With a year full of remasters, and more so full-fledged remakes, it’s no surprise to see a title that pushes the very definition of remake to its fullest potential take the crown for Destructoid’s 2024 best remake/remaster. Silent Hill 2 keeps true and faithful to the 2001 source material while modernizing the experience.
It was a good move by developer Bloober Team to keep the original story of Silent Hill 2 intact and mostly the same with this remake—a strong point for the title—and instead focus on the weak points, enhancing and improving the combat, expanding and fleshing out the map and world, updating and adding new key cutscenes, and reworking and detailing the various puzzles players must complete to progress throughout the entire game.
In a nutshell, Silent Hill 2 is a great example of what other developers should strive for when trying to do an updated and modern remake of classic fan-favorite titles. You don’t have to completely reinvent the wheel, but rather, cater to what made the original so great and expand on it, improving things where the systems from long ago may no longer hold up or simply feel antiquated.
After back-to-back remakes winning this award—Resident Evil 4 was our 2023 winner—it’s hard not to wonder if this is the new normal rather than just a coincidence. It’s hard not to appreciate the extra effort that goes into completely remaking a classic favorite rather than just porting it to a newer system with upscaled resolutions.
But 2025 is looking like it will be a great year for both remasters and remakes. On the remake front, Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD-2D Remake is looking great and set to release early next year, as is the Gothic remake. The Max Payne 1 and 2 Remake is in full production, according to Remedy, so maybe we’ll see that too. And while I usually find it difficult to get excited about remasters, there are some absolute bangers coming up in 2025 with Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition, Suikoden 1 and 2 HD Remaster, Freedom Wars Remastered, and Tales of Graces f Remastered all slated to release next year.
Nominees for Best Remake/Remaster of 2024
- Silent Hill 2 [WINNER]
- Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster
- Epic Mickey: Rebrushed
- Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
- The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered
- Persona 3 Reload
- Sonic x Shadow Generations
Published: Dec 16, 2024 10:07 am