This article spoils a few plot points and gameplay elements about Silent Hill 2 and the remake, but not the central plot twist. Read on with caution if you want to play blind!
The original Silent Hill 2 is, alongside Pathologic Classic HD, one of my favourite games ever made. There was, to put it simply, no way in which a remake could surpass it. Everything about the original to me was perfect. What made it so remarkable was that each of its flaws contributed to the overall artistic impression the game leaves on a player. The clunky combat? That helps with the game’s oppressive and depressed mood, as the player is left feeling unsatisfied by the act of killing monsters. Stripping a game of its power fantasy elements (even inadvertently due to genre conventions) says a lot about the mental state we are meant to be in while we play. The distant or disaffected voice acting? That works because the characters are all in a mental fugue state, or are just confused about what’s going on. The staid colours of the environment? All resulting from the protagonists’ trauma and state of mind. Everything added up to one perfect “lightning in a bottle” game. I play it probably several times a year at this stage. I’ve played it through I think three times this year alone. So, with that in mind, my recommendation of the Silent Hill 2 remake should hopefully mean something.
I was one of the people who really wanted it to succeed, first off. I didn’t want Silent Hill 2’s name to be besmirched, for one thing, but I also wanted the developers to do a good job just because I could imagine the intense pressure on them to remake such a landmark title. And while they rarely are able to improve on the source material, it is hardly a crime they didn’t, given everything the original stands for.
To start with, the Silent Hill 2 remake (hereafter referred to as SH2R) actually does manage to improve on a few things from the original. For as much as I love the combat in the original, I did have to admit the bosses were not really that engaging. I love the first Pyramid Head fight, and I love the settings of all the other boss fights, but they were never a highlight of the game. But in the remake – good god, I was beyond excited for every single one. I am not afraid to say that Bloober Team elevate the original material significantly here, creating bosses that are tense and engaging to fight. As each boss revealed new dimensions to them, I was left thrilled by how they kept the idea behind each boss fight the same, but leveled it up. The Flesh Lips boss fight was good enough, but the way they revitalized Abstract Daddy? I was gobsmacked. And then, we reach Eddie…
Eddie is the character who is consistently improved. For every other character, there is a scene in the remake that I think is done better, but then the very next scene I think has more emotional impact in the original. Let me make it clear that every actor does an incredible job. Angela has some fantastic scenes here, and is played so beautifully and tragically by Gianna Kiehl in the remake. I still prefer a number of Donna Burke’s line readings from the original, but Kiehl does such a magnificent job with the material. Managed to still bring a tear to my eye. James is played superbly by Luke Roberts – as others across the internet have pointed out, the way in which his facial expressions were translated into the game make for a hugely compelling performance. Some lines from the original are outright removed in favour of letting the expressions speak for themselves – and they really do. Maria / Mary is the only character who I would say consistently loses to the original voice actress, but I mean, Monica Taylor Horgan’s performance is the emotional centerpiece of the original. And I have nothing against Salóme Gunnarsdóttir for her performance in the remake. She does a great job too – but Horgan’s line readings are just totally unassailable to my mind. She will forever be the best Maria / Mary you could ever have. The new letter reading at the end has absolutely nothing on the original.
But Eddie – as good as a job that David Schaufele did in the original, boy, Danny Kirrane’s performance and the facial animation draws something out of him that simply wasn’t there in the original. In every scene with Eddie in it in particular, I found there was something to enjoy about the new way in which he was written. Instead of James antagonizing him and saying stupid things at the wrong moments, the remake version of James instead approaches Eddie with a bit more sympathy, but ends up talking down to him. And Eddie recognizes that, setting off his temper at a vital moment.
The Eddie boss fight is one of the highlights of the game. No longer is it a comical fight between two adult men that run around in circles while taking potshots at each other in a well-lit warehouse. Instead, the warehouse is absolutely pitch black. The only thing that illuminates it is the gunshots that the two of you exchange, as you both search for each other amidst rows of meat slabs. It is a tense, rewarding boss fight and serves to make Eddie frightening. I didn’t think that was possible.
The game’s overall atmosphere is also incredible, but it is noticeably less “weird” than the original. Given everything is gorgeous and modern and highly detailed, there was less uncertainty about what I was doing or where I was in the environment. The best environment was probably the Labyrinth, as it felt like it was expanded significantly, but in a good way. It met the sliver of potential left untapped by the original game. I also found I lost something with the removal of certain paintings when we look at certain objects, and I definitely missed James’ thoughts that can occur when he looks at certain things. In my video on the game, it was something I discussed several times. The melancholic reactions added dimension to James’ character for players that were willing to engage with the game’s world. It was a reward for exploring that meant more than collectibles, which SH2R unfortunately can’t replicate.
