3.5/5 ★ – batmanzyx's review of SILENT HILL 2.

Happy to report that the Silent Hill 2 remake wasn’t terrible! Actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I do wonder though if following the Resident Evil 2-4 remake route was the best bet for it. I feel the game lost a lot of the SH magic with the new perspective. On one hand, the gameplay was enjoyable. Exploration and puzzles were good. I didn’t really have any issues with how it played and the revamped combat and boss fights were pretty great. But the charm was gone for me. It felt like a very straightforward game without much to say, which isn’t what the original SH2 felt like at all. I think this is a case (sorry to run the RE vs SH comparison again) where Resident Evil suits the realism of modern graphics, whereas Silent Hill, to me, doesn’t. Nothing was particularly shocking or upsetting in SH2R. The nightmarish atmosphere and visuals were gone. I think it’s a case of being spoiled for horror lately. Alan Wake 2 followed the RE perspective too but adapted around it to deliver creative horror set pieces that kept it fun gameplay wise but also still unique and visually different from anything else (except Control for obvious reasons but that was less of a horror game). Signalis basically set a new standard for fixed camera angled horror! It had the kind of vibes I would have wanted from a modern SH. Horror imagery I’ll remember for the rest of my life, a powerful story full of emotion, and some really intense, scary encounters. SH2R just didn’t do anything new. However, to give credit to the original, this worked perfectly back in 2001. But then Silent Hill 3 evolved the formula and many games after continued to build from it. So I think now coming full circle the game just needed something else to really stand out. TLDR; Silent Hill 2 Remake sacrifices the uniqueness of Silent Hill for the safety of familiar gameplay styles. Functions as a game but just not what (I think) should have been done with the franchise.