BenTheCoug Silent Hill 2 Review

Pros + Silent Hill is a beautifully crafted game, with some of the best and creepiest environments I’ve seen in any game. The lighting (or darkness, rather) is perfect and creates a great sense of unease as you traverse the different areas. + While not a combat-centric game, the gunplay felt solid enough and there’s plenty of resources throughout to prevent the challenge from ever feeling unfair. I appreciate the simple approach to weapons and resources, which doesn’t force you to constantly seek out upgrades or level up gear. + The sound design is excellent. You often hear enemies before seeing them, which is beyond creepy and delightfully scary. The sound is generally subtle, but adds wonderfully to the atmosphere. Cons - This pacing of this game and story is dreadfully bad. My understanding is that the original game is a ten-ish hour experience, while this remake easily doubles that. There’s simply not enough interesting gameplay or story beats to justify the increase in time needed to complete it. - While I can appreciate a mature story that doesn’t hold your hand, there’s a certain vagueness to this tale and its characters that left me more confused than enthralled. It’s not a bad story, per se, but how it’s told would’ve benefited from a higher degree of clarity or simplicity. - The lack of enemy variety undermines SH2 in the worst way. The scariest and most suspenseful hours were easily the first handful, but once I realized that there’s only roughly 3-4 different monsters to encounter, any fear I felt evaporated for the latter half of my playthrough. Not exactly what you want to feel while playing a horror game. VERDICT: Silent Hill 2 (Remake) is a technical achievement whose story boldly takes on mature themes. Unfortunately, however, it’s held back by tedious pacing and a failure to sustain its unsettling opening hours. I hesitate to recommend SH2 to anyone who is not already a fan of the series or survival horror genre.