I was one of the “non-believers.” When they announced a ‘remake’ of Silent Hill 2 at the hands of Bloober Team, I felt upset. Although There is a game of theirs that I really like.most of his works have seemed mediocre to me and the one that is inspired by the Konami horror saga —The Medium— was quite disappointing. I didn’t think it was the right studio to be in charge of renewing that influential classic and the terrible trailers seemed to prove me right.
How happy it makes me to know that I was wrong. This new version not only respects the original game, but expands its lore and gameplay in very interesting ways.. It has some flaws, but it is a great and terrifying experience for both veterans of the saga and those visiting ‘silent hill’ for the first time.
He Silent Hill 2 The original was released for PS2 and Xbox in 2001. Although it was not an immediate success, it eventually became a cult classic and one of the most influential horror games in history. It tells the story of James Sunderland, a man who receives a letter from his deceased wife telling him that she is waiting for him in the town of Silent Hill, where they had very good times when she was alive. Confused, he travels to the cursed town in his search only to find a real nightmare.
This town doesn’t change
I love that old game, but I also have to accept that the experience doesn’t feel the same today, especially for modern audiences. Although its story, setting and music are still worthy of a work of art, its control system is somewhat outdated and the combat is not interesting.
This ‘remake’ changes things to introduce the typical but effective “behind the shoulder camera” and mechanics that make the fights more tense and brutal. These modernizations of the ‘remake’ had me very worried, because it could happen that the elements that made the game special were left aside. Silent Hill 2 to turn it into “another regular game.” More polished, but also more generic. I am happy to report that is not the case.
Although we now have an evasion movement, we can change weapons in the middle of the action and aim freely, confrontations are still a danger that is often better to avoid. When we can’t, they are very stressful moments that are not particularly “fun”, but they do trap us in a tug of war that keeps us counting the bullets and healings. Just when I was feeling comfortable with the amount of resources I had, tougher and more dangerous enemies appeared and began to diminish my ability to survive. The spirit of ‘survival horror’ lives on.
I’m not going to talk much about the visual aspect. It is clear that it looks incredible and much more realistic than could have been dreamed of at the time of the PS2. The fog and darkness of the “other world” look better than ever and make the horror setting work perfectly. Still, I kinda missed the natural “dirt and noise” of the original version. There is no filter that can perfectly reproduce the feeling of playing that on a CRT screen.
This town has changed
Us veterans remember that this was not a particularly long game and, if we played without effort, it could take us between 8 and 10 hours to see the credits. The remake of Silent Hill 2 it doubles that length, but surprisingly does so without adding much “filler.”
Although the scenarios we travel through are—essentially—the same as in the original, all have new puzzles and sections that ask us for deeper and more careful exploration. The real miracle is that it maintains a very good pace and at no point did it make me want to “finish quickly” a certain part in order to move forward in the story. We are always discovering new clues to solve the puzzles or details of the story that make it more intriguing, even for those of us who already know its surprises and plot twists.
Those of us who played the previous game cannot trust our knowledge of the town. Many things have moved and others have been replaced with new and surprising elements. Even so, There is a new optional mission made up only of references to the previous game. Not only is it a curious way to reward veterans of the saga without affecting the enjoyment of newcomers, but it has implications for the lore. There’s a whole new ending and new collectibles to search for.
The Bloober Team Transformation
As I said at the beginning of this review, initially I didn’t think Bloober Team was the right studio to make the ‘remake’ of Silent Hill 2. My mistake was forgetting that people change and improve. It wasn’t just the supervision of members of the original development team such as Masahiro Ito and Akira Yamaoka, This excellent title is undoubtedly the result of a team that has taken to heart the criticism made against its previous works to do the best possible job.
This is not the Bloober Team of annoying “sudden scares” Layers of Fear. Nor is he the one who tried to make us sympathize with an abuser in The Medium. This is a studio that had to make those mistakes to figure out the best way to make horror. I applaud how much they’ve improved and I can’t wait to see what they do next.
I’m especially amazed at how much they improved from the original game. I already mentioned that they managed to create a more attractive combat system without necessarily focusing the game on action, but what they managed to do with the characters is more incredible. The clearest example is Maria.
I, like many others, criticized her redesign when I saw her in the trailer because I thought they were going to strip her of what she represented in the original game. Of course, it wasn’t like that. This version of Maria is much more interesting than the previous one. It works perfectly in its original role and at the same time is deeper and even more attractive. I can’t explain why without spoilers, but I’m sure you’ll agree with me when you play it.
The town is falling apart
I already said that Silent Hill 2 Remake It looks spectacular visually, but you pay the cost of its realism on PS5. Performance mode fails to maintain a stable 60fps, especially in open areas, and while I played very little in Graphics Quality mode, I also noticed some drops below 30fps.
The shoulder camera, although it works very well most of the time, has the ugly tendency to get “stuck” for a fraction of a second when crossing certain scenarios, distracting from the action. There are also times, especially in internal scenarios, when he doesn’t know where to go and leaves us confused. We also noticed some visual ‘glitches’, although they were nothing serious.
These technical issues are annoying, but they didn’t affect my experience much. What did affect it a little was Luke Roberts’ uneven voice acting as James (in English), excellent at times and terrible at others. Laura is another character whose performance did not convince me, but Salome R. Gunnarsdottir and Scott Haining as María and Eddie are absolutely perfect.
If I have room to make one more criticism, it is that, despite the excellent level design, there are some areas where the positioning of enemies is a little unfair to the player.
In my most restless dreams I still see that town
Honestly, I didn’t imagine I could enjoy this game so much. Even as I write this I’m eager to return to the streets of Silent Hill in search of the collectibles I didn’t find and the endings I didn’t see. I’ve always been a lover of good horror stories and I loved enjoying this one again, paired with excellent exploration and combat systems.
However, a worry remains in me. I still believe that the Silent Hill 2 original—as dated as it may feel today—is still an essential experience that should be more accessible to the public. This ‘remake’ is excellent, but I don’t want it to replace it in the collective memory as it seems to be happening with the games. Resident Evil. At least these are available on GoG.
Konami! We need a relaunch of the entire saga! A well done one!
This review is made with a digital copy of Silent Hill 2 Remake for PlayStation 5 supplied by Konami.
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