Silent Hill 2 Remake is an auditory scarefest – but this sound system amplifies the terror

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It’s that time of year again, when horror movie marathons run rampant on TV channels and Spirit Halloween stores appear on every corner. In the midst of all this, a new game release had me glued to the screen in fear: Silent Hill 2 Remake.

While the grotesque imagery, modernized gameplay, and spiraling main character are some of its biggest highlights, this game has some of the best sound design in gaming.

Silent Hill 2 exudes strangeness. From the mad flapping of moth wings to the whispering whispers of a lunatic behind a door, there’s plenty to fear in its horror-filled sound design. After all, Bloober Team is no newcomer to horror, with Layers of Fear, Observer and The Medium as major previous releases in their catalogue.

Famed composer Akira Yamaoka, who worked not only on the original Silent Hill but also almost all of its sequels, returns alongside developer Bloober Team’s in-house music and audio director Arkadiusz Reikowski to create fear-inducing tracks, full of dark and exciting tones that shake your nerves.

However, even with these fear-mongering veterans behind the wheel, Silent Hill 2 Remake will still require a competent sound system to match its breath-defying potential – and that’s where the Bose Smart Ultra soundbar with Dolby Atmos comes in. action.

Horrible auditory immersion via Dolby Atmos

In a recent Bloober team development diaryCreative director and lead designer for Silent Hill 2 Remake, Mateusz Lenart, agrees that sound design is key when making a horror game. He says: “It’s hard to imagine a good horror game without effective sound design.” True, Silent Hill 2 nails this with effective eeriness and chilling audio, but it’s even better with surround sound.

To get the true Silent Hill experience, you’ll want one of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars and that’s easily the Bose Smart Ultra, a premium soundbar with one of the best sound stages on the market. Additionally, if you have the budget for it, you’ll also want to add surround sound speakers and a subwoofer for additional levels of audio coverage.

I recently wrote about how I upgraded my home theater with the Bose Smart Ultra soundbar and it’s glorious, especially when combined with dual 700 surround speakers and Bose Bass Module 500. It’s proven to be a horror-fueled nightmare when playing Silent Hill 2.

Some examples of immersive audio include an instance where I walked past a tub of blood with horrible squishing sounds coming from the right where the surround sound speaker was, as well as simple but terrifying whistling winds that sounded like screams. muffled around me. in the dense, fog-filled night sky.

To be clear, you don’t need all that power to make the most of Silent Hill 2’s terrifying audio mix. In fact, you can get a Bose home cinema sound system for the same price as a Bose Smart Ultra. It’s a bit of a downgrade, of course, but Silent Hill 2 Remake still benefits greatly from surround sound in any format, and you don’t need to pay more than $2,000 to tackle these horror-fueled realities.

Bose Smart Soundbar 600 and Wireless Surround Speakers: $898 at Amazon
This bundle combines Bose’s affordable speakers and the new Smart Soundbar 600 for a complete home audio experience built for immersion. It comes with Dolby Atmos support and Bluetooth connectivity in a 5.1-channel system to create room-filling, fear-inspiring audio.

I also tried the budget Sonos home cinema system, and while it offers Bose-like performance, you’re still paying a lot for that surround sound. That’s why I would recommend a Vizio option as an alternative, like the Vizio Elevate and surround sound system that’s just $549 right now.

Again, it won’t be the same quality as the Bose setup, but Silent Hill 2 Remake benefits more from surround sound – not necessarily maximum audio fidelity. To that end, though, let’s make sure your TV and audio settings are up to par with the fear-inducing madness of Silent Hill 2.

Silent Hill 2 Remake best settings on PS5

There are a few TV and audio settings you’ll want to make sure are set for your stay in Silent Hill. Despite the name, the city is full of horrible audio and we want to make sure you hear (and feel) everything so that your immersion is maximum.

On the PS5 side – if that’s the platform you’re playing on – you’ll first want to make sure Dolby Atmos is enabled in the sound settings. This is crucial for anyone using surround sound speakers like the ones mentioned above, otherwise they won’t work properly.

In your TV’s sound settings, you’ll also want to make sure Dolby Atmos is turned on. Again, this will be automatic depending on the TV, but it doesn’t hurt to make sure it’s set up correctly. Some TVs also have alternative functions, such as dialogue boost and clear sound adjustments, that really depend on your preferences. I tend to keep them off as they can mess with the overall audio fidelity.

Last but not least are the game’s audio settings. Interestingly, Silent Hill 2 doesn’t have an extensive list of sound settings to play with, and that’s because everything is set to its best specific function from the start. The most important thing here is to make sure your audio profile is set to speakers, as this will bring the best sound quality to your home theater system.

There’s an additional accessibility setting if you want to turn off the annoying static function that plays on the radio whenever you’re near an enemy. This is, again, a matter of preference, so don’t feel obligated to turn this off or on, although I personally keep it on for immersion purposes.

With that, you’re ready to take on the mind-bending world of Silent Hill 2 Remake and its ambient, synth-fueled soundtrack. The dark and suspenseful, often even industrial world of Silent Hill is so much better when you have one of the best soundbars and speaker systems paired alongside it, making it the perfect escape this Halloween season – If, of course, you’re willing to go through the nightmare.

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