I never played Silent Hill 2 as a youth. I don’t know why, since I was always into horror games like Resident Evil or Nightmare Creatures – it just never happened for me, and in the years since, it turned into one of those gaming white whales. And yet, even I knew damn well what a tall order remaking Silent Hill 2 had to be. I’d always heard snippets about it. The fog permeated the town, a concession to technical constraints critical to the atmosphere. That it dealt with dark, heavy themes. The unlikeable, everyday protagonist, James Sunderland, is filled with desperation and dark secrets. But overall, the constant sense that this game was lightning in a bottle, something that worked due to very precise and sensitive handling of its material that in all likelihood couldn’t be replicated – concerns I understand even better now that I finally played the game in October 2024.
Exceeding Expectations
These concerns were all deeply valid, and yet the Bloober Team has somehow pulled the project off successfully – precisely, sensitively, and scarily. The remake of Silent Hill 2 is a brutal, grimy piece of work that’s genuinely enhanced by the fine detail and photorealism of Unreal Engine 5. Its characters, their clothing, the environments they walk in, and the gore and viscera of the enemies they fight – it’s incredibly realistic, making a powerful contrast to the frequent surreality of the game and setting. Things that cannot happen do happen. Stairs and hallways that cannot be there are given shape. People who shouldn’t be alive, are… or are they? The constant juxtaposition of visual realism and narrative unreality can make you question what’s real even more – and what could be more Silent Hill than that?
Silent Hill 2’s Story: When More Is More And Better Is Better
People concerned about Silent Hill 2’s story being ruined have nothing to fear. Bloober’s remake is very much the good kind of faithful: the narrative is presented here with nothing removed and just enough added to flesh out the game without ruining the pacing. James (performed in motion-capture by Luke Roberts) arrives in Silent Hill with a letter from his dead wife Mary (performed by Salóme Gunnarsdóttir), claiming she’s in the seaside resort town – “their special place” – and sets off to find her.
It sounds like a standard plot, but it’s far from it. There are no standard characters to be found here – just flawed yet sympathetic humans like Angela (performed by Gianna Kiehl) and Eddie (performed by Scott Haining, with Danny Kirrane providing the facial scan) who have been drawn to Silent Hill just like James, on journeys centred on their traumas and regrets. Pure evil would be too easy – not even the terrifying Pyramid Head, the closest thing to a franchise mascot Silent Hill has, could be called “evil”.
This is all handled with spectacular motion-capture acting that stands tall with some of the best in the medium. There are some extra touches to the game, such as expansions on environments and places you can go that the original game blocked off, but wild story deviations aren’t to be found here. Rather than seeing the game as overly padded, you might even come away thinking of the original as slightly threadbare.
Silent Hill 2’s Combat – Walking A Tightrope
One of the most pervasive worries about the Silent Hill 2 remake project was how the updated, Resident Evil-inspired combat would affect the game. The original SH2 featured basic, rather ‘janky’ combat that wasn’t the reason to play the game – yet it also made some sense. James Sunderland is no warrior – he’s a middle-aged widower who likely hasn’t fought a damn thing in his life. He has no reason to be particularly skilled with the makeshift melee weapons he swings with little grace, and his level of firearm skill can be summarised as ‘American’.
How can you update this kind of system in a satisfying way? One that works well on a mechanical level yet still fits the character and story being told? How do you make Silent Hill 2 fun?
While the result isn’t perfect in every way, I think Bloober did as good a job of this as could be hoped. The combat is brutal and filled with impact; James swings his weapons and dodges attacks in a desperate and messy fashion that serves his character well. Finishing enemies with violent screaming and stomping communicates his stress and fear in gameplay, with Roberts giving his all in those moments.
A small but effective list of enemy types exposes James’ psyche and provides a brutal challenge. A player can become skilled at the combat to the point that James is dodging and weaving and striking in prolonged battles that start to look a bit too cool (playing on Hard with limited ammo and health, I had no choice but to go this route). Still, in the end, this is a video game, and you don’t want to die 150 times when it doesn’t do what you tell it to. Like me, you want to die 150 times from your own lack of skill.
Silent Hill 2’s Puzzles – Different Takes
Puzzles are a core part of Silent Hill 2. The original is unusual because it has difficulty levels for the puzzles, making them legitimately different based on your selections, with changed writing and varied solutions. I went with Hard puzzles, and honestly, they largely weren’t that brutal, though I was forced to look up a couple of solutions online. Puzzles are one of the areas where the game is less faithful to the original – yet what’s presented remains familiar – just tweaked in ways that will be just as enjoyable to new players while tripping up new ones. Altered locations, different solutions, changes in overall visual flair and importance – the brain teasers were a critical part of Silent Hill 2, and it wouldn’t have done to copy them wholesale. Old fans are in for some surprises.
Conclusion
Silent Hill 2’s remake is pretty much a masterpiece. Not everyone will like it, but I’d expect anyone who is at least open to its fundamentals of action gameplay and psychological horror to find something here.
There’s very little to nitpick – fans might complain about the choices in melee weapons being removed or even that the visuals are too good to fit with the grungy vibe, but this is just an expertly handled, emotionally resonant and deeply scary game. It’s good, no question – but does it outright replace the original? Between my very recent history with the story and my great respect for what the 2002 developers accomplished at the time, I’m not sure of my answer to that, but I am sure the Bloober team would respond with a resounding “hell no”. Their absolute adoration for Silent Hill 2 permeates the entire project, not just in the way they do justice to devastating story moments with today’s detailed performances and expressions but in making sure nothing was left in the ether. Even minor moments from the original that were left out or changed are actually still preserved here – just as “Echoes”, nostalgic moments you can find coupled with their own surreal musical sting that makes me glad I played the 2002 game in preparation.
Bloober gives the impression that their careers and every game they’ve made until now have all been practice for the day when they would pay tribute to Silent Hill 2, and so they have. I’m looking forward to their follow-up work, remake or not.
