Bloober Crew’s Silent Hill 2 revival is the story of two video games. On the one hand, it’s a remake of a survival horror traditional that clearly has a powerful reverence for the supply materials. At its most devoted, Silent Hill 2 dances on the precipice of brilliance. However within the means of increasing upon and modernizing the unique expertise, some new parts have been launched that run opposite to the spirit of the 2001 masterpiece. Each facets are entwined, and the tip result’s an attention-grabbing, albeit messy, return to the city of Silent Hill.
For individuals who have been dwelling underneath a rock for the previous twenty years, Silent Hill 2 is a survival horror recreation with an emphasis on the psychological. It’s set in a twisted world that exists as each a bodily house, but additionally a metaphorical one. The characters trapped inside it are all haunted by their pasts, with James Sunderland, the character you embody, chief amongst them.
Bloober Crew has nailed the look of Silent Hill itself. Basic areas are a pleasure to walk via in excessive constancy, and the enduring fog has been brilliantly reconstructed, obfuscating your environment and disorienting you as you traverse the barren streets of this titular city. I typically discovered myself stopping simply to take all of it in, partaking in a little bit Silent Hill tourism, if you’ll.
Sadly, Silent Hill 2’s new animations weren’t given that very same degree of affection and a focus. James is incapable of swinging a bludgeon. To look at him assault is to expertise the uncanny valley in movement. His elbows stay tucked for too lengthy, he doesn’t torque his hips sufficient, his shoulders stay oddly stiff. Every part simply feels… off. And also you’ll be seeing plenty of his awkward, janky swings all through the marketing campaign. James is an atypical dude, so I wouldn’t anticipate him to swing a two-by-four like Shohei Ohtani swings a bat, however even essentially the most uncoordinated human being would swing a weapon higher than James Sunderland. The dude must recover from his lifeless spouse and discover ways to swing a bit of wooden.
This extends to the remainder of his animations as nicely. James doesn’t usually open doorways, he gestures of their basic route, his run is stiff and robotic, and when switching between melee weapons and firearms, weapons simply magically rework in his arms. Enemies look high quality in movement, so it’s unlucky Bloober didn’t iron a few of these inconsistencies with James’s animations out as a result of a lot of it feels low-cost and janky.
This uneven execution extends to the sound design. Whereas the atmospheric soundtrack – courtesy of returning composer Akira Yamaoko – is powerful, the cacophony of screeches, gurgles, wails, creaking of rusted steel, and signature Silent Hill-brand static can sometimes undermine that ambiance.
It’s all cranked as much as 11 right here, and that excessiveness doesn’t at all times serve the sport’s ambiance. This emphasis on abrasive loudness can also be entrance and heart in essentially the most unlucky inclusion: leap scares. Whereas the unique had one or two low-cost thrills, the remake locations an undue emphasis on them. You may stay up for dozens of monstrosities coming out and screeching at you continuously.
The additional you get into the remake, the higher the sound design turns into. Because the world degrades, and the environments change into extra surreal, it begins to higher profit your environment. As the sport progresses, it makes use of silences extra successfully as a substitute of continually burying you in sound. The popping of outdated insulated pipes increasing and contracting within the later jail space is more practical as a result of it feels prefer it belongs. It supplies a way of place in which you’ll be able to’t escape, and in survival horror that kind of sensation is paramount.
I strongly suggest reducing the music quantity within the choices menu. I wished to listen to Yamaoka’s rating too, however the preset values had been method too obnoxious. Whereas within the settings menu, take away the ridiculous “low well being vignette” and “splatter vignette” they’re
extraordinarily
garish.
Voice appearing, however, is an unmitigated success. Whereas I’m certain it gained’t be everybody’s bag, the strains are all delivered in a disembodied, dreamlike method. It’s all barely off-kilter, however in one of the simplest ways doable. The performances are higher than the unique whereas carrying ahead the identical surreal, Lynchian qualities that so many hardcore followers adore. Silent Hill is, on some degree, a manifested, twisted dream. These performances serve to promote that side of Silent Hill properly. You by no means fairly know what’s actual and what isn’t, and to ship that could be the remake’s best achievement.
All of the performances do an awesome job of preserving the spirit of the unique video games story segments alive, however my favourite efficiency might be Eddie. His actor completely nailed the underlying air of resentment whereas concurrently sounding totally disassociated.
