A few years ago, I wrote a book about 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Silent Hill 2 for Boss Fight Books. It was a great opportunity to explore the inner workings of a melancholic masterpiece and an even greater way to write some video games off on my taxes. Technically it’s not a scam if you’ve spent decades building a career around it and use it to pay bills. But, seriously, the original 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Silent Hill 2 was and is ♛one of my favorite games ever mad🧸e and so I’ve approached the Silent Hill 2 remake with the hesitancy of seeing an ex from high school twenty years later.

Although, I weirdly look better now as a tired, barrel-shaped husk than I did back then as a bitter, barrel-shaped husk, but that’s neither here nor there. I had both 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:worried about changes to the game but tried to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:stay optimistic. And now it’s out and Bloober and Konami have my $80 and I’ve got thoughts.

How Good Is Silent Hill 2, Actually?

James holding the blue gem up to the sky in the lakeview hotel in silent hill 2 remake.

If you don’t care enough or want to get right to the point of what will make you mad or happy, here’s the short of it: I think the Silent Hill 2 remake is stunning, captivating, and amazing. It’s a real achievement that a lot of us thought impossible. Bloober landed the plane and, if this is your first trip to Silent Hill, you will have a very good time. I also, however, still think the original Silent Hill 2 does a better job of delivering the goods. And I’ll go even further to say that a lot of the changes might actually make the game better for newer fans or ones who don’t want a lead character who spins around like a tank. Because this is a nuanced opinion - and therefore the worst possible thing on the internet - I’ll do my best to push some computer keys to make more words so people dꦚon’t yell at me again.

As a disclaimer, let me say that writing a book about Silent Hill 2 does not make me an ‘expert’. It makes me someone who spent a long time researching, playing the game on multiple platforms, and breaking down each scene in the game. That’s good, but we’re talking about video games. There are fans who have the entire script memorized in multiple languages. I simply wrote a book. Some people actually modded Silent Hill 2 to create a truly-brilliant enhanced PC version. Those are experts.

I’m just someone who loves that game and wanted to use my Master’s degree in Literature at least once in my life. That’s all to say, these are my opinions. I’m not the arbiter of Silent Hill. I’ll go to my grave saying Shattered Memories is one of the best entries in the series despite it being treated more like a curious quasi🐈-franchise footnote.

Related
Wikipedia Locks Silent Hill 2 Remake Page After It's Spammed With Fake Negative Reviews

Some people reaꦓlly aren't happy that Silent Hill 2 Remake is reviewing well, and are vandalising its Wikipedia page to pretend🦩 it scored poorly.

2

I’ll also also say that I have not unlocked all the endings yet and I’m going to do my best to avoid spoilers for people who haven’t played either game. Silent Hill 2 is over twenty years old and hasn’t always been an easily-accessible game (outside of emulation), so I’m sure some newer players only know the broadest strokes of the story. I don’t want to ruin it for you even if the internet and endless memes have already doled out most of the secrets. Side note, I’ve always hated the angle of “It’s trauma!” because Silent Hill 2 struck me far more as being about the guilt that stems from our - sometimes violent - response to trauma rather than just the bad experience it🔯s𝓰elf. Whatever!

Silent Hill 2's Modernization Cuts Both Ways

James Sunderland in Silent Hill 2's Remake.

Let’s do this compliment sandwich style. The Silent Hill 2 remake is really, really good at capturing the style and tone of the original. Both the composer Akira Yamaoka and the artist Masahiro Ito return and their fingerprints are all over the thing. While we’d all love all of Team Silent to get back together for one more heist, it’s comforting we got two of the biggest contributors to the atmosphere of the game. The game feels damp and cold.

After being bizarrely reduced in the HD R🅷emaster for PS3 and Xbox 360, the fog is back in Silent Hill 2. It’s just as easy to get turned around in this version as it was in the original - something I consider a plus when playing a game about a man who’s clearly confused and blocking out tragedies in his past.🔯 I’m glad that there isn’t an arrow hovering over my head pointing to the next location. Silent Hill is a city of lost souls and - thank god - it’s still very easy to get lost in it. Pulling up the map every few seconds is stressful, only matched by the massive relief I feel every time a door is locked and I don’t need to worry about what’s in that room. I don’t want to go in there. I want to stay in the hallway until I hear the radio and then I want to cry. That’s pure Silent Hill 2.

