FEATURE ARTICLE – Silent Hill 2 Remake: In My Restless Dreams, I See That Video Game

By Marty Mulrooney

Silent Hill 2 (2024) is a ground-up remake of the seminal survival horror game of the same name (2001). When it was first announced in October 2022, I remember being completely blown away by the graphical fidelity, art direction and soundscape of the teaser trailer. I also remember thinking: ‘It’s such a shame I won’t be able to play it.’ The prospect filled me with dread. Yet, when it was finally released two years later, much to my own surprise, I bought it, played it and completed it. And I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

The original Silent Hill 2 is one of those bucket-list games that always comes up when discussing the best stories told within the medium. I’ve read numerous articles about it over the years, both in magazines and online, and my appreciation for it as one of the best video games of all time – and a compelling argument in the games-as-art debate – has only grown. Yet I was only 13 years old when it first came out, and something about it has always terrified me.

Fast-forward a few decades, and, despite completing most of the Resident Evil games, the Dead Space games, Alien Isolation and – most recently – Alan Wake 2, I still hadn’t managed to play more than a few hours of Silent Hill 2. It’s the one that got away. Horror games are scary in a way that books and films can’t match, and Silent Hill 2 gets under the skin. I loved Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (a reimagining of the first Silent Hill), but I just couldn’t shake my deep-seated childhood fear of what many tout as the best in the series.

Which made it even more surprising when I found myself heading to the nearest store to buy a copy of the remake shortly after release. I guess I didn’t want to miss the boat again, even though I had a tight ball of trepidation in the pit of my stomach. And then… it was out of stock. Everywhere. Seriously, you couldn’t find a physical copy in the UK for love nor money for about a month after release (even online). It wasn’t just a local issue, either.

I visited my friend Tony (Revolution Software co-founder and programmer) and his wife, Tanya (a talented artist), a few weeks later, and they dutifully traipsed up and down the high street with me looking for a copy (thanks, guys!) – but their local GAME store had long since gone, despite what Apple Maps said (a sobering sign of things to come). I even stopped off at a few retail parks as I drove back home down the M62. No cigar.

I was starting to think that perhaps the scarcity of the physical release was a sign that it simply wasn’t meant to be; after all, I would likely play the remake for a few hours before starting to feel uncomfortable and adding it to my gaming backlog (aka the pile of shame). Then, I came home from work one night to find that my wife, Jane, had kindly picked up a copy for me from Smyths. That’s right; apparently, the best place to buy physical games in the UK nowadays is a children’s toy store…

But I digress. I now had a copy of Silent Hill 2, and Jane was eager to see what all the fuss was about. I’d certainly spoken about it enough over the years, waxing lyrical about both the original and the remake. Not playing wasn’t an option, not anymore. So, I left it to install from the disc while I cooked tea, let the latest patch download (who else misses the days where you didn’t have to do that on console?) and dove headfirst into the oppresive fog of Silent Hill 2 – right next to the murky waters of Toluca Lake, which was inspired by the real-life Derwentwater here in the UK.

The storyline of Silent Hill 2 is deceptively simple. The main character is James Sunderland, a mild-mannered clerk who visits Silent Hill, a small American resort town in New England, Maine, after receiving a cryptic letter from his wife.

In my restless dreams,
I see that town. Silent Hill.
You promised me you’d take me
there again someday.
But you never did.
Well, I’m alone there now.
In our ‘special place’.
Waiting for you…

There’s just one problem: she died three years ago, of that ‘damned disease’. It’s an unsettling premise that immediately draws you in. James wants answers, and so does the player.

The opening cutscene shows James looking at himself in a grimy mirror, his hands shaking, his eyes shrouded in darkness. Something feels off. And when he emerges from the public toilets (or restrooms, as he would call them) located on the observation deck overlooking Toluca Lake, it becomes even more apparent that something isn’t right. The haunting soundtrack by original composer Akira Yamaoka fades, to be replaced by the howling wind. The road tunnel leading into town is blocked off, and the car park (parking lot) is deserted. The towering trees sway unnaturally in the breeze, and the only way forward is down.

