Ugh. I kind of feel like ♥♥♥♥.

It might have to do with the fact that I pounded energy drinks until 4:00 so I could finish this game. I couldn’t help it, though: I had to see this thing through.

I forgot how much I loved Silent Hill 2. I mean, a lot of the early games in the series hold a place in my heart. But it was 2 that I obsessed over. I loved recounting the story for people who would never be able to stomach actually playing the damned thing. I even used to have a plot analysis I printed off from GameFAQs that moved with me from state to state. So, even when I couldn’t access my PS2 to play the actual game, I could read over the plot analysis. I’d steep myself in the plot beats, sinister twists, secret endings, fan theories, source materials… Like tonguing a sore tooth, I’d find some ill-begotten solace in this.

Because that’s kind of what Silent Hill 2 does, isn’t it? It gets caught under the player’s skin like a shard of glass that breaks off and is impossible to remove without digging. It is synonymous with illness and ending. Lust and corruption. Terror and beyond.

Yeah. I feel like ♥♥♥♥. But I’m happy to feel this way again.

We old folks were cursed to look on in horror as Konami degenerated into a pile of dog puke in the 2010s. And, though I’m less familiar with the circumstances, I know Bloober Team has had their share of issues as well. So, when the Silent Hill 2 Remake project was announced, it was met with much gnashing of teeth. Konami had already bungled a remaster of the game in the years before the announcement, so there were very few people who had any faith in this project. The players had every right to feel this way; the original Silent Hill 2 is, without exaggerating, a cornerstone of horror (not just in games but in the genre as a whole) and every attempt to recreate the magic of the original game has fallen on its face.

But, somehow Konami and Bloober Team have found a way to hit that vein again. Even as a guy who just wanted to replay Silent Hill 2 after all these years and had my fingers crossed that it would be good the entire time, I’m floored by what I just experienced.

They’ve managed to capture the feel of playing the original game while modernizing everything about it. The oppressive atmosphere always keeps the player on edge – even with updated combat mechanics, there is no guarantee of safety here. Every staircase, every room, every corner is an opportunity for Silent Hill to strike at the player. Whether it’s an enemy waiting for James behind a cardboard box so it can spring out like a trap or the environment suddenly, inexplicably collapsing further in on itself like a singularity, this is a long, crushing trek through a world that hates you and wants to see you suffer… just like it’s supposed to be.

All of the ingredients that made the original stand tall like a looming behemoth are here.

The sound design was the first thing that caught my attention. I think it says something that the music that plays as James first explores Silent Hill got my heart racing and set me on edge. It’s that beautiful dissonance of exploring a quiet, misty town while discordant music thunders through the speakers, landing squarely in the player’s gut. Skittering that makes the skin itch, crashes from nowhere and everywhere, mumbling voices when no one’s in the room with you. It’s all here and it’s all perfect.

And every character has as much punch as they did in the original. Or, dare I say, even more so: I don’t remember Eddie making my skin crawl as much in 2001 as he did in 2024. Some of it is his model, sure; his constant sheen of sweat makes him appear unwell and gives the player the impression that he reeks of something putrid. But it’s his pointed taunting and teasing that truly seeps into the player. And they completely nailed Angela’s transformation. As the story progresses and her dreamlike dissociation begins to peel back, her cold defensiveness comes forward. The tables turn: she’s no longer trapped in a room with James, James is trapped in a room with her. And the player feels it.

One of the things that had people worried before the game’s release was the combat. PlayStation released a “combat reveal” trailer that sent a lot of people flocking to their keyboards to share their outrage that Konami and Bloober Team turned the main character into a monster-killing-machine. You see, the combat in the original Silent Hill 2 intentionally felt awful. James isn’t a trained soldier – he’s a guy who finds a two-by-four on the ground and is using it to survive. But fears about this aspect of the game turned out to be unfounded; every encounter has the potential to be the last one if the player is caught off guard. A little more fluidity helps ease things along without making the monsters feel like cannon fodder.

Of course, the story is one of the game’s greatest strengths and much of it remains untouched here. None of the minor changes made in this version detracted from the story whatsoever. The one thing that might be missed that is tangentially related to the story is the original’s fixed camera perspective. The over-the-shoulder camera in the remake works great, but the exemplary camera direction is now mostly limited to cutscenes. It’s unfortunate, but it’s a necessary change.

I don’t count it as a negative, but this game is long compared to other modern horror games. Considering the price of admission, I didn’t mind the extended playtime at all. On top of that, I think it was handled extremely well. In the original Silent Hill games, it felt like at least half of the doors the player came across were locked with no way to unlock them. In the remake, however, a lot of those locked doors are now unlockable from the other side. This means that, as the player progresses through the environments, they are opening shortcuts they can use when they need to backtrack later on. What starts as a meandering trek through the hospital (or wherever) turns into quickly zipping from place to place to solve puzzles as the level progresses.

Honestly, I think the length of the game adds to the oppressive feeling of the environment itself. Sometimes it feels like it’s never going to end… and I think that’s the point. You, the player, begin to lose hope that you’ll ever find refuge, right alongside James.

That neatly brings me to the most important question anyone should be asking: is the game scary? And, um, yeah, it scared the ♥♥♥♥ out of me. There are multiple parts that are going to linger in my mind for far longer than is healthy. Without getting into spoilers, there is a scenario at the beginning of the Labyrinth that had my pulse pounding and left me short of breath. The final stage was so eerie that it ruined the color yellow for me. And scouring the desolate locations around the town felt so realistic that it reminded me of the times years ago when I explored abandoned buildings and retroactively made my memories scarier. This game is just as devastating as the 2001 version, if not more so.

Silent Hill 2 Remake not only managed to retain the feel of late-90s/early-2000s survival horror games while bringing it up to current standards, but it also managed to dredge up the feelings of true terror that, I think, only comes from horror games. So, yeah, I recommend this game. I recommend it so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hard. It quickly and handily became my Game of the Year. However: if you’re thinking about pulling the trigger on this one, keep in mind that this game is not fun. It’s not supposed to be. If you don’t like the idea of being subjected to pervasive, creeping dread that will slowly burrow into you until your insides feel wrong and your own skin doesn’t feel right on your body anymore… maybe skip it? It might make you feel like ♥♥♥♥. But, if you’re like me and you’re chasing that feeling, buy it right now. Do not hesitate. Jump down the hole.