Silent Hill 2 Remake is a Masterpiece

Mary… Could you really be in this town?

Few titles have the monumental pedigree in their genre that ‘Silent Hill 2‘ has. Originally released on September 25th, 2001 for the PlayStation 2, it sold over one million copies in its first month and saw largely positive reviews. Twenty-three years later, it’s become cemented as one of the greatest video games of all time.

Unfortunately, time was not kind to Silent Hill fans in those twenty-three years. On March 20th, 2012, Konami released the infamous Silent Hill HD Collection. On August 29th, 2015, Konami cancelled the highly anticipated ‘Silent Hills‘ and permanently removed the beloved teaser game ‘PT‘ from the PlayStation Store. Last year, we got ‘Silent Hill: Ascension‘, an interactive TV series that single-handedly proved the theory of Murphy’s Law. Most fans had given up on the franchise entirely.

Until, on October 19th, 2022, Konami held a little press event showing off some new projects, including the aforementioned TV series. Their biggest announcement being the next triple-A Silent Hill game project: ‘Silent Hill 2 Remake‘.

In my restless dreams, I see that town. Silent Hill. You promised you’d take me there again someday. But you never did.

Well, I’m alone there now. In our ‘special place’. Waiting for you.

It isn’t hard to guess why they did this. Konami’s reputation has been dirtier than dirt for years. There are more people willing to defend EA than Konami. Remaking their most beloved horror game ever was their safest bet for success.

But Konami wasn’t developing the game in-house. Rather, they handed the reins to Polish developer Bloober Team. Their previous work includes ‘Layers of Fear‘ and its sequel, ‘Observer‘, ‘Blair Witch‘, and ‘The Medium‘, games which received reviews ranging from middling to largely negative. To say fans were skeptical would be a kind way of putting it.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom. Joining Bloober Team for the project were two notable returning names from the original dev team: creature designer Masahiro Ito and composer Akira Yamaoka, both crucial figures to the success of ‘Silent Hill 2‘. It wasn’t clear if anyone else from the first team would be returning, but having these two on board lent the project some hope.

Finally, on October 8th of this year, the remake was released. And despite all the skepticism, it came out to near universal acclaim! Now that I’ve played it myself, I can say with confidence that ‘Silent Hill 2‘ 2024 more than lives up to the legacy of the 2001 classic!

I got a letter. The name on the envelope said “Mary.” My wife’s name.

It’s ridiculous. Couldn’t possibly be true. That’s what I keep telling myself. Mary died of that damn disease three years ago.

So then why am I looking for her? Our ‘special place’… What could she mean? This whole town was our special place.

Could Mary really be here? Is she really alive..? Waiting for me?

There are three important factors key to the timelessness of ‘Silent Hill 2‘. First and largest of these is the story. This is one of those games where every character, every scene, and every line of dialogue are nothing short of iconic. The grim tragedy of the lost wanderers of Silent Hill is a truly timeless and terrifying tale of loss, resentment, violence, abuse, and trauma. To ruin it would be nothing short of insulting.

For the most part, the remake doesn’t change the plot whatsoever. There are plenty of minor changes; some dialogue rewrites, some new cutscenes, extra banter between characters, and even new endings. But nothing that dramatically shifts the narrative. If you’ve played the original, you know how the story will play out this time.

Even so, remake’s take on the story feels fresh while still being incredibly faithful to the original game’s intentions. There are so many subtle details in so many different places. You could tell the team behind the script truly understand why this story is so important and timeless.

For example, let’s look at the Abstract Daddy boss fight. In the original game, you find it tormenting Angela in a fleshy room, beat it to death, get a cutscene, and move on. In the remake, James finds himself stepping out of his nightmare and into Angela’s. He wanders the dark hallways of her childhood home, listening to her father and brother heap abuse on her through static television screens. You’re stuck in tight space with little room to dodge, chasing Angela as she flees from the apparition as it attacks you. Each time it appears, the environment deteriorates further, floral wallpaper becoming canvases of sewn skin and flesh. It’s a suitably grotesque and disturbing sequence which expands upon the tragedy of Angela’s life brilliantly.

