I have never played the original Silent Hill 2. It’s one of those games that has perpetually been in my neverending backlog and always slipped through the cracks for one reason or another. When Konami announced in 2022 that it was remaking its survival-horror classic in tandem with Bloober Team, though, I decided to simply wait for this new iteration to arrive and make it my first experience with the game. Having now done that, I don’t find myself regretting the decision in the slightest as this reimagining is absolutely fantastic.
Like the original game, Silent Hill 2 tells the story of James Sunderland, who finds himself visiting the foggy town of Silent Hill in search of his presumably deceased wife. It’s a simple enough premise to get the narrative of SH2 rolling but it’s one that I found myself enraptured with the more I played. Silent Hill 2 does a great job of slowly unveiling more about the backstories of its sparse cast of characters, while also providing deeper lore into the history of Silent Hill itself. Despite being met with scares around numerous corners, the compelling throughline arc of James kept me constantly pushing forward to see what would happen next.
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What amplifies Silent Hill 2’s story further is the performances of its cast. Luke Roberts’ performance as James, in particular, is a highlight. While James doesn’t speak often, his words carry a weight with them that Roberts does an excellent job of conveying. Other characters like Eddie and Maria also shine when they happen to show up.
For the most part, though, Silent Hill 2 centers entirely around James, which I think is to its benefit. This feeling of isolation and loneliness pairs perfectly with its atmospheric approach to horror. Silent Hill 2 has plenty of scares, but these moments are more about sending chills down your spine rather than making you jump out of your seat. While there are some moments of outright shock, Bloober Team instead makes you carefully wade through a series of eerie environments and locations that are perfectly crafted and keep you on edge.
What contributes to this horror further is some of the puzzles found within Silent Hill 2. Puzzles are the main thing you’re doing at any given time in SH2 as you’re always trying to find a certain key or other random item that will help you progress further. For the most part, I found these puzzles satisfying to figure out, although a handful are a bit more obtuse than others.
The way in which horror pairs so well with the puzzles is that you’re constantly needing to venture to far-off areas to find the next item that’s required to reach a solution. There’s a lot of backtracking and running through the same areas in Silent Hill 2, but this never feels like a chore as you’re instead always on your toes not knowing what might lie in wait within each room. Even though I never felt lost or confused about where to go in SH2, I often found myself hesitant to push forward simply out of fear of the unknown.
Combat is the one aspect of Silent Hill 2 that I wouldn’t necessarily praise, but it’s also not a vital pillar of the game. While you are firing pistols and swinging iron pipes pretty frequently throughout SH2, it’s never the main thing that you’re doing. Combat is only ever done out of necessity during boss fights, in particular. These battles, which are pretty sparse, don’t contain a whole lot of depth and more often than not just result in you unloading whatever ammo you have on you while dodging incoming attacks.
Even if the bosses aren’t that thrilling, the design of every monster in Silent Hill 2 is awesome. Creatures like Pyramid Head and the Nurses I was familiar with before ever playing SH2, but they look as intimidating and grotesque as ever in this remake. Like the main cast of characters, there aren’t a ton of monsters in Silent Hill 2, but those that are featured are among the most memorable that I’ve ever seen in a survival-horror game.
It’s not often that I find myself wanting to immediately replay games, but that’s how I felt after completing Silent Hill 2. While my first playthrough only took around 16 hours to finish, I quickly wanted to jump back in and see what New Game+ and some of SH2’s additional endings would have in store. For those who are on the fence about spending money on a single-player game that might take less than 20 hours to finish, I think this replayability is really one of SH2’s biggest selling points.
As a Silent Hill 2 newcomer, I have been so impressed with this new remake. Bloober Team faithfully captured the spirit of games from this early PS2 era to the point that it made me reminisce and long to go back and play more games from that time. To that end, I very much have the desire to go back to the original Silent Hill 2 and see how it matches up with this remake. While I can’t speak to how longtime SH2 fans might receive this revamped version of the game, for anyone else who hasn’t played any Silent Hill games before, this is a perfect jumping-on point.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Silent Hill 2 is available now for PlayStation 5 and PC. A copy of the game on PS5 was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.