“The lore is deep and I was trying to piece together the game in my head hours after I'd turned off the console."
PC | PS5 |
HOW I PLAYED: I played on PS5 with an LG C1. I pre-ordered a physical copy.
STORY — 20/20
INTRO
James Sunderland receives a letter from his wife who has been deceased for three years. She asks him to come meet her in their "special place." This leads him to the town of Silent Hill, where the story unfolds. You learn the basics of movement, healing and combat within the first hour. It's presented to you so seamlessly with such good pacing. I was immediately gripped!
CUTSCENES
Drama. Suspense. Action. And then, suddenly, you're back in control of James without any noticeable transition. It was really hard to tell, honestly because the graphics are so good but it looked like the cutscenes used the main game engine and then there were some different CGI cutscenes for vital story moments.
WORLD BUILDING
This is the definition of world-building right here. Every note left behind, painting on the wall, set piece and blood smear make this place feel lived-in and ripe with death. The lore is deep and I was trying to piece together the game in my head hours after I'd turned off the console. You get the sense that this place is or was inhabited by real people with real problems.
OVERALL STORY
The narrative the first time around was sublime. The game leaves you with more questions than answers but without making you feel totally abandoned and frustrated. I wanted so desperately to see how things would resolve themselves - or not. It's a slow burn that increases in heat. I actually appreciated the story even more in my New Game + playthrough. Having the knowledge then of how things concluded. I felt empathy for James and the game unfolded with a brand new perspective that absolutely blew my mind when it dawned on me.
Here's my biggest issue with the story, though. In the opening 10 hours or so there's little to no suggestion that James finds any of what is happening remotely strange. I wish he was more concerned. It's not like he's a seasoned military veteran - he's just a regular guy with a bad haircut. Can we as the audience get a better sense that this dude is completely in over his head and stressed the fuck out?! I know that would definitely make me feel less at ease. Isn't that the main theme of this game, after all? I feel like there were some major missed opportunities to make our protagonist more relatable. Heck. More human. He doesn't really have his first breakdown until way late in the game. Bro, have you not seen the shit that's been going on around here? Are you OK with all this? Do you wanna like, take 5 and get some water? Did you know your jacket is covered in blood? No. He just plows through the game like he's grocery shopping. I don't get it. Luckily this did not ruin the game for me it's just more of an observation.
The game has EIGHT total endings! (What do you think about that, Miyazaki?) Two more than the original. Six of these are required for the Platinum Trophy.
GRAPHICS — 15/15
CHARACTER MODELS
James' forehead is way too small. Ok, got that out of the way. Other than that I think everyone looked incredible. The characters in some other modern games tend to look shiny or wet - almost like wax figures. That's not the case here. The lip-syncing was on point also and movement was overall really good.
ENVIRONMENTS
I'm the type of gamer who loves to explore, move the camera around and admire the details. This game was a delight for me in that sense. It's begging you to take a closer look. Cigarette butts, empty cans, odd household items, stained furniture. Wheelchairs everywhere! Food scraps, strange liquids. It's all so fantastic and adds to the games lore and immersion. The mud, the trees, paint chipping off of walls. My god, everything looked so good.
SPECIAL FX
Wow. Particle effects haven't looked this good since the original Resident Evil 4. The fog. Did I mention the fog?
AUDIO — 14 /15
Unreal! I played the game with my AirPods Max on with noise cancelling active (obviously). The audio is masterfully handled in Silent Hill 2: Remake. Bugs crawling on the walls, wind sweeping through a hollow abandoned church, leaves rustling through a plant in an open window, water dripping into a bathtub in a locked bathroom. Holy hell I was immersed. Strange voices, breathing, screaming down the hallway. Shit, man.
BOSS MUSIC
There isn't exactly “boss music” as much as there is the same great ambience that accompanies the rest of the game. One of the fights has a loud siren playing the entire time which really helped elevate my heart rate, haha. That was memorable.
SOUND DESIGN
The weapons feel so impactful. I was literally yelling "BOOM" every time I landed a headshot with the shotgun. It was so satisfying. The Menus have pleasing tones and doors creek with the perfect amount of rust.
PERFORMANCE — 8/10
FRAME RATE
I played the game in Performance mode, and it looked great. I did not notice anything negative that stood out with the naked eye.
STABILITY
Once or twice, I would not be able to interact with an item that was directly in front of me, which was annoying. James is sort of positioned slightly to the left on screen instead of centred, so you kind of have to play the game keeping that perspective in mind. I also got stuck physically around some stairs and tight corners late in the game. Luckily, you have a dodge button, so I used that to "unstick" myself from the game's geometry.
I also encountered a handful of enemies that did not obey gravity. I would shoot something on the ceiling or wall and it would not fall to the ground. That kind of small bug is more amusing than game-breaking, I think.
