Let’s get one thing straight: The Silent Hill series has passed me by. Don’t ask me why, I just never had the desire or opportunity to play it as a teenager. What has not escaped me is the criticism from fans and horror purists towards the upcoming Silent Hill 2 Remake. I’m well aware that handing the keys over to Bloober Team, changing key design aspects, and seemingly putting more focus on combat has raised concerns.
I have to admit that the first trailers for Silent Hill 2 failed to excite or impress me, even as a Silent Hill newbie with no prior knowledge of the game. They didn’t exactly shout “psychological horror game” and I remember being particularly bored by the battle trailer that came out in January. However, I’m here to tell you that you should probably forget all that after nearly three hours of gameplay – the Silent Hill 2 remake is a thrilling, visually stunning and gripping horror puzzle game that I couldn’t put down.
Silent Hill’s environments are both very atmospheric, as you’d expect, and visually impressive. Although there’s a lot of grey fog, concrete and rusty brown metal, it never feels dreary outside in Silent Hill 2. The same goes for the interiors – of course there are plenty of shadowy black hallways and gruesome red blood stains, but there’s variety and contrast too.
James Sunderland – who had to be given a makeshift makeover by Bloober after fans derided his first appearance as “I’m a disgruntled geography teacher” – now looks much more believable as the main character of a major horror experience, and also more like his first appearance without being a complete carbon copy. After revisiting the designs of the 2001 original, I personally think Bloober’s take on the entire cast feels faithful and strong. The lurking monsters also get a visual upgrade, but remain true to their original, grotesque forms. Pyramid Head looks particularly sinister and gruesome, and the recreation of James’ first encounter with the iconic enemy feels significant.
The sound design is quick to send shivers down your spine. The warning static noises from the radio are intense. Smaller details like the tinkling of a wind chime or the hissing of bile spewing from a monster also sound sharp and cut through the usual eerie background noises.
But what about the gameplay? Well, let’s talk about the combat first, since that’s what caused the most pre-launch controversy. While I definitely found myself having to swing my trusty wooden stick or pull the trigger of my pistol in some situations, the game doesn’t suffer from an over-reliance on combat. There’s perhaps a little more ducking, diving, slashing, and shooting compared to what I saw of the original, but I never felt like it detracted from everything else the remake has to offer. The melee striking is chunky and satisfying, and pistol aiming has a haunting wobble and sway that adds to the pressure as you try to line up each shot.
What gave me the most food for thought was the slow but incredibly engaging exploration and puzzle-solving. Silent Hill 2 kept me engaged and curious for almost the entire session. Of course, those who played the original game may find solving some of its game-changing puzzles a little easier and less surprising than I did, but there are also brand new brain teasers to delve into. The first involves finding components for a broken jukebox, and it doubles as an excellent introductory tour of the town.
After fixing your jukebox and getting one of the many, many keys, you’ll head to the first major puzzle location from the original game, the Woodside Apartments. Bloober has talked a lot about how key locations have been reimagined and expanded, and this is one of them whose sprawling layout kept me occupied for a long time. I won’t give too much away about it so as not to give spoilers to my fellow newbies, but there isn’t a single corner of this massive location that I didn’t want to explore.
Of course, for long-time fans who care about the source material, I can’t make any firm predictions about what they’ll really think of the remake. As an entry into the series, however, I think Silent Hill 2 delivers. Its modernizations, like a fluid third-person camera and expanded combat, don’t come at the expense of tension, storytelling, and puzzles. For the first few hours at least, Bloober seems to have done an equally good job of faithfully recreating some moments and using the creative freedom Konami granted it to adapt or rework others.
If you’ve never played the original games, you’ll want to keep an eye out for the remake when Silent Hill 2’s release date comes this October. The first few hours were really nothing to complain about, so let’s just hope the quality doesn’t drop as we venture even deeper into the fog.
