In My Restless Dreams
I’m a Silent Hill fan. I’ve enjoyed the franchise since the first time I saw an ominous magazine ad for the original game, knowing this was a thing I had to experience and learn about. I also enjoyed the second entry, but never quite held it up on the same pedestal many do, even though I’ve always said it was excellent and worth people’s time. Maybe that’s why the idea of a remake didn’t scare me like it did others, SH2 wasn’t my holy grail. Some longtime SH diehards seemed shaken when they found out this precious piece of history would be touched upon again, and mortified when it was announced that Bloober Team would be the ones going hands-on. I get the concern, I was feeling it to a lesser degree, but maybe I was just so eager to get something new in the series that I went into the Silent Hill 2 remake encouraged, ready to be disappointed. I had something this town isn’t known for – hope.
Many posed the question of why Konami would remake the second game over the original, but considering how well-regarded this entry is, and the fact that it’s a stand-alone story, it seems like the obvious choice. The premise is simple and engaging: James Sunderland receives a letter from his dead wife, Mary, telling him she’s waiting for him in Silent Hill, a place where they have history. While there he meets an interesting collection of other characters with their own traumas and fights off strange monsters in a town that seems violently against him. He has to solve the mystery and find his love, but nothing here is ever simple. Every part of that has me eager to dive back into the world of survival horror, into Silent Hill.
You Promised Me You’d Take Me There
The game was recreated in Unreal Engine 5 and feels like revising an old haunt that hasn’t changed in years, even though some things look different, it feels like home. The essence of Silent Hill is captured here, not just in the fog and grime, but the claustrophobic and barren nature of the town. It looks the best in Quality mode on PS5, while the Performance setting has a few more bugs and hangups. This new visual manifestation excels with its lighting, shaders, facial animations, and the amount of details used for the environments, while some parts look a little too clean and stripped away, lacking that natural clutter and grime. Tromping through the original made me feel like I needed a tetanus shot afterward. Silent Hill is bigger now, with new areas opened up or expanded upon since the developers didn’t have to worry about loading screens and spatial limitations. Most of these sections are small, but being able to enter more buildings and explore to a greater extent is a plus. The signature fog is back, thicker and fuller, like another shapely woman guiding our protagonist as he stalks the streets.
Enjoying these new visuals, I want to wander around town more, finding this place fascinating all over again, as ghostly and haunting as it was the first time. It’s easy to get lost, but new map mechanics make things a bit easier. James takes excellent notes on the maps he finds and even scribbles some clues for extended puzzles, making me feel more adept at tackling this harrowing experience. Getting turned around is part of the killer ambiance in a way, making sure players are confused and afraid to round too many corners, worried about their resources. Choosing an incorrect direction often meant being locked out of an area I wanted to search more, hoping to find additional health or ammo.
Some exciting camera angles add to the moody storms and freaky sounds from outside, making many sections of Silent Hill seem like a Venus Flytrap, alluring and deadly, tough to get out of. Unfortunately, some segments have been made longer in this new engine, with more to explore and a bit of unnecessary padding, making some first playthroughs run between 15-18 hours. That can be a plus for those wanting more to chew on, but it also adds to the slight frustration mixed in with the normal irritations of puzzle-solving and otherworldly creatures trying to do us harm, creating all kinds of suspenseful tension.
The monsters look thrilling and intimidating, part nightmare and part sex toy, viciously ready to wallop James when they aren’t lurking in the shadows or hiding behind cars. No, really, there are a LOT of enemies and most of the Mannequins are hiding, giggling like school children at how clever their hiding places are. Don’t be fooled, that one nurse doing her best Michael Jackson impersonation under the street light is there to lure players into a false sense of bravado, asking us to risk it over a few shotgun shells while two others wait in the darkness, hungry and ready to pounce.
All of the characters are presented well here, even if many fans aren’t impressed by some of the design choices and a few lines have less passion. Personally, I think James looks even more like a worn-out dad who hasn’t slept in weeks, but I’m told he’s still hot. Maria feels more alive and interesting, partially because she has more to say, but in some ways, it’s due to how well the girl who reminds James of his dead love plays at being coy and manipulative. Sometimes the pawns can come across as queens. Angela is as fragile as ever and easier to feel for, Eddie is still strange, and Laura is annoying as always, but all of them feel like they belong and are a part of this world, even if they aren’t nailing every scene, making something better than the original. These voice actors are being nitpicked in many cases, and I’m even questioning the campiness of a few lines, but overall I’m enjoying the performances.
Wrapped in My Cocoon
We’re given an updated control scheme to help navigate the rigors of combat, something the franchise isn’t known for handling well. I like the new setup a lot, even if I keep accidentally healing when I don’t mean to. Speaking of, players should do themselves a favor and turn the damage border off, that red glow is so distracting and takes away from the visuals.
