luitpolde Silent Hill 2 Review

shortly, if you want to enjoy the story and atmosphere, not caring about time you will need to spend to get this experience - i recommend you to play this game. but if you're short of time and would prefer a faster paced piece, this one is definitely not for you. now i'll get to the reasons why: the story, symbolism of the environment, open world exploration and the crazy amount of tiny meaningful details have captivated me as a lore enthusiast. surely, some sections of this remake made me feel completely lost, running in circles, trying to find that one particular passage or item i missed, which resulted in my first run being 22 hours long. though, if you're not kin on exploration and lore, the game basically guides you from point to point as if holding your hand, with every found item hinting towards your next destination and every key direction being either wide open, illuminated by some light source, or having a menacing trail of blood nearby. also the combat may be tiring, especially if you just want to explore this town peacefully. if in the original game YOU had to chase monsters, in this remake THEY get to chase you the instance you walk into their vicinity, and there's almost no other way than to fight them and lose hp. it would be cool if bloober team didn't change this aspect, but i also understand that the remake needed to be more dynamic and contain enhanced combat mechanics to fit into modern gaming standards. it's easy to get lost if you don't pay much attention to details and environment, it's easy to get lot of damage if you don't look around for enemies and aren't experienced in combat, but personally i would say the story and lore are totally worth it.