Silent Hill 2 Remake Metascore Drops to 86% After The Guardian Review. Fans Are Not Taking That Kindly
The Silent Hill 2 Remake's Metascore dropped from 88% to 86% after just one review, sparking dissatisfaction among fans.
The Silent Hill 2 Remake was generally well-received, with players worldwide getting their hands on the game on October 4th, 2024. According to SteamDB, the game peaked with over 23,000 players, making it one of the best releases of the month. However, yesterday, The Guardian published a review giving the Silent Hill 2 Remake a score of 40/100. As a result, the game's Metascore dropped from 88% to 86%. The Guardian's review is currently the only one on Metacritic marked as unfavorable.
Silent Hill 2 Remake – some basic info
Before diving into the review, let’s go over some basic information about the remake. The Polish studio Bloober Team handled its development, with the original Silent Hill 2 having been released 23 years ago on September 28th, 2001, for the PS2. Over three years later, the game also made its way to PC.
Silent Hill 2 follows the story of James Sunderland, who receives an unusual letter asking him to meet someone in the mysterious town of Silent Hill. Originally developed by Konami, this survival horror game has a strong legacy, with the original earning a Metacritic score of 89%, reflecting its positive reception. The remake introduces several updates, including new endings in the "New Game Plus" mode.
The Guardian’s review and fans reactions
Now, let's get back to The Guardian's review. A score drop like this after just one review is pretty unusual. According to the reviewer, the Silent Hill 2 Remake falls short in several fundamental areas. It's also worth noting that The Guardian's reviewer never played the original game.
Silent Hill 2 isn’t a graphically pretty game – to the developers’ credit, it now looks 10 years old, rather than 20 – but the monsters get special mention for being as stuck in the past as James is. The models look crude and jagged when they’re not hidden in fog or darkness, and defeating them is almost always a case of bravely running away until they get stuck on the scenery, or just sort of forget about you and wander back to where they first appeared.
In the review, the critic argues that the game doesn't look good, describing the character models as "crude and jagged." This comment, in particular, has angered many fans of the classic horror game. On Reddit, for example, we can read comments like:
This review feels unnecessarily harsh and insulting, and like the reviewer is ignorant as to what Silent Hill is as a franchise. Seems like he was expecting Resident Evil rather than Silent Hill.
The reviewer also criticized the game's plot, specifically mentioning characters like Angela and her mother. In his opinion, these characters are difficult to care about.
I don’t have time to care about Angela or her missing mum. It’s already taking all my combined energies just to care about James and his mono-dimensional possible-ghost wife.
On the other hand, fans are voicing their frustration with these specific critiques. Many feel that the reviewer’s comments don’t do justice to the depth of the characters.
Like… It’s the story of the game… Why do you play it if you don’t want to discover the characters and their story ? Especially in a game like Silent Hill.
Regardless of our opinions on the issue, it's important to always respect differing viewpoints.