Even though combat is less clunky, James still feels like a novice in this situation, but his dodging makes one-on-one confrontations feel like he’s taken a few boxing lessons in his day. Don’t be misled, however, this game is a bit tougher and I constantly found myself playing around with strategies to save on health or replaying sections to not be surprised by hidden nasties. Enemies are still properly menacing, especially when dealing with multiple assailants. Learning when to switch between guns and melee is crucial, not just to conserve ammunition, but in an effort to not get overwhelmed and keep one target at range if possible. Boss encounters are altered and most feel much better mechanically, while still being scary and tense, initially at least.
Being able to see is a luxury, in a game with fog, rain, constant darkness, and a flashlight that often fails, everything is working against the player and that includes the unruly camera at times. Be prepared to experience some level of blindness and have that extra sense of dread, making it difficult to keep track of enemies. Running away is less of an option this time around, as enemies will chase James, even following into a few places where normal game logic might make us think we’re safe. These things are tricky, and so are the newly devised puzzles. Many are familiar, some simply expanded, but there are a couple of new headscratchers. I found a couple of clues to be hard to spot, but others may not find them difficult. Either way, there’s enough new gameplay present to keep hardened fans and fresh meat equally intrigued.
I’m digging the new gameplay, but most of us are here for the story and the fact that Silent Hill, when done properly, is still about solid horror. When it’s time, this remake appropriately feels oppressive, choking even, making everything tense, like it’s abusing us just enough to where we’ll like it. Silent Hill 2 embraces its mood, creating an environment where it’s a little easier to be scared (just forget that UFO ending for a moment). Things are new here, a fresh Hell we haven’t fully adapted to yet with unsettling encounters and the desire to simply chill in the rooms we think are safer. Why go out there with the monsters? It’s hard to find peace here. There’s a relentless string of audial disturbances, tones, and groans, all assaulting our nerves amongst a healthy fear of radio static. The musical score is fantastic, even if some players think the tracks aren’t used to their fullest capability (ie: matching the original) composer Akira Yamaoka seems pleased. But when it’s time to be scared, this soundtrack is less melody and more a chaotic supernatural clanging in the kitchen.
Waiting for You….
Because SH2 was so popular, it has often been imitated and used as a blueprint, meaning we are much more familiar with stories like this now versus when it was originally released. That said, I still enjoyed dissecting James’ traumatic journey searching for his potentially dead wife and it once again made me re-analyze a few things in my own experiences, and for me, that’s a ringing endorsement. I’m not sure the plot was delivered here as well as the original game, but it still works and poses most of the right questions. There are even two new endings to work toward apparently. Almost all of what made SH2 so spectacular is still here, just altered, and Bloober did it alongside a couple of developers from the original iteration. I was amused to hear that the people who worked on the original game were the ones encouraging more changes, but several people on the new team were such fans of what they’d done, that they didn’t want to reshape it too much. That says a lot about how much they wanted from this remake.
Not everything works perfectly, but so much of it just feels right. This bleak narrative still hits hard and the modernized combat has me wanting to go through everything again already on New Game+. I don’t think I’m big on the added ‘Glimpses of the Past,’ which are like references to the previous games for those who recognize them (though even I had to look up a couple), but these aren’t going to mean much to new players and the way they’re handled, drawing so much attention, it feels more like masturbation than a series of distracting homages.
Other small issues are with the icons not lining up correctly, meaning we have to move James around a bit to let him pick up items properly. There are also some graphical errors, mostly with reflective surfaces, and outlines of bodies coming back in the wrong colors, like negative silhouettes. The hit detection misses, collision could be tighter, and I noticed way too many times that certain sounds didn’t trigger when they were supposed to. A shoutout for accessibility though, as there are several options to help players, multiple adjustments, and a couple of different visual options for interactions and making sure we don’t miss key items or clues, along with a decent high-contrast mode. Now if everything just wasn’t quite so dark, that is one cheap-ass flashlight.
Silent Hill 2’s remake is so bleak, yet I loved my time back in our ‘special place.’ I can’t wait to revisit Heaven’s Night or the Reverie Theater and take my time. I see why so many couples choose this place as a vacation spot now. I recommend it, for fans new and old. It may be better to play the original first if that’s an option, to get more out of this remake, but I’ll be heading back into the fog again real soon. Nightmares can be quite inviting, and I hope we get more like this one soon.
Disclaimer: The publisher through a PR representative provided the game used for this review.
This review is the critique and thoughts of one writer. If you want to see how other critics felt then check it out on OpenCritic.
8Bit/Digi is an independent media outlet that provides insight into the gamer community of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Silent Hill 2 (PS5)
Pros
- Explore a new glorious version of Silent Hill.
- Relive James’ tragic tale.
- Improved controls, combat, and puzzle
- Horror around every corner with excellent atmosphere and creatures.
Cons
- Small graphical errors, problems with hit detection, and some sound issues.
- It’s not the original and certain things will stick out to some fans, can be hard to separate the two.
