I have been waiting for this game since the news of a possible remake of the legendary series have appeared in the Internet. Unfortunately, I didn't play the original game when it was released 23 years ago and I was very excited when I found out about the serious development on this remake! This particular game will appeal to both fans and those just getting to know the series. If you are looking for the game that have a special, unique atmosphere that will be remembered forever, then I definitely recommend this game for purchase.

I am a fan of the Silent Hill series and my favorite parts are the first 3 parts. I also believe that these 3 parts are the best example of "psychological horror" genre games. Silent Hill is: depth of plot, psychological insight, quantity and quality of raised problems, interesting characters with tragic stories, heartbreaking soundtracks...Oh yes, let me say a special word about SH soundtracks. Akira Yamaoka is a God of music! His compositions brought this series to life. I was happy to find out that he's also working on the remake. Soundtracks from the 2nd part are my favorites and it wouldn't be as emotional and exciting journey if it wasn't with his music.

So, now specifically about the game. There is a generally linear game divided into different locations, where you can fight enemies with different types of weapons (melee weapons, pistol, shotgun and rifle) and avoiding their hits, have to look for items or solve puzzles (p.s. some of the puzzles are obvious, and some need to be thought about, plus the game has a separate “high difficulty” mode for puzzles, I personally have not tried it, but maybe someone will be interested in it) to open access to the next levels, but you will also have a small opportunity to walk around the city/current location without any problems (except for the doors that are locked at certain stages and, well, enemies you probably don’t want to face). After all, every time I passed another house or room, I wondered, “who lived here and what really happened?” No matter how dead this city is in the story, its streets are still alive with all of those details and that is beautiful in its own way!

Enemies. There are several types of enemies in the game with their unique “features”, which you get used to over time, but sometimes because of the number of enemies it is very easy to miss a hit or even a few and end up dying. That is why in this game it is important to watch the enemies' movements and calculate timings correctly. This series was never about a cool combat system, but the developers managed to get rid of the old, sometimes quite funny mechanics and make something of their own, which most of the time looks not very impressive and dynamic, but which is very suitable for Silent Hill series as a whole. In addition to the usual enemies, there are few boss fights, which, from a story perspective, look good, but they are not too challenging especially with a lot of resources you have.

Characters and plot. Those who are not familiar with the story of the original, then if briefly and without spoilers I will say that the main character receives a letter from his wife, who asks him to meet at a “special place” in Silent Hill. Silent Hill is a small town, which used to be a popular tourist spot, until a terrible tragedy happened in it. Unfortunately, the second part gives us very little information about the origin of the town and the creatures in it, this information is in other parts of the game and there will be spoilers, so I can only say that the tragedy is associated with people who for the sake of their goals went very far and in the end because of them a lot of people died...
Anyway, throughout this particular history we encounter enemies and meeting several characters who either just talk to us about their problems or accompany us like Maria did. In the original series, Maria has never caused me any sympathy, but developers did smth that really got me attached to this character. There are 8 endings in the game, so your actions and your "play style" will be important if you want to achieve one or another ending. At the end I can say that the SH is a very complicated and completely untypical story, especially in the genre of horror. So whatever your experience, it will be in your memory forever.

Horror Element. In my opinion, this game is not as scary as the Outlast series and there are few jump scares, but there are other types of horrors. For example, each location has its own tragic story and the horror you see there, is on the surface/in the enemies or in the details that you have to find around. In addition, some locations were creepier, especially in the dark as there are all these creepy and sometimes unexpected sounds and enemies that only add an atmosphere of horror. There is another frightening element: the boss fights or chases where you have to think and do smth very fast and try to not die.

The visual part of the game is great and walking around the city, making a bunch of beautiful and atmospheric screenshots is normal reaction. I am also exciting to try the “90’s” graphic mode during the second play through, but there are more modes in the settings. However, there is one minus and this is an optimization. I do not have powerful computer and unfortunately, I had to find a combination of settings that would allow me to play with a smoother picture and more FPS. For the overall picture of the game, it is a minor minus, cos my game has never crashed or freezed at important events/fights and I think that developers will solve important problems with the new patches.

To those who say that the remake turned out to be bad, I can answer that it is very difficult and even wrong to compare the remake with the original (except for the story, which is generally told the same way as in the original!), because the original part came out more than 20 years ago and at that time people felt completely different emotions playing games. No matter what, I can never imagine a better remake of SH2 than we see now from the Bloober Team.

I could go on forever about how great the Silent Hill series is. Thank you so much Konami and Bloober team for all these emotions, I am looking forward to the next remakes of SH1 and SH3 at least!

P.S. I thought that Digital soundtrack from Deluxe Edition contained more music tracks :( I hope we will get more in the future!