‘Silent Hill 2 (2024)’ Review

Developer: Bloober Team/Team Silent | Platform: PS5 | Playtime: 17:10 (15:16:32 IGT)

I went back and forth on whether or not I was going to play the original before the remake. Time and tech issues became a problem before I eventually settled on just diving into the remake, and I’m glad I did. Silent Hill 2 is a tense, dread inducing masterclass of horror design and emotional story telling.

I would have had the Platinum at 27:30 but I missed a single memo so I would have to do in another playthrough. In the interest of getting to other games, I’ve saved that for a later point.

The story follows James Sunderland who receives a letter from his wife, Mary. The only problem is Mary died three years ago. The letter beckons him back to the town of Silent Hill and the couple’s special place. In search of answers, James ventures forth. I realise Silent Hill 2 originally came out years ago but in my head I realise the similarities between the premise of this game and Resident Evil 7, with Ethan Winters looking for his wife Mia after three years.

On the topic of Resident Evil, conversation and comparison would naturally fall to that – both were as sister series back in the day and this remake comes off the heels of the recent remakes of Resi 2, 3 and 4. While Resi deals with trained agents dealing with corporate made monsters, the Silent Hill games focus on the psychological trauma of the average Joes that wind up in the story. James Sunderland is an average guy (who is very well written and voice acted, as is every character in the story) and while his reactions to the strange things that happen around him might be a bit reserved based on the context, I appreciate a story that calls a stick a stick – James sees a monster trying to attack him and he kills it. This brings us to combat.

I played on 2/2, meaning I had Level 2 puzzle difficulty and Level 2 Combat, with 1 being the easiest and 3 being the hardest (More on the puzzles later). The game has a good flow for combat but consequently is quite easy. Whereas in other survival horror games, you may want to avoid enemies when possible however here I was happy to kill every monster I saw thanks to the games melee combat. Don’t worry, you aren’t doing DMC combos, merely dodging and attacking with your wooden nail ridden stick. As you progress you’ll unlock guns – a pistol, shotgun and finally a rifle. Again thankfully there’s no fanfare about getting these weapons, James just knows how to use them (He is American after all). Ammo is abundant should you go looking for it so you’ll never go without even if you are trigger happy. Most of my deaths came from recklessness – a little more patience and I reckon I could have done the game deathless. Healing items are also fairly common meaning you aren’t punished for exploring.

The game isn’t split into rigid noted chapters but entry to a new area will block off access to the old one with no way to return until a new game. This can make getting the collectibles a little bit of a hassle – Memos return and are accompanied by new collectibles in the form of Strange Photographs and Echoes which highlight something from the original game. Obviously not having played the original I didn’t get any of these but I’m sure people appreciated them.

Levels follow Survival Horror standards – lots of locked doors and keys to unlock them. Throw in some puzzles too for good measure. As I stated before, I played on Level 2 puzzle difficulty. I never had to look up a puzzle solution which was immensely satisfying (I usually belittle myself for needing to look up an answer but I managed to solve everything). The lack of limited inventory in the game means that puzzles can be more complicated – puzzles have puzzles which I think is great. The only puzzle I didn’t rate was the elevator quiz show, the answers to which unlocked a box full of loot elsewhere in the level. I suppose it works as two puzzles that don’t have solutions (the puzzle being the box, the answer being the radio show) but it doesn’t feel quite as intuitive. I hesitate to call it tedium but between the Apartments, Hospital, Prison and Hotel – there’s a lot of rummaging small rooms in order to find the right keys for the right doors. I realise these settings limit the potential and on a first playthrough it’s not a problem but on repeat playthroughs you start to notice.

I’m don’t really comment on graphical quality of games because generally speaking, I don’t much care. I don’t know if it was my aging TV giving out or Silent Hill’s iconic fog just leads to visuals being obscured, perhaps more than may at times be intentional. Something I cannot fault in any capacity and in fact deserves a ton of praise is the music and sound design. I mentioned before that the voice acting in the game is phenomenal from all characters and it’s enhanced by the music. From the ambient themes to more purposeful tracks are all wonderful - Blank Fairy (or is it Black? I’ve seen both) is an emotionally wrecking song that genuinely made me stop and think about what happened in the narrative. On the sound design, every door creak, every scuttle of the enemy induces dread like I’ve never felt in any other game. Silent Hill’s iconic radio is to this day a genius idea, playing a low buzz or hum when enemies are near by. The only thing scasrier than a jump scare is knowing a threat is near but not being able to see them (Disregarding the general ease of combat). On the topic, the game doesn’t really have Jumpscares which I appreciate, the closest thing you’ll get is the reveal of the Lying figures and enemies just generally appearing from the dark. It’s horror but not cheap jump scare horror.

Returning are all three main endings, the two joke endings and the NG+ one. There also two new endings (that don’t have associated trophies/achievements for whatever reason). I got all endings except for one of the two new ones and enjoyed all of them. The requirements for them are a bit esoteric but otherwise easily obtainable and multiple can be done on the same save file if necessary.

Props to Bloober Team for defying the odds and a whole ton of vitriol online to deliver what I’ve heard is a fantastic remake and what I know to be a brilliant, dread inducing emotional experience. I may prefer Resident Evil based on what I’ve played of both series so far but if Bloober want to do more remakes or even their own Silent Hill game then I’d be first in line to play it.