Silent Hill 2 Remake Review – A Respectful, Excessive Reimagining

It is extremely difficult to purchase and play the original Silent Hill 2 on PC. Physical copies are rare and prices continue to rise, while the Silent Hill HD collection has never escaped consoles and has been accompanied by a multitude of new issues. However, it is one of the most iconic video games, certainly in the horror genre, and remains a beloved and often discussed classic. In a time where we feel like we can’t move on to reboots and remasters, so, Silent Hill 2 is seemingly the perfect game to relaunch for modern audiences.

2001’s Silent Hill 2 is a masterclass in atmosphere; a journey through the grief and guilt of a man surrounded by horror. Its third-person melee and fire combat, as well as its movement in general, are tedious, creating a feeling of helplessness. The horror game’s look, soundtrack, sound design, pacing, and even quirky delivery of voice performances are calibrated to elicit fear and unease. Starting with a shabby bathroom, you immediately get a sense of the grime and grit of the city. Then, outside, the haunting, ethereal soundtrack shifts and sways, the fog settles in, and a voiceover introduces you to the story. Bloober Team’s recreation of this scene is a faithful homage, with almost every aspect reproduced perfectly, just with the fidelity and detail of a 2024 version.

Sound design is arguably the most important aspect of the Silent Hill series, and playing the Silent Hill 2 remake with headphones provides a terrifying experience from the get-go. Monstrous growls pierce the disturbing atmosphere as you approach the city, like the Team Silent classic. In fact, Akira Yamaoka – the sound designer and composer of the original – returns here. A combination of reworked and new tracks and sounds makes the perfect stage for a remake. I would even go so far as to say that the sound design of the game is even better this time. The whispers, tonal shifts, and stings kept me engaged throughout my 20 hours of playtime, which was double the length of the original. But it’s because of this extended runtime that things start to get complicated.

There’s room for new additions in a remake, but the balance of making that work is incredibly tricky. Overtime here are extra cutscenes, expanded puzzles, and larger explorable areas. The clock puzzle in the apartments, for example, is divided into three phases. In the original, you simply find a key to unlock the clock, allowing you to turn the hands to answer a riddle. In the remake, the three clock hands are scattered throughout the building, requiring you to search for them, with the first opening the way to the second, and so on. Parts of the puzzle replicate the original, including the Moth Room, but the expansion offers a greater challenge.

Although I initially appreciated these greater creative freedoms and deviations, by the time I finished the game I felt like it had been overextended. Silent Hill 2 is divided into distinct sections: there’s the Wood Side Apartments, Brookhaven Hospital, Lakeview Hotel, etc., and their Otherworld counterparts, creating something of a comforting but fear-inducing formula . While I’m glad Bloober didn’t add entirely new areas to the remake, just making each one longer feels unnecessary and gratuitous.

The shorter length of the original was a real boon, especially given its claustrophobic nature. Familiarity through repetition is the death of horror, and the length of the remake made me feel the same way as Alien Isolation: get too familiar with an area and its threats and you’ll stop being afraid. With the exception of the most difficult puzzles, the remake struggles to justify its added bulk. Rooms and buildings are bigger, so you’re just exploring more of the same landscape, fighting more of the same monsters.

The new cutscenes also add nothing to the story and probably take away from the rhythm because they recur too often. While the character designs are strong, the casting lacks the expressiveness I would expect from a modern game. The remake boasts a few visual flair in its glistening blood, unsettling enemy animations and level of environmental detail. However, something is lost in the modernized presentation, which struggles to capture the grimy, gritty aesthetic of the original, particularly in the Otherworld sections. Luckily, Bloober nailed the look of Silent Hill 2’s iconic enemies perfectly. Models, nurses, and bosses like Abstract Daddy and Flesh Lip are rendered in horribly graphic detail.

The combat is neither better nor worse in the remake. Switching to a modern control scheme and over-the-shoulder perspective allows Bloober to throw more enemies at you at once, turning group battles into a greater challenge. That said, the new dodging mechanic makes one-on-one fights much easier, especially once you become too familiar with each enemy’s move set, resulting in a loss of fear. Boss fights like the first encounter with Pyramid Head now take place in larger areas, making them a less intimidating ordeal, even if they are mechanically similar to the original. There are few health vials and syringes scattered around but plenty of ammo, so you rarely feel a real sense of danger.

Until you’re scared by a hidden mannequin. Even in the late game, carefully placed monsters will attack when you least expect them. Sure, some are pretty unsubtle, but I still approached every dark, crowded room and door with apprehension. If the exploration sections were tighter, if you were less exposed to the same enemies, and if the resource management was better suited to cultivating a sense of desperation, the combat could have been a marked improvement.

I have to shout out the settings and options for the remake. I didn’t like the annoying flashing health indicator system that gradually reddened the screen borders. Fortunately, you can turn this feature off and rely on the world’s visual indicators of James’ health. I was also ready to complain about the large item icons and how they affected my immersion. The original has no interaction icons, so it’s up to you and your keen eyes to spot health bottles and other items. However, aside from the options to change the size and color of your crosshair, the remake lets you reduce the size of interaction icons, or even remove them altogether. Given Bloober’s intention to appeal to both new and returning players, it’s an ideal compromise.

Ultimately, I fear that the Silent Hill 2 remake will likely fail to convince newcomers of the excellence or importance of the original. It’s everything you’d expect from a big-budget reimagining of a horror classic, with more content, updated visuals, and – unfortunately – a less singular vision. Capturing everything that made SH2 a must-play was arguably an impossible task, so even if the remake can’t match the groundbreaking achievement of Team Silent, I can still recommend it as a solid, modern horror experience.