Silent Hill 2 (2024)

How? How is this remake so good?! I've played all of Bloober Team's previous games, and didn't like them (especially The Medium which was their attempt at a Silent Hill-like).

Did something change within the Team? Is it because they had great source material to work with? Is it Konami's and the original creators' oversight?

I don't know, but dang this remake is up there with RE4 and Dead Space...

I am digging the atmosphere and the slow pace in contrast to many of the Resident Evil games I have played. I never played the original SH2 but the graphics of this remake are spectularly gross and oppressive and keeps you on edge with the fog effects (which I am sure were partially done due to technical limitations at the time).

Only about an hour or so in but my big issue is that there just doesn't seem to be much to the gameplay early on and it is extremely linear... and the price tag of this was fairly high for just that.

It's a good game. Possibly one of the best survival horror games in a while. Despite my grievances with the combat, everything else was better than I thought it was going to be. While music and atmosphere is phenomenal, the things I was initially worried about going from the original to remake turned out to be present. The original's dialogue is undoubtedly goofy, uncanny, and sometimes downright funny. But in my opinion, that's part of the charm. In the same way I was disappointed that RE4R's dialogue was shifted to be more serious as opposed to the original's campy nature, I have the same issue here. In a game like this, the dialogue being more serious isn't bad, and at times it's better while still being awkward at times, but I'm just extremely partial to the original. The new stuff they added is fine, them being far more direct about its themes and implications is also fine, but I think I will still implore people to play the original first. In the end, to me it's personal preference. I'm happy Bloober managed to deliver what is without a doubt the best game they've done and even happier more people got to experience this game.

I'm a little bit disappointed that the delivery of the full letter at the end was nowhere near as impactful as the original but I felt that was always going to be the case for me no matter what.

I've put a good amount of time into the game and I can say I'm genuinely surprised at how well this game has been going so far. The atmosphere is great and the music is phenomenal. Unfortunately, the farther I get, the more I come to loathe the combat of this game. The minute I got the pistol, the horror element of encountering and engaging enemies completely flew out the window as the game turns into RE4 where you simply shoot the knee and finish off with melee. This would be FINE, but it also baffles just how much the game forces you to engage with its awful combat system. Often times you'll end up in rooms with one enemy only to realize there were two or even three more hiding in a corner. Unlike the original, it's almost never feasible to try and sneak around enemies as they are very persistent, on top of having the very cool thing where their melee attacks will home in on you and close the gap. Upon encountering the nurses, the game also practically tells you that melee is nearly useless as even on Standard, enemies take so much punishment from your pipe before going down. And it's certainly not feasible to even attempt melee combat with two or more enemies.

Combat in the original was also not good and very awkward but very much avoidable. James is not a fighter, and that's reflected in how awkward it is anytime you had to interact with the original game's combat system. Here, you're basically punishing yourself by not going in guns blazing and it honestly just takes me out of the experience. It's quite disappointing because just about everything else except the combat is done exceedingly well and I still do like the game alot, but I guess when it comes to modernizing a game you need to put emphasis on the action portions.