GamesRadar+ VerdictSilent Hill 2 both succeeds and falters because of its almost reverential recreation of the original. While that makes for a good horror game overall, it shies away from improvements or reinterpretations that could have smoothed over older ideas or enhanced dated mechanics.TODAY’S BEST DEALSCheck AmazonPros+An atmospheric and layered horror game+Varied mix of exploration and puzzle solving+Great scares and a grinding sense of menaceCons-Stays too close to the source material-Enemies lack character
GamesRadar+ Verdict
GamesRadar+ Verdict
Silent Hill 2 both succeeds and falters because of its almost reverential recreation of the original. While that makes for a good horror game overall, it shies away from improvements or reinterpretations that could have smoothed over older ideas or enhanced dated mechanics.TODAY’S BEST DEALSCheck Amazon
Silent Hill 2 both succeeds and falters because of its almost reverential recreation of the original. While that makes for a good horror game overall, it shies away from improvements or reinterpretations that could have smoothed over older ideas or enhanced dated mechanics.
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Pros+An atmospheric and layered horror game+Varied mix of exploration and puzzle solving+Great scares and a grinding sense of menace
An atmospheric and layered horror game
Varied mix of exploration and puzzle solving
Great scares and a grinding sense of menace
Cons-Stays too close to the source material-Enemies lack character
Stays too close to the source material
Enemies lack character
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Why you can trust GamesRadar+Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about our reviews policy.
I yelped and flinched more than a few times playing theSilent Hill 2 remake, which isn’t bad going for an exactingly precise remake of a 23-year-old horror game that even people who haven’t played it mostly know inside out. That was largely thanks to the Mannequins, those enemies that look like legs with more legs on top. They have a horrific habit of just standing in plain sight, tucked in a corner or nestled against some shelves – completely visible but somehow so,soeasy to miss. ‘I’ll just explore this dark and totally empty room LEGSINMYFACE! OH GOD WHY ARE THERE SO MANY LEGS IN MY FACE!’
Barely hours into the game I ended up a twitchy wreck, standing outside rooms for far too long and peering nervously inside for an excess of limbs. Even without that leggy jump scare, the atmosphere and general mood of Silent Hill 2 is a grimey, foreboding sense of tense expectation. Sure, it largely owes that to using the original like a mold, pressing out an exact recreation rather than sculpting anything new, but it works – the darkness, the weak torch that just makes it worse, and the grinding loop of ambient screeching sound that picks at your nerves as you explore, make a satisfying horror experience.
Satisfying is probably not the first word you were expecting to sum up a game famous for murder nurses and sexually repressed purgatory, but it’s the best way to describe my experience. It’s a big, well made interpretation that maybe plays a little too safely with its careful replication, but in doing so (re)creates a good horror game full of pace, variety and moody foreboding.
Stick to the source
(Image credit: Konami)
Fast factsRelease date:October 8, 2024Platform(s):PS5, PCDeveloper:Bloober TeamPublisher:Konami
Fast facts
Release date:October 8, 2024Platform(s):PS5, PCDeveloper:Bloober TeamPublisher:Konami
Release date:October 8, 2024Platform(s):PS5, PCDeveloper:Bloober TeamPublisher:Konami
I would have liked to see just a touch of an update here and there like tweaks to characters, dialogue, or plot progression. Sticking so closely to the original means a few things feel out of touch, while some moments of recreated 2001 narrative or game design can feel clunky. A few later areas also feel a little bloated, often from fleshing out a minor puzzle or area that might have been better cut. But it’s not a huge problem and the few changes there are that do improve things, like more nuanced facial animations and performances. All the characters speak in a subtle, almost imperceptible dreamlike way initially, as if they know something is wrong but haven’t woken up enough to fully grasp what. It really helps sell Silent Hill as a predatory entity, disorientating the prey it lures in.
(Image credit: Konami)
In the initial opening hours I worried the 4K clarity would strip away the misty sense of uncertainty and dread. As you first explore, the town feels far too crisp and visible, almost exposed for a game more associated with squinting fretfully into fog. But, fortunately, it doesn’t last: once you reach Wood Side Apartments, the first big interior area, the game takes a horrible turn for the worse, which is a good thing here. And almost as soon as you start exploring its peeling rooms, things take a nose dive into some filthy, dark depths they never really recover from. (Again, a good thing.)
Wood Side Apartments also establishes the overall structure that repeats for the majority of the time you’ll be playing: splitting your time between unraveling large, interconnected puzzle hubs and exploring more open town areas. For example, getting around the peeling walls of Wood Side is centred on finding a clock, and then the three hands you need to set a time on it. Each hand is linked to a different door, and behind that is a smaller sub area with its own puzzle theme to chase - in this case moth wings to count, weights to balance and chains to pull respectively.
Puzzle it out
(Image credit: Konami)
Challenge-wise, the hardcore might want to nudge the difficulty up a notch. I always had a gratuitous excess of ammo, and while the interior sections often left me limping from one health drink to the next, another player I spoke with had over 30 healing items for most of the game. That might be due to a patch that dropped midway between our playthrough or, more likely, I suspect a difference in playing styles, with me hoarding ammo and piling in messily with a pipe, compared to careful stealth and headshots to avoid so much as touching most enemies.
(Image credit: Konami)
There’s even more endings now!The original Silent Hill 2 had six endings, but the Remake ups that to eight. Like the previous game, only three are there at the start, and the others can only be unlocked through a combination of getting all three starter options first and then finding and using new items in NG+.
There’s even more endings now!
The original Silent Hill 2 had six endings, but the Remake ups that to eight. Like the previous game, only three are there at the start, and the others can only be unlocked through a combination of getting all three starter options first and then finding and using new items in NG+.
The original Silent Hill 2 had six endings, but the Remake ups that to eight. Like the previous game, only three are there at the start, and the others can only be unlocked through a combination of getting all three starter options first and then finding and using new items in NG+.
However you approach it, Silent Hill 2 is an atmospheric and rewarding horror game up there with the Resident Evil remakes for reinventing a classic. While its strict adherence to the past can feel a little constrained at times, and a few things are lacking as a result, it nails the feel of the original well. Despite a scattering of minor issues, any negativity comes more from a place of believing the new Silent Hill 2 Remake could have been better, than it actually being bad. The whole thing ultimately delivers and does a good job of making the series feel meaningful and relevant in a way it hasn’t for years.
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