Let’s get one thing out of the way – the Silent Hill franchise is one that’s passed me by. Don’t ask me why, I just never had the desire or opportunity to play as a youth. What hasn’t escaped me is the criticism from fans and horror purists directed towards the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake. I’m very aware that handing the keys over to Bloober Team, altering key design aspects, and seemingly focusing more on combat has all resulted in concern.
I have to admit, even as a Silent Hill newcomer with no skin in the game, Silent Hill 2’s initial trailers failed to inspire or impress me. They didn’t really scream ‘psychological horror game’ all that loudly, and I recall being particularly bored by its combat trailer that dropped in January. However, I’m here to tell you that after almost three hours of hands-on time with the game, you should probably forget all that – Silent Hill 2 remake is a tense, visually stunning, and gripping horror puzzler that I didn’t want to put down.
The location of Silent Hill is both deeply atmospheric, which is par for the course, and visually impressive. While there is an abundance of gray fog, concrete, and rusted brown metal, being outside in Silent Hill 2 never feels drab. The same is true for interiors – of course there are plenty of shadowy black hallways and gruesome red blood stains, but there’s also variety and contrast.
James Sunderland – who had to receive an emergency facelift from Bloober after fans mocked his initial ‘I’m a disgruntled geography teacher’ appearance – now looks far more like a believable lead of a major horror experience, and more closely resembles his initial appearance too without being a complete carbon copy. Having checked back on the designs from the 2001 original, I personally think Bloober’s interpretations of the entire cast seem faithful and strong. The skulking monsters also receive a visual upgrade while staying true to their original, grotesque forms. Pyramid Head looks especially freaky and gruesome, and the recreation of James’ initial meeting with the iconic enemy feels momentous.
The sound design is quick to send tingles down your spine. The warning sounds of static from your radio are intense. Smaller details, like the jangling of wind chimes or the sizzle of bile spewed up by a monster, also sound sharp and cut through the regular, sinister background tones.
But what about the gameplay? Well, let’s talk combat first, seeing as it spurred the largest of the pre-launch controversies. While some situations definitely required me to swing my trusty wooden stick or pull the trigger on my handgun, the game doesn’t suffer from an over-reliance on combat. In comparison to what I’ve seen of the original, there’s maybe a little more ducking, diving, smashing, and shooting, but I never felt it detract from everything else the remake sets out to deliver. The melee bashing is chunky and satisfying, and aiming the pistol has an immersive wobble and sway that piles on the pressure while you try to make every shot count.
What I really came away thinking about was the slow-paced but brilliantly tense exploration and puzzle solving. Silent Hill 2 kept me locked in and curious for pretty much my entire session. Of course, those that played the original game may find solving some of its landmark puzzles a bit easier and less surprising than I did, but there are also brand-new brainteasers to get stuck into. The first involves you finding components for a broken jukebox, and it doubles as an excellent introductory tour of the town.
With your jukebox fixed and one of many, many keys obtained, you head to the first major puzzle location from the original game, the Woodside Apartments. Bloober has spoken a lot about how it’s reimagined and expanded key locations, and this is one of them, with its sprawling layout keeping me busy for an extended time. I won’t say too much about it to avoid spoilers for my fellow first-timers, but there isn’t a single corner of that massive location that I didn’t want to investigate.
For the long-time fans that hold the source material close to their hearts, I of course can’t give you an accurate prediction on how you will truly feel about the remake. However, as an entry point into the series, I think Silent Hill 2 totally delivered. Its modernizations, like a smooth third-person camera and the expanded combat, don’t come at the expense of tension, storytelling, and puzzling. In the opening hours, at least, Bloober appears to have done an equally great job at faithfully recreating some moments and using the creative license afforded to it by Konami to adapt or overhaul others.
If you’ve never played the original games, it’s worth keeping an eye out for the remake when the Silent Hill 2 release date arrives this October. Its opening hours were genuinely hard to fault, so let’s just hope the standards don’t dip when venturing even deeper into the fog.