Similar to the 2001 original, the Silent Hill 2 remake is a rich game filled with hidden treasures for those willing to explore its foggy and shadowy nooks. With a stronger focus on combat and some areas that feel more expansive and intricate, along with new puzzles that often demand multiple steps to solve, it will take some time before you can leave that town behind. If you're curious about how long it will take, it largely depends on your completionist tendencies and whether you plan to delve into Silent Hill 2 Remake's depths to uncover its multiple endings—eight in total—and other secrets. Here's everything you need to know about Silent Hill 2's playtime and what you can expect to discover if you're willing to immerse yourself in the nightmare. Be cautious, as this article contains some light story spoilers.
Your playtime in Silent Hill 2 will vary significantly based on how much time you invest in exploring the town, searching hidden areas, and collecting extra materials. This is particularly true during the early game, where you have access to much of the town and can visit numerous spots that aren't crucial to the main path. Among the GameSpot team members who played the Silent Hill 2 Remake before its launch, we found the game to last between 17 and 19 hours on a first playthrough, given our thorough search for secrets. If you're less concerned about finding secrets and extra ammo, you can likely expect the game to last around 15-16 hours on your initial run.
Completing Silent Hill 2 Remake for the first time unlocks a New Game Plus mode, allowing you to discover new items like the chainsaw and unlock additional endings. The puzzle locations remain unchanged, which can speed up your progress, but if you're looking for additional elements and aiming for those new endings, expect a New Game Plus run to take about 10-12 hours. There's a Trophy/Achievement for completing the game in under 10 hours, suggesting this is a reasonable benchmark.
As with the original release, some endings in the Silent Hill 2 Remake are based on your in-game behavior, such as your interactions with Maria or James's health status. For the extra endings, you'll need to find new items, which might slightly extend your overall playtime. Bloober Team has also added two new endings not present in previous releases. Therefore, completionists aiming to see everything and all eight endings will likely spend dozens of hours.
The remake of Silent Hill 2 will guide you through the same locations, in the same sequence, and with the same story beats as the original game. However, many of these locations are now more extensive and detailed, significantly extending the game's length. Here's an overview of all the major places you'll visit in Silent Hill 2.
