I just finished Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition, which was my first time playing the original Silent Hill 2 since borrowing a PS2 in my late teens. The game feels so small in comparison; it took me around 6.5 hours to finish, taking my sweet time exploring.
Truly a bizarre experience right after playing through the Remake twice, I enjoyed myself a ton but man, two decades of a jump in quality here is just the showcase of how far we have gone... Sorry but people saying this otherwise fantastic mod is the superior way of experiencing Silent Hill 2 in 2024 are off their rocker.
What it really shows is how amazing the Remake is as a reinterpretation of the source material, improving on it in every possible way. Yes, that most definitely also includes both writing and acting. Those "glimpses of the past" make so much more sense now. I'm blown away by how much from the original stuff is still there, yet how radically all areas got reworked in the Remake. How they managed to take somewhat weaker areas like the Labirynth and turn it into an absolute highlight of a chapter. How old puzzles were redesigned and expanded on — I would pick up items and immediately know what to do, but not necessarily where to go, as the level layout is just... a game of its time and additionally confusing to navigate due to the old-school camera. The combat is peak jank, does the job, but then again, the way Bloober upgraded those encounters, especially boss fights, while staying true to their core concepts is awe-inspiring... turning them into modern, mechanically upgraded renditions of the old designs, rather than ditching them and making something totally from scratch...
I’d definitely recommend anyone who hasn’t played the original to do so now after the Remake. It's a true eye-opener.