Silent Hill 2 remake adds another layer of interpretation

How do you remake a story that lives on interpretations?

In “Lost Memories: Silent Hill Chronicle,” a lengthy document published by Konami and Team Silent in 2003, the developers wrote that there is no canonical ending to the original. silent hill 2which has four main conclusions depending on your actions. Many narrative subtleties regarding the characters, the city outside the scenes, and the scattered notes found in the game have taken on different meanings to different people. After more than two decades of fan theories and meticulously crafted wiki pages, the story of James Sunderland remains a confusing amalgam of fictions.

And now, here is the Bloober Team. silent hill 2reinvented under the rules of the current spirit of the gaming industry. Even after the Resident Evil remakes paved the way for this possibility, it's still strange to see. Initial trailers showed a familiar but modernized presentation, switching to an over-the-shoulder camera and more streamlined, updated combat. Once previews appeared, developers Bloober Team assured all interviewers that they would be faithful to the original to some extent; Even some members of the original team involved in the remake wanted more changes, but were overruled.

During my first playthrough, which lasted over 17 hours, I could sense the designers' doubts about what to alter on the walls of each rusty hallway. As you can see from my playtime, compared to the 2001 game (which was about 10 hours long), many of the original areas have been expanded. The things you love are, for the most part, still present. But there are a number of changes, some subtle, some bold, that challenge that familiarity and result in an intriguing revision.

As early game feeds seemed to indicate, some encounters, such as the first sighting of monsters inside the tunnel, have been altered. When you interact with certain locations and objects, the game plays a record scratching animation set to a specific music track. I won't mention any other examples, as they are fun pockets of nostalgia worth (re)finding on your own. However, the general implication, which is exploited with some new text entries and collectibles, is that the game plays with the idea that you have already experienced the events of silent hill 2 at least once, both from a story and from an almost meta perspective as a returning player.

I would love to tell you in detail how this all turns out in the end, but I can't. For one thing, the restrictions of the review embargo prohibit me from describing the two new endings; I can only mention its existence. However, I couldn't describe them anyway, since I didn't understand either during my first playthrough; instead, it was the end of “Maria.” Speaking to colleagues who also had access to the game before launch, these additions are still being unraveled and discovered as other people progress through the new game and try to find a new type of collectible. Chances are someone has already seen them, but the details won't (or shouldn't) be made public until after the game launches.

He silent hill 2 The remake does not go to the extreme of Final Fantasy 7 Remakereinventing a classic in a bold way to extend the narrative into uncharted territory. James still delves into the same major areas as the original. The ending of “Maria” remains (roughly) identical. The other endings are set up as puzzles to solve, adding scattered enigmatic pieces for returning players to find, introducing the story's outcomes to the existing list. But aside from the treasure-hunting experience of finding those endings, there are some fundamental changes to the base game that expand and sometimes tone down what came before.

As for the game, my biggest concerns before playing this version were the camera and the general atmosphere, which go hand in hand. The fixed angles of the original were basic for a reason. Walking down a dark hallway toward the camera without knowing what was in front of you until it appeared in the frame or the angle changed was always terrifying. The environments themselves, like the iconic Toluca prison, thrived in the technically limited harshness of the PlayStation 2 era. Switching perspective to a shoulder camera means being closer to everything and having free rein to explore areas, but I feared that fundamentally changed the oppressive tone of the original.

Fortunately, that is far from the case. He silent hill 2 The remake does a great job of suffocating you using its new perspective. While you can now choose where to look at all times, enemies can still sneak up on you, with Dummies performing all sorts of hiding interactions, similar to Stalkers in The last of us part 2hiding behind furniture and sometimes running away from you after being spotted to find another surprise location. Enemies can also use changes to the path, such as having interconnected rooms without doors separated by a loading screen, or gaps to crawl or traverse.

It may sound cliché to talk about darkness in a horror game, but that's an aspect that the remake captures from the original in a triumph. James' flashlight can only illuminate a limited portion of the screen, and the flickering of that flashlight—which, like the original, alerts you to moving enemies along with radio static—is terrifying every time it leaves you momentarily in shock. a completely dark room full of monsters. Their presence can sometimes be too abundant, which at best helps make you uncomfortable, like listening to the constant movement of the spider dummies until you knock them all down or move them somewhere else, and at worst, It feels like an annoying reminder. that the remake has a modern combat system and the designers introduced more encounters to justify it.

In terms of the story, most of the scenes feature changes. In terms of new character visuals and voice acting, your mileage may vary. The country style of the original game, while charming, has been refined, although there is a certain stiffness to the way the cast reads the lines which, by the way, feels faithful. However, it is some of the actual story scenes that feature a more drastic change.

silent hill 2Like the franchise as a whole, it featured mentions of sexual abuse, suicide, and depression, among other dark themes. In the Bloober Team version, there's a disclaimer about it every time you start the game, including a QR code for a Konami site with a list of resources. However, some of the more disturbing images or direct mentions of such themes during dialogue (especially surrounding Angela, Pyramid Head, and Mary's videotape) are more subtle now. Considering Bloober's track record in games like The middlewhich handled these issues poorly, to say the least, these changes sound like a precautionary approach to not repeat past mistakes. None of them change the story per se, but it's an interesting decision within the context of silent hill 2. There are reasons to properly revisit tropes and depictions that have not aged well, including recent cases such as Dead Rising Deluxe Remastered. For Silent Hill, however, lessening the impact of certain moments can cause some of the vaguer narrative details to lose weight when piecing together the story.

But here's an example of the opposite that ends up being surprisingly prominent: James' interactions with Maria when she accompanies them. Yes, it falls into the AAA trope of a fellow NPC who can't enjoy a quiet moment for more than five minutes. But Maria's new interactions and dialogue are appropriate. She comments on certain places as well as your actions in a fun and flirtatious style that suits the character. Being able to properly explore Heaven's Night strip club in detail while also getting a new scene are additions that have substance. They're small, fleeting moments in the grand scheme of the main story beats that add a more stable presence without being intrusive.

This subtlety is present in the silent hill 2 remake in its entirety. Some of the scariest elements of the original are those that you can't see or understand at first glance. The recurring whispers, the footsteps in the prison, the occasional scream from a stranger. They all increased the tension without needing to be frank about it. The designers behind the remake have preserved these elements, understanding that having access to better technology does not have to equate to constant spectacle. You can now see the rust and mold of Silent Hill in 4K, but higher fidelity doesn't make any of the locations more attractive.

It's an interesting time to revisit. silent hill 2considering the original has been in a state of neglect for years and the only remastered version available isn't great. In the official sense, the remake is the current version of the story. It is a faithful interpretation of the events that occurred, capturing most of the big and small moments of the story while fleshing out some details in between. However, when considering the legacy of the original game over the past 23 years, it's hard to imagine the silent hill 2 The remake will be able to replicate that too, so fans will spend decades discussing its new endings and narrative additions with contrary analysis. At the very least, it will be another fiction to theorize about.

silent hill 2 will be released on October 8 on PlayStation 5 and Windows PC. The game was reviewed on PlayStation 5 using a pre-release download code provided by Bloober Team. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. Additional information about Polygon's ethics policy can be found here.