The Silent Hill 2 remake is best when it feels like the original

Before we sit down to spend three hours Silent Hill 2 Remake At a recent press event in London hosted by Konami, we were shown a new trailer. Like the previous trailers, it made me skeptical. Although I am not against the project of a remake Silent Hill 2I’m skeptical of any modernization instinct that replaces the old, the strange, and even the repulsive with the same glassy generic AAA games of the 2020s.

After getting my hands on it, I think some of that skepticism is justified. I also think the original Silent Hill 2 is a very, very good video game.

In the opening section, James jogging through the streets could be any game with a multimillion-dollar budget you can get on the PS5. Yes, it’s foggy, but other than that, it’s boring. The switch to an over-the-shoulder camera, the smashing of windows to search drawers for health items, and the white cloth marking locations to interact with all feel non-specific.

The latter two mechanics also suggest the game will be bigger, possibly significantly so. We’re told the game will last over 12 hours, while the original was around eight. For example, Neely’s Bar – once a small, tasteful spot with a clue marked on a map – becomes a quest location where you have to visit another part of town to pick up an item before running back to solve a puzzle. We’re told these new puzzles expand the franchise’s story, a promise that will excite some – but I know I’m not the only one who’s exhausted by it.

I don’t think that does the pacing any good. Konami PR has recommended multiple times that we spend just an hour on the beginning of the game and then use a preset save point to jump to the apartment section. I did that, so I can’t tell you what lore might be hidden in the Neely’s Bar puzzle. I also can’t tell you what it feels like to have to spend a long time in the modern version of that city before getting to anything else, but the suggestion not to do it speaks for itself to some extent.

On the other hand, the jump to the apartments has blurred the generic feeling. They are claustrophobic, labyrinthine and tense. Their design highlights some of the things that Silent Hill 2 great to begin with, but not common in modern AAA games. For example, step-by-step exploration using James’ scribbled map feels incomparably better than any game with a minimap or a marked compass over the surface.

This section is also where the remake’s improvements become apparent. When I watched a YouTube video of the original Apartment section after playing, I was surprised by the difference in sound design. The original James makes a thumping noise with each step, but he strikes enemies with a sort of silent disregard. In the remake, he sounded scared and horrified as he swung into a mannequin creature. The combat changes are nothing special, but actor Luke Roberts deserves credit for selling them well.

Roberts and the other voice actors were also apparently instrumental in finalising the script for the remake, says Maciej Głomb, senior producer at Bloober Team. “They were all professionals,” he says. “So they often had ideas about how to sell a scene or a particular line of dialogue. As long as they matched the tone we wanted, we usually [trusted] their experience and skills.”

The script was also slightly revised to be “more understandable,” says Głomb, and edited in light of how newer technology like facial motion capture has allowed the team to “show and not tell” certain aspects, such as emotional moments. But while many of the mechanics have been updated for the remake, Bloober Team is trying to keep the narrative “as close as possible” to the original, says creative director Mateusz Lenart: “The characters of the original game, their specific story arcs and endings, and what those characters are.”

There will be additional endings, however. “I think that was one of Konami’s first requests at the very beginning,” says Głomb. The original endings will all be there – “even the funny ones,” but “with our own twist for a little expansion.” But in new Game Plus runs, there will be the possibility of getting other endings. Although Bloober Team wouldn’t give anything away directly, Głomb said the developers would add “something from the other worlds; from the other game,” presumably hinting at crossovers with other Silent Hills.

In my last question to Głomb and Lenart, I would like to know if they were inspired from outside and got inspiration for the remake. Silent Hill 2 is famous for his drawings on film — Jacob’s Ladder and the works of David Lynch – and paintings by artists like Francis Bacon. I can hardly think of another game with 2024 Silent Hill 2The budget of reflects that kind of influence, and I’m particularly interested in knowing if there was anything in the art work of the last 20 years that contributed to the way the game was updated.

The answer is largely no. Lenart cites the work of Italian painter Nicola Samori and French artist and performer Olivier de Sagazan as ongoing influences on his work, having already Layers of fear. But this project was mostly about returning to the inspirations of the original game. “For the whole team, going back to those movies was the first thing we wanted to do,” says Lenart. But “there was no reason to look much more,” he says. “We didn’t feel the need to look for modern references because the game is kind of stuck in that era.”

Back then, I was skeptical again. As I said, the remake Silent Hill 2 is a product of its time in its modernization. It often looks and plays like any other AAA game; it didn’t have to. But then I saw Pyramid Head for the first time.

Like in the original game, you first encounter Pyramid Head, glowing in menacing red behind a barely cordoned off corridor in the Wood Side Apartments. Unlike in the original game, you already know who Pyramid Head is.

I can’t overstate the fear I felt when I first saw Pyramid Head. Even though I had never played the game before, unbeknownst to me until that moment, cultural osmosis had planted deep within me the fear of being hunted and killed by this creature. I stood there looking at Pyramid Head through the bars, being looked at through the bars. And then the person next to me coughed and I nearly jumped out of my skin. Silent Hill 2 (2024) greatest inspiration is Silent Hill 2 (2001). And again: Silent Hill 2 (2001) is a very, very good video game. It’s iconic in every sense of the word. Where the remake can capture that iconicism and build on what made it what it was, it will also be very, very good. That won’t always be the case, but maybe most of the time.

Silent Hill 2 will be released on October 8th on PlayStation 5 and Windows PC.

Disclosure: This article is based on a preview event hosted by publisher Konami on August 12 in London, England. Konami provided Polygon with travel and accommodation for the event. You can find Further information on Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.