It’s not as “survival horror” as I thought it would be. The environment design along with the music and enemies evoke a sense of terror, but some gameplay elements and the resource economy do the opposite. The substance is on full display for most of the experience however, and everything about the game exhibits a sense of care. As a psychological thriller, this game excels in every way, but as a survival horror title, not so much.

You are James Sunderland, a widower that’s desperately trying to grapple with his grief. He receives a letter from his late wife saying she’s waiting for him in their special place. Upon receiving this, James goes to Silent Hill, a vacation spot they visited, hoping against all odds that Mary is somewhere within. His desperation is apparent in his demeanor and his stoicism when witnessing true horrors. There are some instances where this presentation of him falters and his fear shows through. When this happened I felt more connected to him. There are some absolutely crazy things happening in this town and his disconnection from it was unnerving though it made sense because he was on a mission. James felt like an empty shell on auto pilot until the moments where you saw other feelings from him. It was depressing to see how he struggled to overcome the loss of his wife, but sometimes those feelings are all encompassing. I think his character was done perfectly as I wanted to protect him even when his decision making was mind boggling. The game is so filled with metaphors and various depictions of mental health issues, and other sensitive topics, that it can be confusing at times. I appreciated all these different subjects being present, and while you don’t have to understand them all to enjoy the story, their inclusion gives more depth to the experience. It becomes less of a game and more of a thought piece. It inspires discussion which feels purposeful. The multiple endings emphasize this because none have been officially acknowledged as canon. Leaving the discussion open and some story threads incomplete by the end can be frustrating for some, but Silent Hill 2 does this intentionally and it’s a choice I wholly respect.

Gameplay is initially hard to get a hold on. You start by finding a piece of wood with nails in it and frantically swinging it at enemies. James can also dodge in any direction which helps keep the pace of encounters high. With just a stick, you can just barely fend off the creatures and his exasperated grunts when smacking them down help reinforce that he is just an ordinary man. Once guns are introduced is when some of the tension dissipates. His capability with a firearm depends on player skill, rather than his character. Eventually enemies become stronger and less predictable, scaling with the player’s knowledge and capability. This curve helps you from feeling too strong. The legs creatures are the most humbling in my opinion. (I had a less-than-nice name for them during my playthrough.) There’s even a section where you have to leave behind all your inventory, which brought back that initial sense of helplessness. I did have some issues with the combat overall. The responsiveness of healing was rather clunky. There were many times that I had to mash the heal button in combat to get one off, and sometimes it just didn’t happen, leading to death. It frustrated me a few times and I’m not sure what I was doing wrong. I’m choosing to believe it was a technical issue rather than a design choice because if it were the latter, I’d be very unhappy. The combat here was passable and I don’t have any substantial complaints about it.

Puzzles are another gameplay mechanic you’ll be interacting with for the entire experience. Some of these are brain ticklers, but most aren’t really puzzles. I’m notoriously impatient and sometimes look up the answer to game puzzles if I can’t figure them out in a realistic timeframe. I didn’t look up any answers during my playthrough of Silent Hill 2 because they were usually pretty simple. One puzzle that I thought was well done was the gallows puzzle. You have to match pieces of poems, relating to prisoners, to one another and choose the noose corresponding to an innocent person. It inspires the player to pay attention to their words and use judgement to decide who was wrongfully convicted. On the other side, there are multiple puzzles where you just need to get an item to progress. There’s a dummy in the hospital that has a mallet next to it. If you pick up the mallet and click on the dummy again, you’ll destroy its arm. After that, you need to find a leucotome to jab in the thing’s eye to get a key. There are few instances where you’ll have multiple items in your inventory and, very rarely, will you have to combine them with each other. Because of this, there isn’t much thought about what item goes where. The final area is the only section where you’ll have multiple items simultaneously and don’t have a clear direction. I was disappointed in the briefcase puzzle as I thought the photos were clues to the combination, but they were really just destinations you needed to visit. Puzzle design was disappointingly simple and I wanted more complex problems to solve. Maybe experimenting with the puzzle difficulty slider would’ve been advantageous, but I expected the normal setting to be the best way to experience the game.

Side note, one issue that I have is the overabundance of resources. On normal difficulty, I was sitting on double digits for every ammo type and healing item for most of the playthrough. If the default difficulty isn’t the recommended one, I’m not sure what to tell new players. It removed the survival horror aspect and made it more of a psychological thriller. While this isn’t too detrimental, I would have preferred the normal difficulty to be a better representation of each aspect rather than being less effective at both.

The style of the game is front and center. Environments are rich with history and nods to the original version of the game. Character voice work feels authentic and really hits home. The models and facial animations really help sell the more subtle emotions of the characters as well. I will say that the animation of James climbing through small windows constantly clipped through the top of the sills, which pulled me out of the experience a little. Otherwise, everything was beautiful. From the initial town, to the other side, to the prison and the lake house, every location has a distinct feel. The rustiness of the other side helped distinguish it from the “real” version of the town and made it even more unsettling. In short, the visual design is immaculate.

I enjoyed my time with Silent Hill 2. It’s a game that presents multiple hard-hitting topics in respectful ways and the stories presented within inspire discussion. Its characterization is phenomenal and though some gameplay elements didn’t do much for me, my overall sentiment is positive. I appreciate it for what it did well and the way it showed rather than told. James is a complex character with a lot of grief that I felt like I wasn’t able to completely understand and that’s perfect. Sometimes you can’t fully grasp how another person feels, but you can empathize with them and be there for them when they need you. His interactions with Angela were essentially how I felt about him. I wanted to help him, but didn’t have the full means to do so. There are many messages you can take away from the game and this is just one that stuck out to me. I love the amount of depth to the story, characters and setting so I would recommend this to any horror game fan. Take a trip to a special place in this special game and come away with some profound thoughts about life. It’ll change your perspective and that’s the highest praise a piece of art can be given.