In our restless dreams…we go back, to that town, 'Silent Hill 2'

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This game contains mention and discussion of extremely heavy topics and issues such as suicide, abuse, and death. While this article will do its best to veer away from heavy mention of these topics, it is still advised that if you are averse to such discussion or are dealing with any of the aforementioned issues yourself to stop reading. And if you are experiencing or feeling any of the previously mentioned issues, we at Byte implore you to reach out to someone for help.

This review contains heavy spoilers for Silent Hill 2 (2024) and Silent Hill 2 (2001)

Reviewed on the Playstation 5, played on an HDR television with the appropriate settings.

There is a common feeling one gets when they return to something they haven’t engaged with in a long time; bittersweet familiarity. A shiver of familiarity that they know what this thing is, yet something is different. It has changed. Or they have changed. This is the feeling one gets when they play Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake.

The original Silent Hill 2, created by Konami’s Team Silent, was released over 20 years ago, in 2001. It is a game that is heralded as one of the godfathers of horror video games and one of the best horror games of all time, so it was quite the scare when, in 2022, Konami announced the remake of the beloved game. More worry was wrought when the announcement came that Bloober Team, a developer with such flops as The Medium—which was a worse version of Silent Hill—would be taking the helm. But now, two years later, the game is in the audience's hands and what has been delivered is one of the best video game remakes to date.

We See Again the 'Terror in the Depths of the Fog'

Much like James Sunderland (Luke Roberts), Bloober Team beckons fans new and old back to the titular terror town. To return to the psychological, the horrifying, and the sorrowful world drenched in thick fog and rusted grating. But, when we return to something so iconic and so loved as the original game was, questions begin to arise in our minds: will it feel the same, contain that same terror? Will it be recognizable anymore? While the reception was less than optimal when announcements and reveals were made in regards to Bloober team’s remake, the tide quickly shifted now that the game is in the hands of the players. The town is undoubtedly still Silent Hill, drenched in a thick blanket of fog and just as empty to allow the terror to intrude upon it, to fill the hollow spaces of the player’s thoughts.

Being made on Unreal Engine 5, everything in the game looked fantastic, textured and almost real; the stubble on James’ chin looked scratchy and rough, the fabrics of clothes looked thick and thin dependent on material and light reflected and dispersed as it would in real life. The environments looked lived in and real, yet so ethereally empty. As if the inhabitants of the town had just vanished suddenly, leaving only monsters and fog. It was this eerie emptiness that layered onto the terror, feeling like something was missing. And as such, the frights came in full. Specifically, the segment of the game where James traverses through Toluca Prison was the most terrifying. Seeing the graphics detail the jagged, yet uniform brickwork of the prison and the rusting, creaking claustrophobic prisoner cells while drenched in thick and suffocating darkness was unsettling. Countless lurking monsters added to the scenario, skittering and shambling just away in the distance, out of sight and it is a frightfest. Of course, the same could also be said about any other setting and location in the game. As each one was horrifying and terrifying in their own right; the maze-like navigation of the corroding and rusting Wood Side and Blue Creek apartments, the sterile yet sickening halls of the hospital, the vacant liminality of the Lakeview Hotel. Seeing Silent Hill reflect so closely imitate a real town showed a great leap of graphical design and capabilities in the two decades since the original game was released. It serves to increase the terror induced within the players.

Silent Hill 2 Image (2).jpeg — Taken from GameRant

Though each setting throughout the game was unsettling enough on its own, it was the performances of the characters which doubled down on the fright and the psychological torment. Silent Hill—at least, the original games—is synonymous for having disjointed and sometimes quite jarring dialogue and vocal performances. While it was never confirmed, many believed it to be a purposeful maneuver by the original developers to build upon and strengthen the ethereal, dreamlike otherworldliness that the games often try to create. However, Bloober’s remake does away with that for the most part, and for the better. While the disjointedness in the original was uncomfortable in the best way, the remake’s focus on realistic and emotional conversation allows for greater connection between the characters and the players—and serves to make the uncomfortable disjointed gaps which do appear that much more disturbing.

Nearly all performances in the game are superb. Angela (Gianna Kiehl) and her narrative arc of dealing with the trauma of sexual assault by the hands of her own father, draws sorrow and compassion from the player. She flips through emotions, unsure if James is truly there to help or simply seeking her out for pleasure like her father had forced her to provide. Eddie (Scott Haining), an overweight boy who was bullied to the point of unbridled rage and hatred, makes the player understand and feel for him as we watch his descent into fury. Maria’s (Salóme Gunnarsdóttir) performance is ghostly, making the player feel and care for her, yet provides an undertone that things are never quite as they seem. However, I think James’ performance is the greatest of all in the game. The players take the reins as James and feel the emotions and ties he has because they spend the most time with him. His is the story of having destroyed the thing he loves, wrought and plagued by the guilt of it even when the justification seemed reasonable. Throughout the game, he flips between resignation that he knows his wife is dead and denial, hoping that she is in the town of Silent Hill as her letter suggested. However, for all greatness, there is some darkness as well. Unfortunately, I felt that Laura’s (Evie Templeton) performance was lacking in comparison to the other characters. Her emotion wasn’t as powerful and didn’t produce the empathy within the player needed to connect with her. Still, her character was impactful within the story and is still a phenomenal accompaniment to the short cast of characters within the game.

