We got a hands-on 5 hour preview of Silent Hill 2 Remake and we were pleasantly surprised. Join us as we take a look at the newest additions and memorable moments in the Silent Hill 2 Remake.
Category
🎮️
GamingTranscript
00:00I played the first five hours of the Silent Hill 2 remake, and was pleasantly, if not
00:05cautiously surprised. It's clear that the Silent Hill 2 remake proudly holds tight to
00:10what the production teams identified as its core tenets, from its tension and atmosphere
00:15to the belter of a reworked soundtrack. But the time I spent with the game would also
00:19go on to unveil a curious sense of hesitancy, constantly pulling it back from being either
00:25a totally faithful remake or a brave reimagining entirely.
00:30There were plenty of bright spots throughout my hands-on experience, including the game's
00:34dynamic third-person movement, refined combat, and expanded exploration zones. So much so
00:40that, even with my concerns at this point in its development, I'm hopeful that Silent
00:45Hill 2 Remake may yet make a lasting impression upon modern-day survival horror audiences,
00:50even if the creative team sound apologetic for its very existence at times.
00:56Before I started playing, producer Motoi Okamoto walked us through the game's nine key new
01:00features. There's a thick and realistic blanket of fog enveloping Silent Hill thanks
01:06to the game's 4K graphics, including fatal recreations of key locations, down to miniscule
01:12items, and facial mocap to make the cutscenes as emotional as possible. On the technical
01:17side, he also mentions 3D sound design to heighten immersion, an over-the-shoulder third-person
01:23camera perspective, reworked combat featuring a dodge mechanic and aiming reticle, remapping
01:28of existing enemies, new and expanded areas and puzzles, and the inclusion of all the
01:34original endings. There will even be some brand new Silent Hill 2 endings that can,
01:39in the words of developer Bloober Team, only be accessed in New Game+, though the studio
01:45shies away from revealing more.
01:48The game picks up at exactly the same place as the 2001 original, with protagonist James
01:53Sunderland arriving at the small, deserted town after receiving a mysterious summons
01:58from his supposedly deceased wife. It's charged with as much creeping dread as ever.
02:04Creative director Mateusz Lejnart explained that the team discussed making the iconic
02:08introduction more action-heavy, but admitted it did not feel like it was very Silent Hill,
02:14and this is why we made the choice to keep it as it was and only pick up the pace after
02:18some time.
02:19But after taking my first few steps into the mist, I found myself needing to swap over
02:24to performance mode in order to achieve a smooth 60 frames per second. It's a little
02:29troubling so close to release, especially with quality mode not seeming to boost fidelity
02:35much at all, though it's possible this is an older build of the game. But even instances
02:40of texture dropout while staring into the recesses of Westvale's many overfilled dumpsters
02:45wasn't enough to ruin my day. That's because the opening scenes excel at nailing the atmosphere
02:51of Silent Hill as a location, turning it into an expansive, malevolent entity in itself.
02:57It might be more modern than fixed camera angles, but the third-person perspective does
03:01nothing to distract from how disorienting it feels not to be able to see more than a
03:05foot in front of you. Likewise, don't bother to memorise any of the puzzles and key item
03:10locations from the original game. You'll find many of them have been remapped entirely
03:15in the remake.
03:17Feeling so lost in a world I thought I knew pretty damn well is an appropriately jarring
03:23sensation, demonstrating Bloober's understanding of how to create uncanny familiarity that
03:28keeps you on your toes. It's something that instantly drew me into Capcom's Resident
03:32Evil 2 remake back in 2019, and I'm relieved to see flashes of brave mechanical innovation
03:38in Silent Hill 2 remake as well.
03:41The addition of a single new puzzle while I was exploring Westvale, involving a broken
03:46record, is an example of this, proving formative in altering my path through the town as I
03:51was led on a wayward treasure hunt. Repairing the record and listening to the music triggered
03:56a memory. And where did it lead me?
03:59The next main area, Woodside Apartments. I found it a simple yet effective change to
04:05how James made his way there in the original, but purists may find the tweak too extreme.
04:12Hardwood plank in hand, I took on the iconic lying figure enemies with relentless aggression.
04:18I know I didn't need to kill them all, and in some Silent Hill games you'd be wise
04:23not to, but the satisfying thwack of wood against the meaty carcass is worth every moment
04:30of overkill.
04:31The precision element is certainly refreshing in Silent Hill 2 remake, trading the unwieldy
04:36clunk of the original's fixed camera angles for a more targeted approach that allowed
04:40me to off far more monsters than I would playing the original.
04:45The more I played, the more the puzzles and combat stood out to me as the biggest mechanical
04:49strengths of Silent Hill 2 remake, even if creative director Masahiro Ito insists that
04:55the game is not heavily oriented toward combat. The former is something Lainar is especially
05:01proud of himself.
05:02I think we have been able to capture this smooth balance between the memory of the original
05:06game and new content that can, I think, surprise the long-time fans of the series, he says
05:13of the puzzle and level design reworks.
05:16As a fan of third-person shooters and the way survival horror games have implemented
05:20them in recent years, Alan Wake 2, I'm looking at you, I'm not mad about it. It
05:26just gives James more ways to fight, and makes me feel more confident in doing so should
05:31I be unable to sneak past a foe.
05:33But with games like Silent Hill 2, even the smallest of changes are bound to surprise
05:38its dedicated fans one way or another. At the very beginning, we didn't want to change
05:43anything completely, because we were too afraid of touching the game, lead producer Maciej
05:48Guom admits, acknowledging the risks of remaking such a cult classic video game. But after
05:53time, we saw that we needed to expand on the game in a way that would be competitive at
05:57this generation of consoles.
05:59These alterations might not be for everyone, but I found them refreshing. By the time I
06:04broke into the Blue Creek Apartments, just over three hours into the preview session,
06:08I noted how well the expanded zones help establish the world of Silent Hill for new and returning
06:14players alike.
06:15But there was one more surprise in store for me, in the form of a nasty new enemy variant.
06:21Despite Ito-san claiming there were absolutely no brand new monsters in the game, I aimed
06:25my flashlight-mounted handgun as I navigated the detritus of the nightmare apartment block.
06:31Relief flooded my body to see the coast somewhat clear. It was a brief respite, because I soon
06:38came face to face with the Spider Mannequins, or as I like to call them, the bane of my
06:44absolute stinking life. I mean that with lots of love. The monsters scurried across
06:50the floor, dodging my painstakingly timed shots with unfair levels of grace that James
06:55can only dream of in his drab khaki raincoat.
06:59Mannequins gave me the biggest jump scares of the day. Every time I entered a room only
07:04to have one suddenly move in the corner, I was thrown into a fear-fuelled frenzy and
07:09battered it to death with my melee weapon, hissing the vilest profanity known to the
07:14English language. Even this rage was born of love.
07:20For all of Silent Hill 2 Remake's reworks to the form, flow and style of the original,
07:25it more than succeeds at delivering a compulsive survival horror experience. Modern flourishes
07:31bring it in line with today's genre standards, falling just shy of making any truly huge
07:37moves to break with its core conventions, whilst showing new sides to a beloved franchise
07:42that's finally emerging from dormancy.
07:45Having a closer look at what Bloober Team is aiming for on October 8th, I'm more than
07:50ready to give Silent Hill 2 Remake the chance it deserves when it comes to PC and PS5.
07:55Will you be playing Silent Hill 2 Remake? Are you ready for the new changes? Let us
08:00know in the comments and stick with GamesRadar for the latest news, previews and more.