Silent Hill 2 Remake

I've been wanting to replay this game since I finished it the first time the month it was released a couple years ago.  Silent Hill 2, the original on PS2, was a game I originally played 10 years after it was released.   Growing up, we played the first Silent Hill game and had fond memories of how scary it was but just never got the others, and honestly don't know why.  Years later I remember having a friend that debated with me which was a better series Resident Evil or Silent Hill, I was on the side of RE but he was on the side of SH and I don't remember my argument but I just remember him saying Silent Hill games were a lot scarier and when playing a horror game that's what should matter most.  I feel if I was to have that debate now the plus side of RE games would have been how they handled as both series used tank controls but RE handled better but then there's the argument of Silent Hill being difficult to handle on purpose because you're not playing a skilled and trained special forces person like in the RE games but rather playing just regular people.  But years later I would say my friend was absolutely right about Silent Hill being scarier, which I don't think anyone who's played both series would argue against.  RE has gotten scarier since that debate almost 20 years ago but Silent Hill has still kept its place as being the scarier series.

The first time I played the remake I would use the guns primarily to fight the monsters but now I’ve been using the melee weapons more and have found it to just feel so much more gritty. This grittiness adds to the unique tone of creepiness this series has.  The fact that you can beat the monsters to a pulp with a blunt weapon while James cries out in screams of agony but also a haunting cathartic rage.  It’s to the point that it almost disgusts me to fight off enemies that way, especially the nurses.  One random way that came from playing this way is I finally figured out how I'd want to set graphics settings in games to optimize the experience.  Normally I would always do Quality mode to prioritize the overall picture but I realized in games that are more action and involve moving the screen around a lot and really quickly I actually prefer performance mode as that gives more frames per second without dips.  Of course halfway through this playthrough, I reverted back to performance because I felt specifically for this game the frame rate drops actually add to the eerie feeling which was perfect for a Silent Hill game.

I feel like I’ve grown to appreciate this game in a much more different way with replaying it. It’s like a theory I heard about how horror games become cozy games when played on repeat. This feels more cozy the more I play it and the sooner I replay. For me I feel it with the familiarity in the exploration. Going through the town again and exploring different areas and major points in the game like the apartments or the hospital or prison and the hotel. It’s something I just lose myself in and serves as an escape. This goes to the credit of the world building but I feel this may be a thing I’m appreciating more in general in the series as I felt similar on my subsequent playthroughs of Silent Hill f but I find what’s making this replay of Silent Hill 2 much more enjoyable is because unlike f where I replayed to get each ending subsequently when it released, this is my first time replaying the remake since the first time I played it when it released so there’s been almost two years. The original Silent Hill 2 I played through three times but would take about five years or so between each time I played it. I feel the greater immersion with the update in graphics with the remake adds more of that coziness for me with replaying it. 

In a weird way it just feels fun to get lost in the world.  Going around and finding items that make the adventure easier and fighting off enemies, there's something oddly peaceful about that.  I think it may also be from the thought of these enemies being projections from James' mind and his subconscious.  Like conquering his fears and shadows.  It does have more of a cozy feel when playing the daytime parts in the fog.  In the buildings, there's a familiarity but also more scares exist there.  This remake is so close to perfect but one of the smallest yet biggest ways it falls short is the whisper jump scare that is brought back from the original when you're at the apartments. In the original when played with headphones on you only hear the whisper in the right ear which makes it feel even creepier but in this one the pan is centered so it diminishes the creepiness. But they do add something new in the remake where at random times you hear a random woman's quick gasp or inhale panned just into the right ear as if she's right up on you.  It kind of gives a sense like it's Mary and plays at suspect times especially around times when interacting with Maria.  This happens at random times throughout the game and to an extent this does make up a lot for the change I criticized with the whisper in the apartment section. But one thing added in the remake that's gotten me both these times, is a sudden scare in the prison where there's a sudden pounding on a door in one of the rooms.  Not going to spoil which one but it's so effective that when I played again I actually remembered it right before it happened again and it still got me.  