GAMEPLAY — 33/40
CONTROLS
Heavy R2 all day! Where are my Souls fans at? Your broken piece of wood with nails in it is the primary melee weapon. Shooting is where you'd expect it and I liked having the map on the D-pad. You use the map A LOT.
MECHANICS
You'll collect many, many items throughout the game. Mostly things like keys and scraps of paper with messages on them. There's also an item combining mechanic where you can build or repair existing inventory. I feel like this was cool but was severely underused. Plus the combinations of items that can go together were stupid simple it almost felt like "Why even have this mechanic at all?" Broken record + glue = not broken record. Got it.
Healing is straightforward and ammo for your weapons is plentiful. Almost too much so. I played the game on the standard difficulty which is described as the vision the developers had for the game or something like that. That makes sense. But for a survivor horror game, I felt like I should have been struggling more. I almost felt like a little kid hunting for easter eggs my parents had left around. "Ooo there's some here. And here. What's this?!" Fuck, there's a lot of ammo in this game. Healing items too. I rarely felt desperate for supplies.
My absolute favourite mechanic in the game is the dynamic map. That's just a name I gave it. But essentially as you explore the game, the map will update itself with red markings. Found a dead end? Now there's a scribble so you don't try that direction again. Apartment with 318 rooms and you don't remember if you've been in here before? The map will add a line with an arrow on either side showing you've been through that doorway before. Points of interest are also written down and circled. The game will briefly show James jotting something down on the map when you discover something noteworthy. Codes that you discover are written in James' handwriting on the map so you don't have to actually write it down yourself. I loved looking at the map.
PACING
I would say that the pacing was almost perfect except for that I got completely stuck a handful of times and had to consult YouTube tutorials. The dynamic map helps a lot. Your destinations are effectively circled in red. Some of the puzzles got me stumped, though.
UI/UE
Nothing really to pick on here. It works really well for the game. I especially liked how you have zero extra information on screen while you play. Only when you use your weapon or a consumable will you see numbers or stats.
BOSS QUALITY
Some really disturbing and original designs for sure. Also, a straight-up copy-paste too which was super odd. For a game of this length, I'd expect nothing but uniqueness. The actual fights themselves are great and nerve-wracking. A big part of this is the feeling of claustrophobia and your limited space to manoeuvre around the fights. I definitely died a bunch.
ENEMY VARIETY
More often than not, I’d find myself saying “What? These things again?” instead of “Cool, what the hell is this?!” Keeping in mind that this isn't a vast JRPG with multiple continents, airships and a submarine section. The whole game takes place essentially in one town with a few different neighbourhoods. I still felt like the variety could have been significantly better. The nurses were awesome when I discovered them in the hospital but then I saw them all over the place and not only did it seem lazy but also immersion-breaking. You'll be fighting the same enemies in hour 2 as in hour 20. More mannequins!!?!? Imagine the villagers from Resident Evil 4 but that's all you fight the entire game. I'm not exaggerating. The enemy variety is by far the game's biggest weakness.
GAMEPLAY VARIETY
The puzzles do a fine job of interrupting the chaos and blood. My only problem is that they're quite repetitive. Padlocks and more padlocks. Chains. Keys. Less would have been more. There are definitely some standout puzzles, for sure. I just wanted more variety.
REPLAYABILITY
While the game does have eight endings, I'm not sure I'd enjoy playing it that many times. There aren't exactly that many possible directions to explore, either. Paths are blocked off for a reason forcing you to progress through the game in a certain fashion. This helps immensely with the pacing but on playthrough 7, I think I'd just be on auto-pilot. There are collectibles and tons of optional rooms in each area but I still don't see that as being enough for a totally fresh take past, say three times. I'm so glad I played the game a second time though because this is where the game kind of blew me away.
BONUS — 2/4
The game comes with colourblind options and quick-time event assistance.
OVERALL — 92/100
INCREDIBLE
[Silent Hill 2: Remake] It's been a while since I was eager to tell friends about the game I was playing. Silent Hill 2: Remake was just so damn playable. It ticked off so many boxes for me. The pacing was outstanding. The mechanics kept me interested, and the combat was satisfying to master. While there were definitely a couple of aspects of the game that could have been fine-tuned a bit more, the rest of the experience was just so overwhelmingly entertaining that I can easily look past its shortcomings.
TLDR: 92/100 James Sunderland receives a letter from his deceased wife, prompting him to return to Silent Hill, where he uncovers a gripping narrative filled with drama, suspense, and rich world-building. The game effectively immerses players in its haunting environment, with impressive graphics and audio that enhance the experience. While the combat mechanics are satisfying, and the map dynamically updates as players explore, there are criticisms about the protagonist's lack of emotional reaction and limited enemy variety. Despite some repetitive puzzles and minor bugs, the game offers depth through multiple endings and invites exploration, making it an engaging horror experience.
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