In 2001, the Konami teams delivered us Silent Hill 2. A sequel to the first opus released in 1999 on PlayStation, which took up the Lore of the license, but with a completely different story. The game will immediately enter the history of video games, offering a unique story that will mark an entire generation of players. Silent Hill 2 is considered a masterpiece and an icon of survival-horror.
The announcement of a remake in October 2022 was a very nice surprise. Developed by the Polish studio Bloober Team (Blair Witch, The Medium), many players felt some reservations. Indeed, this studio has always been known for making decent games, but far from perfect. And unfortunately, the first few communications left us fearing the worst with a game that was announced to be well below the original work.
Fortunately, the latest announcements seemed much more convincing, allowing us to keep a little hope. A few days before the release of the title, we were able to walk the streets of Silent Hill to discover the final version of the title. It's high time to give you our final opinion.
Welcome to Silent Hill
Silent Hill 2 is a game with a very unique story. You can embark on the adventure even if you haven't played the first installment, since the story of this second episode has no connection with the first title. Only the setting and the town of Silent Hill are preserved. In this game, we control James Sunderland, a young man who received a letter from his wife Mary, who asks him to join her in Silent Hill.
So far, so good. The problem? Mary has been presumed dead for three years, victim of a terrible illness. James decides to go in search of his beloved in the hope of finding her. Upon his arrival, he faces a dark town, lost in the fog, which seems to be affected by a terrible curse. This is the beginning of a long and perilous journey to find Mary and understand what is happening, no matter what.
We won't go any further about the story so as not to spoil it for you. We can simply tell you that it's the same story. This is a first good point since the narrative framework of Silent Hill 2 is unique and offers a lot of very interesting twists and plot-twists. It is a psychological horror game, where the elements take time to come into place. You understand certain things as the adventure progresses and you will have to pay close attention to each dialogue and each cutscene that brings crucial narrative factors.
A remake succeeds on the graphic part, a little less on the gameplay and the technique
Unlike the original game, Silent Hill 2 Remake is a project with means relatively modest. It's hard to classify it in the AAA category. However, it holds up pretty well graphically. It won't be the biggest graphic slap you'll take on current consoles. On the other hand, it will offer you beautiful sequences with some pretty cool effects, in the fog or in the rain with really successful lighting effects. The game is a little uneven on some points, with sequences and parts of the city that are really successful and others a little less so.
Where it gets a little stuck is at the gameplay and technical level. There are quite a few small bugs, which are not very annoying and which will not spoil your gaming experience, far from it, but which nevertheless remain present. Among the problems, we can note actions which will not be triggered (when you have to jump into a hole, go through a wall), and a lot of problems to recover an object. You will have to battle with your game camera and the character's location to manage to grab the object in question which is located on a wall or on a piece of furniture.
Apart from that, we didn't have any major issues with crashes or issues preventing us from progressing in the adventure. We were able to highlight a few rare drops in framerates (on PS5, in performance mode), but again nothing catastrophic.
The most disturbing thing is undoubtedly the gameplay which sometimes has trouble keeping up. In all the exploration phases, there is nothing to say. The game is a little rigid, but nothing dramatic. On the other hand, in the action moments, the title clearly struggles to convince. The aiming is not practical, rather slow and laborious. The dodges are quite random. The character is quite heavy, making movement complicated again.
Which will inevitably cause a lot of problems and frustration given that this remake is much more action-oriented with many more enemies than in the original version. And, precisely, that is also a problem.
Far too many lengths that break the rhythm
The original Silent Hill 2 from 2001 offered players a psychological horror adventure that focused everything on the atmosphere, the universe and the anguish of the town of Silent Hill. This was the game's greatest strength. The title was content to get straight to the point, with a good ten hours of gameplay, puzzles, few enemies and an atmosphere that made the game so charming.
Unfortunately, this remake moves away from all that quite radically. It will take you an average of 16 to 18 hours to reach the end, with much more action, many more enemies and a lot of lengths that will break the rhythm of the game and inflict sequences that are far too redundant.
The first few hours are really good. We feel the unease and the unique atmosphere of the city of Silent Hill. But from the third zone of the game, this effect of repetition begins to manifest itself. Very quickly, we understand that many moments have been extended compared to the original game simply to increase the game's duration. We have to do the same things and the same puzzles over and over again to finish a section and move on to the next one. In the end, a part that could be done in 30 or 40 minutes becomes a sequence of 1h30 or even 2h in this remake.
Even worse, the maze area has been completely redone. While this may seem like a good thing at first glance, you soon realize that you have to do the same thing three times without any goal. In this part of the game, you don't find any documents or collectibles that serve to advance the story. You simply spend more than an hour and a half going around in circles, and returning to the starting point, before being able to continue your adventure after the third attempt.
It's a shame and this is where we see that a long lifespan is not necessarily a good thing. It is better to have ten or eleven very satisfying hours, rather than 16 to 17 average and sometimes very unpleasant hours. Beyond the fact that some sequences are much too long, the latter are also invaded by enemies. All this, coupled with the laborious gameplay in the action zones, gives us a rather indigestible result at times when we only have one desire: to finish.
Fortunately, the game has passages that have been redone and are very correct, like the boss fights which are for the most part very well thought out. A large part of the puzzles have been improved, making them more logical than in the original game. We can also discover new sequences which are, for some interesting and for others, very dispensable.
Like the original game, this Silent Hill 2 Remake offers several different endings with two new ones added to the list. To unlock all the endings, you will have to opt for a "New Game+" and collect collectibles, weapons and specific objects and also make the right choices throughout your journey. This adds a very good replay value to the title.
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