run from here to there nor loaded with a lot of action. However, it is a very good experience for those horror fans, because every moment you will be full of uncertainty thanks to a great sound setting, very good visuals and the haptic possibilities of the DualSense that make it a very immersive experience.
Silent Hill 2 Remake is much longer than the original
One of the concerns that surrounded the remake of Silent Hill 2 It’s that they would simply make it as a carbon copy of the original. This implied its duration, since the original can be finished between 5 or 6 hours. Now I can tell you to forget about that worry, because we are facing an experience that will take you a long time.
As a way of comparison, the main scenarios in the original game could be finished in an hour or an hour and a half at most. Here each of these places could take you between three and four hours to finish. As I mentioned, they extended them quite a bit with more objectives and new puzzles to complete.
In addition to this, there is the fact that between these scenarios you have the opportunity to explore other parts of the town, so your time in Silent Hill 2 is considerably increased. Getting to its end credits will take you about 15 hours or more depending on how exploratory you feel.
In addition to this, there are different endings and some new collectibles that I won’t spoil. So you have enough incentive to go through it again to try to get everything you missed or to get one of its alternate endings. I think it would be a worthwhile investment, especially if you are a fan of this saga.
Not everything can be perfect
Although with Silent Hill 2 Bloober Team shut us down on several concerns, it’s not a perfect game. One of the parts that suffers the most is performance. Especially when exploring the city I ran into a constant, although really minor, problem.
Perhaps because of all the fog that must be generated and the elements on the screen, several times while exploring there is a lot of texture pop-in. In addition, sometimes the game stops loading the scenarios for a moment before letting you continue. Although I didn’t consider it that annoying, it was very noticeable. This does not happen indoors.
The combat can also be somewhat repetitive and unchallenging, which could turn off many. Although the variety of enemies is greater than in the original, they can all be defeated in the same way. As for hand-to-hand combat, it becomes a game of hitting twice, dodging and repeating the process until your enemy falls.
I also think that the combat was designed to be one-on-one which makes it somewhat frustrating when you are surrounded by several enemies. Especially because the more you progress in Silent Hill 2there are more creatures and the spaces become more closed.
Is the Silent Hill 2 remake worth it?
As a fan of the original and after seeing several trailers for the remake, I was one of those who did not trust that Silent Hill 2 was a worthy reimagining. However, I can say that Bloober Team went above and beyond to give us a very good title that stands on its own merits.
It maintains the engaging story of the original while adding much more context. It makes use of new technologies to offer us a much more uncomfortable and immersive experience. Finally, it extends each of its main scenarios in a great and unforced way to offer a game that keeps you trapped for many hours.
I also think that not only does it work as a great remake of Silent Hill 2also as a hopeful glimpse of what the saga could be if given the chance to come back to life. It shows that there’s a lot of juice to be had in the current generation, it’s just a matter of Konami wanting to take advantage of it and the teams behind it showing an understanding of what made it so beloved in the first place. If you get to play it, don’t forget to share your opinion on our Discord.
We play Silent Hill 2 on PlayStation 5 with a code provided by a Konami representative in the region
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