Silent Hill 2 (2024) is most successful when it’s doing its best Silent Hill 2 (2001) imitation

Earlier than sitting all the way 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 challenge 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 sport.

After getting my fingers on it, I believe a few of that skepticism is warranted. I additionally suppose that the unique Silent Hill 2 is a really, superb online game.

Within the opening part, James jogging across the streets may very well be any sport with a multimillion-dollar price range you could decide up on the PS5. Sure, it’s foggy, however aside from that it is bland. The change to an over-the-shoulder digicam, the breaking home windows to look by way of drawers for well being gadgets, and the white fabric marking locations which are interactable all really feel unspecific.

The latter two mechanics additionally level to the sport being greater, probably considerably so. We had been instructed the sport is 12+ hours, whereas the unique clocks in round eight. For example, 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 operating again to unravel a puzzle. We had been instructed that these new puzzles add to the lore of the franchise, a promise that can excite some — however I do know I’m not alone in being exhausted by them.

I don’t suppose this may do good issues for the pacing. Konami PR really useful a number of instances 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 flats part. I did that, so I can’t inform you what lore may need been buried within the Neely’s Bar puzzle. I can also’t inform you the way it feels to must 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.

Alternatively, skipping forward to the flats 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 widespread apply in trendy AAA video games. Steadily exploring with James’ scribbled-on map, for instance, feels incomparably higher than any sport 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 flats phase after taking part in, I used to be shocked by the distinction within the sound design. The unique James clunks with each footstep, however he hits enemies with a sort of silent disregard. Within the remake, he sounded frightened and horrified when he swung right into a model creature. The fight adjustments aren’t something gorgeous, 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 Workforce. “These were all professionals,” he says. “So they often had ideas on how to sell a scene or a specific dialogue line. As long as they were in line with the tone we wanted, we usually [trusted] their experience and their proficiency.”

The script has additionally been reworked barely to be extra “understandable,” says Głomb, and edited with regard to how newer know-how corresponding to face movement seize has allowed the crew to “show and not tell” 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 Workforce is making an attempt to maintain “as close as possible” to the unique, says artistic director Mateusz Lenart: “The characters of the original game, their specific arcs and endings, and what those characters are.”

There’ll, nonetheless, be extra endings. “I think that was one of the first requests from Konami, at the very beginning,” says Głomb. The unique endings will all be current — “even the funny ones,” though “with our own twist for a little bit of an expansion.” However in new sport plus runs, there would be the chance to get different outcomes. Though Bloober Workforce wasn’t about to spoil something immediately, Głomb did say that the devs can be “adding something from the different worlds; from the different game,” 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 well-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 consider one other sport with 2024 Silent Hill 2’s price range that displays that sort of affect, and specifically I need 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 largely 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 challenge has largely concerned returning to the unique sport’s inspirations. “For the whole team, going back to those movies was the first thing that we wanted to do,” says Lenart. However “there was no need to look for much more,” he says. “We didn’t feel the need to look for modern references because the game is kind of stuck into that era.”

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

Like within the unique sport, you first run into Pyramid Head lit up in ominous crimson behind a flimsily barred-off hall in Wooden Facet flats. Not like within the unique sport, 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 actual second, put a worry of being chased and killed by this creature deep in my bones. I stood there, taking a look at Pyramid Head by way of the bars, being checked out by way of the bars. After which the particular person subsequent to me coughed, and I nearly jumped out of my pores and skin.At its best, Silent Hill 2 (2024)’s largest inspiration is Silent Hill 2 (2001). And, once more, Silent Hill 2 (2001) is a really, superb online game. It is, within the most crystalised sense of the phrase, iconic. The place the remake could make that iconism work, and draw on what made it that manner, it is going to even be very, superb. That gained’t be on a regular basis, however it is perhaps for sufficient of it.

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

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