The Silent Hill 2 is left intact from beginning to end, you'll find various changes throughout: James' encounter with Eddie and Laura, for example, is moved to the movie theater instead of the bowling alley, and Maria has a little more interactive dialogue, but the general narrative arc is basically identical.
The combat has undergone its share of game-changing alterations, too. The switch to a third-person perspective has far-ranging implications for gameplay, and the updated shooting mechanics feel completely different - but at the end of the day, they get the same point across. What really makes the Silent Hill 2 remake a fresh experience is the introduction of an all-new puzzle system that forced me to pay attention, preserving its predecessor's replay value while establishing an identity of its own.
How The Silent Hill 2 Remake Changes Its Puzzles
The Simple, Complicated
When I first started playing the Silent Hill 2 remake, I began following the route I always have in the original: get to the van on Saul Street, head to Neely's for the key, then head to Wood Side Apartments. However, when I first got to Neely's, I ran into a roadblock I didn't expect: I had to fix a broken jukebox machine to get the Wood Side keys. In order to do that, I had to go first to the record store, then to Saul Apartments, neither of which were explorable in the original game.
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I had to solve even further puzzles at each of these locations, navigating the twisting, condemned corridors of another apartment building before I even made it to Wood Side, and combining two halves of a broken record to make a whole. This was, I would soon find, a microcosm for the Silent Hill 2 remake's approach to puzzles: the broad strokes were by and large the same, but the finer details were expanded and complicated in the remade version.
You'll still be fixing grandfather clocks, but you'll have to find all the hands first. Later, in the Lakeview Hotel, you'll be collecting princess figurines to place in the oversize music box, but you'll have to navigate them through a sort of rotary maze before you can claim your prize. These diversions weren't always welcome; at times, they made the game drag out as it presented tangential lore that added little to my experience.
In the scheme of things, these changes were so inconsequential that, if you've only played Silent Hill 2 once and a few years have gone by since, you might not even notice them. Compared to the updated graphics and completely revamped combat, they escape notice. Their similarities to the original versions help them blend seamlessly into an otherwise perfectly faithful adaptation. They don't change the core meaning of the game, the symbolism behind the cryptic puzzles, in any significant way. But what they did do, every single time, was make me pay attention to what I was doing.
Experiencing Silent Hill 2 For The First Time Again
The Remake's Puzzles Demand Attention
Here's the thing: I had played Silent Hill 2 several times over before the remake was even announced. I was confident that I could play through the entire remake without ever getting stuck, without once looking up a puzzle's solution or having to retrace my steps to see what I'd missed. The only reason I thought so highly of my own abilities was because I assumed the puzzles and boss fights would be exactly the same; I didn't see the changes coming. And time and time again, they left me stumped.
This was how what seemed like the remake's most inconsequential change became my favorite thing about it. Because I couldn't have known all the puzzle solutions and jump scares off the top of my head, I had to pay attention to everything. I had to scour every memo for clues, search every room thoroughly for items. The result was that I experienced the Silent Hill 2 remake with heightened intensity. It wasn't like my umpteenth replay of the original version; it was like I was playing it again for the very first time.
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Each emotional story moment hit me like a truck, and jump scares I should've seen coming nearly sent me flying out of my seat. I took pride and satisfaction in solving each new puzzle, where the same old would've left me scoffing at each lengthy backtrack. It was hard to put the Silent Hill 2 remake down - I craved the next dopamine hit from each successive puzzle, and was constantly clamoring to see what came next in the story, even if I knew exactly what was about to happen.
Silent Hill 2's Puzzle Changes Also Work In Reverse
Remake First-Timers Will Find Lots To Love About The Original
I came to the Silent Hill 2 remake as a veteran fan, and enjoyed the changes to its puzzles because they made me experience the game as if for the first time. But for series newcomers who have absolutely no experience with the original, the changes will work much the same in reverse. Although the remake is as faithful as such a thing can be, there's still value in playing the original Silent Hill 2, not just to note how groundbreaking and technologically impressive it was for its time. But why would someone who's played the remake ever seek out the original Silent Hill 2?
Just as the different puzzles piqued my interest during the remake, so too will the original game's puzzles demand attention from anyone who seeks them out after playing the remake for the first time. Certain story beats will be as unexpected to them as they were to me in the remake. They'll hit with the same emotional heft as they did during the player's first run of the remake. While there's value in playing both, it truly won't matter whether you've played the original Silent Hill 2 or the remake first - whichever one you move on to afterward, it'll feel fresh and new.
Silent Hill 2
-
- Top Critic Avg: 87/100 Critics Rec: 95%
- Released
- October 8, 2024
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Language, Sexual Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Bloober Team
- Publisher(s)
- Konami
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
The Silent Hill 2 Remake is an Survival Horror release from Bloober Team, the same creative squad behind Layers of Fear and Observer. Developers are reimagining James Sunderland's adventure through Silent Hill, with updated graphics and gameplay.
- Franchise
- Silent Hill
- Platform(s)
- PC
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
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