With the resident evil remakes being the new gold standard in survival horror and honestly gaming as a whole the developers of silent hill 2 (2024) were faced with a mammoth task. Remaking the greatest game of all time. And yeah all the fundamentals are there great gameplay, gorgeous graphics and level design, but the reason this is truly a masterpiece and a success is what they kept from the original and fairly and faithfully re-adapted is the joyless and broken soul of the original. The key here is the flawless true horror mixed with the tear inducing undertones of absolutely every element of the game. It's not just horrifying with stellar atmosphere and sound design but it's devastating. What makes this special and what I was really worried about is the thematic genius of the original and if they could keep it so perfectly subtlety woven into the game so you could feel it not see it. And they do all the themes of sexual violence, guilt, suffering, love, abuse, punishment and grief are all here and more. But what makes this special is how brutally under the radar it is all they sudden your welling up and you don't even know why until you really examine what is really going on. Allegories and themes in art are nothing new but they are rarely done this well in videogames and that's what makes this a perfect remake. Keeping the soul. It's a joyless broken soul but that's what makes it just a touch above the rest isn't it.