A far less dour addition is the new banter between James and Maria. The original, being a PS2 game, had to limit their interactions to a handful of cutscenes; during gameplay, the two never exchanged a word. Remake takes the time these characters share and greatly expands on it, building on their relationship in a fresh way that still stayed true to what made them so iconic to begin with.

Not all the changes are for the better. Most are great, but there are some cuts that truly baffle me. The huge one for me is Eddie’s end. In the original game, James is shaken to his core by his final encounter with Eddie; he starts to question everything he thought he understood, which in turn makes us, the player, question him in turn. It’s brilliant foreshadowing that sets the stage for the game’s ultimate twist in the hotel. But in the remake, all of the dialogue is cut; all we’re left with is James looking kind of sad and confused.

A major element propelling this version of the story to greatness is the vocal performances. Luke Roberts is the perfect casting for James; odd as this compliment may sound, he plays the part of a tired, broken man with nothing left to lose brilliantly. Looks the part, too, thanks to the game’s excellent facial captures. His combat noises are fantastic as well; you can hear the panic and desperation when James flails about, really hammering home the fact that you are not playing an action hero.

Salóme Gunnarsdóttir (which is the coolest name I cannot pronounce) plays Mary/Maria. Far from an easy part; the enigmatic duality between James’ wife and her mysterious doppelganger is one of the most mind-bending aspects of the original game. High as the original bar is, she more than clears it! Her Maria feels just grounded enough to be a real person while still being mysterious and unsettling.

Evie Templeton gives a stellar performance as Laura. Her voice acting is already strong, but her facial capture is something else. She walks the perfect line between devious miscreant and lonely kid. You almost forget that Laura herself is a little snot you’d want to kick straight to the moon.

As Angela, we have Gianna Kiehl, who brings the most tragic member of the cast to life perfectly. Her voice carries all the character’s confusion and trauma, and her facial animations take that to another level. It’s a stand-out performance, definitely one of the best in the game.

Finally, we have Scott Haining as Eddie. Another excellent casting; he captures the terrifying duality of the character brilliantly. One minute, he’s retching into a toilet, the perfect image of a helpless, pitiful man. The next, he’s a cold and pitiless killer who can hardly be bothered to play at innocence, all before he finally snaps and loses it completely. It’s a truly terrifying transformation.

The second core pillar is the atmosphere. The best Silent Hill games don’t rely on cheap jump scares to frighten the player. Instead, they used unsettling level designs, ambient music, and limited fields of vision to invoke a deep sense of unease and dread. These games are at their most terrifying when you’re trapped in the dark with nothing but the distant sounds of things unseen to accompany you.

Remake is every bit as chilling as its PS2 counterpart. I haven’t been so terrified playing a horror game in years! This bloody game had me on edge so badly that every real-world noise in my house made me leap out of my skin!

The UI goes a long way in increasing immersion. Or in this case, the lack thereof. You can play with a more modern interface, highlighting interactable objects and your ammo count, all the quality of life features games have made standard in the last twenty years. Or you could play with no UI whatsoever, with only James’ gaze to guide you towards pickups and clues. Playing this way does make the experience less convenient, but holy shit, the lack of distractions made it ten times scarier!

Fog has always played an important role in Silent Hill games. Bloober Team understood this assignment better than all the rest, because this is some beautiful fog! It gives the town this ethereal dream-like quality which, in tandem with the incredible sound design, does a great job of putting you on edge.

Darkness is far more unsettling. This game can get so dark that the flashlight basically becomes useless. But it is just enough to reveal the faint outline of the environment, or worse, the silhouettes moving through the shadows. This is one of the few horror games I’ve played where I’ve been more scared of the dark than the monsters!

