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* This article is translated from IGN US related content, the original author is Dale Driver, and the compiler is Tony. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.

Since the release of Resident Evil 2, many developers have released remakes or remasters of classic games, but the results are often mixed. From my current observation, although the upcoming Silent Hill 2 Remake is far from the height of Resident Evil 2 Remake (the latter can be said to be a model of remakes), the developer Bloober Team has obviously made many correct decisions when reshaping this milestone survival horror game, although it sometimes seems a bit too conservative.

I recently had the chance to play the first three hours of Silent Hill 2 Remake, and it was immediately clear that the remake had captured all the important elements elegantly: the depressing atmosphere and simple and intuitive gameplay mechanics (even when the missions themselves were a bit obscure).

As with any Silent Hill game, atmosphere is a top priority, and Silent Hill 2 Remake immediately makes you feel uneasy, and that feeling never goes away. Like the original, a thick fog shrouds the town, but thanks to technological advances, it now has more modern lighting and volumetric fog. The streets are full of new details, shops can be explored, and strange sounds, cries and moans that change dynamically around every corner.

It is conceivable that the developers probably had the urge to add music, which would make Silent Hill 2 Remake more in line with the standards of modern horror games. But it still stubbornly chose to imitate the original version, which is also commendable, because "voice-in" can be said to be one of the essences of this game. Each room in the forest apartment creates a different sense of tension, using oppressive, eerie rhythms and ambient sounds to covertly invade your senses.

From the moment the protagonist James enters Silent Hill, a sense of foreboding sweeps over him and never dissipates. Fear often stems from the anticipation of danger, and in Silent Hill 2 Remake, the feeling of impending danger never goes away, and the sounds of the Man in the Shell and other monsters never leave you. In a way, being in this state of mind all the time is not very healthy for the body and mind.

There's no doubt that Silent Hill 2 Remake is a significant improvement in both visuals and sound, which is to be expected for a game set in 2024. Perhaps the bigger and more impactful change is the perspective: Silent Hill 2 Remake adopts the over-the-shoulder perspective that's been tried and true in the horror game world. In the past, this shift might have been seen as sacrilege, but it serves the gameplay well, and those terrifying encounters still feel familiar.

As in the original, James' weapons are limited, and in the part I played, he could only use a pistol and a piece of wood. The combat is sparse and indeed superficial, but combat has never been the focus of Silent Hill 2. This combat system is sufficient and matches the protagonist's abilities - I guess Blooper Team also considered making James fully armed like Rambo, but that would deviate from the character design and plot.

That's not to say James hasn't learned a few new tricks. Silent Hill 2 Remastered adds a new dodge mechanic that lets James quickly dodge enemy vomit or a Pyramid-Headed machete. It's a simple quick slide, not a Dark Souls-style roll, but I quickly figured out a slash, slash, dodge rhythm that kept me from getting sprayed with guts. Perhaps the best compliment I can give is that I think this move should have been in Silent Hill 2.

From what I've seen so far, the story is pretty much faithful to the original, and in the first few hours, I visited all the places I expected to visit. However, the opening section is expanded on the streets of the town, and you need to solve the jukebox puzzle in Neely's bar and visit several locations in the town.

There's a lot to look at along the way, and you can also take the opportunity to appreciate how much detail has been added to this once empty and sparse town. While die-hard fans of the original may find it unnecessary, I think it's a smart choice to encourage players to wander the iconic foggy streets for longer. Considering that most of the game will trap players in linear dark corridors, I think it's a good addition.

Next up, and fans of the original will be pleased to learn that the remake doesn’t skimp on the puzzles. Like the original, the remake adjusts the clues based on the difficulty you choose (you can adjust the difficulty of combat and puzzles separately from the main menu, but I didn’t get a chance to test the effect), but even on Normal, some puzzles had me scratching my head and looking around, especially when I was just coming off a “kill the gods, kill the ghosts” mentality.

You need to use clues in the environment to solve puzzles and codes - the original game in 2001 and theresident Evil" Fans of the series should feel right at home, but I felt like there were fewer "obvious hints" in Silent Hill 2 Remake than in similar games. It's hard to quantify this, but when playing other games, I usually try to brute-force puzzles, and this time I quickly gave up the urge and wanted to solve the puzzles in a standard way. Hopefully this is a reflection of good puzzle design, rather than me being influenced by the environment of this trial.

Bloober Team's remake strategy is smart, but it's not perfect. The dialogue and performances are still too exaggerated and funny, and often I couldn't immerse myself in the serious atmosphere. Unlike "Resident Evil", which is inherently exaggerated and cool, "Silent Hill 2 Remake" needs to be more subtle to match the excellent atmosphere and sound design. Fans of the original will probably praise the remake for faithfully restoring the original lines, but I think there was an opportunity for some minor adjustments here. However, I only experienced a small amount of dialogue, and "Silent Hill 2" is not known for long dialogues, so maybe I'm making a fuss about nothing.

Another thing I didn’t like was that, similar to modern games like The Last of Us, you have to rummage through countless kitchen cabinets and drawers to collect pistol ammunition and healing items. This is a logically sound design, but it is a bit cumbersome to play.

Arguably, this puts items in a natural, realistic way, but I couldn't help but feel that it ruined the mood a bit, changing my first reaction after entering each new room from "scared" to "quickly see if there's anything I can loot." Maybe this is more a reflection of my personality than the game's design, but since I was more concerned with picking up items than watching out for enemies, I was successfully ambushed by the "leg model" hiding in the shadows several times after entering a room.

Excellent remastered games often subvert players' existing cognition and bring an experience different from the original. This is my favorite feature of those remastered games. For example, the 2002 remake of "Resident Evil" took advantage of the fact that old players knew that "dogs can break in through windows" and cleverly made players suspicious.

This approach can heighten tension by making players afraid to rely on their existing knowledge, and provides room for developers to be creative and add new scares in unexpected places. But I was disappointed that Silent Hill 2 Remake did not do this in the part I saw so far. This remake does not seem to bring a particularly different new experience to old players. At least not in the first three hours.

In terms of remakes, Silent Hill 2 Remake is more like BluePoint's 2018 version of Shadow of the Colossus, choosing to keep the original rather than injecting new blood into Resident Evil 2 like Capcom did. It chose to follow the original blueprint rather than drastically transform it, which is not a bad thing, but it may not be as bold as some players expected.

Silent Hill 2 certainly needed a fresh coat of paint and some engine tweaks, and Bloober Team did a great job of that, but other than that they chose to stay extremely faithful to the original vision and mostly resisted the urge to change anything about this classic.