Hiya!

I remember when I first laid eyes on the original Silent Hill 2. In retrospect, I don’t think I should’ve been allowed to watch my brother play through this Konami survival-horror game back then. After all, I was only around 5 years old at the time. That’s pretty young for someone to watch a game that’s supposed to be rated M for Mature.

So, when it was announced Konami, with the help of Bloober Team, was making Silent Hill 2 Remake, I was of two minds on the idea. For one, I do remember the original being good enough but I was very cautious because of how Konami has treated their intellectual properties recent. I wa a bit stunned when Silent Hill 2 Remake was getting glorious reviews from both critics and gamers alike as I simply didn’t expect it because of their track record. It made me want to play it myself. So, I did! I’ve completed the game a couple of times already and I’m here to give you my thoughts on it.

Although I am frighteningly aware Silent Hill 2’s story is already out in the modern consciousness, I will still be making this a SPOILER FREE review because, as I’ve seen from a lot of guys and gals doing playthroughs of Remake, there are still a lot of gamers who are blindly unaware of the goings on in the game. So, for their benefit and even though the original game has been out for ages, I’m still making this a SPOILER FREE review.

Silent Hill 2 Remake puts you in the shoes of a widow named James Sunderland. So, you can imagine his surprise when he receives a letter from his deceased wife to come fetch her in the town of Silent Hill. Despite him recalling how she passed away from an illness a full 3 years ago, James decides to visit the town not knowing of the horrors which await him there.

Right off the bat, I will say Bloober Team did a really good job with the Remake. I already wholeheartedly apologized for doubting them but I will reiterate that Silent Hill 2 does play like a really good Remake. However, it’s definitely not perfect if you’re examining it closely. The graphics are excellent as long as you’re paying attention to just playing the game. It’s when you stop and really examine the surroundings when things don’t exactly fall apart but you can see the seams.

I do see a lot of weird reflections on the ground which can be distracting, especially for a game which has things jumping at you. The character models also have this weird uncanny valley look to them when not in motion. When they’re moving around, they come off as okay but when they stand still and you got to look at their face models, they just feel like there’s something off about them.

It certainly didn’t help that Bloober Team reworked some of the character designs to make them more… realistic? The original Silent Hill 2 was made when everything had a kind of plastic sheen to them. This also led to the character models looking like mannequins and even having kind of the same faces. Bloober Team reworked them so they all look more like different people but I just don’t find some of the new designs all that appealing. While James and Laura are improvements from their original looks, Maria and Angela look… I don’t want to say ugly but they don’t look how I would expect them to appear.

Speaking of the characters, I did fall in love with the new voice performances. The original Silent Hill 2 voice acting was bad but in a fun way. It felt like a B horror movie using inexperienced actors and a director who didn’t know how to direct people but was a genius in setting up camera angles. Remake’s voice acting feels much more natural, which is amazing as the script is basically from the original but with a few tweaks here and there. While I enjoy the cheese of the original, the Remake voice acting is much better at setting the mood.

Thankfully, while Bloober Team retained the original script for the most part, they didn’t do so in the game design department. This is especially true with the combat and the boss battles. I remember my brother breezing through most of the monsters while he was exploring Silent Hill 2. He never even bothered to use the rifle until he got to the last boss of the game and he only used it then because he had so much ammo for it!

Combat in Remake feels a little more troublesome as the monsters come off as more aggressive. However, I will say some of my problems with everyday combat in Remake stems from my difficulty in judging the range of my melee weapons because it feels like both the Wooden Plank and the Steel Pipe don’t have a lot of range but they actually do! I had to get accustomed to not getting as close to enemies before swinging but that seems like a “me” problem. I do appreciate the new dodge mechanic. Even though it feels clunky, it can get you out of a tight spot. However, I didn’t really use it that much. Once again, that’s a “me” problem.

Boss battles are much more dynamic in Remake as the rooms you fight them in are much bigger and with some environmental hazards which might block your paths. Still, having more room to run around is great as, like I said before, enemies are much more aggressive. So, they will try to close in on you rapidly, making these fights much more intense while never feeling unfair.

There is one thing Bloober Team dropped the ball on with Remake and it’s the new content. It’s not like the things they added are bad. Rather, you can just feel like they tacked on these things to either make the game longer or to differentiate the Remake from the original game. It’s not like I remember a lot of key moments from the time my brother played the original game. However, when the new content shows up, I can definitely point it out as it doesn’t work with the tone. It gives this weird dissonance in the gameplay and atmosphere which does take me out of it.

All-in-all, I still believe Bloober Team’s work on Silent Hill 2 Remake is something to be admired. I enjoyed my trip through the foggy town so much I immediately played through it a second time, remember? This gets a strong recommendation from me.

Byee!

Have you played Silent Hill 2 Remake yet? How about the original? How does the Remake stack up it? Let me know in the comments section below!