Silent Hill 2 review: How scary is the new remake?

The game opens with James, the main playable character portrayed by Luke Roberts, arriving at the misty outskirts of a town called Silent Hill.

You soon learn that he’s been lured there by a letter from his wife. The catch? She’s been dead for three years.

Making your way into town, you’re introduced to the basic gameplay mechanics. Not a million miles away from the modern Resident Evil games, you have to solve puzzles in each area if you want to progress, and you’ll have to face increasingly nasty enemies along the way.

One of the first things to creep you out will be said enemies. They are faceless, lurching, vaguely humanoid beings whose origin and intentions are unclear. Are they sentient? Are they symbolic? Are they following someone else’s orders?

For the most part, the answers will evade you. And you'll have to do some evading of your own if you run out of bullets, which aren’t always generously supplied. To start with, all you’ll have to defend yourself is a plank of wood with a rusty nail poking through it. Good luck!

As you explore larger and larger areas, you’ll also face greater numbers of these creepy foes, and James will gradually be introduced to a minimalistic cast of supporting characters. But whether they’re actually there to support you isn’t always clear.

The other characters are odd to say the least, and James's muted reaction to them only heightens the sense that you're witnessing something truly weird. There's a sense of wrongness to proceedings that will never let you relax.

Similar to Resident Evil, you can only manually save your game at certain predetermined locations. This adds an extra level of tension if you’re stuck in a tricky combat situation, as your latest progress will be lost if you don’t find a way to survive.

There is hope, however, with the developers having enough empathy to offer you some difficulty options. You can ramp down James’s damage taken, which really comes in handy if you get properly stuck. If you don’t have the patience to redo the same encounter a million times, don’t forget about that setting.

Another handy feature is the game's impressive map system. James will scribble on the map to mark key points of interest and blocked passages, so don't forget to check the map if you're ever lost.

Beyond that, however, Silent Hill 2 doesn’t do much to hold your hand. There are locked doors at every turn, and each new enemy variety seems to be weirder and more deadly than the last. Those that encountered Pyramid Head in the original 2001 game will know what I’m talking about.

One of the hardest things to quantify here is also one of the most impressive things about the game: its atmosphere. The developers from Bloober Team, adapting Konami's original work for a modern audience, have done marvellous work in creating a foreboding atmosphere that never fails to trigger your fear.

When you’re squinting through the fog, desperately trying to find a path forward, and you hear the radio static sound effect (which generally means that s**t’s about to go down), you’ll feel a shiver up your spine in real life.

Others might find the mysterious nature of the game to be a flaw, but I found it to be gripping. What exactly has James walked into here, and how the heck is he going to get out of it? Even if you need to take regular breaks to maintain your mind, you'll keep coming back to see what happens next.

There’s a trophy for trying to run away at the start of the game, and the more you play, the more you’ll realise that would’ve been a great idea. And the more you play, the more you’ll feel the game starting to creep into your mind.

In real life, there was a thick fog in London the other day. When I woke up and saw it, the sleepy part of my brain triggered a fear response, solely because of Silent Hill 2. And when my cat scratched at my door the other night, I could’ve sworn the sound was radio static.

This game has creeped me out no end. It’s scary as hell with a properly spooky atmosphere that will really pull you in. And if that’s what you’re looking for this Halloween, I’d thoroughly recommend you give it a go... If you dare!

Silent Hill 2 is out now on PS5 and PC. We reviewed on PS5. You can order your copy from Amazon.

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