Review: SILENT HILL 2 is Slow Going Because I'm Too Scared
Konami recently released the anticipated remake of the classic horror video game Silent Hill 2. This remake was developed by Bloober Team and brings the 2001 game to PC and PS5. Konami was kind enough to provide me with a PC review code, but all thoughts below are my own.
I will warn you that I am a massive baby when it comes to scary stuff and I never played the original PS2 game so this will not serve as a comparison to the original. You can purchase your own copy of Silent Hill 2 from your favorite stores including Humble (affiliate link).
Having received a letter from his deceased wife,
James heads to where they shared so many memories,
in the hope of seeing her one more time: Silent Hill.
There, by the lake, he finds a woman eerily similar to her...
"My name… is Maria," the woman smiles. Her face, her voice... She's just like her.
Experience a master-class in psychological horror―lauded as the best in the series―on the latest hardware with chilling visuals and visceral sounds.
Before I get too far into my review, I want to talk about my testing rig and settings. The game launched with a “Playable” rating on Steam Deck, but that was quickly changed to “Unsupported” so I did all my playing on my gaming desktop (specs below).
I did recently boot up Silent Hill 2 on my Steam Deck because a recent patch did supposedly improve the experience, but after loading it up and playing around with some settings, it looked bad in my opinion and struggled to maintain 30fps.
On my desktop, performance was definitely more stable and I could push quite a few settings up and maintain 60+fps while playing with a controller. Since the last time I played, I believe they injected FSR 3.1 support and so that should in theory further improve the performance capabilities.
Staying with the technical side of things for a brief moment, at launch there was really bad stuttering that would occur as I crossed area boundaries, but I have seen that at least partially improved with the patches.
CPU: Ryzen 9 5900X
GPU: Radeon RX 6800 XT
RAM: 32GB 3600 MT/s
SSD: Samsung 970 EVO Plus
OS: Windows 11
As I already mentioned, I am a big baby when it comes to horror. However, I had heard so much praise for Silent Hill 2 and I loved hearing my favorite gaming podcast (shoutout to Get Played) talk about it that I decided I wanted to try this game with the remake. I am a baby and I do have to play in short bursts with lots of happy gaming afterwards, but I have enjoyed my time in Silent Hill.
In case you’re unfamiliar with Silent Hill 2, it definitely is more of a psychological thriller (my type of horror in movies) but there are gruesome and disgusting things as well.
You play James Sunderland who travels to Silent Hill, Maine looking for his dead wife Mary who sent him a letter three years after her death. You arrive to sort out this mystery and there’s a heavy fog all around the now empty town which is filled with terrifying and grotesque creatures ready to harm you.
If I’m honest, Silent Hill 2 is incredible! The writing is so good, the team did an impeccable job in building the haunting atmosphere which by itself has made me want to quit the game, and everything looks incredible.
The gameplay feels good overall (see some nitpicks below) to play and I’m glad I’m playing it even if I do often vocalize “why did I do this to myself” which sounds like it’s not uncommon for gamers playing this.
You can adjust the difficulty of the combat and the puzzles separately which is nice because I’m definitely more of a puzzle guy and so I’ve turned the combat difficulty down in hopes of decreasing the spookiness (with mild success).
The sound team really did an incredible job with everything. The atmospheric sounds are phenomenal, but also the grotesque sounds of the creatures you come across are something else. The team did a fantastic job using sound to transport the player to the horrors of Silent Hill.
What are my nitpicks? The aforementioned stutter was really bad at launch. I haven’t played enough since the patches to know how much it's fixed, but there is still some kind of stutter although it’s remarkably better.
Also, it really bothers me that you just walk into doors and push them open. I always anticipate pushing A or X to open a door, but pushing the button doesn’t do anything. When it comes to saving, I’m torn.
On the one hand, I love the convenience afforded by modern conventions to save anywhere. However, Silent Hill 2 maintains the use of save points which I think may be the better move in general. It feels a lot more thematic as though the save points are giving you a hint into the true story of the game.
Fighting with the wood plank (the first weapon you get) just feels awkward to use. I’m sure that’s at least partially on purpose, but it definitely was something that I was not a fan of regardless of the team’s intentions.
Honestly, if you are not a fan of horror I would say that I’m enjoying the storytelling aspect of Silent Hill 2, but it is hard to get through because of how scared I am.
This is not a game for everyone, but if you think you can handle the horror and scariness of it, then I would definitely recommend playing Silent Hill 2 on your platform of choice. Maybe I’ll get the courage to finish it before next Halloween.