Where SH2R really succeeds is in its reframing of puzzles. Puzzles and boss fights – that’s where the game succeeds over the original. Whereas in the original much pacing and momentum could be lost on a first playthrough as you grumble and realize you forgot something, James marks stuff much more often on his map in the remake. Puzzles often lead you directly onto the next puzzle, and each and every riddle is satisfying to solve. The logic behind the puzzles makes a lot more sense, and I found myself feeling very clever when I solved certain ones. Every puzzle is fresh and exciting again, and I loved every moment of them.
The game is, however, probably too long. Whereas my first playthrough of the original took me around eight or so hours, my first playthrough of this game was 12 hours. Keep in mind I was pretty familiar with the structure of the game from the countless times I’d played the original – most players seem to report in excess of twenty hours. That’s a long, long time for a horror game. Even if it is really well designed, with a good balance of ammo and health items and puzzles, there were points that it felt a bit too repetitive. I found the game to drag particularly during the hospital section, which I felt was probably at least an hour too long. I understand it’s the first really good Silent Hill game in over twenty years, and to complain about its length feels like a sin. Who knows how long we’ll have to wait for the next one? But it is.
The game just kind of hangs at points, and also cuts out the crucial town exploration sequence in the dark in favour of a linear trudge through the streets and several buildings. Instead of a meditative, languid experience as you mourn a character that’s just been killed and wonder what is to come next, you just launch back into fighting monsters. And there are a lot of monsters in this game. In my first playthrough, I killed 277 monsters. Considering the original game’s requirement for a perfect ten star ranking was 150 monsters killed, that’s a lot more monsters. I definitely ran past a bunch too. So probably there are (at least) double the amount of monsters in the remake than there were in the original – which, given the game is twice the length, makes sense. But the places those monsters are jammed can sometimes eliminate quiet moments that existed for a reason in the original game. I get why they did it too, because the monster AI is much more refined and interesting than it was back in 2001. The way mannequins scuttle away to hide never got old, and I love the way I had to adapt to enemies that actually felt like they had a little bit of agency and intelligence, rather than just moving in a straight line towards me. But there was still a lot of combat… and I got a bit tired of fighting regular enemies by the end. The bosses remained great, but so much repetitive combat, with just one melee combo and three guns, takes its toll.
There are moments of gameplay that are improved. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not all bad. They expand the sequence where you are unarmed in the Lakeview Hotel – a great idea. Lakeview Hotel more generally is fabulously presented (the puzzles here are just fiendishly clever, I loved every single one), and exploring it is a treat. I love being able to smash windows of cars and shopfronts. It was surprisingly engaging to do so… I left Silent Hill an absolute dump. Even more so than it already was. I enjoyed the fluidity of James’ movement, but I did miss the way in which each room felt distinct due to the loading screen between each one. Instead of its own little world, each room instead becomes part of a greater whole. Perhaps that’s only of note to video game scholars, but the game’s pacing is so remarkably different that of course the atmosphere changes as a result.
The game isn’t as odd, isn’t as clunky. Part of that is down to technological affordance, of course – if the better tech is there, why not use it? But the smoothness of the game sometimes misses the point of the original game’s awkwardness. Even if you want to modernize the controls, sometimes the awkwardness of the game’s presentation was important too. The fixed camera angles, despite being a technological limitation, add more to the game than many people tend to admit. The sense of detachment and voyuerism and discomfort – these are all lost with the traditional third-person camera. While that allows us to see the incredible detail and care put into the game’s world and graphics, we nonetheless lose something in that choice. And I sense there are people who would disagree with that – which is fine. I am the kind of person who simply cannot be 100% pleased by a remake, as fantastic as this one turned out to be. No matter what the remake looked like, whoever it was made by, whatever they chose to do – it would be a different game. That’s what we have to celebrate, though – the way in which SH2R succeeds in spite of all the weight of expectation put on it. Despite the fact I don’t think it is as good – well, what could be? The original game means so much to me, that nothing could ever replace it.
SH2R is, above all else, a well-designed survival horror game. The main “crime” it commits is not being as good as one of the best video games ever made, and for being a bit too long, for putting too many monsters to smack around in front of you. It is still a game constructed with care, and obvious love for the series as a whole. It respects the source material and adds more where it sees fit, often succeeding in that ambition. A few missteps on the gameplay front and a few missed opportunities when it came to the emotional impact of certain pivotal scenes – these are small things, really. I was glued to SH2R for days, playing it as much as possible. While I will always recommend the original more highly – it still makes me cry, feel emotional – god, I would almost go so far as to say that if all SH2R did really well was just Eddie and the Labyrinth alone, it would be worth it. But it does much more right than just those two things. I am so glad they made it, and I will no doubt play it again and again before making a video essay on it. Highly recommended – it’s so nice to be able to write that Silent Hill is back again.
Horrorgameanalysis 