Silent Hill 2 Remake Review

"That Sleepy Town"

Campaign

October 11, 2024 at 5:58pm
By Jason Stettner

It must have been a rather daunting task to tackle, bringing back the classic known as Silent Hill 2. It’s one of the most beloved horror games ever created and it’s got quite a legacy. With that, this game is what I’d consider a fairly perfect recreation of something over two decades old.

It refreshes the experience for the modern era while hitting the key points that made the original so iconic and successful. Now with that, I do consider this more of a reimagining of that original Silent Hill 2 experience as while it hits the core story beats it certainly does adjust things. In many ways I’d say for the better, while retaining the tone and emotional elements very well.

If you’re unfamiliar with this title it’s a bleak, dreary narrative that really is just straight up depressing to play. It’s horrific and the subject material is mature being straight up bleak. That may not sound particularly enticing, but it’s a unique series because it dives into such serious source material and handles it effectively.

Transforming the horrors of certain situations into a game that aims to scare and also provide some emotional levity. There’s always something more to what’s happening in this sleepy town of Silent Hill and I believe that’s what makes this franchise so distinct and enticing to players.

This narrative follows James Sunderland, a man who’s come to the town of Silent Hill in search of his wife. She died, three years ago of that horrible disease and yet a letter has called him back here.

Acting on that, there’s an emotional desperation and level of trauma associated with this man exploring the town looking for any trace of his beloved. What he’ll come across will surprise and only further hurt him as not only are there monsters all about but others that are also seemingly lost in this foggy place looking for someone or something.

The story will take you through the streets you may be familiar with that are coated with that fog, to breaking down larger buildings and even some truly moldy locales beyond. Along the way your actions will in a light way here or there impact the possible ending and fate you’ll come across by the credit’s roll.

That will in theory draw you to replay the game with differing difficulties or generally through new game plus to experience something different. A couple of new endings were added in case you were wondering.

Gameplay

Through the third person perspective you’ll be following James exploring the town of Silent Hill. It’s a slow, unsettling walk into the fog and into the main city area. The streets themselves are neat as you’re able to smash windows and do some light exploration. I really wish this area had been expanded upon.

There’s actually probably potential for some sort of wave based survival mode out of this area as it reminded me of The Last of Us’s similar setup. Anyways, to get back on track you’re exploring a series of open and then tight areas. I’d say the tighter spaces are more linear, but they’re very maze like but reveal themselves in such a satisfying way.

It’s a series of puzzles where each puzzle open up more of the map and allows for easier traversal to where you’ve been. Spaces such as a prison or say a hospital and some other “fun” spaces. You’ll be attempting to survive an onslaught of gruesome monsters that while repetitive do switch things up occasionally in how they approach you.

You bash them with a board then pipe and also use guns although the ammo for those are limited so you need to place shots effectively. Difficulties are present that change the complexity of puzzle situations and or how hardcore the world is around you. They have a plethora of choices in how you tweak the experience to your liking and desired challenge. There are also a decent selection of accessibility choices to make if you need those.

When it comes to the visuals that game really just carries that sickly feeling beautifully. The environments are detailed throughout your journey. Whether that’s a forest with fog slowly flowing away as you move through it or say a moldy decaying environment where everything is disgustingly rotting. It’s all very well done, it looks great on the Playstation 5. Now with that, there were definitely performance issues basically the whole way through which was disappointing.

The game offers two graphic mode options on the PS5 including either performance or quality. Being an Unreal Engine 5 or well UE5 game you can imagine the demand is greater here. So both modes are dynamic resolution scaling. The performance mode hits up to like 1200p ish at 60fps with extreme dips at times to sub 30fps.

The quality mode aims for up to like 1500p ish at 30fps with dips into the 20fps range. The game does provide some ray tracing which will feature lighting elements and reflections with how aggressive that is depending on the situation and it’s achieved through Lumen. I can’t wait to see how this looks and runs on the PS5 Pro. The performance issues are disappointing for sure, but it does largely look great.

I will note for performance mode the resolution scaling is really noticeable with shiny puddles or the hair on characters. There’s also HDR support. I did also want to mention that while it’s neat that your controller makes fuzz noises when enemies are nearby that does also take a little away from the terror and surprise of them being around corners.

The Conclusion

Silent Hill 2 Remake is an incredible reimagining of an iconic horror game bringing with it deep levels of emotion and a great sense of terror. The performances here for the voice acting were particularly excellent and the new focus for the presentation of cinematics was well appreciated.

This really comes together to display a compelling tale that should delight fans and hopefully introduce this beloved game to the modern gaming audience. It brings a good level of scares while handling its source material very effectively. It’s gloomy and rather sad so be prepared for a rather demoralizing time as you try to survive the foggy lands of Silent Hill.

It’s all about your wife of course, trying to find her in this place and maybe learn a bit about yourself (James) in the process. It visually looks great, uses the Playstation 5 effectively and has provided something that I hope the series can grow from once again. Really hoping for a Silent Hill 3 remake after this, that would be grand.

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Silent Hill 2 Remake Review on Playstation 5
Review Code Provided by Konami

Rating Overall: 9.4