The steep descent to the town through the woods does nothing to calm the nerves. Otherworldly sounds groan through the trees as James’s shoes squelch in the mud, and using the first save point – an ominous red square, floating in a well – leaves him clutching his head in pain. It’s like someone’s groping around his skull. Soon, he meets a nervous young woman, Angela Orosco, in a graveyard; she is looking for someone, too. She tells him there is something wrong with the town, and it’s not just the fog. James believes her, but he won’t be deterred. He doesn’t really care if it’s dangerous or not.

Which is just as well, as the town is dangerous. Silent Hill 2 doesn’t have a massive variety of enemies, and combat isn’t necessarily the focus, but each encounter is fraught with danger. Lying Figures, armless, humanoid creatures that resemble walking body bags, writhe in pain as they attack, spewing acid. The first weapon James finds is a wooden plank with nails driven through it, and using it to beat enemies until they stop moving is disturbingly tactile.

Later, with his trusty plank of wood now upgraded to a rusty steel pipe, Bubble Head Nurses – their features obscured, their tunics stained with blood and gore – swipe at James with knives and pipes of their own as he desperately dodges out of the way, waiting for an opening to strike. Sometimes it’s better to risk a pistol shot to their kneecaps, before closing in for a melee kill. Sometimes it’s better to run away. Shotguns make short work of them, but ammo can be scarce.

Of course, the most recognisable and infamous antagonist in the game – and the series as a whole – is Pyramid Head, with his red, pyramid-shaped helmet and bloodstained butcher’s smock. Whether he’s stalking James with a giant knife or a spear, he always seems to turn up at the worst possible moment, and his appearances and boss fights in the remake are epic, amped-up affairs. Yet I would argue that the most troublesome and scary enemy is actually the weakest and most prolific: the Mannequin.

Mannequins are essentially two pairs of legs attached to a torso, with the upper legs functioning as arms. Faceless and single-minded, the remake makes them tougher and more aggressive than they ever were in the original. They also have a nasty habit of hiding behind doorways, pillars and corners, and they can dodge and weave like Muhammad Ali. James will need to kill hundreds of them before his journey is over, and they make entering every room feel unsafe. They could be standing perfectly still, just waiting, anywhere.

I have no intention of spoiling the story, but what I will say is that everything in the game – the other people James meets, the enemies, the combat, the nature of the town itself – ties in directly with the narrative throughline. And, despite being slightly less Lynchian than the original, the remake still has a dreamlike quality to it that makes everything – even the puzzles, which are truly brilliant despite their video game logic – somehow feel like it all fits together perfectly.

British/Canadian actor Luke Roberts provides the voice and motion capture for James, and his layered, nuanced performance is incredible. He was rightfully nominated for a bunch of awards last year, but I don’t think he won as many as he deserved. Horror films have historically been snubbed at the Oscars, with only The Silence of the Lambs winning Best Picture in 1991, and horror video games are seemingly no different.

There is a rare, quiet moment of relative safety and contemplation in the remake where James is confronted with a glass of whisky. He doesn’t drink it, but his reaction – the almost imperceptible movement of his fingers on the surface of the bar, and the way his eyes keep darting down involuntarily before he finally turns away – tells the player everything they need to know about his relationship with alcohol. They say the eyes are the window to the soul, and the compelling performances in Silent Hill 2 make that statement ring true. I doubt it’s a coincidence that none of the enemies have eyes…

James spends most of the game alone – which only adds to the horror – but his most frequent companion and scene partner is a mysterious woman called Maria, who strongly resembles his dead wife, Mary, but is much more flirtatious and assertive in both personality and dress sense. Both Maria and Mary are brought to life by Icelandic actress Salóme Gunnarsdóttir, who does a wonderful job conveying two very different characters who nonetheless echo each other. The original game set a high bar when it came to Mary and Maria’s portrayals, but Gunnarsdóttir’s performance(s) in the remake shouldn’t be overlooked.

