Silent Hill 2is a remarkably short game with a ton of interesting and important choices that can be made throughout and its defining feature in gameplay is exploration. In the broader sense, all players are doing inSilent Hill 2is exploring the fog-grained town in search of an out-of-the-way means of eventually reaching the Lakeview Hotel. This includes ducking into several buildings James Sunderland passes by in Silent Hill that he can actually enter, let alone jogging to the end of sparse streets running rampant with monsters and resource pickups.
Much of the game’s exploration takes place within key locations such as the Wood Side Apartments in South Vale on Katz Street, Brookhaven Hospital, and the Silent Hill Historical Society’s Toluca Prison. The bulk of the game consists of these dungeons with the town itself not affording much in the way of optional content that doesn’t have to do with achieving a specific ending. However, gameplay shown so far coupled with theconfirmation that Bloober’sSilent Hill 2remake will be roughly double the length of the originaldemonstrates that exploration is going to be elaborated in a much-needed way.
One of Silent Hill 2’s Strengths is That One Playthrough isn’t Terribly Long
A playthrough ofSilent Hill 2taking upwards of 10 hoursis typically dependent on one of a few considerations: whether players are exploring to their heart’s content and making sure they find every item James turns his head toward, whether they’re pursuing a particularSilent Hill 2ending by achieving more behavioral points or collecting new items, and whether they are having difficulty figuring out what to do with an item they’ve received.
Of course,Silent Hill 2’s length can be pared down dramatically depending on how well players know its environments, such as where necessary items are stashed away for puzzles and progression or which streets will be impassable and when. In any playthrough thereafter, the former consideration is likely what keeps players in Silent Hill’s psychological throes longer as they may want the safety net of abundant ammunition and healing items.
Either way,Silent Hill 2is incredibly digestible as a psychological horror gamebecause of this, and having more to explore in the remake could embellish that further by doubling down on length as much as it will hopefully double down on one of the original’s best features.
To the disappointment of anyone who is now attempting to steer clear of spoilers for the remake, quite a bit of gameplay footage has been revealed and explicitly shows that new areas have been added for exploration’s sake. Therefore, if these areas can hone the right tone and atmosphere while allowing many more doors to open as players wade through fog on any given sidewalk, it should be an exciting expansion of content withinBloober’s over-the-shoulder reimagining.
Having More to Explore in Silent Hill 2 Can Make Good on a Lot of Empty Streets in Town
Silent Hill 2’s eponymous townisn’t completely bereft of reasons to explore beyond seeking story-related locations, but when looking at a map of South Vale it is clear that many streets and shops are left inexplicably barred. This makes sense given that the dungeons players enter offer more than enough in the way of exploration than players could want, though being able to duck in and out of a tiny shop here and there as players line the sidewalk and avoid nurses would have been excellent.
Now, if the remake is finally able to open some of these doors and provide even a bit of world-building, lore, or supplementary resources in some of them it will go a long way in having the town seem as fully-fledged as it ought to be. Not to mention it’d be the perfect opportunity for Bloober to devise and implement its own unpredictable, dread-inducing moments or jump scares in a similar vein as theprison bathroom jump scare.
Silent Hill 2’s Remake Shouldn’t Make Its Doubled Length Meaningless
The only way added length could be detrimental is if more is tacked onto the story in ways that contradict or retcon lore and events from the original game. But, if all of the remake’s added content adheres strictly to optional buildings or rooms players can enter while exploring the town, it should be an excellent way to give closure to anyone who played the original and wished they could see inside some of the myriad places that are inaccessible inSilent Hill 2.
Rather, for the remake to have about the entire original game’s length in added exploration would be a bit overwhelming or unrealistic, so additions tomandatory, scripted narrative sequences like Rosewater Park or Heaven’s Nightwouldn’t be surprising. More than 20 hours is reportedly what players can anticipate if they want to explore every nook and cranny and, as such, how Bloober manages to balance exploration and narrative will be a testament to how meaningful or worthwhile its more-than-doubled length truly is.
Not everyone is going to want to explore every individual building and room they have access to on Silent Hill’s streets. So, if a first playthrough does take 16–18 hours on average as creative director and lead designer Mateusz Lenart claims, there surely must be more players will be required to do as well as more they can willingly decide to do, like if they choose to head over toNeely’s Bar in the Otherworldto see a message that isn’t there otherwise and make one ending far more likely.
