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 forDestructoid’s 2024 best remake/remaster.Silent Hill 2keeps 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 ofSilent Hill 2intact 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 2is 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 4was 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 Remakeis looking great and set to release early next year, as is theGothicremake. TheMax Payne 1 and 2 Remakeis 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 withXenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition,Suikoden 1 and 2 HD Remaster,Freedom Wars Remastered,andTales of Graces f Remasteredall slated to release next year.