In truth, all of the performances are best in class, from the previously mentioned Angela Orosco (Gianna Kiehl), a troubled, suicidal young woman searching for her mother, to Eddie Dombrowski (motion captured by Danny Kirrane and voiced by Scott Haining), an overweight, bullied and paranoid young man with an anger problem. Rounding off the impressive cast is Laura (Evie Templeton), a mischievous eight-year-old girl who doesn’t seem to trust James and claims to have known Mary. Her performance runs the gamut of emotions, and I’m delighted that she will be reprising her role in the yet-to-be-released film adaptation, Return to Silent Hill.

Silent Hill appears to have drawn all these people in, like moths to a flame, and their individual stories prove just as compelling as James’s. The town somehow manages to feel like a real place, despite its abandoned buildings and streets; there are signs of life everywhere, juxtaposed with the constant sense of death, and the environmental storytelling is second to none. I found it amusing how afraid I was of the fog when I first started playing; this was before I headed indoors and realised just how dark the environments could be. After fighting your way through a pitch-black underground prison that refuses to adhere to a logical layout, stepping out into the fog is like a breath of fresh air.

I’ve read many recommendations online to play Silent Hill 2 with the lights off and a pair of headphones on, but I doubt my nerves could have taken it. If you can manage it, I salute you. I played with a lamp on, my wife sitting beside me, and a grim sense of determination to help James find Mary – and, failing that, the truth. The themes dealt with are heavy on the heart and mind, and I found that playing for a few hours at a time allowed me to avoid sinking into a deep depression alongside the characters.

The over-the-shoulder camera and improved controls and combat mechanics have undoubtedly made the experience a bit more manageable than it was in 2001. I eventually perfected the dodge mechanic and found a style of play that made me feel competent, even if I never felt confident. James is just a regular guy, and the developers have managed to convey this convincingly without making the controls feel clunky. I took my time and only ran when I had to, always using the in-game map to plan my next move.

Silent Hill 2 is a remake that many fans didn’t have particularly high hopes for. It was developed by Bloober Team, a Polish developer based in Kraków that had made some missteps in the past, and the reaction to the reveal trailer was often, not to put too fine a point on it, less than kind. I have a sneaking suspicion that Konami lost faith in it long before release as a result, and didn’t believe it would live up to the original. They certainly didn’t press enough physical copies to meet initial demand; it has since gone on to sell over two million copies (digital and physical sales combined), and it was recently announced that the same team will be remaking the game that started it all in 1999, Silent Hill.

I love a good underdog story (who doesn’t?), and seeing Bloober Team transition from being a AA studio to a AAA studio almost overnight – against the odds, and despite remaking one of the most beloved video games of all time – is a real fist-pumping moment. Silent Hill 2 is a sensitively told horror story that never loses sight of what made the original so special to gamers around the world. The fact that I managed to finish it, despite being scared shitless most of the time, speaks volumes. When there is a good story being told, and it’s being told well, it’s easier to deal with being afraid. Bloober Team admittedly had a solid foundation to build on, but they somehow caught lightning in a bottle all over again.

I spent years thinking about Silent Hill 2. The remake allowed me to finally face my fears and experience the story in full, and I constantly thought about it even when the console was powered off – as I drove to and from work, as I lay in bed at night, and in my restless dreams – for the two months it took me to finish it. Some moments will haunt me forever, and I’m pretty sure the grimy mirror James stares into at the start is a metaphor for the human condition.

James is imperfect and flawed, but it’s hard to know for sure that you wouldn’t make the same decisions he did when faced with the same impossible choices. And when you think about it, when you look past the faceless monsters and the impenetrable fog and the endless darkness, and take a cold, hard look at your own reflection… that’s probably the scariest thing of all.