Silent Hill 2 (08.10.24)

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gab dann heute auch eine neue welle an previews. der grundtenor ist eigentlich im grunde nur, dass alle sehr überrascht davon sind, wie gut das remake in fast allen punkten umgesetzt wurde. klingt sehr positiv. positiver als alles was wir bis jetzt so vom spiel gesehen oder gehört haben.

We came away from Silent Hill 2 far more confident about the remake than we were before we played it. The gameplay feels great, the game is graphically impressive, and the atmosphere of the original has been replicated perfectly. It’s an inherently different experience in the transition between fixed camera to third-person, but at no point does it feel like the heart of Silent Hill 2 has been lost.

Crucially, for the health of the series, Silent Hill 2 feels like it’ll be exactly the kind of shot in the arm that will bring the series back into vogue. The Resident Evil remake comparisons will likely be inescapable, but is that a bad thing when Capcom’s latest efforts have been just as genre-defining for modern survival horrors as both Resident Evil and Silent Hill were in the genre’s nascent days?

In short, I was incredibly impressed by the time I spent with Silent Hill 2 Remake. It is surreal, cerebral, horrifying, and grotesque--all of the things that made the original title such a remarkable title not only for Konami, but for the horror genre as well. Considering I was resigned to the game's beginning hours (and it's worth nothing here that I'd estimate we're looking at a 8 or so hour experience in total based on what I managed to accomplish within the three or so we were given), it's hard to tell if the game will nail its tone and message; if certain plot twists will remain as vile and unnerving and the studio will fully commit to creating a suffocating, psychological hell above all else. But after my time with Silent Hill 2 Remake--and after months of witnessing the internet (and myself) hem and haw on whether or not this Remake even has the capacity to be great--I am no longer on the fence. I am thrilled the wait for the full experience is almost over, and will be brushing up on my bravery until the game launches on October 8.

I previously lacked a lot of trust in both Konami and Bloober Team, and I’ve been very vocal about it. Konami hasn’t done anything meaningful in regards to Silent Hill in a very long time. Even the recent release of spin-off, The Short Message, was lackluster despite the important message it was trying to send.

As for Bloober Team, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the latest Layers of Fear, and I was worried about how the developer would pull something like Silent Hill 2 off; it’s a lot of pressure to have on any single developer’s shoulders, admittedly.

But Bloober Team appears to have turned that pressure into something beautiful (in a sick and twisted way). The first three hours of the Silent Hill 2 remake scream sheer passion and dedication to preserving the feeling and story of Silent Hill 2, while creating gameplay that is enjoyable for modern audiences, whether you’ve played Silent Hill 2 before or not.

Konami is back in a very, very big way this year — especially with Metal Gear Solid: Delta right around the corner — and the publisher appears to have finally honed in on what its fans really want, as well as how to reach new audiences. If Bloober Team (and its collaborators) are able to carry their clear passion for the original game and dedication to preserving it, while resurrecting it, throughout the rest of the game, then the Silent Hill 2 remake might be exactly what many of us have hoped for. If not better.

It's still a remarkably eerie experience all round, and all of this remains true despite the new free dom in its controls. There was a concern, perhaps, that the tension of Konami's original might be lost in translation - where the game once forced a harder limit on your range of attacks, and even the camera's view in parts. Restrictions only added to its fear factor in 2001. Good news, then, that the remake does still find a source of terror in keeping its secrets doused in shadow - and so much of its monstrous threat veiled by the fog.

In rebuilding such a beloved classic with upgraded visuals and controls, the new combat style fits in surprisingly well then. The puzzles, too, find a natural place in its world. A remake project is a delicate balancing act for any developer, it's fair to say: stray too far from the source at your own risk, while a failure to innovate defeats the point of the whole endeavour. What I've seen so far of Silent Hill 2 Remake, though, shows a team determined to stick to the original blueprint first. It provides the game a comfortingly familiar structure - while allowing new detail to flourish around it like a trellis - and I'm looking forward to seeing where it grows past its first three hours.

Even this rage is borne of love. For all of Silent Hill 2 Remake's reworks to the form, flow, and style of the original, it more than succeeds at delivering a compulsive survival horror experience. Modern flourishes seek to bring it in line with today's genre standards, falling just shy of making any truly huge moves to break with its core conventions while showing new sides to a beloved franchise that's finally emerging from dormancy. Having had a closer look at what Bloober Team is aiming for on October 8, I'm more than ready to give Silent Hill 2 Remake the chance it deserves.

As a remake, Silent Hill 2 falls more in line with BluePoint’s faithful Shadow of the Colossus rather than Capcom’s rejuvenated Resident Evil 2. It substitutes bold new swings for a slavish dedication to the original, which is by no means a bad thing, just not the radical step some might expect. Silent Hill 2 certainly needed a fresh coat of paint and a tune of the engine, and Bloober Team has provided that in spades, but everything else is an extremely faithful reimagining that mostly resists the urge to alter the successful formula of a stone-cold classic.