Silent Hill 2: After Resident Evil 4 and FFVII, this remake is a new must-have

The light was

It’s inside a dirty toilet that James Sunderland refreshes his ideas. In complete disarray, he parked in Silent Hill to find his wife, Mary, who invited him via a romantic letter to return to the small town which was once a place full of good memories. The problem is that his beloved died three years ago. No matter how ridiculous he tells himself, he sinks into the fog and confronts demons. Things become even more complicated when James crosses paths with Maria, a lookalike of his late wife. From the Wood Side building to Toluca Prison to Brookhaven Hospital, the players who somehow control the destiny of Sunderland will have to face unspeakable horrors.

Certainly, the scenario does not stray that far from what we already know, but the studio has made particularly interesting judicious choices. The numerous additional documents make it possible to explain the scenario without providing all the keys to understanding, while increasing the number of intriguing avenues. The original dialogues have been retouched in order to provide more subtlety, mystery, or, on the contrary, clarity.

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Repulsive and attractive

As you will see by looking at our captures of this test video, the Silent Hill 2 (2024) remake looks good. Very beautiful even, in “Quality” mode. Brilliantly modeled and littered with weeds, soiled utensils, insects and other more or less suspicious traces, the environments breathe this dark despair as it is anchored in our memories. The textures are well chosen, the lighting effects are realistic, the details are numerous. As for the fog, it creates superb gradients exposing all possible shades of gray, whether on buildings or on creatures. The artistic direction, influenced by the film adaptation by Christophe Gans, makes this world more tortured than ever.

See Silent Hill 2 Remake on Amazon (PS5)

We could always complain about animations that are not always the best, and some visual issues with reflections, but we can only note the superhuman efforts orchestrated by the Bloober Team and Konami to remain faithful to the base game while providing numerous novelties. The new versions of the creatures are impressive, and the game is still as dark as before… maybe even more so!

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Give up all hope

Survival-horror obliges, the gameplay of Silent Hill 2 could be summarized in one line, namely directing a hero in dark settings, infested with enemies, in search of ammunition, care, important documents and notable items allowing to resolve problems. puzzles or open doors. The puzzles are very present here, and you have to enjoy going back and forth searching everywhere for hours in order to gather all the pieces required to progress. In terms of major changes in gameplay compared to the 2001 work, there is obviously this shoulder camera which generates completely reinvented combat. Just because James wins a dodge doesn’t mean he becomes untouchable. Every encounter is a challenge. By making its bestiary more dangerous, the remake complicates escape.

In addition, the city is seen as a more open world, that is to say that the buildings and various places are truly integrated into the town and are no longer considered as separate instances, revealed after loading. Concretely, the doors are pushed on the fly and the interior/exterior transitions are made instantly, just like what we see in today’s productions. This creates a lot of tension.since enemies are able to pursue James everywhere, going so far as to enter buildings, go through broken windows or sneak through holes.

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Silent Hill revisited

Silent Hill 2 vintage 2024 is not a simple refresh of the Team Silent software, offering the same adventure as before with only redone graphics, a more modern camera and a redesign of the characters. At the same time generous extended version, careful remake and solid adaptation, it should be seen as a reinterpretation of the original work rather than a carbon copy, although the key passages from 2001 are still there and follow one another in the same order . The new cutscenes and never-before-seen game situations, the nature of which we will keep silent, are counted in spades.

Driven to put even the series’ fans through hell, the Bloober Team applied one of the maxims of Team Silent to the letter: making others experience anguish of which we never see the end. Everything is longer in this remake. Are all the extra hours of play necessary? Not necessarily. There are sequences that are surely too long to satisfy the desire for fast pace of today’s adventurers. This extreme approach – living a nightmare from which you never wake up – will undoubtedly divide. This grueling remake is a dream for fans that could be seen as torture for others. For our part, we love the courage of the proposal, but like the old episode, it is not for everyone..