Silent Hill 2 remake review – the thinking person’s survival horror

The controversial remake of horror classic Silent Hill 2 has turned out far better than many expected, with an impressive modern reimagining.

A lot has changed since 2001. Back then the PlayStation 2 was only a year old and, at the time of the original Silent Hill 2’s release, Xbox hadn’t even entered the games market. Online gaming was still all but unknown on consoles and modern plagues like microtransactions, loot boxes, battle passes, and NFTs were still but a twinkle in a grey-suited businessman’s eye.

Instead, survival horror was one of the more popular bandwagons being leapt upon, at the start of the 21st century. Although by late 2001 the original Resident Evil trilogy had already been completed and we were only a few months away from Capcom’s first remake. By the time Silent Hill 2 launched in September, the genre had already peaked in popularity and profitability, and the more opportunistic publishers were beginning to lose interest.

As famous as it is, at less than 2 million copies the game was never a massive hit and frankly we’re confused as to how the series has continued to spawn such a vast legion of even less successful sequels and spin-offs. Nevertheless, Silent Hill 2 is one of the best horror games ever made and certainly one of the smartest and most thought-provoking. It’s without question an all-time classic and this remake is a worthy homage.

There’s been a lot of negativity surrounding the Silent Hill 2 remake, as a result of the poor reputation of Polish developer Bloober Team and a string of unconvincing trailers. It’s a shame Konami didn’t organise a preview earlier, as it would have instantly allayed those understandable concerns. This is easily Bloober Team’s best work and an excellent remake in that not only does it perfectly recreate the original in modern form, but the developer understands it well enough that they’re able to add a small amount of new content, that fits in seamlessly.

Although this is labelled as a sequel it does not feature any characters from the original PS1 game. The structure and gameplay is very similar but otherwise Silent Hill 2 is a completely separate experience. Importantly, the nature of Silent Hill itself has evolved and rather than simply being a rural American town overrun by monsters it appears differently to each of the handful of other people you run into, with each seeing and experiencing different things as a result of their own inner demons.

You play as James Sunderland, who is drawn to the town after receiving a letter from his wife, who died of a terminal illness three years ago. At no point does the game spell out exactly what is happening to James and it is very easy to play through the whole game as a straight action horror, with no deeper meaning. If you explore off the beaten path though, and think through the meaning behind the encounters with other characters, as well as the symbolism of the monsters, it becomes clearer as to how and why the town is tormenting James.

Mechanically speaking, Silent Hill 2 is a fairly straightforward third person actioner (the original had constantly changing camera angles but the remake uses more a standard over-the-shoulder view, that only occasionally zooms out further). There is quite a bit of combat, including some slightly more involved boss battles than before, but this is not a Resident Evil game and it’s not meant to be entertaining in its own right. James is just an ordinary man, and all his fights are panicked and clumsy – even though you do now have a dodge button.

While the scrappy fights create additional tension you can’t really argue that the numerous logic puzzles do the same. Some of them are really quite hard, even right from the start, with lots of maths problems, riddles, and symbol-based brainteasers.

Surprisingly, Bloober Team has added a number of new ones, even though you could argue that they should have removed them all entirely. But while subsequent entries began to stray into walking sim territory Silent Hill 2 shows how much more effective it is to retain a high level of interactivity. It increases the immersion and even if some of the puzzles veer into Resident Evil style absurdity they add to the dreamlike nature of the setting.

Silent Hill 2 is a difficult game to remake. It has all the natural problems or recreating a two decade old video game but piled on top of that is the ambiguity over how much of the original’s sickly atmosphere, and general sense of wrongness, is intentional and how much a happy coincidence of low level jank and the fact that it was a Japanese developer attempting to recreate small town America through observation rather than experience.

Again, Bloober Team seem to understand this and while the voice-acting is much more professional than the original, the dialogue is still weird and unnatural. That could have come across as obnoxious, since now it’s being done on purpose, but it rides the line between naivety and absurdity almost perfectly, adding an almost Lynchian element to proceedings.

Whatever magic the original had has been cleverly retained in the remake and as such there’s little to really fault. From a modern perspective it’s a touch too linear and some of the locations do overstay their welcome, especially as there’s little visual variety between the numerous apartments, hotel rooms, and hospital areas. Thanks to a few new areas and puzzles this is a notably longer experience than the original and at times it does feel a little too much like padding.

Some of the puzzles are very obscure too, but you can just turn their difficult down in the options. Although even with new signposting (usually strips of cloth or paper around entrances) and an interactive map it’s relatively easy to get lost and loose track of where you’re going.

Graphically, the game is highly impressive. It’s not quite as slick and high-tech as the Resident Evil remakes but some areas look almost photorealistic and the use of near pitch blackness, in some areas, are extremely effective. Importantly, the characters have the same air of unreality as the original, with mouths that don’t quite move properly and other idiosyncrasies that were technical limitations the first time round but are retained here to maintain the same unsettling atmosphere.

The most important thing the Silent Hill 2 remake gets right is that it’s still scary. On a visceral level you’re still terrified to put one foot in front of the other in some areas, as you spin the camera round at the slightest noise or, worse, know that an enemy is close (because your pocket radio buzzes if they are) but cannot tell where they’re going to pop out from.

What stays with you longer is the slow realisation of what’s going on and that not only is James essentially doing this to himself but it’s completely understandable as to why. In the world of Silent Hill 2, hell is not other people but your own guilt and insecurities. The original made that point while being an entertaining and enjoyably spooky survival horror and this remake is just as effective, while having all the bells and whistles you’d expect of a modern video game.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed) and PC
Price: £59.99
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Bloober Team
Release Date: 8th October 2024
Age Rating: 18

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