Silent Hill 2 review: a stylish remake, but not definitive

It’s been years since I first played the horror game Silent Hill 2, and yet, in my restless dreams, I see that town. The liminal streets, chunky grotesque monsters, and cursed bric-a-brac have all taken up residency in my head, and with so much history, I’ll be the first to admit I was skeptical at the thought of a remake. 

For those unfamiliar with the beloved original, Silent Hill 2 centers around a grieving James Sunderland who receives a letter from his deceased wife, Mary, beckoning him to the eponymous Silent Hill. Bewildered at the letter, James heads into the town, looking for any signs of his spouse. A small cast of tormented souls ferry James through his journey, and through a series of cryptic conversations and a smattering of environmental clues, the truth of the town and James’ past slowly comes into focus.

My time with developer Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake began with James wandering towards the local graveyard, and I was immediately struck by how stark but strangely alluring the world felt. In the way New York is a character in Friends, so is the fog in Silent Hill 2, and I was relieved to see how disorienting it still was to navigate its streets, apartment buildings, and prison complexes. 

While there isn’t quite as much Comic Sans font used here as in the original, the unmistakable ambiance is much the same, permeating through the dilapidated buildings and the eerie soundscape. As James, you’ll explore the town, one area at a time, finding maps, solving think-y puzzles, and defending yourself against grotesque creatures with household items and firearms as you inch closer to finding your wife. 

Soured flesh

Fleshy and wet, the vaguely human-shaped intruders wield freaky movement and body horror aesthetics to significant effect, and this combination frequently caught me off guard. Notably, the way the mannequins lurk dormant under tables and behind doors just out of view was a source of constant terror (and delight). Despite the small pool of enemy variants throughout the game, their reactive scuttering and slithering garnered more than a few screams throughout. 

This sense of appropriate discomfort extends throughout the game, with the Brookhaven Hospital (and its nightmare mirror realm) being a particular stand out, managing to blend the sterility of medical spaces with the moldy stagnation of abandoned buildings. It’s clear that care has been taken to fine-tune the details throughout, with so many unsightly stains and muck coating the otherworld. 

One major deviation from the original game is the shift from a fixed perspective to an over-the-shoulder one, akin to Capcom’s Resident Evil remakes. Unfortunately, this active camera approach dulls the anxiety and claustrophobia that come naturally with the old CCTV-esque viewpoint. It’s safe to say that James Sunderland is not Leon Kennedy, nor is he supposed to be, and as a result, this change doesn’t quite meld with the more plot-centric storytelling that makes Silent Hill 2 so engaging. Eventually, I became steeled to the fight and started entering rooms with the rugged bravado of an action hero, which meant I wasn’t feeling so immersed in James’ fragile, vulnerable characterization.

It’s not all blood and guts, though, as an array of puzzles constantly interrupt your search and the creature encounters it brings. Ranging from bite-sized to full-on head-scratchers, the problems carefully walk the line between frustrating and rewarding. The Brookhaven Hospital section featured one of my favorites. It involved embodying a morbid Sherlock Holmes, investigating patients, and solving riddles related to their tragic end for the prize of a medical wristband, whose numbers had to be aligned carefully to access the next area. For those who've played the original game, the puzzles are primarily faithful but have been updated and tweaked slightly, so you shouldn’t be able to barrel through.

Messing with The Order

Storytelling changes from the original don’t feel quite as successful or necessary for a remake, though, and ultimately harm the pacing and subtlety of Silent Hill 2’s complex psychological themes. The addition of new areas, scenes, and extended boss fights are hit and miss throughout, with some augmenting the ambience and others detracting from the delicate subtext surrounding James’ desperate search for Mary. This is felt most in the Abstract Daddy encounter that centres around the character Angela’s traumatic backstory. In the original, it all takes place in one claustrophobic room, whereas in the remake, it manifests as a much longer, multi-stage chase-based boss fight, which dulled the circumstances surrounding the battle.

