GATEWAY TO THE MIND | Silent Hill 2 Remake BLIND P8 | Longplay, No Commentary

Welcome back to my blind Silent Hill 2 Remake playthrough! Welcome to the Labyrinth, everyone! This a huge part of the story of Silent Hill 2, as if we're pulling off the metaphorical bandage before we get to Lakeview Hotel, the game's finale! Today's thoughts are below! SPOILER TIME The Abstract Daddy fight made for a really neat setpiece, but the boss was comedically easy to deal with. The arena turning from could've been a normal household being slowly destroyed as the homewrecker himself shows up is fantastic visual storytelling. Then it slowly shifts into the Otherworld, acting like a prison where Angela's always stuck running from the monster, even in the deepest parts of her mind is tragic. I honestly think that the bits where you can hear Angela's dad saying awful things was needed, I think it's always been told very well by how Angela acts as a character. Last thing on this part, in the line "You disgusting pig", I think it would've been perfect if the PIG part was said in a more higher pitched, hateful tone as she breaks into weeps and sobs. I don't know how I feel about her new dialogue, it's very weird that she'd suddenly start talking about Mary like this all of a sudden. I wonder if her last scene will give any insight into why. Maria's lines being clunky in the Story Trailer make more sense now, it was cut to resemble the original, but it makes it look like the VA fumbled it. This full version is a lot more like the devil trying to tempt James, exactly like I wanted her introduction to feel like. Next, it's something I've been consistently saying with a majority of these levels, but I love Bloober Team's level design once again. One criticism I will give is that the roaches (or Creepers, if that was what these are intended to be) were a very unnecessary addition to the Labyrinth. They feel mostly there for shock value and to gross people out, but this wasn't a thing in the original Labyrinth. I genuinely think I would still have felt the same regarding this without the roaches being all over the place. Like a lot of their level designs, I love how they transformed the rotating cube puzzle into a method of connecting the areas of the map. Like Blue Creek Apartments and the clock puzzle, or Toluca Prison and the new weight puzzle! The gigantic slashes on the wall and the ambience of Pyramid Head dragging the sword about were wonderful for building tension/atmosphere. Though I definitely would've preferred that he would be wielding the spear he normally does in the section. I'm also not a fan that they moved where he shows up. I know players of the original like myself knew where to expect him, but I wish he would've shown up there for new players, who wouldn't have had any idea he'd appear. It's silly, but I hope the New Game+ options allow you to keep and use Pyramid Head's sword still. The Labyrinth's theme (The Labyrinth, lol) in the original Silent Hill 2 is one of my favorites out of all of them. The droning rhythm to it was something oddly charming to me. There's a good reason Silent Hill 2's soundtrack is so famous! While I do like a number of Akira Yamaoka's reinterpretations of his famous melodies (Angela's and the theme when you meet Maria to name a few), I felt kinda let down by this one. It's nowhere near as prominent as the original. Like James says at the very first Save Square in the game, it's like someone's groping around your skull. MAJOR SPOILERS If you didn't catch on, James jumping into all these holes is symbolic of him delving deeper into his subconscious mind, with the Labyrinth being the culmination of all of this. He's diving into the truth as to why he's been brought here to Silent Hill in the first place. Going back to my original point, with this new version's lack of prominence, it feels almost empty, kind of taking away some of the significance this location SHOULD have. I want to ramble about Eddie, but I'm running out of space. I like the fight, much less clunky, but still really easy. I like his VA's performance, but there are slight changes I would've made to some line deliveries in this part. Overall, solid choice for Eddie. There definitely should've been more vitriol in his "fat disgusting piece of sh-" line. I think they should've synced his gunshots with corpse, can't, laugh. Also, I know it was kinda dopey, but they really should've included James' "I killed... a human being..." NO MORE SPOILERS My PC specs are listed in Episodes 1&2. Chapters: 0:00 Into the Mind 3:05 Angela Orosco (IV) 3:54 Abstract Daddy Boss Fight 14:07 Angela Orosco (V) 18:17 The Map of the Labyrinth 19:36 Maria (VII) 30:38 Lighter Gas 35:11 Lighter Wick 37:23 Iron Key 41:40 Broken Lighter 57:35 Small Key 1:05:54 Whole world ahead of us 1:09:58 Wirecutter 1:27:12 Maria (VIII) 1:34:13 Eddie Dombrowski (IV) 1:43:26 Road trip! 1:46:34 Lakeview Hotel 1:50:28 Rotten Apple 1:54:13 Key to Hotel Room 102 1:55:45 Room 312 Key and Ornamental Key