The Silent Hill 2 remake is at its best when it feels like the original

Earlier than sitting right down to play three hours of the Silent Hill 2 remake at a latest Konami-led press occasion in London, we had been proven a brand new trailer. Just like the earlier trailers, it left me skeptical. Though I’m not against the mission of remaking Silent Hill 2, I’m cautious of any modernizing intuition that replaces the aged, the bizarre, and even the off-putting with the identical glazed genericism of the 2020s AAA recreation.

After getting my arms on it, I feel a few of that skepticism is warranted. I additionally assume that the unique Silent Hill 2 is a really, excellent online game.

Within the opening part, James jogging across the streets could possibly be any recreation with a multimillion-dollar price range that you would be able to choose up on the PS5. Sure, it’s foggy, however apart from that it’s bland. The change to an over-the-shoulder digicam, the breaking home windows to look by means of drawers for well being objects, and the white fabric marking locations which can be interactable all really feel unspecific.

The latter two mechanics additionally level to the sport being larger, probably considerably so. We had been instructed the sport is 12+ hours, whereas the unique clocks in round eight. For instance, Neely’s Bar — as soon as a small, flavorful spot with a clue marked on a map — turns into a quest location that includes visiting one other new a part of the city to select up an merchandise earlier than working again to unravel a puzzle. We had been instructed that these new puzzles add to the lore of the franchise, a promise that may excite some — however I do know I’m not alone in being exhausted by them.

I don’t assume this may do good issues for the pacing. Konami PR really helpful a number of occasions that we spend solely an hour within the opening of the sport earlier than utilizing a pre-set save level to leap forward to the residences part. I did that, so I can’t inform you what lore might need been buried within the Neely’s Bar puzzle. I can also’t inform you the way it feels to need to spend a protracted stretch within the trendy model of that city earlier than attending to anything, however the suggestion that we not do it speaks for itself, to some extent.

Then again, skipping forward to the residences wiped away the generic feeling. They’re claustrophobic, labyrinthine, and tense. Their design highlights a few of what made Silent Hill 2 nice within the first place however which isn’t frequent apply in trendy AAA video games. Step by step exploring with James’ scribbled-on map, for instance, feels incomparably higher than any recreation with a minimap or a tagged overhead compass.

This part additionally brings the remake’s enhancements to the forefront. Watching a YouTube video of the unique residences phase after enjoying, I used to be bowled over by the distinction within the sound design. The unique James clunks with each footstep, however he hits enemies with a form of silent disregard. Within the remake, he sounded frightened and horrified when he swung right into a model creature. The fight modifications aren’t something beautiful, however actor Luke Roberts deserves the credit score for promoting them.

Roberts and the opposite voice actors had been apparently additionally key in finalizing the script for the remake, says Maciej Głomb, lead producer at Bloober Group. “These had been all professionals,” he says. “In order that they usually had concepts on methods to promote a scene or a particular dialogue line. So long as they had been in keeping with the tone we wished, we often [trusted] their expertise and their proficiency.”

The script has additionally been reworked barely to be extra “comprehensible,” says Głomb, and edited with regard to how newer expertise similar to face movement seize has allowed the staff to “present and never inform” sure points like emotional beats. However, whereas most of the mechanics have been up to date for the remake, it’s the narrative that Bloober Group is making an attempt to maintain “as shut as attainable” to the unique, says artistic director Mateusz Lenart: “The characters of the unique recreation, their particular arcs and endings, and what these characters are.”

There’ll, nevertheless, be extra endings. “I feel that was one of many first requests from Konami, on the very starting,” says Głomb. The unique endings will all be current — “even the humorous ones,” though “with our personal twist for just a little little bit of an enlargement.” However in new recreation plus runs, there would be the risk to get different outcomes. Though Bloober Group wasn’t about to spoil something instantly, Głomb did say that the devs can be “including one thing from the totally different worlds; from the totally different recreation,” presumably hinting at overlap with different Silent Hills.

In my final query for Głomb and Lenart, I ask whether or not they introduced any exterior inspirations to the remake. Silent Hill 2 is known for drawing on movie — Jacob’s Ladder and the work of David Lynch — and work by artists like Francis Bacon. I’m hard-pressed to think about one other recreation with 2024 Silent Hill 2’s price range that displays that form of affect, and specifically I wish to know if there’s something within the final 20 years of artwork that’s contributed to the best way the sport has been up to date.

The reply is generally no. Lenart mentions the work of Italian painter Nicola Samori and French artist and performer Olivier de Sagazan as having ongoing impacts on his work, starting way back to Layers of Worry. However this mission has largely concerned returning to the unique recreation’s inspirations. “For the entire staff, going again to these motion pictures was the very first thing that we wished to do,” says Lenart. However “there was no have to search for rather more,” he says. “We didn’t really feel the necessity to search for trendy references as a result of the sport is form of caught into that period.”

On the time, I used to be once more skeptical of this. As I’ve stated, the remade Silent Hill 2 may be very a lot a product of its time in the way it’s been modernized. It usually seems to be and largely performs like another AAA recreation; it didn’t need to. However then I noticed Pyramid Head for the primary time.

Like within the unique recreation, you first run into Pyramid Head lit up in ominous crimson behind a flimsily barred-off hall in Wooden Facet residences. Not like within the unique recreation, you already know who Pyramid Head is.

I can not overstate the dread that I felt at seeing Pyramid Head for the primary time. Regardless of not having performed the sport earlier than, cultural osmosis had, unbeknownst to me till this precise second, put a concern of being chased and killed by this creature deep in my bones. I stood there, taking a look at Pyramid Head by means of the bars, being checked out by means of the bars. After which the particular person subsequent to me coughed, and I nearly jumped out of my pores and skin.At its greatest, Silent Hill 2 (2024)’s largest inspiration is Silent Hill 2 (2001). And, once more, Silent Hill 2 (2001) is a really, excellent online game. It’s, in probably the most crystalised sense of the phrase, iconic. The place the remake could make that iconism work, and draw on what made it that method, it can even be very, excellent. That gained’t be on a regular basis, but it surely is likely to be for sufficient of it.

Silent Hill 2 might be launched Oct. 8 on PlayStation 5 and Home windows PC.

Disclosure: This text is predicated on a preview occasion held by writer Konami in London, England on Aug. 12. Konami supplied Polygon’s journey and lodging for the occasion. You will discover extra details about Polygon’s ethics coverage right here.