5 hours in Silent Hill 2 Remake

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We got a hands-on 5 hour preview of Silent Hill 2 Remake and we were pleasantly surprised. Join us as we take a look at the newest additions and memorable moments in the Silent Hill 2 Remake.

Transcript

00:00I played the first five hours of the Silent Hill 2 remake, and was pleasantly, if not

00:05cautiously surprised. It's clear that the Silent Hill 2 remake proudly holds tight to

00:10what the production teams identified as its core tenets, from its tension and atmosphere

00:15to the belter of a reworked soundtrack. But the time I spent with the game would also

00:19go on to unveil a curious sense of hesitancy, constantly pulling it back from being either

00:25a totally faithful remake or a brave reimagining entirely.

00:30There were plenty of bright spots throughout my hands-on experience, including the game's

00:34dynamic third-person movement, refined combat, and expanded exploration zones. So much so

00:40that, even with my concerns at this point in its development, I'm hopeful that Silent

00:45Hill 2 Remake may yet make a lasting impression upon modern-day survival horror audiences,

00:50even if the creative team sound apologetic for its very existence at times.

00:56Before I started playing, producer Motoi Okamoto walked us through the game's nine key new

01:00features. There's a thick and realistic blanket of fog enveloping Silent Hill thanks

01:06to the game's 4K graphics, including fatal recreations of key locations, down to miniscule

01:12items, and facial mocap to make the cutscenes as emotional as possible. On the technical

01:17side, he also mentions 3D sound design to heighten immersion, an over-the-shoulder third-person

01:23camera perspective, reworked combat featuring a dodge mechanic and aiming reticle, remapping

01:28of existing enemies, new and expanded areas and puzzles, and the inclusion of all the

01:34original endings. There will even be some brand new Silent Hill 2 endings that can,

01:39in the words of developer Bloober Team, only be accessed in New Game+, though the studio

01:45shies away from revealing more.

01:48The game picks up at exactly the same place as the 2001 original, with protagonist James

01:53Sunderland arriving at the small, deserted town after receiving a mysterious summons

01:58from his supposedly deceased wife. It's charged with as much creeping dread as ever.

02:04Creative director Mateusz Lejnart explained that the team discussed making the iconic

02:08introduction more action-heavy, but admitted it did not feel like it was very Silent Hill,

02:14and this is why we made the choice to keep it as it was and only pick up the pace after

02:18some time.

02:19But after taking my first few steps into the mist, I found myself needing to swap over

02:24to performance mode in order to achieve a smooth 60 frames per second. It's a little

02:29troubling so close to release, especially with quality mode not seeming to boost fidelity

02:35much at all, though it's possible this is an older build of the game. But even instances

02:40of texture dropout while staring into the recesses of Westvale's many overfilled dumpsters

02:45wasn't enough to ruin my day. That's because the opening scenes excel at nailing the atmosphere

02:51of Silent Hill as a location, turning it into an expansive, malevolent entity in itself.

02:57It might be more modern than fixed camera angles, but the third-person perspective does

03:01nothing to distract from how disorienting it feels not to be able to see more than a

03:05foot in front of you. Likewise, don't bother to memorise any of the puzzles and key item

03:10locations from the original game. You'll find many of them have been remapped entirely

03:15in the remake.

03:17Feeling so lost in a world I thought I knew pretty damn well is an appropriately jarring

03:23sensation, demonstrating Bloober's understanding of how to create uncanny familiarity that

03:28keeps you on your toes. It's something that instantly drew me into Capcom's Resident

03:32Evil 2 remake back in 2019, and I'm relieved to see flashes of brave mechanical innovation

03:38in Silent Hill 2 remake as well.

03:41The addition of a single new puzzle while I was exploring Westvale, involving a broken

03:46record, is an example of this, proving formative in altering my path through the town as I

03:51was led on a wayward treasure hunt. Repairing the record and listening to the music triggered

03:56a memory. And where did it lead me?

03:59The next main area, Woodside Apartments. I found it a simple yet effective change to

04:05how James made his way there in the original, but purists may find the tweak too extreme.

04:12Hardwood plank in hand, I took on the iconic lying figure enemies with relentless aggression.

04:18I know I didn't need to kill them all, and in some Silent Hill games you'd be wise

04:23not to, but the satisfying thwack of wood against the meaty carcass is worth every moment

04:30of overkill.

04:31The precision element is certainly refreshing in Silent Hill 2 remake, trading the unwieldy

04:36clunk of the original's fixed camera angles for a more targeted approach that allowed

04:40me to off far more monsters than I would playing the original.

04:45The more I played, the more the puzzles and combat stood out to me as the biggest mechanical

04:49strengths of Silent Hill 2 remake, even if creative director Masahiro Ito insists that

04:55the game is not heavily oriented toward combat. The former is something Lainar is especially

05:01proud of himself.

05:02I think we have been able to capture this smooth balance between the memory of the original

05:06game and new content that can, I think, surprise the long-time fans of the series, he says

05:13of the puzzle and level design reworks.

05:16As a fan of third-person shooters and the way survival horror games have implemented

05:20them in recent years, Alan Wake 2, I'm looking at you, I'm not mad about it. It

05:26just gives James more ways to fight, and makes me feel more confident in doing so should

05:31I be unable to sneak past a foe.

05:33But with games like Silent Hill 2, even the smallest of changes are bound to surprise

05:38its dedicated fans one way or another. At the very beginning, we didn't want to change

05:43anything completely, because we were too afraid of touching the game, lead producer Maciej

05:48Guom admits, acknowledging the risks of remaking such a cult classic video game. But after

05:53time, we saw that we needed to expand on the game in a way that would be competitive at

05:57this generation of consoles.

05:59These alterations might not be for everyone, but I found them refreshing. By the time I

06:04broke into the Blue Creek Apartments, just over three hours into the preview session,

06:08I noted how well the expanded zones help establish the world of Silent Hill for new and returning

06:14players alike.

06:15But there was one more surprise in store for me, in the form of a nasty new enemy variant.

06:21Despite Ito-san claiming there were absolutely no brand new monsters in the game, I aimed

06:25my flashlight-mounted handgun as I navigated the detritus of the nightmare apartment block.

06:31Relief flooded my body to see the coast somewhat clear. It was a brief respite, because I soon

06:38came face to face with the Spider Mannequins, or as I like to call them, the bane of my

06:44absolute stinking life. I mean that with lots of love. The monsters scurried across

06:50the floor, dodging my painstakingly timed shots with unfair levels of grace that James

06:55can only dream of in his drab khaki raincoat.

06:59Mannequins gave me the biggest jump scares of the day. Every time I entered a room only

07:04to have one suddenly move in the corner, I was thrown into a fear-fuelled frenzy and

07:09battered it to death with my melee weapon, hissing the vilest profanity known to the

07:14English language. Even this rage was born of love.

07:18For all of Silent Hill 2 Remake's reworks to the form, flow and style of the original,

07:25it more than succeeds at delivering a compulsive survival horror experience. Modern flourishes

07:31bring it in line with today's genre standards, falling just shy of making any truly huge

07:37moves to break with its core conventions, whilst showing new sides to a beloved franchise

07:42that's finally emerging from dormancy.

07:45Having a closer look at what Bloober Team is aiming for on October 8th, I'm more than

07:50ready to give Silent Hill 2 Remake the chance it deserves when it comes to PC and PS5.

07:55Will you be playing Silent Hill 2 Remake? Are you ready for the new changes? Let us

08:00know in the comments and stick with GamesRadar for the latest news, previews and more.

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