Silent Hill 2, the reunion with the worst of our nightmares

The remake of Silent Hill 2 has given much to talk about and has even set off all the alarms of the fans in social media and in some specialized media, especially for what Bloober Team has commented on the changes in this survival horror and a little for the images that had already been published of the game that were “not entirely convincing”. After 3 hours of gameplay thanks to an invitation by the regional team of Konami in London in the United Kingdom, we can be sure that we can rest assured that this game will undoubtedly lead us to a reunion with the worst of our nightmares, or rather those of James Sunderland.

A deeper story

Something that we can expect in this remake is that although the game has the same plot, the tone varies a little on issues such as some scenes, may change angle to increase the “discomfort” or drama, but roughly speaking it is noted that the team has relied on all its experience to preserve the atmosphere, in fact at times we remember some elements of The Medium or Layers of Fear itself, but in a very subtle way.

Gameplay designed to meet the needs of fans and new players

In a chat we had directly with the development team, they showed us that this version of Silent Hill 2 has been “tweaked” in this area, and when we tested it, we could see that everything is in perfect harmony. At the beginning we will be able to choose between three types of difficulty, both for the gameplay and for the puzzles: Easy, Standard and Hard.

We can then choose between a modern, standard, or retro interface, and finally, we can choose between performance or quality mode. We played both and, at least in this demo, opted for performance mode for the last two hours for a smoother experience.

The movements, at least in the PlayStation 5 version that we played, we hit with R2, circle to avoid, and run with L1. An action that is still present and that is key is to step on the enemies, so it never hurts to finish them off, although some explode, so it will often be better to run, even to save bullets.

One of the things we liked a lot is that it feels like the Silent Hill 2 of yesteryear, but brought up to date, and the best part is that the problems with the camera and controls have been solved, making it something of a definitive version in terms of gameplay.

The ability to break glass to find items, break through collapsing walls, and the fact that you have a natural deviation in your aim when shooting adds that realism to the stress of being in the Silent Hill environment.

In broad strokes, this game strikes a good balance that will satisfy old fans of the game and certainly appeal to new audiences.

90′s and new visuals

Within this section, we find a simplified menu where we can read the letters we find, and access weapons, medicine, and maps.

The graphics in general look amazing, especially the facial animations, because if we remember the first one, it generated a little “uncanny valley” effect, although it was also part of its “charm”. The atmosphere, on the other hand, is really tense and makes you feel uncomfortable, that’s where we think this remake has its greatest success.

The sounds of Akira Yamaoka

Finally, one of the central elements of this version are the sounds and the soundtrack that, for everyone’s peace of mind, are very well worked and retain all that made this game a masterpiece in the sound section. The work done at headphone level seemed spectacular, we can’t wait to see how it will sound in a good surround audio system with all the lights off.

And yes, it will be playable on Steam Deck

When we asked the development team about compatibility within Valve’s platform since the PC version will be released on Steam, they assured us that the game can be enjoyed without any problems, so it will undoubtedly also run on an ASUS Rog Ally or a Lenovo Legion Go.

Silent Hill 2 Remake will be released on PlayStation 5 and Steam on October 6 this year.