On the other hand, I kind of wish we still had the awkward old-timey survival horror camera. I know tank 🍰controls and weird🦩 camera orientations made the original game a little less fun. But, I’d argue, the game isn’t supposed to be🃏 ‘fun’ in the traditional sense. It’s supposed to feel frightening and oppressive. The odd camera angles in Silent Hill 2 added a movie-like quality, sure, but it also disconnected us from James by just a degree. Our perspective of him is literally skewed in the original (I told you I was doing some academic tomfoolery with this).

While we get some of those good shots in the remake - especially in cutscenes - most of the game is more of an over-the-shoulder third-person action view. This feels mostly necessary for the modernization of movement and updated focus on combat, but it kind of takes away some of the spookiness. I’d argue that, by being intentionally awkward, the old camera angles helped build tension. It’s disturbing walking by an area when the shot feels like we’re being watched. The remake is still scary as hell and there are jump scares that got my ass, but the new perspective and combat gives it more of a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Resident Evil 4 vibe. Which isn’t necessarily bad! It just is.

James Sunderland Can Defend Himself Too Easily

James Sunderland holds a chainsaw up in the air in Silent Hill 2 Remake.

Speaking of which, I’m also a bit split on the combat. The original Silent Hill 2’s combat sucked, but, again, it was kind of supposed to suck. You were a nobody named James just wandering into a town to find his dead wife. You weren’t intended to be skilled at hitting wet flesh bags with a two-by-four. The game encouraged you to run. Seeing monsters in the fog was scary because I absolutely did not want to fight them.

In the remake, it feels a little more like I’m expected to kill all of them. Or, at the very least, trying to run from them feels harder and less useful. I don’t like the idea of doing a mostly pacifist run because it’s cool, I like it because I’d assume that James is terrified of everything in his path. If I was in Silent Hill, I’d be booking it from door to door, not waiting for a Lying Figure to shamble by so I can surprise attack. That said, the combat is more satisfying and enjoyable. I’m not sure there was an optimal option that would’ve pleased everyone here, but I do wish it was easier to avoid enemies. You can do it! It’s just striking me as a bit harder than it was in the old game, thereby making battles far more common. The themes of denial and guilt hits harder when you’re literally avoiding facing your fears.

As far as the character changes… I guess after spending time with the game, I care a bit less? I still prefer the slightly-stylized, hollowed-out look of people in the first two games over 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a more photorealistic approach, although it’s handled better here than many remakes. Some of the enemy changes seem a bit pointless and I’m not in love with all the new character designs - Eddie now oddly looks like a thin actor wearing a fat suit for a movie -𝄹 but that might also just be because I’ve played the s🌠ame game for 20 years.

The Creative Changes Mostly Work

Mary's hand reaching out to caress James' cheek in the Stillness ending of Silent Hill 2 remake.

It’s like if you remade 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Jurassic Park and cast a new Alan Grant - the new guy could knock it out of the park, but I’m still gonna miss the original. On the flip side, people complaining that Angela Orosco isn’t attractive need to calm down: she is not supposed to be hot and, if you know her deeply sad, tragic, and horrifying story, she should definitely not be hot. I preferre🌱d th🌊e more haunted look of the original, but the new design and actor hit her character’s beats perfectly. I wasn’t sold until I was sold!

Honestly, we don’t need a world in which we gatekeep what teenage victims look like, folks. The idea that Angela or Mary should be hot misses the point of the game entirely. And Maria is supposed to look like a sexy, confident, and healthy version of Mary. She’s not supposed to have an entirely different bone structure. Do I prefer the originals? Yes. Do I think the new designs are ba𝓡d? Not really. It’s like going to a play and getting the understudies: they’re doing a great job, so you can forget you’re not seeing the movie star you paid to see reach for legitimacy on stage.

True, there are some things I could nitpick here or there - most of which would involve spoilers. A few scenes have been changed in a way that, to me, reduces their horror and their impact. Same with the aforementioned updated enemies. Horror needs to be troubling and problematic to work. I know peopl🎐e online are saying this is censorship, but I don’t completely feel that’s the case here. In my mind - and I’m sure people will politely disagree in the comments - censorship would be if Bloober re-released the original as-is but cut or covered up the most disturbing content.

This is a remake, and I’m willing to give developers (and filmmakers and writers and musicians doing covers) some leeway on creative decisions in a new take on an old story. I’m not mad that the 1980s version of The Fly deviates꧒ from the ending of the 1950s version of The Fly, even if I found the 1950s ending far more scary as a kid. That’s not a perfect comparison, but I’m ready for the next paragraph so let’s go.

