Silent Hill 2 Remake Opens a Floodgate That Future Games Should Shut

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As a longtime fan of the Silent Hill series, I must admit that the remake of Silent Hill 2 has left me both awestruck and perplexed. On one hand, it’s remarkable to see a classic game like this being expanded with such care and attention to detail, making it a richer, more immersive experience than before. The additional content, the improved graphics, and the tweaked mechanics have all breathed new life into a game that I hold dear.

Despite all the alterations made in the remake of “Silent Hill 2”, it’s quite impressive that Bloober Team and Konami managed to double the content in this classic game. In a series where no game surpasses the 10-hour mark unless played extensively or completely, offering 15-20 hours (even on a normal playthrough) is surprising due to the amount of content presented linearly or required for progression. This length might be casual or safe if found in any other modern AAA game. However, as a new entry in the “Silent Hill” series, the potential impact of the “Silent Hill 2” remake on the franchise’s future is hard to overstate.

Predicting the state of the Silent Hill series a decade from now is tricky, but the remake of Silent Hill 2 certainly suggests that Konami could benefit from remaking more entries, potentially sparking a string of victories for a franchise in desperate need of a comeback. However, it would be an error for future remakes or new titles to blindly follow Bloober’s example. This remake justifies its extended length in numerous ways, but not every Silent Hill game, such as ‘f’ or ‘Townfall’, needs to strive for the same heights.

Silent Hill Games Being Short Make Them Palatable Horror Morsels

The original Silent Hill games, typically lasting between 5 to 10 hours, strike an ideal balance that contemporary gaming tends to overlook. High-budget, first-party titles nowadays seem fixated on a particular length to prove their quality and warrant their cost. Yet, the shorter Silent Hill series has consistently managed to remain affordable due to this compact design.

In simpler terms, having a shorter playtime for games like Silent Hill makes it possible to complete multiple playthroughs easily and effectively. This is beneficial because the player can discover different endings more quickly, even though some of the narratives might be less engaging initially.

Initially, just Silent Hill 2 boasts six distinct endings: Water, Leave, Rebirth, Maria, Dog, and UFO. Now, its remake has introduced two unique conclusions, Stillness and Bliss, making multiple playthroughs enticing not only for the pursuit of achievement badges but also due to these new endings.

In simpler terms, many tasks given to players involve searching areas for collectibles and trying to find them all within a single playthrough. The ‘Faster than Fog’ achievement means beating the game in less than 10 hours casually is impressive. If you aim to see every ending and intentionally replay the game multiple times to unlock various achievements, it would realistically require an enormous amount of time that has not been typically required in Silent Hill games before.

In a “New Game Plus” mode, you need to play through the game again to unlock hidden endings involving special items. However, by skillfully editing your manual save files, gamers can theoretically see all the different outcomes within just two play sessions.

Not Every Future Silent Hill Game Should Need to Be a 15–20 Hour Experience

In comparison to the small dungeons in the initial game, the remake’s dungeons – specifically Toluca Prison and Labyrinth – are vastly larger and intricate. This is particularly evident when examining both titles side by side. The expanded versions of these locations have been elongated significantly, similar to Brookhaven Hospital, by providing players with extensive areas to explore through winding corridors and locked pathways that were absent in the original version.

Between the prison’s animal-themed doors and the labyrinth’s three separate rotating cube passages, there’s a lot more to see and not all of it reinforces the advantages of the remake being so long. The remake still happens to be remarkably coherent despite being enlarged and elongated in every way imaginable, and that’s a testament to how strong Silent Hill 2’s narrative is. Still, there are plenty of possible remake candidates in the series whose stories and gameplay aren’t nearly as competent, and doubling their length might only exacerbate those franchise-condemning blemishes.

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2024-10-13 02:04