Silent Hill 2 remake Review

Reviving a Nightmare, One Puzzle at a Time

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Title: Silent Hill 2 2024

Release: October 8, 2024

Platform: PS5 PC

Developer: Blooper Team

Publisher: KONAMI

Genre: Psychological Horror

ESRB: M

Reviewed on: PC

Time Played: 15 hours

Intro:

Silent Hill 2 was originally released over twenty years ago and has now been remastered to fit today’s visual standards. This psychological horror has a lot to offer in terms of spooky experiences and puzzles to figure out, so whether you played the original, or you’ve never experienced Silent Hill 2, let me tell you what to expect from the game before giving my final thoughts and ratings.

Where it starts

After receiving a letter from his three years deceased wife, James is compelled to revisit their special place in a town known as Silent Hill. When James arrives, the city is full of fog and nightmarish creatures, nothing like his memories of his previous stay there. James must fight against the nightmares, working his way through obstacles and puzzles to find out how or why his dead wife sent him a letter.

Can the kids watch

This game is full of very mature situations like suicide, murder, and other dark matters. Let alone the terrifying monsters hiding around every corner of the game. The enemy designs look pulled right out of a nightmare with body parts missing or too many body parts, and the noises weren’t pleasant either. You might wait until bedtime, it’s much scarier to play by yourself anyway.

Scary beasties

Silent Hill was home to a small variety of monsters who, after noticing you, would attempt to destroy you. They would bludgeon with their bodies, spit poison, and some could even carry weapons to attack you with. Thankfully you carry a radio that will react to enemies, notifying you when they are near. Even so, they could still easily pop up and terrify you at any moment.

Defending Yourself

James wasn’t completely helpless against the beasties, carrying a pipe or a couple of guns ready to defend himself when the need arose. Ammo was scarce so most enemies would need to be taken out with a couple of good swings from a melee weapon. While fighting it was necessary to dodge incoming attacks, when timed right James could move right through the attack without taking any damage. If you happened to get hurt in combat, scattered throughout the game were drinks and syringes that could be used to bring James back into fighting shape.

The Town

Your journey in Silent Hill will take you through quite a few different parts of the city, breaking the game up into sections. At the start of a new area, you can find a map that James will draw on as you explore. Things like locked doors, special symbols, and even the combination of some puzzles after they’re found. Without the map and James’ note-taking skills, this would have been a much longer and tougher game to get through.

Puzzles Galore

Every section of the game had unique puzzles to decipher so you could move forward. Usually involving finding key items to put together and place somewhere or tracking down numbers for combination locks. The puzzles had differing levels of difficulty, but, after enough time thinking it over none of the puzzles were too overwhelming to figure out, on standard difficulty anyway.

Setting Your Difficulties

When starting the game, you can set difficulty levels for combat and puzzles. The puzzles would be the same, but getting to a solution on easier difficulties was much simpler, like involving less math or options to mess up with. After you started the puzzle difficulty was set for the entire game, however, you could adjust combat difficulty at any time.

Outro:

Have you ever played this or the original game? I would love to hear from you in the comments below about your thoughts and experiences! And if you enjoy what you’ve heard so far, hit that subscribe for more reviews in the future. While you do that I’ll move right into my final thoughts and ratings.

I never played the original Silent Hill 2, but from what I’ve heard this was a one-to-one representation of the original game. It was a standalone title, so you don’t need to worry about playing the first Silent Hill either. I found the game scary and enjoyable without having experienced either.

I got some scares from the game, mostly jump scares from sneaky monsters hiding just out of my vision, and some of the noises were nerve-racking. However, it didn’t get in my head and keep me on the edge of my seat. The original came out over twenty years ago, and at the time was probably a unique terrifying experience, but in today’s landscape, it didn’t quite hit how I was expecting. I wanted to end my playtime scared but was left wanting.

I did find it odd how James just went with the flow of terrifying monsters roaming the city, he never reacted in a way I feel a person would react in that situation. And moving forward involved finding puzzling notes, like the path forward was guided by random fate. Finding a matchbook from a bar in the middle of the street seemed like a good enough clue to know that’s where I needed to go. I had a tough time trying to find a good enough reason why I went where I had to and moved the game forward.

While going through the game I only felt lost a couple of times, and not for very long thanks to the map. I loved how James would mark on the map when I found a locked door or a side passage through a room, making it very easy to find where I hadn’t been or where a point of interest was. And he would write down puzzle solutions as I found them, I was writing things down in a notepad for half the game before I noticed that. It was a very nice quality-of-life mechanic.

After beating the game once there was a new game plus option, offering more items to find throughout the game and the opportunity to find different endings. My initial playthrough took fifteen hours on standard difficulty, but after going through once and setting the difficulty down to easy, I was able to accomplish in one hour what took me eight before, so if you wanted to rush through and find those other endings, it could be as easy or tough as you wanted to make it.

And with that, I feel like it’s time we moved onto my ratings.

The visuals were all right, so much better than the original, but still rough around the edges. It’s getting a 3

The story had some moments of intrigue, but there were far too many unanswered questions by the end, I was confused. I’m handing out a 2

Silent Hill 2 gameplay was puzzles and combat, with solving the puzzles easily being the best part. The combat was rough at the start, but after figuring out enemy moves and dodging at the right time, it was easy. Or just pulling out the gun, making combat a breeze. It’s an easy 4.

With additional items and endings to find, there was a high replayability for the game. It may not be as fun going through the same puzzles again after knowing the answers but could be accomplished quickly. I’m going with a 3.

I was hoping to feel more fear out of the game, but overall, I did have fun and enjoy it. I like a balanced puzzle that makes me think without getting frustrated. It’s getting another 3.

Earning Silent Hill 2 an average score of 3 out of 5. Placing it at the high end of the MidShelf. If you liked the original game, this should be a no-brainer, I’m sure you’d absolutely love what it has to offer. If you are new to the series, like me, you may still find the game engaging and fun, I just wouldn’t get into it expecting to be terrified.