Silent Hill 2 (2024) Evaluate — ‘A shocking recreation of the unique’

Platforms: PS5, PC

A hearty dose of braveness is important to play most horror video games, however to remake one of many style’s sacred texts takes a particular form of bravery. The unique Silent Hill 2 stays a high-water mark for Konami’s beloved franchise, so to rebuild it for contemporary gamers from the bottom up is a large danger – particularly when the sequence’ vocal fanbase continues to be salty over the sloppy HD remaster from 2012.

Fortunately, developer Bloober Crew – a studio with its personal observe document in horror, accountable for titles equivalent to Layers of Worry, Blair Witch, and The Medium – has succeeded past expectation. 2024’s Silent Hill 2 is a shocking recreation of the unique, protecting every thing followers will keep in mind from the PS2 traditional intact however increasing and enhancing all of it in methods positive to thrill.

The sport stays centered on James Sunderland, drawn to the eponymous city by a letter he receives from his spouse Mary – unsettling, given she died three years earlier. But reasonably than the idyllic seaside city they as soon as cherished, James finds a boarded up ghost city, drenched in a thick, permeating fog that obscures infinite unseen horrors, whereas the few human residents he does encounter by no means appear fairly proper.

Regardless of shifting away from the mounted digicam angles of the unique model, favouring an over-the-shoulder view and freer motion, Bloober Crew nonetheless crafts environments that really feel oppressive and intimidating. That is aided by opening up the interiors of buildings, giving extra locations to discover – and to search out essential hints to puzzles or bits of lore – however making them really feel like claustrophobic traps with no possible way out of. And, whereas James retains a crackly moveable radio, its static an indicator of a monster’s actions, many enemies lie in wait in these tighter areas, by no means triggering that early warning and leaving you to battle them with nowhere to run (normally whilst you’re nonetheless making an attempt to drive your coronary heart again down into your chest after they’ve scared the bejeezus out of you).

The primary facet that feels expanded in 2024 is the intricate sequence of puzzles scattered by the hellish city. Some minor ones from the unique get expanded, whereas each main space of the sport seems like a sequence of interconnected conundrums, a form of city-sized Lament Configuration. That may end up in a bit an excessive amount of forwards and backwards as you piece collectively a number of the extra tough strings of challenges, however fortunately, the issue of each puzzles and fight will be tailor-made to non-public choice. When you relish beating down stitched-together mannequins or flesh-warped nurses however need your hand-held by the mind teasers, or vice versa, you possibly can have that have.

The authenticity of the remake is aided by the involvement of the unique Silent Hill 2 creature designer Masahiro Ito and composer Akira Yamaoka. The fashionable tech permits Ito’s disgusting (in a great way) creations to shine like by no means earlier than, whereas Yamaoka’s rating stays a piece of musical brilliance. Extra powerfully, the sport’s canny sense for when to make use of silence typically ratchets up the strain in methods that can hang-out gamers for hours afterwards.

That sense of lingering terror, of feeling uncomfortable at your core, at the same time as you step ever-more tentatively into that blanket of fog, has at all times been the sequence’ power, although. Whereas the likes of Resident Evil play with horror in a B-Film form of method – all soar scares, flashy monsters, and evil scientists – Silent Hill has at all times been chilling, extra psychological, extra private. It is a deeply unsettling temper that Bloober Crew has recreated completely, and 2024’s Silent Hill 2 is all the higher for it.