Review
Played on: Xbox Series X
Released: 2024 (PS5 & PC), 2025 (Xbox X/S)
Original release: 2001 (PS2 & Xbox), 2002 (PC)
Remakes, the sign of modern times with many popular titles from the 90's and 2000's are receiving them. Leading the pack is Capcom's massive remake success of various Resident Evil titles, reviews here. Perhaps giving Konami confidence to finally revive the Silent Hill franchise from a long hiatus and mediocre titles during the 360/PS3 era. Sadly, locked behind a year of exclusivity by Sony, Silent Hill 2 remake finally arrives on Xbox Series X!
Developed by what has become an established horror expert, Polish based, Bloober Team have remade the biggest title in the franchise; Silent Hill 2. With their excellent nod to Silent Hill in the criminally overlooked The Medium, review here, they were finally given the chance to remake a respected horror franchise that has long since fallen from grace by Konami.
As I'm writing, Bloober Team are long on their way remaking the first Silent Hill, giving my favourite title in the franchise some much needed visual upgrade too! With such a loved title which perhaps opened the eyes for most to the franchise, accomplishing a great remake of Silent Hill 2 is no simple task!
Let's turn on a static radio and take a closer look!
For those unacquainted, which considering the downfall of the series through the years, is probably quite a few of you; Silent Hill 2 covers the story of James Sunderland. A new protagonist with no connection to the first game. He's received a letter from his dead wife to meet him in Silent Hill. Thus begins an eerie story of town that begins to reflect James's dark personality though various characters he meets along the way.
The depressed and massively sad Angela is the first character he meets at the beginning of the game. Her story is tragic and she's depicted perfectly, really tapping into an unsettling vibe when she reluctantly opens to James about her tragic past.
Further into the playthrough James tries to get hold of a mysterious little girl who somehow knows his late wife, Mary. On the path to finding her, James meets Maria. She's an attractive, intentionally sexualised, character who looks strikingly identical to Mary. Maria stays as a companion for a good segment of the hospital section, but don't worry; it's not an annoying escort mission. She simply follows along James, and their strange friendship is elaborated along the way.
All the characters, including bosses and scraps of diaries or notes, help paint a dark and horrific story. While at the same time, it cleverly leaves things up to the players imagination in thoughtful dialogue and cutscenes, allowing you to make your own conclusions. Many Silent Hill titles balance this edge of what is reality and imagination; not knowing what is real or indeed the characters imagination, and Silent Hill 2 is no exception from this. It's what makes the franchise unique and gives this unsettling feeling to the games.
A lot of the story points admittedly passed above my head as a teenager, but being older and wiser I can see a lot of the extremely dark insinuations. In addition, some of the vaguest dialogues have been elaborated a little and given more obvious nuances in this remake. Combined with better voice acting and better facial expressions, make the cutscenes even more powerful to watch. Even though they were great as CGI sequences in the original.
Back in the days of the PS2, I was a little divided about Silent Hill 2 compared to the amazing experience I'd with the first game. Regardless of the visual upgrade, it was fundamental going from PS1 hardware to the far more advanced PS2, I always felt slightly underwhelmed by SH2. It was the lack of a clear contrast between the foggy and the rusty world that bothered me the most. In addition, as mentioned, a lot of the story went above my head.
However, I'm happy to report that my criticisms of the old version are all fixed for this new remake! With a better understanding of the story and a distinct contrast of the foggy and rusty worlds, my view of the second game has changed. It's, without doubt, an absolute masterpiece of a survival horror experience. Competing with my personal impact of the first Silent Hill is no simple task, yet Silent Hill 2 remake prolongs that feeling of being lost in a horrifying world with no apparent escape so perfectly. Especially the way the rusted, dark world just becomes even increasingly prominent and horrifying to be in.
To be fair, Konami's visual work with the original SH2 was top of the class back in the day. Easily it was one of the best-looking titles on the system when it released and was a massive upgrade from the first game. Cleverly, Bloober Team have captured the atmosphere of the original perfectly. With the right combination of colour, visual realism and overall look of the original, albeit massively upgraded to modern standards.
It truly captures the feeling of "it looks just how I remember it" but when you compare them it's a huge upgrade. This is how you want a remake to do it; massively updated visually, but restoring the atmosphere and feel of what makes the original special.
With great depictions of a desolate American smalltown and creepy interior designs, it really brings out the smaller detail when you look closely. My only gripe is perhaps being the lack of interactivity other than smashing windows and a few drawers with ammo. Talking about ammo, it's sparse. I played it on normal difficulty, and it is challenging to say the least. Remember to scavenge everything as there aren't many places to find ammo.
