PREVIEW: Silent Hill 2 (2024)

The game I have been waiting for since it was announced in 2022 is finally out! I shelled out the last of my settlement money for this game to play it early. Enough about me, let’s talk about this gorgeous game.

Silent Hill 2 (2024) is a remake of the original title from 2001. The classic horror title has been brought back from the PlayStation 2 and modernized to fit today’s gaming world. I have played about two hours worth of the game and can say, without a doubt, that the hype is real. If you enjoyed the original game (and you aren’t a miserable cretin), you will enjoy this one as well. The best aspects of the original remain and the developers at BLOOBER TEAM have given a new life to the game. I heard a lot of people complaining online for seemingly mundane reasons that seem to fall in a category that has nothing to do with the merits of the game, instead a more political agenda. Imagine complaining about a dodge button or because a character design is no longer “hot”.

Bloober Team improved the voice acting, captured fantastic facial animations, and the graphic fidelity of the game is on par with titles like Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Last of Us: Part 2. I can safely say that this is probably one of the most beautiful looking games I have played. The fog looks fantastic, the enemies have much more detail and move in new and unsettling ways. There have been changes to the layout of many of the iconic spots from the original, but the changes make the sections feel more authentic to what you would see in a real town. Rooms are no longer different assets inside buildings. Instead, the game is essentially an “Open World” in the sense that enemies can enter and exit areas where before they were confined to the section you would encounter them in.

Music and atmosphere was such a large part of the original game, and so far the 2024 Remake has proven no different. Mud squishes under each footstep, enemies skitter and make stomach churning noises around you, and the sound of a foreboding scraping of metal is almost always present as you traverse the fog. During my first two hours of the game, I encountered a section where the fog picked up and wind made it swirl around me. The sound of the storm was enough to scare me into the nearest apartment building I could find.

I will hold off on the complete review of this Remake until I beat it, but I can say I’m having a lot of fun returning to Silent Hill.

Excelsior!

-Alex