The Remake Does Not Erase The Original

Silent Hill 2 Remake A Closeup of Maria.

The problem some people are running into here is the fact that Bloober’s Silent Hill 2 is a remake and not a remaster. Going back to my weak comparison to The Fly, both are readily available. One existing doesn’t preclude the other from existing. Cronenberg didn’t colorize and re-edit the 1950s version. He made a new movie. Both are worth watching and make great companion pieces based on their decades-apart productions and changes in the way we approach the genre. That’s what we should have in games.

But this can be lost when marketing implies that this is the ultimate version of Silent Hill 2, as if the original didn’t live up to its true potential and needed fixing and now it’s perfect. That’s not the case and it’s foolish to imply this is the final version of the game you’ll ever need. Both should be easy to buy right now. Both should be accessible. I can assure you that fans would probably buy each of them immediately. I know I would and I still ha🐓ve the original CDs from the PC edition fr🤡om when I was in college.

And as far as the missing content - the Born From A Wish side story - I dunno, man. My guess is that’s coming as paid DLC, which, fine. Born From A Wish wasn’t on the first run of the PS2 version either. It popped up later. I’d rather have it been included from the get-go, but I can’t judge it harshly when it also wasn’t included from the get-go in 2001. I hope they expand Born From A Wish, though, as it’s not a super long story. And if fans have to pay $30 for a movie-length prequel, people will lose their minds. Don’t season pass this, Bloober! Oh, god, please don’t season pass this!💫 I’ve been so nice so far.

Related
Silen🐓t Hill 2 Remake Trophy Rewards You For Tryi⛎ng To Escape

A fruitless endeavour.

I know I sound wobbly or on the fence about the remake of Silent Hill 2. I’m actually not. I paid for it and it’s earned every dime so far. I’m enjoying it. I’m probably going to play through it a few times. It 🐷is a great game. The fact that I prefer the rough edges and voice acting and visual perspective of the original does not mean that this is bad or ‘ruined’. It’s just a different take on the game using many of the same focal points. If this selling well is what’s going to get us more Silent Hill in the future, bully for us.

Silent Hill 2 Remake Is A Return To Form

Angela looks away fearfully in Silent Hill 2 Remake.

Maybe that’s it. Maybe that’s where I land as someone who’s spent too much time thinking about this series. If this was an entirely new Silent Hill game it would be one of the best ones in the entire franchise. We’d be praising it to high heaven as a return to form. Hell, we currently are praising it to high heaven and as a return to form. This is what Silent Hill is all about! But this is still a remake of the most beloved game in Silent Hill - one that’s so famous that there’s a mem꧑e tဣhat many fans haven’t even played it.

And if you’re one of them who hasn’t - and you’re used to modern gameplay that doesn’t drive you loopy - I can’t argue that this will be an easier road into that town of despair. Not in terms of difficulty, in terms of being coherent to the modern player. I just happen to still prefer the original. It’s a bit rougher. It’s a bit weirder and - 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:like that Daddy villain - abstractও. James felt weaker. The camera angles felt creepier. The cl𒁏austrophobia killed me.

But man, I’m having a blast with this remake. It’s grotesque and macabre and some of the little added details - of which I shall not speak - expand on the world without breaking it or feeling shoehorned. At no point did I ever think Bloober was turning the game away from the source material or betraying it. I may not appreciate every change, but it’s absolutely clear that everyone at Bloober loves this game as much - or more - than I do.

I guess it turns out that two good things can exist at once. We don’t need to live in a fandom where ‘old game good = new game bad’. Or ‘new game good = old game worthless’. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Resident Evil 2 and its remake are each individually amazing games even if - in that example - I like the new one more. As someone who wrote the book on it, I feel like both Silent Hill 2s can be appreciated at the same time. We shouldn’t be outraged that there are two good Silent Hill 2s.

Sure, they tell the same story and hit a lot of the same moments, but so do different television adaptations of The Stand. You might like one more than the other - and I admit I do - but I’m just happy this exists. Instead of arguing which version is better, we should be demanding that Konami make it easy to play both versions. Now you get out there and go hไave some fun!

mixcollage-25-dec-2024-11-52-pm-2729.jpg

Your Rating

168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Silent Hill 2
Survival Horror
Horror
Adventure
Action
Systems
Top Critic Avg: 87/100 Critics Rec: 95%
Released
October 8, 2024
ESRB
M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Language, Sexual T✤hemes, Violence
Publisher(s)
Konami
Engine
Unreal Engine 5

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
PHYSICAL