This subsequent recreation was one I used to be ready for. I anticipated it and dreaded it in equal measure. It had so much to reside as much as, after all – to my thoughts, this was the one large price range recreation I used to be actually that excited in. All yr, I wished to play it, and in any other case solely actually had eyes for older video games, or smaller video games. This was the large one. This was the one to show whether or not large horror releases have been nonetheless for me or not. And hey, guess it turned out okay.
3) Silent Hill 2 Remake | Bloober Group, 2024
“In my stressed goals… I see that city.”
From the second the sport was introduced, I had hope. To have a Silent Hill recreation on a contemporary console? May it’s okay? May it even be… good? I dared to dream, and I watched with nerves as the sport had a few fairly shaky trailers. That fight trailer with grotesque cuts and shaky overlays made the sport look terrible – and sure, the unique Silent Hill 2 (2001) had dangerous advertising and marketing as effectively, however that was twenty years in the past. Konami didn’t actually have any excuses now. The stress mounted. The sport regarded an increasing number of polished, but in addition I started to fret in regards to the little issues. How would the sport’s environment change? What would they take out? Would they add something? May something presumably reside as much as the life-changing expertise of the unique recreation?
The reply to that, for me, is not any. The 2024 model of Silent Hill 2 (hereafter known as SH2R) doesn’t defeat the unique Silent Hill 2 in my thoughts. However that was at all times going to be the case. The unique Silent Hill 2 recreation induced sufficient delusions in me that I wrote a two hour lengthy video on it, plus a pair extra. I performed via the unique thrice this yr alone, and nonetheless haven’t bought sick of it. It’s such a lovely survival horror expertise, even whether it is fairly simple. The pacing is unbeatable – simply when the sport begins to lull, you get a knockout narrative scene that makes you go “oh, what the hell, I’ve to maintain taking part in”. Each single line of dialogue appears to imply one thing. Each single character has an attention-grabbing perspective. The dreamlike atmosphere is one in all my favorite locations to hang around in. It’s a temper that I bask in much more typically than I ought to.
SH2R, however, just isn’t completely paced. The largest battle that the remake has is in its emphasis on fight. There are just too many enemies. The sport appears explicitly constructed round the concept that you’ll be preventing more often than not. You’ll battle down corridors, down streets, and in rooms. Enemies appear to be in every single place, and whereas the smarter enemies are after all an enchancment from the dumb ones within the unique, they get previous fast. There aren’t any new enemy sorts added (although the Mandarin enemy is no less than reutilized in an attention-grabbing strategy to make them really feel new). This lack of enemy selection hurts a recreation that took me about twelve hours to beat my first time round. Subsequent playthroughs definitely take much less time. That’s as a result of I’m much less all for killing all of the enemies to have the ability to go searching areas extra rigorously, however too many enemies is definitely SH2R’s largest downside. Simply eradicating 1 / 4 (or much more) of the monsters wouldn’t solely make the atmosphere extra significant, however would additionally make the remaining encounters extra horrifying. It will additionally imply that sure areas aren’t lingered in for therefore lengthy.
Apart from that gripe, although, it’s laborious to consider different significant critiques of the remake. Bloober Group did a unbelievable job iterating on the story construction of the unique. Placing apart problems with pacing meaning you’ll typically go for hours on finish with none narrative stuff taking place, and a protracted sequence within the Otherworld that makes you are feeling exhausted, the actors did a unbelievable job. Feelings are conveyed splendidly, and it’s clear that everybody was absolutely invested within the materials – even when I do want some line readings from the unique. Facial expressions are taken full benefit of, one thing that SH2R clearly has over the unique (and one thing like Mouthwashing). That’s to not say that SH2R tells a higher story than these video games, however that it makes use of that affordance to inform a rattling good one. Like the opposite video games on the record this yr, psychological trauma is a key consider why the narrative is attention-grabbing. The query of what it means to be human rears its head once more right here, and naturally Silent Hill 2’s narrative is legendary for the way it handles that query. The way it handles it after all is finished via a whole lot of environmental storytelling, one of the well-known of online game affordances.
Some areas are simply intoxicating. The extent of element that Bloober have been in a position to squeeze in felt incomparable. I’ve by no means seen a recreation with such a stage of element that truly appeared to matter. The Otherworld within the remake is visibly distinct from the fog world, and each location has its personal distinctive character. I used to be frightened that they wouldn’t be capable of give the city an acceptable environment, however all the things ended up feeling good. From the best way floorboards creak as you stroll throughout them to the cacophony of static intermingling with the growling of monsters, the sound design serves to oppress and disturb.
The prolonged size and added puzzles of SH2R implies that you don’t get the identical breaks from the Otherworld that you just bought within the unique recreation. As soon as once more, this serves to sabotage the pacing a bit – however the environments are nonetheless a pleasure to discover, even when they do really feel crushingly oppressive for such a very long time that oppression turns into monotony. Taking longer breaks than I did from taking part in would most likely assist that feeling.
SH2R feels to me like an sudden triumph, one which modernizes Silent Hill 2 whereas solely making slight missteps. If my largest grievance a couple of recreation is that there’s an excessive amount of hitting monsters with sticks, it looks like a little bit of a minor grievance. That monster-stick-hitting remains to be enjoyable and fascinating, and the story SH2R tells is, effectively, nonetheless Silent Hill 2’s story. Just a few moments being much less emotionally impactful listed below are counterbalanced by others being extra emotionally impactful and extra refined. It’s a remake made by individuals who clearly love the unique recreation, and their respect for the fabric is bettered by the methods through which they tried to alter issues. To reside as much as the legacy of one of the well-known horror video games ever made is a frightening job I’d envy no one. And but, Bloober Group in some way made an awesome horror recreation that I think about will stand the take a look at of time as a survival horror expertise for the ages.
