GamesSurvival HorrorSilent HillSilent Hill 2Why Silent Hill 2 Remake’s Toluca Prison is even more terrifying than the originalWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesSurvival HorrorSilent HillSilent Hill 2Why Silent Hill 2 Remake’s Toluca Prison is even more terrifying than the originalWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Bloober Team)
The world of Silent Hill is a weird, liminal place. Here, the threshold between the unsettling dream of the fog world and the industrial hell of the Otherworld can be as tenuous as crossing a small gap to a neighboring building, or a shift in mental state. Yet even within this existing framework of weirdness,Silent Hill 2’s Toluca Prison stands out as an anomaly, your journey to it taking you down a seemingly neverending staircase and a succession of holes that make it feel like it exists beyond the usual two Silent Hill realities. While its whereabouts in Silent Hill’s psychosphere are up for debate, it feels like a sub-dimension where James' conscience and a harrowing part of Silent Hill’s history bubble together in a dark brine deep in the bowels of the Otherworld – or even beneath it.
Hell in a cell
(Image credit: Bloober Team)
There used to be an older game here(Image credit: Konami)Silent Hill 2 Remake review: “An atmospheric and rewarding horror game up there with the Resident Evil remakes for reinventing a classic”
There used to be an older game here
(Image credit: Konami)Silent Hill 2 Remake review: “An atmospheric and rewarding horror game up there with the Resident Evil remakes for reinventing a classic”
(Image credit: Konami)
Silent Hill 2 Remake review: “An atmospheric and rewarding horror game up there with the Resident Evil remakes for reinventing a classic”
Bloober’s rendition also takes a few departures from the design of the original Silent Hill 2, which used a tight, top-down perspective that made it hard to see the scuttlers and other creatures coming your way. With the limited control that we had over the camera in Silent Hill 2, we were often at the mercy of Team Silent’s creative cinematography, which it deftly exploited to claustrophobic effect. Even now, there’s definitely some weight to the contention that a fully controllable all-angles camera is an aspect of modern game design that’s anathema to effective horror. To counter this, Bloober exploited an aspect of modern game design that was notably lacking back in the days of the original: verticality.
(Image credit: Bloober Team)
Once this insectile new form of the Mannequin catches your scent, it’s as if it sends a signal to the others, because they all seem to descend on you at once. Within moments, you’re blasting them off the walls with your shotgun while straight-jacketed Lying Figures spit venom at you from their cells. In these moments, Silent Hill 2 Remake’s horror veers into Resident Evil 4 territory, as you’re besieged from all sides and – for the first time in the game – are anxiously watching your ammo supplies dwindle. This gear-shift towards a noisier, swarming kind of horror is a creative liberty on Bloober’s part, but it works precisely because it’s an outlier to the rest of the experience. It also fits thematically with a setting that’s steeped in violence, as you try to traverse what feels like an otherworldly prison riot. You can’t possibly quell it, you can only hope to survive it.
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Maybe Toluca is a reflection of James' repressed conscience reaching breaking point, tearing to get out, or maybe there really is some kind of paranormal activity here. The beauty of Bloober’s remake is that it retains the mystery surrounding this forsaken place, while adding a few astute elements that elevate it into one of the most stress-inducing horror sequences you (or James Sunderland) could imagine.
Silent Hill 2 and Resident Evil 2’s introductory sequences showcase two different approaches to the survival horror remake, and both of them are valid
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CATEGORIES
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
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1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
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1
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2Mufasa: The Lion King review – “It’s no Hakuna Matata but this Disney origin story is a class above the 2019 movie”
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3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
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4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
4
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5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
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Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
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2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
2
Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
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3
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4
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5
Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”