My Thoughts So Far On The Silent Hill 2 Remake
Written 9/7/2024 1:05AM
I've played up to the Blue Creek Apartments section of the game and so far here are my thoughts:
Combat
I'm enjoying the modified combat system. It basically consists of either attacking or dodging the enemiese movements. It's very simple, but adds a little complexity to the formula that I don't think detracts from the tension I was used to in the original.
Ambience and Environment
Overall, so far I think it matches the original in terms of the overall vibe the original gave off, but I think I'll need more time to digest and solidify my feelings on this. So far, it feels like silent hill.
Puzzles/Riddles
These are still nice and cryptic and you get to choose how difficult you want these like you could in the original game.
Graphics and performance
I'm running a Radeon RX 7800XT with 16GB of RAM and at high graphics preset settings the game runs well 99% of the time. I get a slight jitter here and there in the overworld when there's lots of fog and enemies, but so far no crashes or other graphcial issues. The quality of the graphics are what you would expect from a AAA game from today. It looks great like you'd expect. The are design of character models is fine in my opinion, but your mileage may vary.
The new Camera angle
I think this is what the series needed to move it into the modern era. Everything these days is over the shoulder. I was surpised how little it changes the overall experience. The game is easeier to play and more pleasing on the eyes, but it still feels like the same game. I will say however, some of the 'scariness' of the original game came from those things you couldn't see or get a good angle of. It left whatever was there to the imagination. Overall, this doesn't ruin the experience and is a welcome change.
Story
So far on par with the original. They may have moved a few things around and added a couple of small changes here and there, but I haven't found anything that was glaringly obvious.
Music
Slightly remixed from the original, but still very much Silent Hill 2. I can tell it's different, but it's still so close to the original that it's hardly noticeable and it fits right in with the ambience.
Yep, this feels like an apartment building in the otherworld
The hole. Things get a little bit worse from here.
The custscene facial animations have all been pretty good to this point in the game. The voice acting syncs well and the facial models work with what's being said. I did run into an issue with my headphones not picking up some audio that would have been played by the back speakers in a surround sound system. I chalked this up to having the audio setting set to Speakers when I was actualy using a headset. Haven't experienced it again since I changed it.
I think the fog in this version serves its purpose. It obscures the town enough to hide the monsters and it helps make the town seem a tad bigger than it actually is just like in the original. They add some elements to the fog early into the game that remind me a bit of the overworld in Silent Hill Downpour. It doesn't change anything drastically, but it's a nice touch.
As of this writting, I've only just completed the blue creeks apartment run, but I haven't found anything groundbreakingly bad in the game so far.
Overall, I'm very happy with this remake, but let's see what the rest of the game looks like before I render a final verdict.
Later,
-Coxic