In September 2001, the original Silent Hill 2 set a new standard for the survival-horror genre in the PlayStation 2 era. Later this month, Konami’s classic game is getting a remake from Bloober Team that is giving Silent Hill 2 a modern flourish. Now, an extended stream from 2BRO has revealed more of the changes in store for players as they explore the town of Silent Hill.
The first 13 minutes of the stream serve as a reminder for how far games have come in the last 23 years by playing through the opening parts of the original Silent Hill 2. That game needed a loading screen just to bring its main character, James Sunderland, into a partially fenced-off area. The modern version of Silent Hill 2 appears to be a more seamless experience, and less reliant on fog to cover up its shortcomings.
At the beginning of the reboot, the tunnel to Silent Hill has been completely sealed off. That’s why it takes James close to 20 minutes of gameplay to find his way to the town by going off the trail. James still encounters a young woman named Angela Orosco in a cemetery on the outskirts of town, but he doesn’t run into any other main characters in this stream.
During this portion of the game, the only weapon that James has to rely on is a wooden board with some nails on it. That’s good enough for him to dispatch the armless creatures that run around in the fog and occasionally hide under cars before attacking him. In a nice touch, James can use the board to break the windows of stores in town and bypass the doors by climbing through the openings. It also appears that there are more places to explore in this version of the game.
James is eventually drawn to a jukebox puzzle that he has to solve before he can advance and find a key that he needs. The music that plays appears to trigger a flashback for James, but since this demo is in Japanese, we can only assume that the scene in question relates to his quest to reunite with his late wife, Mary.
Silent Hill 2 will be released on PlayStation 5 and PC on October 8.
