Game Review: Silent Hill 2 (Remake)

I have a bit of a shameful admission to get off my chest. As someone who claims to appreciate all elements of the horror video game genre, I’ve never actually played a Silent Hill video game. Don’t get me wrong I’ve always been aware of the franchise and its well-regarded reputation but even after I got over my fear of horror games, I never had the courage to visit any of the games in the series.  The closest I ever came to experiencing a game in the series was the P.T demo and we all know how that played out in the end. So, after an extended period of absence, I had resigned to the idea that I may not be playing any new Silent Hill games for the foreseeable future. Konami looks to have finally got their act together though as they announced a plethora of Silent Hill-related projects in October 2022.  One of these projects was a full-fledged remake of arguably the most iconic Silent Hill game in the entirety of the series; Silent Hill 2.

If you read my review of The Medium back in 2022 then you’ll know I was not at all impressed with Bloober Team’s work; so when they were announced as the team heading up the remake of Silent Hill 2 I had very severe doubts on their ability to properly realise the project. It seems I wasn’t alone on that fear either, as the general opinion on the internet at the time was that for such an iconic game, why would Konami not hand this to their own internal team or a more renowned developer? I think Bloober Team likely knew the reputation they were coming into the project with too as they were keen to prove they were capable of realizing the project authentically. Fast forward to October 2024 and it was time to see if they were able to pull it off.  If the critical aggregation was anything to go by, then it’s clear to see Bloober Team were successful in their objective.  Averaging a grand 87 on OpenCritic and selling over 1 million copies in four days of release, the remake of Silent Hill 2 cemented itself as a certified success.

The narrative behind Silent Hill 2 follows the central character, James Sunderland.  Widowed after the tragic passing of his wife Mary, James finds himself visiting the remote small town of Silent Hill after receiving a mysterious letter from her 3 years after her death.  Telling him that she’s waiting in their special place, James ventures deep into the dense fog that contains the town as he seeks to locate Mary.  His trip through the town will be anything but idyllic however, as he soon learns there’s a dark, twisted world tied behind it. As he is confronted by the town’s manifestations of dread and terror, James will also meet a collection of other folks who each have their own ties to the town in some form or another.  While what drives these people to Silent Hill may be unique, the town holds trials and torments aplenty for each of them and James will need to face his own collection of them if he has any hope of leaving the town alive. 

The narrative of the original game was always touted as one of the best examples of games as an art form.  From my time playing the remake, I can clearly see why.  The level of pacing and nuance which is layered into the narrative of this game is simply perfect. The game’s core focus is delivering the story through a smartly abstract format so the player can pick up on a lot of key stuff while forming their own interpretation on things.  The world in itself plays a key part in delivering the narrative too as so much of the environment shifts to deliver a key theme or message that relates to James’ sins of the past.  There’s so much to appreciate with how the games traditional and extended components work in conjunction with one another to deliver the core quality of the story.  James and the supporting cast of the game all face their own trials in this town and there’s a great level of effort to showcase how each of them are in the town for different reasons but its terror is the one element that ties them together.  None of these narrative aspects are thrown at you, the beauty of this game is it trusts the player completely to pick up on all of the implications and that’s what really contributes to the timelessness of this game.  No video game narrative has been picked apart and discussed so consistently right up until this very day as much as Silent Hill 2 has and that shows just how packed and layered this narrative truly is. 

As I mentioned just above, the world in itself deserves a devoted section all of its own in this review.  Silent Hill’s supernatural ability to shift its environment from unnerving to downright terrifying is one of the best aspects of the games core appeal. When you’re patrolling the normal buildings and fog-ridden streets of the town, there’s already a great amount of dread that seeps into you as you explore. The bleak and barren desolation that emits from the town and its many districts does such a good job in unnerving you and making you cautious to continue exploring.  When the Otherworld begins to seep into the game that unnerving feeling gets ramped up majorly and turns into actual dismay.  The Otherworld segments make the environments feel even more oppressive and harrowing as you trudge your way through them.  The way it flips your initial familiarity with the locations on its head is such a smart way to keep the player constantly on their toes.  The narrative wouldn’t be able to deliver half as well if all of the environmental work wasn’t contributing at maximum capacity. 

While the narrative format of the games is without any level of fault, I wish I could say the same about the gameplay.  James isn’t an action hero in any sense, he’s just an ordinary guy, so his ability to navigate and combat his environment and enemies has to match his limitations. He’s slow on the movement-end even with the added jog he doesn’t get much speed going. His combat capability is limited to swinging heavy loads and dealing out some damage with an arsenal of weapons he’ll find exploring the town.  The navigation elements and combat elements aren’t bad in any sense, they fairly tight and responsive for the most part. What lets these respective elements down sadly is the repetitious segments they are applied to.  So many of the combat encounters in the game come down to the same general setups.  The lack of enemy variety only reinforced that problem too in my opinion.  You’ll be dodging strikes, hitting back or laying them out with bullets.  I feel there was notable room to switch up the enemy encounters in this game to reduce that sense of fatigue.  

In terms of exploring, I love the depth and design behind all of the key locations of the game. There’s so much verticality to the environmental design and it makes exploring these areas so engaging.  While exploring these environments is fun, it’s difficult not to feel they often overstay their welcome. So much time is spent in these locations that you often end up wondering when the game will let you move on.  Despite their overbearing length, the scope and depth of these locations is realized brilliantly.  Half of what makes the game so engaging are the puzzles too. There’s a plethora of puzzles littered around each of the games core environments. These puzzles are smartly setup to have the player think and collect the necessary items to progress. There’s a decent variety to them too and the game has an added option that allows you to reduce or increase the difficulty of these puzzles depending on your desire for a challenge.

Another element that contributes massively towards the overall tone of the game is the audio work.  The audio team delivered on every conceivable level with this game.  There so much ambient audio layered into the games central mix which does its absolute best to scare the hell out of you.  There were literal moments where I was frozen in fear just because of how overbearing the audio mix could be in making you feel genuine fear. It really helps that Bloober Team got Akira Yamaoka back to compose the game as he composed the original games score as well. While the game is a visual treat, I can’t lie and ignore some of the notable performance issues I faced with the game during my time playing it on PS5 Pro.  It definitely feels like there should have been more time devoted to optimizing the game to run on the PS5 hardware.

Despite not playing the original, I can grasp the level of importance and cultural impact Silent Hill 2 has earned from my time playing the remake.  I cannot be comparative in my assessment of the two games; however, I can trust from what I’ve been hearing that this was a very faithful adaption of that title. Despite a shallow combat system, enemy variety and an uneven pacing, the game’s other stronger elements work to highlight its true quality.  It’s narrative alone does so much heavy lifting in terms if layering you with suspense and dread as you progress deeper. It’s overall vibe and tone accompany the narrative to reinforce the key themes of the game to sheer perfection.  Bloober Team have earned my respect with their work on the Silent Hill 2 remake, they’ve proven they are capable of more than their prior games have implied.  It’s already been announced that they will be heading up a remake of the original Silent Hill after their success with 2, so I’m happy to see things truly paid off for them.