The wait for Silent Hill 2’s remake has been long, not only because it’s been a couple of years since it was announced, but also because of how long it’s been since Silent Hill was active (and even longer since it was thriving). Finally, however, Konami and Bloober Team are preparing to bring the franchise back from the dead with a ground-up Resident Evil 2-style remake of what the vast majority consider to be not only the greater Silent Hill game ever, not only one of the greatest survival horror games ever made, but one of the greatest games of all time, period.
Excitement surrounding the remake is naturally high, then (while there’s also a hint of trepidation among some), and as we count the days down to its release, here, we’re going to go over a few key details that you should know about Silent Hill 2’s upcoming remake.
A FAITHFUL REMAKE
In many ways, Silent Hill 2 will be taking cues from Capcom’s Resident Evil reimaginings, but in one key way, it will chart its own path. Something that Konami and Bloober Team have both consistently insisted on is that the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake is going to be a very faithful recreation of the legendary 2001 title. It will, of course, be expanded and changed in several different ways (which we’ll get to shortly), but as far as the main story is concerned, you can expect the remake to stick close to original’s script.
RETURNING FORMER LEADS
Bloober Team has taken on a massive undertaking as it looks to do justice to Silent Hill 2’s legacy with its remake, but though there are obviously many working on the remake who had no involvement in the original, a few couple of key members of the original game’s development team have had a role to play in the remake’s development as well. Specifically, veteran art director and creature designer Masahiro Ito and composer Akira Yamaoka have both been actively involved. Interestingly, lead series producer Motoi Okamoto revealed in a Famitsu interview that the original creators were actually pushing for more radical changes in the remake, with Bloober Team being the ones to keep things more restrained on that front.
REVAMPED INTRO
The larger details of the main story will remain mostly unchanged in the upcoming remake, but zooming into the finer details, you can expect a fair amount of alterations and changes. The opening, for instance, has seen various tweaks, as we have seen in the hefty amount of gameplay footage that has been showcased thus far- from item placement and enemy encounters being remixed, to the layout of some areas having been tweaked, to new optional rooms and paths having been added in some areas for added exploration. Speaking of which…
MORE EXPLORABLE BUILDINGS
Bloober Team is delivering an expanded gameplay experience with its take on Silent Hill 2, which will include greater room for exploration. As revealed in a preview on the PlayStation Blog, Players will, for instance, find entirely new buildings that you can enter and explore that weren’t present in the original game, with rewards including ammo pickups and other resources- though of course, some of these new interiors will have threats and challenges of their own.
CHANGED LAYOUTS
In addition to some new areas being added in, though we can probably expect a good number of Silent Hill 2’s returning locations to be very familiar in their design in the remake, a fair few are going to be completely revamped as well. For instance, the aforementioned PlayStation Blog preview revealed that both the Wood Side and Blue Creek apartment buildings have seen their layouts changed almost entirely in the remake, which means even veteran fans of the original can expect unfamiliar content.
COMBAT CHANGES
This is the area where Silent Hill 2’s remake is going to be most different from the original, because of course, unlike the original, it’s going to be an over-the-shoulder third-person game, playing and controlling much like the RE2 remake. That will go hand-in-hand with other changes, such as James now being able to dodge attacks, melee combat being much more brutal, and even enemies having new attacks and animations in order to make them more threatening and unpredictable.
ENEMY ENCOUNTERS
Beyond the core mechanics themselves, combat will also see some other key changes, such as all enemy encounters in the game being either “replaced or remapped”, in the words of lead series producer Motoi Okamoto. Talking about how the remake changes the combat in an interview with PLAY magazine, he said, “We have also replaced and remapped all the enemies from where they were placed in the original so everyone can have a fresh take on combat.”
PUZZLES
Similar to the combat, the puzzles are another area where the Silent Hill 2 remake will take some liberties. Though there obviously are some puzzles that Bloober Team has brought over as is, a fair number of them have also been changed, while several are entirely new. Speaking to the PlayStation Blog about the remake’s approach to puzzles, creative director Mateusz Lenart had the following to say: “We’ve taken great care to build upon the memory of the original Silent Hill 2 by sometimes twisting and confounding player’s expectations with regards to certain puzzle solutions, in a kind of a tribute to the inventiveness and playfulness of the original game. We believe that this approach, alongside the numerous and often surprising references to the original present in the game, will bring joy to fans of the classic Silent Hill 2, while at the same time offering them something new and interesting to solve.”
Meanwhile, similar to the original game, the remake will also let you select the difficulty for combat and puzzles separately.
UI CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS
One thing that Bloober Team has always been good at is crafting games that look extremely cinematic, which, of course, is exactly what a modern version of Silent Hill 2 would need. To that end, if you’re looking for the most cinematic and immersive experience possible, you will have the option to turn off every single on-screen UI element as well, as confirmed by Bloober Team recently on Twitter.
90s FILTER
Something else that Bloober confirmed at the same time was the presence of a “90s filter” in the Silent Hill 2 remake (never mind the fact that Silent Hill 2 came out in 2001- we’ll just ignore that factoid, I suppose). As per the studio, the filter will add a “grain effect, color correction, and screen adjustments”, bringing the game’s look closer to what you might remember of the original.
ALTERED DIALOGUE
Though Silent Hill 2 is going to be a largely faithful remake, it’s not going to recreate the original’s story word for word. As per creative director Mateusz Lenart, the remake features “slightly altered dialog” in some instances, which in turn is driven by the fact that it uses performance capture. “The central characters from the original story, James and Maria, are at the heart of our remake as well. Their emotional arcs have been preserved, with great care being given to showcasing their emotions with motion capture technology,” Lenart said. “This allows us to employ “show, don’t tell” techniques more often, which is why some of the dialogue has been slightly altered to add an extra layer of nuance to the character dynamics.”
OST DETAILS
As mentioned previously, veteran Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka has returned in the same capacity for the upcoming remake, but what exactly can we expect from its soundtrack? Well, quite a bit, it seems. Not only has the entire original soundtrack been brought over and remade from scratch, entirely new tracks are also going to be included. Speaking on Twitter about his work on the remake, Yamaoka wrote, “After 25 years, my approach to music has evolved. This work reflects that change, blending past passion with today’s sound, challenging me like never before.”
LENGTH
The original Silent Hill 2 isn’t a terribly long game, but it looks like the remake is set to be a much beefier experience. As per the aforementioned Mateusz Lenart, an average first playthrough of the Silent Hill 2 remake will be about 16-18 hours long, though players who really take their time with the game can apparently push that up to over 20 hours. The original 2001 title’s main story was about 7-8 hours in length, with a completionist playthrough being about twice as long, as we’re looking at a noticeably expanded experience with the remake.
PS5 TECH DETAILS
Silent Hill 2 is releasing as a PS5 console exclusive, which, of course, means we can expect it to leverage the console’s hardware a fair bit. That will mean support for the DualSense’s adaptive triggers and haptice feedback, as well as the console’s 3D audio capabilities. Meanwhile, it’s also confirmed that the game will feature no loading screens whatsoever.
PC REQUIREMENTS
Meanwhile, if you’re planning on playing Silent Hill 2 on PC, you are, as you might imagine, going to need a decent rig to be able to play it. On minimum requirements, you’ll need either an i7-6700K or a Ryzen 5 3600, along with either a GeForce GTX 1070 Ti or a Radeon RX 5700. Meanwhile, on recommended settings, you’ll need either an i7-8700K or a Ryzen 5 3600X, along with either a GeForce 2080RTX or a Radeon 6800XT. On either setting, you’ll also need a 16 GB RAM and 50 GB of free storage, while an SSD is also recommended.