The utter lack of sight makes what light you do get much more visually striking. When it’s bright and normal, you feel the same kind of relief you’d get reaching a bonfire in ‘Dark Souls.’ But when you’ve been lost in the dark for an hour and you come upon a room lit entirely by red, you know you’re in for a bad time.

Worst of all is the silence. When monsters are attacking, it’s all noise and adrenaline as you desperately fight for your life. But when all goes silent, the game leaves you on edge, waiting for static on the radio to come crackling back to life. Sometimes the game will just fuck with you, such as when disembodied voices whisper into your ears. You never feel safe playing this game.

Especially not when he arrives.

Of all the monsters in Silent Hill, none are even half as iconic as Pyramid Head. If you’ve never played these games in your life, I’d still bet you recognize this guy. Despite not having one, this monster has become the face of the franchise.

Bloober Team handled him perfectly! Every time he shows up, the game becomes ten thousand times scarier! It’s bad enough when he’s attacking you, but sometimes he just pops up to mess with you! Sometimes I looked behind me and he would be standing there watching. Menacingly. I’m not ashamed to admit that he had me screaming like the devil in church.

While the other monsters obviously aren’t half as terrifying, they’re all still more than effective in their own right. All the nightmares of the original version look as frightening as ever, and there are more than a few new variants on them to keep things fresh. They’ll crawl out from under cars, hide in the darkness, or crawl on the walls like spiders. Finding monsters is infinitely more terrifying than fighting them.

This brings us to the third and final pillar: challenge. Silent Hill as a series is infamous for its esoteric puzzles, sometimes to an outlandish degree. It helped add to the surreal feeling of the setting, making you the player feel as though you’re trying to unravel the secrets of a madman.

Almost every puzzle in the remake has been completely altered and revamped, so returning players aren’t gonna breeze through the game without their thinking caps. Instead, they’ll get to enjoy unraveling whole threads of insanity! Some of these are so absurd that I was left wandering around scouring every detail of the map for a solution, and I was only playing on Normal puzzle difficulty! I can’t wait to replay it and see what Hard mode has to offer!

Combat is another matter. Silent Hill isn’t really known for having fun or complex combat systems. Largely because it was never trying to be a game about fighting. The clunky and simple combat adds to the sense of frailty and helplessness you’re meant to feel; James is many things, but he’s not a fighter.

Before remake came out, I saw a lot of contention online over the new game’s combat. I never knew people could get so upset over a dodge button, but I understand why. Seeing extra action getting added to a game that is decidedly not action-oriented is worrying.

Thankfully, the worries were for nothing. I really enjoyed the combat. It’s tight and responsive enough to be engaging yet simple enough to maintain that sense of weakness and terror. Even more so because enemies are stronger, more aggressive, and attack in greater numbers than the 2001 game.

The most surprising improvement was the boss fights. Silent Hill games have never been known for their boss battles, as they’ve never been the focal points of the game. But in remake, I actually had a lot of fun fighting them! The Eddie boss fight has the single greatest glow-up in video game history!

Even if it is still really janky. In my playthrough, Eddie got stuck on a corner until I shot him to death. You may call that a glitch. I say the remake is just being faithful to the original.

‘Silent Hill 2 Remake‘ is the best surprise of the year. It’s the video game equivalent of Rocky Balboa. After so many years of Konami serving Silent Hill fans an L buffet, it’s nice to finally have a W.

I’m looking forward to seeing how Bloober Team follows this one up. Their upcoming game ‘Cronos: The New Dawn‘ looks interesting. Will they be able to keep up this positive momentum with their next original title? Only time will tell. But I’m willing to give them another shot.

As for Silent Hill, hopefully this remake’s success will reignite the spark the series has been missing for so many years. Maybe ‘Silent Hill 1‘ can get the same treatment; god knows that game needs it more than 2 ever did. I only hope this remake isn’t just a flash in the pan, but a taste of what is to come.

But you can’t spell Konami without No. And god knows they sure love that word.