Most gamers consider the original Silent Hill 2 to be an untouchable and genre-defining example of what the best survival horror game should be. While most of this is for a good reason, most fans mistake some of its features as deliberate and calculated design choices. There is no going wrong with Silent Hill 2 on the PlayStation 2, but to say it couldn’t be improved ignores the fact that it did have flaws. No game is perfect, but with the benefit of hindsight and decades of advances in design philosophy, there will always be room for new interpretations. After a period of exclusivity on PlayStation 2, Silent Hill 2 was ported to Xbox. About a quarter century later, history repeats itself with the Silent Hill 2 remake jumping from PlayStation 5 to Xbox Series X|S. How does this port hold up, and was a Silent Hill 2 remake necessary?
By now, everyone should know the story of Silent Hill 2. James Sunderland is a regular guy who gets a letter from Mary, his dead wife, telling him to meet her at their special place in the town of Silent Hill. When he gets there, he finds the town seemingly abandoned and crawling with bizarre monsters. Everywhere he looks, he sees reminders of Mary and physical manifestations of his worst fears and traumas…and even some from a few other characters he meets along the way.
Silent Hill 2‘s narrative is widely considered one of the best horror stories in video games for a reason. The abstract and surrealist approach to telling the story seeps into the player’s subconscious, gnawing at it like a ravenous tick. This is the case for the original game and its remake. Bloober Team has been very faithful to the source material and found clever ways to expand upon what was already there, while doubling down on some of the original narrative threads. Eddie has been made even more disturbing and unsettling, with his infamous pizza-eating scene reimagined with him devouring disgusting strawberry ice cream with his bare hands like a beast. Added touches like him wiping his filthy hands on his stained and foul shirt go a long way in showing how much care and thought were put into preserving the overall filthy, nightmarish ambiance.
Peppered throughout are amusing callbacks and hints that this remake isn’t so much a remake, but something else entirely for those who pay attention. The puzzles have been remixed and made more complex than anything the series has ever had, even more so than what was in Silent Hill f, but unlike Silent Hill f, the combat isn’t as finely tuned. There is a lot of fighting in this remake, and it unfolds similarly to how combat felt in The Last of Us, where melee blows have a magnetised and scripted quality to them. It looks cinematic, but it doesn’t feel as visceral as when Hinako goes toe to toe with her monsters.
While it is admirable that the remake adds tons of new content and expands upon the original in most ways, it’s surprising that it made some bizarre omissions. The hyper spray weapon is no longer in the game, and the iconic great knife sword has been reduced to being a key item only. The Born From a Wish bonus scenario has been cut entirely, though that is probably for the best since it was ultimately a waste of time.
The best changes this remake has over its original aren’t the beautiful graphics, user-friendly combat, or reimagined puzzles; the boss fights have been dramatically improved in every way imaginable. James is more mobile than he was on PlayStation 2 and Xbox, and so are the bosses and their tactics. Battling Eddie is no longer two guys standing at opposite ends of the room, taking turns shooting each other. The remake reinvigorates the sequence in a sprawling, foggy meat locker, with Eddie sprinting between carcasses as cover, his muzzle flares giving away his position as he opens fire from the shroud, mocking and taunting James. It’s an unbelievably intense sequence, and the same level of thought and care has been designed into every boss fight.
With all of the changes, remixes, and additions, this remake is roughly double the size and length of the original. The atmosphere has been faithfully preserved, and even the music has a heavier crunch to it with the original composer refining what he had created decades ago. On PlayStation 5, Silent Hill 2 stood out as one of the best-looking games on the console. The techniques and artistry stressed Sony’s hardware, which, even in performance mode on the PlayStation 5 Pro, the frame rates didn’t always hit their targets, and there were a few graphical irregularities.
On Xbox Series X|S, Silent Hill 2 is the same game with very minor tweaks to its visual fidelity and performance. The performance mode actually is a more stable 60 frames per second than it was on Sony’s hardware, but at the cost of a lower resolution, which can be best described as sub-900p. This is a lot like the Xbox Series X|S port of Final Fantasy XVI, where the trade-off in resolution is worth it because the games shine through their impeccable art direction and still look stunning regardless of pixel count. Most of the Unreal Engine 5 irregularities carry over on Microsoft’s console, like the unusual trails seen in fluttering objects or when characters move across the screen. The biggest drawback when playing this version are the sudden bouts of screen tearing in some cutscenes. It isn’t game breaking and doesn’t ruin the experience, but it is noticeable enough that it may cause some distraction during pivotal and emotional scenes.
