Silent Hill 2 Remake Review

The remake stays true to the original game's plot. It's still a thought-provoking story about personal sins and redemption, a psychological horror about hidden fears, and a gripping tale of a purgatory-like town. As James moves towards his meeting with Mary, he undergoes severe trials and transforms as a person.

The new version retains the complex themes of the classic Silent Hill 2. The creators explore mental anguish due to guilt, bullying, domestic violence, and suppressed desires. The underlying meanings and fan interpretations can still be discussed for hours.

In the original, you needed to wander through linear locations, occasionally engaging in fights and shootouts. In the remake, much more time is spent on exploration and resource gathering. Previously, health kits and ammo were in plain sight, but in the new version, they are carefully hidden in cabinets, tables, and safes. This encourages you to enter every room and search them thoroughly.

In the original Silent Hill 2, the town served more as a backdrop, an empty space between the buildings where the plot unfolded. Now, Silent Hill feels tangible. You can explore some residential buildings, break windows in shops and go inside, look at tourist brochures, and study the environment for a long time.

Immersion is easier thanks to the camera position. Previously, it was fixed from above, allowing you to see only what the developers intended. In the remake, there's an over-the-shoulder view, making it even more interesting to explore this peculiar world. Especially when James enters the alternate version of Silent Hill—with rust and soot on the walls, dried bloodstains on the floors, and a constant unsettling hum.

Not only the gameplay but also the voice acting has been modernized. In the original, characters speak monotonously, rarely express emotions, and sometimes throw out amusingly inappropriate lines. No wonder fans turned certain cutscenes into memes, like "How can you just sit there and eat pizza?" or "All you do is worry about that dead wife of yours."

Such acting evokes associations with David Lynch's "Twin Peaks" and complements the nightmare-like atmosphere. But such delivery would hardly align with modern graphics and advanced facial animations.

In the remake, characters sound more believable and emotional. James no longer seems like a naive and clueless guy; he sounds like a mature man who has been through a tough time. And Eddie has transformed from a caricatured fat man into a frightening person with a resentful voice. The acting fits the dark story perfectly.

The action in the original Silent Hill 2 was not particularly impressive. To shoot and hit enemies, you only needed to press one button. There was no need to aim or time your attacks. Enemies always behaved the same way—charging straight at you and trying to overwhelm you with numbers.

In the remake, the combat is genuinely engaging. Ordinary enemies have their own unique traits. Armless lying figures spit venom and explode upon death, so you need to keep your distance from them. Mannequins, made up of two pairs of legs, hide in the dark and try to blend into the environment before launching surprise attacks.

Bubble Head Nurses are now extremely resilient and can kill James in three or four hits. There are generally more enemies, and escaping from them is not easy—you have to stand and fight.

In the original game, there was no shortage of ammunition. In the updated version, you often run out of ammo—and usually at the worst times. Fighting with melee weapons is challenging: monsters don't attack one by one but swarm you all at once. Dodging blows is also tricky: when evading, James doesn't move far, only sidestepping slightly. This forces you to plan battles more carefully and constantly switch between melee and firearms.

The series' signature puzzles are even more captivating than the combat. The remake includes some puzzles from the original, but their solutions are different. This makes the gameplay situations impressive even for seasoned fans. All puzzles are multi-layered: solving them requires more than just finding three random items and combining them. Typically, the solutions are more complex and interesting.

My favorite puzzle involves collecting three bracelets in the Brookhaven Hospital. Finding one of them turns into a full-fledged quest: you match X-ray images, use a mold remover on a spoiled frame, discover a code for a nearby door, and only then find the required item. Searching for the other bracelets also becomes an adventure. The puzzles spark genuine interest, making you eager to see what surprises are in store next.

Modern big-budget games rarely scare, but Silent Hill 2 can send shivers down your spine. In most locations, you can hardly see anything. Your imagination conjures up nightmarish images, and the fear is fueled by eerie ambient sounds and strange noises. Something bangs on pipes, the wind howls outside, and whispers can be heard from the rooms. Opening doors is incredibly frightening—you never know what awaits behind them.

The Toluca Prison is the scariest of all. The narrow corridors and impenetrable darkness alone put pressure on your psyche, and the monsters crawling on the walls can truly cause panic. It becomes even scarier when you realize how long this level is going to be. To solve the puzzle, you'll have to explore every nook and cranny of the prison, enter the basement rooms, and search the upper floors.

At some point, I even took off my headphones, turned on the light in the room, and took a 10-minute break to catch my breath. I hadn't been this scared in the original Silent Hill 2 or any other game in recent years.

Thanks to the excellent direction of cutscenes and battles, the story itself is perceived more emotionally. For instance, boss fights last much longer and are not limited to shootouts. Take the encounter with Abstract Daddy in the Labyrinth: in the original, we shot the monster in a cramped room, while in the remake, we run away from it through corridors and hide in passages. The creature can kill with two or three attacks, so when you finally defeat it, you breathe a sigh of relief.

Closer to the finale, you realize how long a journey James has made. This makes the ending feel more poignant. The protagonist seems lost, scared, and broken. He evokes unequivocal sympathy, as he has been endearing from the very beginning.

The new version is so good that it can replace the classic. This puts it on par with other outstanding remakes—Resident Evil 2, Dead Space 2023, and Mafia: Definitive Edition. All changes are in line with the spirit of the times, and there are no significant drawbacks. Once you immerse yourself in the fog, you'll forget about the problems of real life and embark on an unforgettable adventure through the dark sides of the human soul.