A 'Love Psalm' to the Old, Made Anew

Though Bloober did well in bringing a new layer and depth to the characters of a game over two decades old, they needed to capture the spirit and narrative which hooked original fans and crowned the two decade old game as one of the greatest horror games. From the start, things were not looking so bright for the remake.

In adapting one of the most beloved pieces of horror media, Bloober was facing an uphill struggle and their marketing wasn’t helping. The combat of the game looked like it might be a Resident Evil clone and there wasn’t much to see for the story. All odds were against Bloober. Yet, in delivering the product to the fans, it was clear from the start how much the developer actually cared for the original game and sought to capture that same essence in the remake. Everything that was there before remains, with a few slight alterations for better or worse.

Silent Hill 2 Image (3).jpg — Taken from Wccfttech

Silent Hill 2 follows James Sunderland as he travels to the titular town of Silent Hill in search of his deceased wife, Mary (Salóme Gunnarsdóttir). She had sent him a letter three years after her passing, stating that she was waiting for him in the town: their “special place”. In the game, players take control of James as they traverse the eerie and monster infested town, gathering clues and pieces of information to find her. Each piece and each person he meets within the town narrows upon the truth he hides from, a reflection of his psyche and manifest of his deepest desires. When his wife was bed-ridden, sick with disease, he couldn’t stand to see her suffer. Even worse, he couldn’t stand seeing her as a shell of who he had once known. So, he smothered her, killing her. He hides from the guilt, convincing himself that it was the disease which claimed her life and not his own hand. As he travels through Silent Hill, he is forced, again and again, to face the truth and the manifestations of his subconscious desire to be punished.

In this remake, that story is unchanged and is in some ways sharper for fans, shifting a few lines around for greater effect within the narrative. To many longtime fans’ surprise, Bloober shifted some larger elements of the beats as well. In the original game, players meet Eddie for the second time within Pete’s Bowl-o-rama where he is chowing down on some pizza. In the remake, however, they now meet him in the movie theater, eating ice cream by the tub while watching an empty screen. Of course, this isn't the only change. While these changes do add a different subtextual layer beneath the scenes, they don’t change a lot about the story. It is still a psychological tale following James Sunderland and learning to accept or hide from his guilt. In relation to the side characters, their stories aren’t much affected by the changes either. Bloober Team, in seeking to capture the essence of the original game, did so splendidly.

'A World of Madness' for a New Generation

It has been a long time since fans of the Silent Hill franchise got the chance to explore the titular town, taking the reins of a character meandering through the fog. Over twenty years and some change since Silent Hill 2 first released on the PlayStation 2 in 2001. In that time, gaming has changed dramatically. The graphics have been updated, the stories being told have shifted, and the way players engage with games has changed. Upon the initial announcement of the remake in 2022, fans of the series had much to worry about. With the current era of gaming being heavily focused on action and live-service, monetized games, it was a terrifying thought that such a beloved game might be dulled or even damage the original’s reputation.

In remaking this iconic game, Bloober took some chances while remaining as true as they could to the core tenets and values of the original. To start, the game takes nearly twice as long to progress through as the original; a solid, near 20 hour basic playthrough of the newer as compared to the meager almost 10 hours of the original. This is due in part to Bloober shifting around elements of the story beats as well as extending many of the locations from the original game. While some fans criticize this for seeming to just pad out the game’s runtime rather than add to the overarching story, I applaud Bloober for it. Having that extra time forces the player to sit with James longer, engage in his thoughts, his actions, his guilt. Rather than being a run straight through the narrative, Bloober’s extensions generate a deeper psychological connection, allowing the harsh reveals of James’ actions to hit harder and be more impactful. However, on the opposite end, this additional “empty space” creates large gaps of time between the beats of each side characters’ stories, causing the player to not connect with them as much as they might have in the quick sprint of the original game. It is a tough act to balance, yet one I think Bloober manages to err on the side of right for, especially with the additional secret endings which players can find if they take the time Bloober gives them.

Silent Hill 2 Image (4).jpeg — Taken from ScreenRant

Though far from being perfect, the mechanics of the game are what make or break a player’s experience. They need to feel the weight of each melee swing, the power of each gun’s shots, the pain of each enemy and boss’s attacks. Without these core elements, the game could lose all connection with their players. With Silent Hill 2, the tension was tenfold as the game was released on the back-end of the era of Capcom’s return to Resident Evil. In the market of survival horror, Capcom’s progenitor series held dominion as remake after remake was released. These releases brought a common identity within survival horror at the time: inventory management, quick and snappy combat, and countless enemies. This was exactly what Silent Hill wasn’t. Like a repeat of history, Silent Hill accomplishes its mission to step away from the monotony and repetition of Capcom’s iconic franchise. In Bloober’s remake, the combat is terrifying. There aren’t large waves of enemies that come hurtling at the player, nor is there fight after fight, feeling like an endless slog. In many of the areas throughout the game, the enemies meander like lost souls, unaware of James, and when they do notice him, they shamble towards him, sluggish and purposeful. Rather than the quick fluidity of Capcom’s remakes, every action the player does takes time. Reloading doesn’t happen near instantaneously and each swing of the pipe, chainsaw, or wooden board requires a short span of time for James to be able to recoup. Most importantly, a lot of the combat within the game can be avoided, allowing the players a choice in every action they take, though this doesn’t apply to all encounters as there are several required boss fights throughout the game. The remake promotes a focus on player awareness, on taking the time to think and be aware of all the actions they might make, forcing—in at least some metaphorical regard—the player to be James Sunderland, faced with the consequences of actions.