To aid the need for ammo, there's a trusty nail board, later exchanged for a hefty metal pipe, to use as a melee weapon. Most enemies can be taken down this way. James swings his pipe in a rather old-school and slow fashion but make no mistake the gameplay is much more responsive than the cumbersome original. In addition, there's a proper dodge button, allowing you to avoid oncoming hits easier if timed correctly. Firearms are also available, but few in choice; handgun, shotgun and rifle. The latter being best for taking out enemies climbing walls afar or getting in massive damage on bosses.
There aren't many types of enemy designs, but they at least act prominently different, probably more so than in the original. There are slow, zombie like, creatures looking like they're inside a bag. They're the most common and can usually be taken down with a few melee hits. Later, they come in a version that explodes into acid after killing, so be aware.
Then there's the busty, but aggressive, nurses which deal massive damage. The way the erratically walk around, as well as being dressed that way, they make for some disturbing, yet memorable enemies in the franchise. They can luckily be kneecapped with a single shotgun shell then stomped to death.
Lastly, as the most common enemies outside of bosses, there's the mannequin doll like creatures. Basically, looking like, they have legs top and bottom. These creepily hide around corners and slap the hell out of James when they attack, then scurry away. Luckily, they take only a few shots from the regular handgun, but they're the trickiest to kill.
When multiple types of enemies, all requiring different attack styles, are combined in rooms later into playthrough, things get tricky. Requiring you to pull out the right weapon for each one, not exactly easy when your receiving damage and James is a little slow in in his weapon swapping. Luckily, this remake feels more satisfying to play than the original with a precise gunplay and better movement.
I would've preferred more variety in enemy appearances, but they work with the visual style of how I remember Silent Hill 2 being. It's less about a colour spectre and more about a look of realism of grittiness to their appearance.
I can't stress enough how this title slowly builds towards increasingly darker and horrific areas to explore. While the apartment building at the beginning is a slight introduction to the change between fog and the rust world, the hospital goes all in and later locations like the prison simply just stay in the dark world all the way through. It's such an intense build-up throughout, cleverly allowing for small breathing sections between the main buildings. Really emphasising the overall feeling of despair and desperation to escape this nightmare.
This remake is spot on when it comes to visuals; it massively upgrades them with modern techniques and adds massive amounts of detail. Increasing the scope of the streets, woodlands and interiors. While, at the same time, retains the colour and style of the original perfectly. Bloober Team have really gone to work; environments look incredibly real.
All the minor detail like the reflective puddles, the neon lights hitting wet tarmac, the flickery indoor lights, the worn-down furniture and wallpaper, the cold and rust clad underworld; it has a ton of visually stunning areas to see. At times I wished to explore the town on a sunny day with these kinds of visuals, but alas the fog is all part of the style! It feels like more shops to enter this time around too, making the town convincing as a real one.
Character models are well done, with some great expressions and voice overs. The characters at first glance look a little uncanny valley, but once you get used to them you appreciate the work done in just a story being told with facial experiences in addition to the voices. All the characters have this tension beneath the surface too, adding to the chilling depiction of a dark story.
Although the 60fps performance mode runs in a little lower resolution, with effects dialled back for lighting compared to quality mode, it was the mode I went for to get that responsiveness in combat and movement. It runs impressively smooth, and looks fantastic, on the Xbox Series X. With VRR enabled I never noticed any frame drops at all.
There aren't many gripes, other than the lack of enemy variety and limited interactivity. Perhaps the actual gameplay mechanic is a bit shallow; combat is limited to a handful of weapons and exploring is simply picking up items. But I also feel this isn't really the scope either, this is a remake of a 2001 title, and back then this was normal. This is classic, old-school, survival horror with puzzles.
On a side note; I appreciate Bloober keeping the difficulty settings of both combat and puzzles separate, just like how SH2 and SH3 did it back in the day. It allows players to adjust the difficulty to emphasize on what they prefer!
Overall, an outstandingly good remake. It not only closely represents the original but outperforms it and becomes the de facto version to play! The atmosphere is not only kept but looks a lot better and adds an extra dimension to everything. The expanded areas, the increasing distinction between the fog end rusty world is far more pronounced, fixing what I always felt was a weak side of the original.
In many ways I think this is perhaps one of the best remake I've played to this date, side by side with the excellent Resident Evil 2 remake. Whereas RE2make was in a new, third person, dimension, Silent Hill 2 remake is closer to the original in gameplay style yet upgraded perfectly to modern standards to coincide with how nostalgia remembers it.
What a trip down memory lane, in a beautiful new way and stands tall as one of the best survival horrors titles made. While it probably can never knock my experience of playing the first Silent Hill, it greatly improves my feelings about Silent Hill 2!
