Silent Hill 2 remake review - a respectful, overextended reimagining

It's frustratingly difficult to purchase and play the original Silent Hill 2 on PC. Physical copies are few and far between, with prices ever increasing, while the Silent Hill HD collection never escaped consoles and came with a host of fresh issues. It is, however, among the most iconic videogames, certainly within the horror genre, and remains a beloved, oft-discussed classic. In a time when it feels like we can't move for reboots and remasters, then, Silent Hill 2 is outwardly the perfect game to revive for modern audiences.

2001's horror game's vocal performances are calibrated to elicit fear and unease. Starting in a grotty bathroom, you immediately get a sense of the town's grime and grit. Then, outside, the haunting and ethereal soundtrack switches and sways, the fog sets in, and a voiceover introduces you to the story. Bloober Team's recreation of this scene is a faithful homage, with almost every aspect replicated perfectly, just with the fidelity and detail of a 2024 release.

Sound design is arguably the most important aspect of the Silent Hill series, and playing the Silent Hill 2 remake with headphones provides a terrifying experience right from the off. Monstrous growls pierce the uneasy ambiance on approach to the town, perfectly mirroring Team Silent's classic. In fact, Akira Yamaoka – the original's sound designer and composer – returns here. A combination of reworked and new tracks and sounds makes for the perfect step up for a remake. I'd even go so far as to say the game's sound design is even better this time around. Whispers, tone changes, and stings kept me on edge throughout my 20-hour playthrough – double the length of the original. But that protracted runtime is where things start to get complicated.

There is room for new additions in a remake, but the balance to make this work is incredibly delicate. The extra hours here are made up of additional cutscenes, extended puzzles, and larger explorable areas. The clock puzzle in the apartments, for example, is split into three phases. In the original, you simply find a key to unlock the clock, enabling you to turn the hands to answer a riddle. In the remake, the three clock hands are scattered throughout the apartment building, forcing you to search for them, with the first unlocking the way to the second, and so on. Parts of the puzzle replicate the original, including the moth room, but the extension provides a greater challenge.

While I initially enjoyed these larger creative liberties and deviations, by the time I'd finished the game, I felt like it had been over-extended. Silent Hill 2 is split into distinct sections: there's the Wood Side Apartments, Brookhaven Hospital, Lakeview Hotel, etc, and their Otherworld counterparts, somehow creating a comforting yet fear-inducing formula. While I'm glad Bloober hasn't added entirely new areas to the remake, simply making each one longer feels unnecessary and gratuitous.

The original's shorter length was a real boon, especially given its claustrophobic nature. Familiarity through repetition is the death of horror, and the remake's length made me feel a similar way to Alien Isolation – get too familiar with an area and its threats and you'll cease to be scared. With the exception of the more challenging puzzles, the remake struggles to justify its added bloat. Rooms and buildings are bigger, so you're just exploring more of the same scenery, fighting off more of the same monsters.

New cutscenes don't add anything to the story either, and arguably take away from the pacing as they now come around too often. While the character designs are strong, the cast lacks the expressiveness I'd expect from a modern game. The remake boasts some visual flair in its glistening blood, unsettling enemy animations, and level of environmental detail. However, something is lost in the modernized presentation, which struggles to capture the original's grimy, gritty aesthetic, especially in the Otherworld sections. Thankfully, Bloober nailed the look of Silent Hill 2's iconic enemies. The mannequins, nurses, and bosses like Abstract Daddy and Flesh Lip are rendered in horrifyingly graphic detail.

Combat is neither better nor worse in the remake. The move to a modern control scheme and over-the-shoulder perspective allows Bloober to throw more enemies at you at once, turning group battles into a bigger challenge. That said, the new dodge mechanic makes one-on-one fights far easier, especially once you grow overly familiar with each enemy's move set, which feeds back into a loss of fear. Boss fights like the initial Pyramid Head encounter now play out in larger areas, making them a less intimidating ordeal, even if they're mechanically similar to the original. There are minimal health bottles and syringes scattered around but ample ammo, so you seldom feel a sense of true danger.

That is until you're jump-scared by a hidden mannequin. Even in the late game, carefully placed monsters will attack when you least expect it. Sure, some are fairly unsubtle, but I still approached every dark, crowded room and doorway with trepidation. If the exploration sections were tighter, if you were less exposed to the same enemies, and if resource management was better tuned to cultivate a sense of desperation, the combat could have been a marked improvement.

I have to shout out the remake's settings and options. I disliked the flashing, distracting health indicator system that gradually reddens the borders of the screen. Thankfully, you can turn that off and rely instead on in-world visual indicators of James' health. I was also ready to complain about the large item icons and how they affected my immersion. The original has no interaction icons, so it's up to you and your keen eyes to spot health bottles and other items. However, alongside options to change the size and color of your crosshairs, the remake lets you reduce the size of interaction icons or even remove them altogether. Given Bloober's intention of pleasing both new and returning players, it's an ideal compromise.

In the end, I fear Silent Hill 2 remake is unlikely to convince newcomers of the original's excellence or importance. It's everything you'd expect from a big-budget reimagining of a horror classic, with more content, up-to-date visuals, and – sadly – less of a singular vision. Capturing everything that makes SH2 an all-timer was arguably an impossible task, though, so while the remake can't match the groundbreaking achievement of Team Silent, I can still recommend it as a solid, modern horror experience.