Silent Hill 2 remake: surprisingly good horror adventure

Konami’s PS2 masterpiece Silent Hill 2 returns as a remake with completely revised graphics and gameplay. It’s a perfect opportunity to bridge a huge gap in my knowledge given I’ve never actually played a game from this long-running Japanese series.

My anticipation for the remake is overshadowed by a great deal of scepticism ahead of its release. Bloober Team, the studio behind the new edition, didn’t exactly emerge from its previous titles, such as Layers of Fear or The Medium, with kudos. Fans were also highly dubious and suspicious of the Silent Hill 2 trailers.

Which is why I’m all the more surprised – indeed, downright shocked – at how enthusiastic I am about the game. Silent Hill 2 is simply brilliant and bowls me over, even though I’ve never played the original. Not only is this one of the best games of the year, I’d also class it amongst the best horror games I’ve ever played.

This is what Silent Hill fan Cassie Mammone says about the remake

One of our freelance writers Cassie has played both the original and the remake. As a long-time fan, she also thinks they made a good job of the new release: «The remake toys with the expectations I have from the original game in a tongue-in-cheek way. Items and events I know from the original have been repositioned and are presented differently, in a way that catches me off guard. It feels cool diving into this familiar yet surprising world of Silent Hill from a new, more intimate perspective. I’ve played for a few hours and am curious to see if the remake can maintain the high level and match the quality of the Resident Evil 4 remake.»

Quintessential psychological horror

What I particularly like about Silent Hill 2 is the surreal atmosphere. I’d say this is somewhere between Twin Peaks and Japanese horror stories like The Ring. This is in large part due to its cryptic storytelling and mysterious plot.

James Sunderland receives a letter from his late wife. It says that she’s waiting for him in the eponymous town of Silent Hill. But instead of finding his wife, James is met with a ghost town shrouded in thick fog, full of grotesque, bloodthirsty monsters.

There’s not much more context during the story, which lasts about 16 hours. In contrast to other horror games such as Resident Evil, Silent Hill 2 dispenses with unnecessarily detailed B-film plots and outlandish explanations. Instead it hones in on the psychological horror, suffering and fear that James feels as he fights his way through the monster-infested town.

On his journey, James meets other lost souls who’ve strayed into Silent Hill and are slowly going mad. At a cemetery, I meet Angela, who’s desperately looking for her mother in the city. I find Eddie in a run-down flat, vomiting his guts out in fear and terror. Meanwhile, at the lake, I meet Maria, who looks very much like James’s late wife, and she intends to seduce him.

These excellently staged, bizarre encounters are highlights of the game’s storytelling. The quirky dialogue and disturbing music make it feel like a David Lynch fever dream. Genius.

Fog and darkness

Rarely has a game been so apt for a season as Silent Hill 2 is for this cold, grey autumn. James is greeted by an unusually dense fog when he arrives in the windy little town. Amid the cold, dense fog, grotesque figures lurk around every corner, ready to do me in. I can hardly see anything and always have to move carefully through the grey veil. Is that a deadly monster in front of me or is it just the silhouette of a shop window mannequin?

When I’m not wading through the streets of Silent Hill, you can find me exploring the interiors of run-down flats, hotels and hospitals. Now an oppressive darkness replaces the fog and obscures my view. Equipped with a weak flashlight, I make my way through the dark corridors of crumbling, decaying buildings. The darkness is oppressive; horrible monsters could be lurking anywhere and everywhere. My lamp keeps giving up the ghost. Exploring these houses almost makes me claustrophobic. I feel trapped and want to get out of there.

While the 2001 original relies on a distant camera and partly fixed angles, the remake lets me follow the action from a close-up, over-the-shoulder perspective. All the better, as this allows me to enjoy the eerily beautiful presentation of the game to the full.

The surroundings are brimming with fine details. Ultra-sharp textures are complemented by moving accents, such as swirling leaves and crawling insects. Even the characters are impressive with believable facial expressions and great animations. The heavy fog looks so voluminous I can literally feel it on my face. In dark areas, Unreal Engine 5’s Lumen lighting flexes its muscles. Stunning.

The only drawback on PS5 is low-resolution ray tracing reflections, which often leave pixelated remnants in puddles and other surfaces. In some situations, upscaling to 4K also leaves unsightly artefacts in an otherwise harmonious overall picture. That being said, these flaws don’t bother me too much.

Thrashing and shooting

When I first look around, I’m only equipped with an improvised wooden bat. Over time, I also unlock guns. But this limited arsenal is all I have to fight against the disgusting hellish monstrosities in Silent Hill. As you’d imagine, it’s easier said than done. The creatures run and jump towards me without caring about the casualties or consequences. Some puke corrosive acid on me, others attack with their knives. The battles can be particularly challenging in confined spaces without a lot of escape routes.

The combat system is simple but effective: I can only dodge, shoot or hit. Thanks to the perfectly implemented controls and resistance in the PS5 controller’s adaptive triggers, this is a lot of fun, especially in close combat. My adrenaline regularly skyrockets when I manage to bring down a monster with one last punch to the face.

Once the beast is on the ground, I kick it a few more times to be on the safe side. And then a few more for good measure. You can never be too careful. James screams and makes animal-like noises, the adaptive triggers struggle and creak. It just feels damn good.

As well as looking menacing, enemies sound incredibly scary with their rattling, grunting and screaming. Overall, the game’s soundscape is extremely well executed and plays a leading role in the oppressive horror atmosphere. The action is accompanied by a disconcerting soundtrack, which is complemented by muffled, banging or rattling noises interwoven with the music.

The PS5 controller is also involved when it comes to sound. If there’s a monster nearby, radio noise from the controller speaker warns me. When I hear these signals, I fear something bad’s about to happen. Equally, if I don’t hear them, the silence feels suspicious. I just can’t relax. This menacing atmosphere is what makes the game stand out and sets it apart from other genre greats, such as Resident Evil.

Not for puzzle haters

In Silent Hill 2, as well as fighting grotesque creatures, I also have to solve a lot of puzzles. The outdoor areas and buildings in the city in particular are full of tricky tasks that I have to solve in order to move forward. Compared to the original, the remake features a lot of new puzzles and older ones have been expanded. By extending the level design, the game has doubled in time, from about 8 to a good 16 hours.

The indoor areas remind me of dungeons from The Legend of Zelda, where I have to navigate through multi-storey levels with locked doors, hidden objects and enemies. The brainteasers I solve often extend across several rooms. I’m rewarded for my patience, attentiveness and powers of deduction. If you run mindlessly through the corridors without carefully analysing your surroundings and the overview map, you’ll soon give up in frustration.

Despite how much I love enthralling puzzles, I found some of the inside areas too extensive. The overly sprawling dungeons mean the game suffers from pacing problems in some places, which could put you off if you’re an impatient horror fan. But that’s just me being incredibly picky.