There are a small handful of games so highly anticipated that it's all everyone talks about. "Grand Theft Auto VI" is an easy target. Another one is a new entry in the "Silent Hill" franchise. The latter wish has been granted in the form of "Silent Hill 2". This is a remake of a 2001 PS2 horror game of the same name. I must confess that this is the first time I've played a "Silent Hill" game. So with this entry, I get to see why many gamers swear by this long cherished horror franchise.
My impressions of this entry? For anyone who's a fan of "The Last of Us" and the recent "Resident Evil" remakes, you're going to feel right at home with the gameplay of "Silent Hill 2". In fact, when you're looking behind our protagonist, you'd swear it's Leon Kennedy again. In "Silent Hill 2", you play as James Sunderland, a widower who receives a letter from his deceased wife asking him to find her in the town of Silent Hill.
Obviously, it's easier said than done, considering the horrific creatures he has to encounter and fend off. One of the game's best elements is the creature design on the enemies. It's not everyday you see a human body that's practically all legs from top to bottom. Ingenious how a creature that's all legs serves as the human version of a spider later on, as it climbs walls to avoid hand to hand combat with James. Imaginative creature design helps "Silent Hill 2" distinguish itself from its equally popular competitors alluded to earlier.
The environments that James explores within the confines of Silent Hill have a mysterious allure as well. The town itself is continously crumbling and shifting into a disaster zone right before our very eyes. One minute, we're in an abandoned building. The next minute, said building is unrecognizable in how torn apart it is. It compliments the dilemma our main character is facing as he understandably tries to come to grips with reality.
He finds himself in cryptic and intentionally awkward interactions with some of the normal looking townsfolk. Even normal interactions with the likes of Maria keep James' guard up albeit in a subtle and subdued manner. A little girl named Laura also gives our lead a piece of her mind and looks down on him for reasons initially unknown. You don't need to play the original version to notice the vast improvement in the acting and cutscenes. It's significantly more polished, eloquent and grounded in reality.
While the core narrative is fairly standard, it's elevated by a few choice plot twists that add flavorful meat to the mix. The gameplay all around is solid on its own terms. The controls and combat are fluid and responsive all around. Whether you're using a melee weapon or a gun to dispose of your terrifying adversaries, it's satisfying to successfully survive another stroke of danger. The maps you use to navigate each environment are easy to use and keep track of, as in the recent "Resident Evil" titles.
You will be doing plenty of backtracking, depending on your threshold for that element of gameplay. And while it's painless to keep track of where you are, I noticed a lot of restricted areas. In other words, plenty of invisible walls gating off areas you'd think you'd be able to explore. The game got off to a slow start for me because of that reason. The designers went to the trouble of showing me areas within arm's reach, and yet it prevents me from exploring said areas quite frequently.
I'm used to seeing invisible walls or gated areas on occasion in the "Resident Evil" titles. This was more restrictive than usual, and I felt the developers could've figured out another solution around this. I also noticed a bit of chugginess in the game's performance mode. Given that it's released on a console that runs the majority of games at 60 fps guaranteed, I noticed many times the frame rate was at least less than that. The cutscenes are all at 30 fps for sure. And although you'll get 60 fps most of the time, it's not consistent.
It's my long-winded way of saying that if you prefer Fidelity Mode with your PS5 games, you should be happy with what you get here. The gameplay at its core is good, but there isn't much here in terms of innovation. Much of what I did in this game is exactly what I did in "The Last of Us" and "Resident Evil 2 & 4". Shoot horrific creatures, solve puzzles that give you an excuse to explore everything in the environment, and continue proceeding with your ultimate objective.
Fans of the series are already over the moon with this remake, and the praise is well warranted. It takes what worked in the past, while also making some necessary quality of life changes to appeal to current modern standards. Newcomers to this series, like myself, will find a well polished experience in "Silent Hill 2" with a distinctive atmosphere, awesome creature design, and a reliable gameplay loop. It's as good an entry point to the franchise as one can get.
Final Verdict: 8.5/10
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