Recent reviews by lainuel

I know this may bring hype-train-enthusiasts to their knees, but this is arguably better than the 2023 remake. Both have their advantages, but the remake suffered from having atmosphere, art direction, dialogue, sound design, combat, and that small trace of comedy all getting lost in translation. While the remaster certainly controls better, has a greater graphical fidelity, and sports some minor quality of life improvements, it can't be denied that as an overall art piece and and gameplay experience, the original excels and just feels more fun to play. This is hands down one of the most culturally significant games of all time and I cannot recommend it enough. It's insane to me that this game is 20 years old—it has aged remarkably well.

I was always intrigued by Silent Hill 2 but never got around to actually playing it years prior to the release of the remake (mainly thanks to the greedy tendencies of the retro video gaming market). There were a few other reasons for this:

The main one being due to Resident Evil igniting my love for survival-horror games. I deeply admire a game's ability to present itself as an art-form, and I can't think of any other genre that validates the "video games as art" theory more than survival-horror. They typically excel in immersion via an engrossing and unapologetically tense atmosphere, more often than not concatenating a rich story to that environment and/or a special reliance on certain characters to ease or unease the tension at any given moment. SH2 is often cited as one of the prime examples of video games being art; It retains many of the acclaimed aspects of the survival(+psychological)-horror genre while providing a unique yet haunting portrayal of mental illness and trauma. Say what you want, but the zombie invasions you'd find in Resident Evil aren't particularly realistic, but the psychological trauma and distressing backstory exerted from some of the game's deepest characters is something that can happen to anyone. Simply put, this is what made the original (from what I heard) so acclaimed. The announcement of the remake only pulled me in further, wondering whether nostalgia-driven fans would accept the new portrayal of the story with open arms. RE4 wasn't necessarily a needed remake, it's aged remarkably well for a game nearing 20 years old, and this is exactly the same concern I had going into the Silent Hill 2 remake.

As for the technical upgrade, the graphics are genuinely beyond words. Sound effects, audio, fog, everything, has been leveraged to create a convincingly eerie experience that will stick with you. I saw the OG cutscenes, and I couldn't get through 10 seconds without laughing, but the performance of Angela is one the most discomforting I've ever seen with her emotions at times swinging jarringly more than once in any given interaction. I've heard people say the graphical leap from the PS4 -> PS5 is the most insignificant yet, but after playing SH2R I'm honestly convinced that distinguishment can go to the PS3 -> PS4. I first played the PS5 version - which is graphically inferior - on a 4K TV, and even then I was taken aback countless times at how convincing and thoughtful each detail was. Immersion is the bread-and-butter to a survival-horror, and with the time, the original may not be tick that box for newer players. The added dimension of realism stemming from this mind-boggling tech upgrade make this the more immersive, and quite frankly, discomforting version to date. SH1&2's graphics were so crude that that's what made it scary in the first place; enemies were so uncomfortably ambiguous which is something I thought this current generation of gaming couldn't recapture. However, the enemy design still feels as cryptic as ever, with the better specs of today allowing characters to display jarring movements, creepier sound, and sport a more detailed design illustrating what Team Silent initially hoped for. I've usually felt that horror remakes don't match the atmosphere of the original, but I'm pleased to say that this is one of very few exceptions. I don't want to dwindle on this part too much since that shouldn't be the main focus for a game as poetic as Silent Hill 2, but no object was left behind without a mountain of consideration—it's truly a spectacle.

As for the base game itself, it's still great fun (i've run out of chars lol :3)

Although my review was probably hinting at it, believe it or not, I can't actually say all good things about this. Just like the original, it is deeply flawed.

For starters, I should get the elephant in the room out of the way: performance. On PS5, I only faced noticeable frame rate drops during the first half hour and slid into a consistent 60FPS throughout the majority of my playthrough on performance mode. I've heard the tale is rather tragic on PC, and even with an i9-12900KS and RTX 3080-12GB, I have to concur with these general public. The performance is awfully condescending at times; outdoor environments will run consistently well, but the moment you step inside and there's one single lamp that lights up the area a bit too much, the frame rate crumbles. Both versions have made it apparent that little thought was put into the game's optimisation, and even with the gorgeous visuals, I still think this is kind of unacceptable. Be weary of your hardware configuration and consider purchasing the PS5 version if you have the console handy with a bare-bones or out-of-date PC configuration. It's unfortunate that Unreal Engine was chosen for this even after all the negative press it has received over the years. Yes, it is capable of compelling visuals, but it is notoriously unoptimised and shouldn't be used in any high-profile game—Silent Hill 2 is no exception. RE4R ran on Capcom's own Resident Evil engine and it's graphic performance is comparable with SH2. Simply put, using Unreal Engine alienates such a large portion of the PC demographic. I know this may bring Konami down to their knees, but not everyone has an RTX 4080 at hand. The top five GPU's listed on the Steam hardware survey are all mid-range cards and it'll probably continue down that route forever. Even then, the requirements page has the balls to recommend an RTX 2080 Super which by no means would be capable of ray-tracing on the lowest settings; My RTX 3080-12GB struggled with RT on at Medium. I hate to be disparaging towards Bloober who have done a near-perfect job with this game, but the engine choice is simply unacceptable and shouldn't be a standard anymore.

And without question, my biggest gripe is the combat. I haven't played the original, but by skimming through walkthroughs of it after completing the remake, it was jarring (and honestly stress-relieving) to witness how insignificant and unintrusive the combat was. I simply can't stress enough just how important this should've been in the remake. Whenever I wanted to soak in the environment and investigate another piece to a puzzle, the combat completely ruined any and all atmosphere I had. The enemies are admittedly pretty scary, and their discomforting actions and designs are a testament to that, but they are so shamelessly unbalanced. Even once you get the handgun, you still probably won't get the hang of the dodging mechanic and will get profusely vomited on time and time again, almost in a way that makes it feels like your the victim of a high-score-esque game among all the enemies. And before the handgun, you'll be dancing around the enemies swinging 6-8 times on a single enemy to get them down, all while losing health on almost all of them. By the time you reach the halfway point, all rooms must be meticulously searched for mannequins in a way that, sure, makes you uncomfortable, but becomes a tiresome process awfully quickly. It gets to the point where, at times, the game feels like it's become a parody of itself. The game obviously decided to take a risk by adding a slight action-edge to it. It's a good idea in hindsight and could've collaborated well with the rest of the game's mechanics, but it just wasn't executed right. This is a complete and utter bummer for the game's atmosphere, and although it's the only major downside to this game, you'll come to see that it's a gargantuan misstep for what could've been a near perfect game. UPDATE: After investing some more hours in the PC version, I can confirm that my issues with combat have eased. Despite the game recommending a controller, a mouse and keyboard will by far alleviate most of your combat problems. Regardless, I still think the combat has a lot to be desired.

If you're someone that can stomach the horror aspect, definitely try this out.
7.9/10

universally agreed among my friend group that this is the best party pack. patently stupid and mad verse city are the two main highlights.

fubuki

good yes

Very fun game!