On the sport’s climax, James acknowledges what he subconsciously created Pyramid Head to do and why, with a pair of Pyramid Heads confronting him armed with spears. Compared to the unique sport, Silent Hill 2 remake makes it clear that the steel Pyramid Head look is a helmet worn by James’ tormentors after they briefly raise them as much as kill themselves, although their faces are obscured in shadows and can’t be seen by the participant.
James first encounters Pyramid Head within the Wooden Facet Flats the place it brutalizes two model monsters in a touch at its psychological connection to James by its pent-up sexual frustration. James hides in a closet to initially keep away from detection and learns the onerous means that Pyramid Head is bulletproof when he repeatedly shoots the monster level clean together with his pistol when the hulking swordsman approaches the closet. Nonetheless, it’s when James reaches the adjoining Blue Creek Flats that he finds himself in a battle to the demise with Pyramid Head, with no hope of bodily overpowering his opponent.
It’s right here the place the standard of life enhancements and all-around modernized technical presentation for Silent Hill 2 remake in comparison with the unique model actually shines. Even with the improved motion and digicam controls, it is a tense showdown; simply probably the most intense within the sport and probably the most harrowing the participant has endured at this level within the story. Pyramid Head comes barrelling at James, smashing by steel cages strewn across the room, not simply counting on his signature blade however punching James if he will get too shut. And this model of Pyramid Head is fast, marching steadily in direction of James and bursting by the twisted cages round him, filling the air with the sound of shrieking steel as James tries to remain one step forward simply to remain alive.
Comparatively, the primary showdown with Pyramid Head within the unique Silent Hill 2 came about in a comparatively naked room, making it simpler for gamers to navigate across the enemy and simpler to anticipate his actions. Profiting from the PlayStation 5’s technical capabilities, the confrontation within the remake is in a darkened room the place the participant has to depend on James’ very dim flashlight, the noise Pyramid Head makes dragging his sword, and the sparks it emits scraping the bottom to maintain observe of the place the villain is, holding the participant nailed to the motion in the event that they hope to outlive. Plug within the headphones for this one and keep frosty, as a result of you have to actually concentrate for this battle.
In each variations of Silent Hill 2, the objective isn’t a lot to defeat Pyramid Head as it’s to remain alive lengthy sufficient for the helmeted henchman to surrender the battle, at the least for now. The extra injury James inflicts on Pyramid Head, the shorter period of time the encounter lasts, concluding with Pyramid Head listening to an air raid siren and departing from the room, taking one final glare at James earlier than resurfacing later within the sport.
Pyramid Head is the idea of self-flagellation made tangible within the purgatory that’s Silent Hill, the ephemeral given a terrifying bodily kind. Proper from that introductory second, when James catches a glimpse of the villain from between the picket slats of a musty condominium closet to the duel towards the 2 Pyramid Heads within the foyer of the Lakeview Lodge, Pyramid Head is probably the most putting antagonist in any model of Silent Hill 2. And although Pyramid Head’s core position stays comparatively the identical in each variations, the remake does make the executioner extra consultant of the 2024 sport’s wider ethos.
