by Anthony O'Connor

Year:  2024

Director:  Mateusz Lenart

Rated:  MA

Release:  Out Now

Distributor: FIVE STAR GAMES

Running time: 15-20 hour campaign, NG+

Worth: $18.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

Intro:
Genuinely tense, fitfully scary, often bizarre, sad and even beautiful, Silent Hill 2 has lost none of its punch and remains one of the best survival horror video games ever made.

When it comes to survival horror video game royalty, you don’t get much more kingly than 2001’s Silent Hill 2. Set in the fog-shrouded town of Silent Hill, this story of loss, memory and trauma remains iconic to this day, talked about in the same hushed, reverent tones as Resident Evil and Dead Space. And, because these days everything that hasn’t been deleted from existence will eventually get a remake, the time has finally come for this timeless classic to get a new coat of paint in the form of, well, Silent Hill 2 (2024). And while a lot of folks were extremely worried about the devs in charge of the gig (more on that later), the end result is really bloody good.

Silent Hill 2 tells the tale of James Sunderland, a gloomy widower who is drawn to Silent Hill thanks to a letter from his dead wife. However, instead of finding immediate answers, James is greeted with a broken town sinking into decay, chockers with strange characters and surreal monsters. James embarks on a dark, rust-marred journey through the dankest, grimiest liminal spaces imaginable, to find answers that may have him questioning his sanity and the very nature of existence itself.

The thing about Silent Hill 2 (remake and classic) is that they are, as the kids say, a vibe. There’s an impeccably crafted sense of doom and gloom, of inevitable corruption and death and a growing dismay that you are the plaything for some unknowable horror. This comes from a combination of factors. The vivid, crusty graphics, the shockingly atmospheric sound design and the impeccable score from Akira Yamaoka. Playing this game with your headphones on and the volume cranked is a genuinely terrifying experience and even your humble word janitor, a veteran of the horror genre in every way imaginable, found himself getting creeped the hell out with shocking regularity.

The remake also features some innovations in terms of quality of life aspects, like an excellent map that highlights areas of interest, expanded puzzles (that are sometimes a mixed bag, to be honest) and reimagined creature encounters that prove to be tense highlights. A lot of gamers were pretty worried about this IP being tackled by Bloober Team (whose record is a little spotty) but credit where it’s due, they knocked this one out of the foggy, creature-filled park.

That’s not to say that it’s without flaws, mind you. The aforementioned puzzles have been expanded, sometimes, to ridiculous degrees and they do affect the pacing in the first half. Also, the combat is slow and clunky. This is a deliberate choice to heighten the sense of tension and hopelessness, but those who prefer the more sophisticated combat of a Dead Space may find frustration with the handful of mostly ungainly weapons here.

Still and all, Silent Hill 2 was, is and always will be about the mood, and on that front, this 2024 revisit has delivered a near-perfect experience. Genuinely tense, fitfully scary, often bizarre, sad and even beautiful, Silent Hill 2 has lost none of its punch and remains one of the best survival horror video games ever made.

9Creepy AF
score
9
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