Silent Hill 2’s remake keeps the original PS2 game’s eeriness intact, even if it’s a little bloated by comparison.
After hours spent hiding from twisted nurses, I’m finally ready to escape Silent Hill 2’s Brookhaven Hospital. I frantically search for a front door key in the lobby, but I find one final doctor’s note first. The journal entry ruminates on an illness that’s taken over the small town, one that’s left its victims lost beyond the borders of reality. The medical world is on the hunt for a cure, but this doctor questions if it’s really a sickness at all. Sure, their patients are lost in a world within their head, but they seem at peace there — happy, even.
“So why, I ask myself, why in the name of healing him must we drag him painfully into the world of our own reality?” the writer wonders.
That’s always been the key to Silent Hill 2’s horror, and it’s carefully preserved in Bloober Team’s faithful remake. The PlayStation 2 classic is filled with creepy monsters that will stalk anyone unwise enough to enter the town of Silent Hill, but that’s not the source of its fear. The real scary part is what lies outside of the city limits: a harsh world where monsters roam free on two legs instead of hiding in the shadows. Maybe it’s safer in the fog.
While it may be an unnecessary project, Silent Hill 2’s remake keeps the original’s haunting essence intact by staying true to its unsettling atmosphere, off-kilter tone, and uncomfortable moments. It’s a respectful revisit that only veers off course when it tries a little too hard to add pounds onto a sleek horror game. Even with some extra weight, the tortured story told here is every bit as harrowing as it was in 2001.New look, same feel
Remaking Silent Hill 2 is no easy task. Though many games over the past two decades have been inspired by the PS2 classic, very few have quite nailed its feel. It shares DNA with genre peers like Resident Evil, but it’s a horror game that feels as otherworldly as its own alternate universes. It’s eerie, antagonistic, and always just enough off-center to keep players off balance at all times. I was skeptical that anyone could pull it off, let alone Bloober Team; psychological projects like The Medium have always felt indebted to Silent Hill, but they’ve never quite hit the mark. Perhaps sensing its own shortcomings, Bloober dials in on the original game to truly understand what makes it special and deliver a remake worthy of its legacy.
The core is still the same. It’s a survival horror game about James Sunderland’s trip to a foggy, monster-infested town in search of his “missing” wife. All of the set pieces, disturbing bosses, haunting music, and iconic cinematics appear as I remember them, but with a modern sheen. That begins with a visual overhaul that trades in PS2 dreariness for Unreal Engine 5 realism. Though the original release derives its power from its filthy textures, Bloober finds a new eeriness in its uncanny approach.
Characters are more painstakingly detailed, capturing more physical nuances from its top-notch cast. Characters like Angela benefit most from that change; she’s more manic when she’s wildly swinging around a knife, more detached as she ascends a flaming staircase. Eddie is especially haunting, with a rougher face and dead eyes that contrast with his total mental collapse. Then there’s James, brought to life by a well-cast Luke Roberts, whose unsettling nature is only emphasized by upgraded animations. He sleepwalks through some of the story’s most disturbing moments, seemingly unphased by it all, but he turns into an aggressive killer the moment he starts wailing on a monster with a lead pipe. You can feel that something’s off about him well before the truth of his quest is revealed.
The town of Silent Hill is more realized here too, with more explorable spaces around town. A ratty American flag hanging from a porch gives me a better sense of who might inhabit its homes. When I run into a laundromat, I’m met with dingy washing machines that look like they haven’t been cleaned in a decade.