I have to mention that Akira Yamaoka still has it. The dark ambient music never fails to build tension in these games. The one that catches my attention most is in the hospital with the heavy breathing sound panning to feel like it’s on the back of your neck. It is just perfection.  Of course, same for all the triphop music he made for the games cutscenes that I feel are modernized pretty well and redone to keep the game feeling fresh especially for fans of the original.  I can't wait to see what he does with remakes of the first and third game.

One of the things I get reminded of each time I play this game whether it be the original or the remake is a theory I have.  I looked up to see if anyone has said anything about the stages of grief interpreted as being tied into the game but most that's discussed is theories in regards to the endings.  But I always had a theory of whether it's tied into the characters in the game.  Now from what I read I guess it's been confirmed that all the characters except Maria are supposed to be real and Maria is just a figment of James' imagination projected into reality in Silent Hill.  But my view of the game was always that each of the characters always behaved in strange over the top ways because they were all projections of James' emotional state going between the different stages of grief and he will interact with them interchangeably just like how the stages are usually not linear but people experience different ones at random as grief strikes at any time and can cause any of the emotions.  

In this theory of mine I saw Maria representing bargaining as she was literally a reflection of Mary, James' wife that he lost.  But she is different and makes James feel uncomfortable which is almost like a "be careful what you wish for" kind of thing like if things were to be different there may be another way in which they weren't right.  But I also saw Maria being James' guilt brought to life as it suggests that if she represented Mary being alive that it wouldn't make a difference and he would just end up repeating the same cycle that brought Mary to her end anyway.  And so I saw Laura as representing denial as when it comes to Mary she always seems to be in denial of Mary's passing and the only person James interacts with that genuinely believes that Mary is still alive whereas the others it feels like never really acknowledge Mary or seem to not care.  But Laura is Jame's denial of the situation and so to punish him for what he did Laura is always cruel to him and putting him in dangerous situations.

I see Angela as being James' depression and sadness.  She shows how lost he is, not just in Silent Hill but in general.  And so he projects his feelings of being the victim onto her, someone who is an actual victim of trauma, except in reality James is the one who caused his own trauma.  With that Eddie is a representation of anger.  He is James' projection of the anger he feels from the never ending guilt trying to get to the surface of his subconscious reminding him of what he did.  This is why Eddie is so angry and feels everyone is against him as this projection makes James' guilt to be seen more like bullies torturing him.  With this James personifies himself as acceptance.  This is one of the ways I feel the remake improves a lot from the original.  It's my personal theory that I feel hasn't been discussed yet or much from what research I've done so far but in the remake James seems to have a calmer than everyone else attitude.  In the original James is played with an almost silly innocence but in the remake this attitude feels almost like he's gaslighting everyone else, like playing the straight man to their characters expressing all their emotions so passionately.  But he has no passion which feels like he sees himself as being the logical one.  The one who is calm and has accepted his faults but he truly is more lost than all the other characters.  Only once he sees the videotape in the hotel, does he truly accept what he's done in the role he played in Mary's death.

This time I got the rebirth ending for the game which I always found this one interesting because of how little you hear about the cult as opposed to them being part of the central storylines for the first and third games. This is what always made this entry standout from the others in the series as all of them suggest different kinds of horror may be at play but Silent Hill 2 always has had a more psychological stance in its horror and story.  But the rebirth ending brings back the cult aspect as James tries to bring Maria back by seeking out the cult to have them use their magic to bring her back in a ritual using the items you find throughout the new game plus playthrough.  With this, I'm debating replaying again right after like I do with most RE games or planning on always giving 2-3 years to replay each time and plan for different endings each time.   Sadly there are many games I have planned to play that will most likely make me wait   But the wait will be worth it and make every time I play be more and more a cozy stroll through the old familiar streets and I help James find where his mind has gone.