Elsewhere, I can’t help but feel that the remake loses something by stripping out the ability to interact with random clutter in the environment to read James’ contextual reactions. You can pick up and study all the most important artefacts you come across, but you can’t prompt James to respond to his surroundings often, a process that brought extra worldbuilding and nuance to the original game. It’s not entirely gone, as the voice actor sometimes steps in with a natural reaction, but it’s few and far between and makes Silent Hill 2 feel empty and lonely in a different, less effective way than its 2001 counterpart.

One aspect I found extra puzzling was the introduction of ‘glimpses of the past’, where the player can encounter homages to scenes and puzzles that haven’t been brought forward for the remake. It’s a playful touch for series veterans, but it creates a confusing situation for newcomers, who can’t easily access the original game on a modern system and may not understand what is being referenced.

Bloober Team’s remake is a fun and interesting reinterpretation for those who have played the original. Still, it’s hard to recommend this version of Silent Hill 2 to players who might want to experience the James Sunderland story at its definitive best. All the modern trappings do well to enhance the experience visually, but other decisions alter the spirit of the original game, and not always for the better.

Regardless, an area where the remake shines is in its vocal performances, and Luke Roberts carefully embodies the very difficult role of James Sunderland - particularly in cutscenes, where the quivering, motion-capped physicality and considered delivery of iconic lines brought new nuance to the character. I was always thrilled to hear Akira Yamaoka’s reimagined soundtrack too, with masterful iterative takes on legendary tracks like Null Moon exacerbating the already-unnerving atmosphere, often just when it needed a shot in the arm.

Accessibility

Silent Hill 2 has a variety of settings to tweak combat and puzzle difficulty. For combat, you can shift between difficulties freely as you play; however, for puzzles, your difficulty choice must be set before taking on the playthrough. There are multiple interface presets, too, which tweak aspects like tutorial prompts and ammo display while playing. Where combat is concerned, you can customize crosshair visibility, thickness, color, and opacity. You can also toggle on and off Low health and splatter vignettes to suit your preference. In the Controls menu, there’s an option to switch on aim assist, with the choice of how strong you’d like the magnetism to be.  

If you’re looking for alternate visual cues for items, you can also choose between options for visibility and size. This system is the same for traversal cues that make intractable obstacles more clear. Silent Hill 2 also features three color-blind modes (deuteranope, protanope, tritanope) and a color-blind mode severity slider, in addition to a high-contrast setting that highlights characters, items, and non-player characters (NPCs) in bright colors. You can select the color they appear in alongside this switch in the Display and Graphics submenu. 

Regarding audio, there are sliders to tweak Music, Effects, and Voiceover. Plus, for those who prefer a visual cue, the Radio State Indicator creates a pop-up on the screen that shows when the radio emits sound. Additionally, there’s a great selection of subtitle settings, like the ability to toggle nonverbal captions, as well as a variety of sizes, backgrounds, and fonts. In the same menu, you also can alter the transcription text, too. These options are all available through individual submenus like Gameplay and Audio. However, there is a submenu that collects specific Accessibility settings and lists them for easy access in the broader Settings menu. 

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How I reviewed Silent Hill 2 remake

I played through Silent Hill 2 on PlayStation 5 and finished it three times over approximately 25 hours, achieving five unique endings. Throughout these playthroughs, I chose the moderate difficulty for puzzles and switched between the combat difficulty from basic to advanced between playthroughs. For my screen, I used an AOC CQ27G2 27-inch QHD VA 144Hz gaming monitor, and for audio, I used my external Creative Pebble V2 computer speakers. 

I played Silent Hill 2 in performance and quality modes, jumping between 60 frames per second (fps) and 30fps. Overall, I preferred playing in performance mode, despite the quality mode (predictably) looking much nicer, as the improved fluidity aided in this more combat-focused remake. 

First reviewed October 2024