The Silent Hill 2 Remake Is Significantly Better Than The Trailers You’ve Seen

There is no genre quite like horror. At its best, it's so much more than guts and gore, or tired tropes and torture scenes. It's self-reflection. It's catharsis.It's entering an implicit agreement with a work's creator: If you spill your guts out to me (metaphorically or perhaps literally), then I will wade through my own, hold them up, and take note of what makes ours similar to one another. While there are certainly qualities that make for a "good" work of horror, the transcendent variety is subjective; it relies on your own fears, traumas, and beliefs to create resonance with what's laid before you. The more vulnerable a work is, the greater its opportunity to connect with--or possibly alienate--its audience. This is precisely what makes Silent Hill 2 such a memorable and pivotal entry in the horror game genre--it's sheer vulnerability creates a game wherein even alienation feels like connection.I say all this to emphasize that the upcoming remake of this 23 year-old game is an incredibly exciting prospect to me. Though the original holds up well, there's no denying that it feels quite dated--and not always in an endearing, "time capsule" kind of way. There's also no denying that the game is incredibly influential; its DNA is woven into countless horror games and horror-adjacent titles, with last year's Alan Wake 2 proving that, even decades later, this continues to be true. This ultimately elevates Silent Hill 2's status from "great game" to a "genre essential," albeit one that is frustrating to play--or even simply access--at the moment. A remake, then, seems entirely warranted.Continue Reading at GameSpot

There is no genre quite like horror. At its best, it's so much more than guts and gore, or tired tropes and torture scenes. It's self-reflection.

It's catharsis. It's entering an implicit agreement with a work's creator: If you spill your guts out to me (metaphorically or perhaps literally), then I will wade through my own, hold them up, and take note of what makes ours similar to one another. While there are certainly qualities that make for a "good" work of horror, the transcendent variety is subjective; it relies on your own fears, traumas, and beliefs to create resonance with what's laid before you.

The more vulnerable a work is, the greater its opportunity to connect with--or possibly alienate--its audience. This is precisely what makes Silent Hill 2 such a memorable and pivotal entry in the horror game genre--it's sheer vulnerability creates a game wherein even alienation feels like connection. I say all this to emphasize that the upcoming remake of this 23 year-old game is an incredibly exciting prospect to me.

Though the original holds up well, there's no denying that it feels quite dated--and not always in an endearing, "time capsule" kind of way. There's also no denying that the game is incredibly influential; its DNA is woven into countless horror games and horror-adjacent titles, with last year's Alan Wake 2 proving that, even decades later, this continues to be true. This ultimately elevates Silent Hill 2's status from "great game" to a "genre essential," albeit .