Sadly, Silent Hill 2 is made weaker by leaving the unique’s fastened digital camera angles behind, opting as a substitute for a third-person perspective much like Useless Area, Resident Evil 4, or some other triple-A horror title from the previous decade.
I don’t fault the remake for going on this route; rightly or wrongly, fastened digital camera angles are actually seen as antiquated. However as a consequence, the unique’s cinematic framing and disorientating sense of route is misplaced. And very like the overwrought sound design, this hurts the ambiance.
Alongside this new digital camera perspective, James turns into a much more competent fighter. Monster encounters in Silent Hill 2 are extra pleasant within the second, however James’s new dodge supplies a stunning quantity of invulnerability. I steadily felt fairly snug going one-on-one with a lot of the creatures I encountered. Perhaps a little bit too snug for a horror recreation.
Silent Hill 2 additionally decides to take some inspiration from Resident Evil 4 and let you vault over waist-high partitions. Supplying you with extra choices to create distance whenever you wish to heal or separate teams of enemies from one another. These adjustments all culminate in a palpable lack of hazard that doesn’t do the sport’s ambiance any favors. I wished to really feel unsafe and uncertain of what awaited me across the subsequent nook, however most of the time, I may take them down with out a lot bother.
When you can set the fight issue to exhausting, it usually ends in longer, extra drawn-out encounters, no more troublesome encounters. I’d suggest simply sticking to the traditional issue for fight.
That being mentioned, the boss battles deserve some reward. Whereas they actually aren’t any scarier, they’re much more entertaining, that includes a number of phases, and an added number of assaults. Quite a few them additionally add some enjoyable spectacle into the combo. The place you had been as soon as combating a monstrosity in a closed house, you are actually being chased via hallways that the creature tears to items with their assaults. Whereas the encounters are positively sillier and ripe with schlock, all of them are memorable.
Puzzles all through the sport have additionally obtained a welcome contact up. Delightfully, Silent Hill 2 typically takes the unique puzzles and remixes them, including new parts and placing a pleasant steadiness between familiarity and novelty.
A handful of recent puzzles and enemy encounters have additionally been added, so Silent Hill 2 purists gained’t have the ability to run via the remake with their eyes closed.
Not like a few of the different additions, the brand new puzzles serve to enhance the tip product and really feel like they really belong. Particularly for long-time followers. That is much less true of puzzles whenever you decrease the problem setting to something aside from exhausting, which all really feel comparatively pedestrian.
However what of the story? Did Bloober Crew handle to seize its essence? Kinda… The unique script is almost untouched, however not unaccompanied. Alongside it are an entire host of further scenes that, whereas not distractingly terrible, hardly ever serve to enhance the story. It looks like these additions had been added to pull the runtime out, whereas beating the participant over the pinnacle with already-established themes. It isn’t like the unique Silent Hill 2 was essentially the most refined story ever informed, so piling on on this method feels unjustified.
One specific new scene has Maria telling James concerning the folklore behind a statue, which ends with a annoyed James questioning why they’re losing time speaking about legends; I’ll give this new story phase one factor, I’ve by no means felt extra aligned with James than in that second. Talking of Maria, her additions have the unlucky impact of Flanderizing her a contact an excessive amount of. Maria being playfully seductive was at all times one in every of her core attributes, however it’s now cranked up a number of notches. Did we actually must see her come onto James whereas caressing a stripper pole? Subtlety, thy identify is not Bloober Crew.
The humorous factor is, the vast majority of the unique Silent Hill 2 is buried inside this remake, and it typically isn’t too far beneath the floor both. Bloober Crew’s model of Silent Hill 2 typically looks like a excessive constancy model of the unique with remixed puzzles and merchandise areas. The fight within reason satisfying, the boss encounters have been improved, however what’s essentially an awesome horror recreation is partially undermined by the over-the-top sound design, injection of leap scares, and basic lack of restraint.
Very similar to James Sunderland, we now have returned to Silent Hill, however what was as soon as our particular place has modified. Fortunately, sufficient of what made it particular stays and can seemingly heat the cockles of nostalgic hearts and newcomers alike, even in case you’ll need to look previous a few of the garish new additions within the course of.