Silent Hill 2: 5 reasons to be excited and 5 reasons to be skeptical

Konami is gearing up to release the Silent Hill 2 remake, and fans of the series are certainly excited to get their hands on the title. The original game was released in 2001 for the PS2, PC, and Xbox platforms, and was the sequel to the first game in the series. In October 2022, Konami confirmed a remake was in the works.

There have been many trailers and videos released on social media by the game's developer and publisher. Ahead of the title's release on October 8, 2024, here are five reasons to be excited as well as skeptical about Silent Hill 2.

Note: The content of this article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinion.

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5 reasons to be excited for Silent Hill 2

1) The retelling of a classic story

The 2001 game is fondly remembered not just by fans of the franchise but by fans of horror games as well. Within the campaign, James' quest to return to the town of Silent Hill, Maine in search of his deceased wife's supposed letter is spine-chillingly addictive. With the remake, players can enjoy one of the psychological horror genre's best games with modern comforts and visuals.

2) Enhanced control scheme

The game is expected to have enhanced controls (Image via Konami/Sony)

The 2001 game's control scheme was not universally liked, with some PC players upset with the 3D "tank" control scheme on keyboards. The remastered title is likely to bring over a refreshed and modern take to the controls, not only for keyboards but also for PS5 controllers.

3) Graphical options

The 2001 game on consoles ran in a 4:3 resolution and at around 480p, which, though acceptable for the time, would be scoffed at today. It will be a relief that the game will have an option of a 60FPS performance mode and a 30FPS fidelity mode over on the PS5. PC graphics settings, on the other hand, can be expected to allow changes to be made as per the player's choice.

4) Use of Unreal Engine 5

The game is built on Unreal Engine 5 (Image via Konami)

Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5 has become one of the most popular game engines used in almost all kinds of video games. The engine's popularity can help developers optimize the game and maximize its output. This means that having Unreal 5 as the engine that Silent Hill 2 is built upon may be the best call in terms of graphical fidelity as well as cross-platform stability.

5) Some inspirations from the Resident Evil 2/4 Remakes

Capcom's remastered releases of their older Resident Evil games have been met with reasonably positive reception among gamers, with faithfulness to source material an important requirement for players old and new. With that in mind, Silent Hill 2 seems to have captured a similar market, given that re-releases of popular older titles are all the rage.

5 reasons to be skeptical about Silent Hill 2

1) Developer's spotty history

The developer has a slightly spotty development history (Image via Konami/Steam)

The publisher of the game might be Konami, but the game is not being developed by them or even by a sub-team within the company. It is, instead, being developed by a company called Bloober Team. Despite their history of making horror games, some of their past releases have been criticized for being buggy, and most of their games are nowhere near the scale of what Silent Hill 2 Remake is expected to be.

2) The large gap between Silent Hill games

Excluding the canned PT demo from 2014, the last main entry in the series was released back in 2012, called Silent Hill: Downpour. This means that the gap between the two entries will be over 12 years. Though not an indication of the game's quality, the large timeframe in question may result in exceedingly high fan expectations, resulting in increased scrutiny of the game.

3) Limited console release

The game will only be released on PS5 and PC in 2024 (Image via Konami)

Silent Hill 2 is scheduled to be released on the PC and PlayStation 5. A notable exception in this list is Microsoft's Xbox Series X and S console family, which will not receive a port, at least not until some time in 2025. The game is expected to be a PS5-exclusive for at least one year, meaning that Xbox players will have to wait to play the game.

4) High PC system requirements

An issue not found on the console versions is the system requirements tab, which is exclusive to PC players. Though not mind-boggling specs by any means, as per the Steam store page, having the recommended specs only outputs 30FPS at High resolution on an RTX 2080 or equivalent card. This might raise some doubts about the optimization of the PC port at launch.

5) Certain character models look uncanny in trailers/promotional material

Some character models' quality can be called into question (Image via Konami/Steam)

While a subjective point, the trailer's visualizations of the characters and scenery don't do much to help the title stand out from similar games in the genre. The game mostly looks like a generic Unreal Engine game, with the character models not looking the best. However, a positive to this is that this may change with the game's launch, given that the trailer footage may be of an older game build.

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Edited by Adarsh J Kumar