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Bloober Team is at it again

There was some controversy with the Silent Hill 2 remake just little before the launch. People weren’t happy with the initial gameplay reveal, they said that the battle looked janky and bad. They also weren’t happy about some other aspects of the game such as some revamped character models. The developer Bloober Team did put out a statement that plead to give them a chance and that the game will be polished before launch. First of all, Bloober Team is one of my favourite developer, they have made games such as Observer, Layers of Fear and Medium, which are my favourite games. So, Silent Hill 2 remake is out as of October 8, 2024 and I did play it through. Is it any good?

A little disclaimer; I have played the original game such a long time ago that I barely remember anything about it. So, this review is based on as a standalone game only and I will not be comparing it to the original.

Plot

James receives a letter from his late wife Mary, telling him to come to the mysterious town called Silent Hill. Soon after he arrives, James finds out that the town is full of monsters, secrets and the few people he meets are mysterious. The game is first and foremost a psychological horror and not all makes sense in the story and everything doesn’t seems as is. There were tons of hidden meanings and a lot of it is left for the players’ opinion to unravel what they mean. Like, was the Silent Hill even there or was it all in James’ mind, and so on. Overall the story was very interesting as it was rather vague about everything yet still holding together.

Gameplay, controls, audio and visuals

Silent Hill 2 has received overhauled gameplay completely. The original was with fixed camera angles. The remake has third-person over-the-shoulder camera that turns it immediately to this day and age. The gameplay was good and every aspect of it worked well. Silent Hill 2 remake is an action-horror-survival title where player must shoot enemies, collect items, do puzzles and proceed to the next area. There were about four main areas in the game, for not spoiling anything I can name a few; a hospital and an apartment building. All the main areas held the same kind of principle where you must find keys to other rooms and do puzzles. The areas were designed well and I liked how player must utilise the map that was updated as you discover the places. Such as what doors are closed, what doors needed a key and so on. The puzzles were good. Even though I have to admit I had to look a little help with few of them online, but there are settings—not just for the difficulty, but for the puzzle difficulty as well. I did like that option.

Even though players have guns and healing items they cannot be upgraded in any way. So they guns, loading times and health is as is from start to the end. One thing I would fix immediately in the gameplay/controls was the item pick-up prompts as sometimes it was nearly impossible to open cabinets and pick-up items when it felt like you must position James just into the right pixel for him to be able to do the damn thing. In boss battles this was crucial when you tried to pick up items but James was never quick enough nor in the right spot.

Controlling James is very easy and the game plays like the Resident Evil 4 remake, if I must to compare it to something. Encountering the enemies and killing them isn’t just hitting them with melee attack or just shooting them. The enemies will attack back but James has a dodge move which I did master in the end as I learned how certain enemies like to attack.

I loved all the background music in Silent Hill 2 because it was very retro (if early 2000s can be calssified as such) and all the sound effects were well-utilised. I presonally think audio comes second from visual sensory when it comes to video games. It can pull players deeper into the game and not just scare but write a whole another story—and I think Silent Hill 2 did just that.

Visually Silent Hill 2 looked amazing. First I noticed how the game ran smoothly without any hiccups or framerate drops or anything like that. People are actually divided by some character designs as they diverge from the original too much, but I wasn’t bothered by that. I think they still looked good and lifelike. But with all that said there were some tiny issues with the graphics such as some reflections looked off. Enemy design was also very well done and they all looked freaky as hell.

You are now leaving Silent Hill

As I mentioned in the beginning; I only review this game as an independent game, not as a remake. Because it’s been so long since I had played the original that I can hardly remember anything meaningful about it.

Silent Hill 2 was a very good experience; hair-raising and terrifying. I played this through in about 12 hours. Even though the game isn’t for everyone as it needs some skills to play it even with easiest difficulty the game might feel little bit hard at some points. You know when a horror game is done right as you can sigh from relief as you find a save point—and in Silent Hill 2, I did sigh very deeply and saved all the time like a madman. The game isn’t just killing monsters, but it has very well-written story and with all its deeper meanings I can just say that I do recommend Silent Hill 2 remake to everyone who enjoys survival horror.

Silent Hill 2 is available on PS5 (reviewed) and Windows.

SCORE:

5/5

“Silent Hill 2 was a very good experience; hair-raising and terrifying”

RELEASE DATE: October 8, 2024
GENRE: Horror
DEVELOPER: Bloober Team
PUBLISHER: Konami
PLATFORMS: PS5 (reviewed)
Windows

 

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