It’s that time of the year again when horror movie marathons run rampant across TV channels and Spirit Halloween stores pop up on every corner. In the midst of it all, one new game release has me glued to the screen in fear: Silent Hill 2 Remake.
While its the grotesque imagery, modernized gameplay, and spiraling main character are some of its biggest highlights, this game has one of the best sound designs in gaming.
Silent Hill 2 effuses eeriness. From the crazed fluttering of moth wings to the breathy whispers of a lunatic behind a door, there’s so much to fear in its terror-riddled sound design. Bloober Team, after all, isn’t new to horror with Layers of Fear, Observer, and The Medium as major past releases among its catalog.
Storied composer Akira Yamaoka, who worked not only on the original Silent Hill but also nearly all of its sequels, returns alongside developer Bloober Team’s in-house audio and music director Arkadiusz Reikowski to create fear-inducing tracks filled with dark and gripping tones that rattle your nerves.
Yet even with these veteran fear-mongers at the wheel, Silent Hill 2 Remake will still require a competent sound system to match its breath-defying potential — and that’s where the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar with Dolby Atmos comes into play.
Horrifying auditory immersion via Dolby Atmos
In a recent Bloober Team dev diary, creative director and lead designer on Silent Hill 2 Remake, Mateusz Lenart, agrees that sound design is key when making a horror game. He says, “It’s hard to imagine a good horror game without effective sound design.” It’s true that Silent Hill 2 nails this with effective eeriness and skin-crawling audio, but it’s all the better with surround sound.
To get the true Silent Hill experience, you’ll want one of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars and that’s easily the Bose Smart Ultra, a premium soundbar with one of the best sound stages on the market.
To get the true Silent Hill experience, you’ll want one of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars and that’s easily the Bose Smart Ultra, a premium soundbar with one of the best sound stages on the market. Plus, if you have the budget for it, you’ll also want to add in surround sound speakers and a subwoofer for additional levels of audio coverage.
I recently wrote about how I upgraded my home cinema with the Bose Smart Ultra soundbar and it’s glorious, especially when paired with two Surround Speakers 700 and Bose Bass Module 500. It’s proven to be a terror-fueled nightmare when playing Silent Hill 2.
Some examples of the immersive audio include one instance of me passing a bathtub of blood with awful squishing sounds coming from the right, where the surround sound speaker was, as well as the simple-yet-dreadful whistling winds that sounded like muffled screams surrounding me in the dense, fog-riddled night sky.
To be clear, you don’t need all of that power to get the most out of Silent Hill 2’s terrifying audio mix. In fact, you can get a Bose home cinema sound system for the same price as a Bose Smart Ultra. It’s a bit of a downgrade, of course, but Silent Hill 2 Remake still benefits greatly from surround sound in any form it takes, and you don’t have to pay over $2,000 to meet those horror-fueled realities.
I've also tried the Sonos budget home cinema system, and while it offers somewhat similar performance to the Bose, you're still paying quite a premium for that surround sound. That's why I'd recommend a Vizio option as an alternative, such as the Vizio Elevate and surround sound system that's just $549 right now.
Again, it won't have the same quality as the Bose setup, but Silent Hill 2 Remake benefits most from surround sound — not necessarily the maximum fidelity of the audio. To that end, though, let's make sure your TV and audio settings are up to par for the fear-inducing madness of Silent Hill 2.
Silent Hill 2 Remake best settings on PS5
There are quite a few TV and audio settings you'll want to make sure are set for your stay in Silent Hill. Despite its name, the town is full of some horrifying audio and we want to make sure you hear (and feel) it all so your immersion is at its fullest.
On the PS5 side of things — if that's the platform you're playing on — you'll first want to ensure that you have Dolby Atmos enabled in the sound settings. This is crucial for those using surround sound speakers like the ones mentioned above, otherwise they won't work properly.
In your TV sound settings, you'll also want to make sure that Dolby Atmos is turned on. This will, again, be automatic depending on the TV, but it doesn't hurt to make sure it's setup properly. Some TVs also have alternative functions, like dialogue boost and clear sound adjustments, which really depend on your own preferences. I tend to keep these off as they can muddle the overall audio fidelity.
Last but not least are the game audio settings. Interestingly, Silent Hill 2 doesn't have an extensive list of sound settings to play with and that's because it's all set to its best particular function from the outset. The most important thing here is ensuring that you have your Audio Profile set to speakers as this will bring the best sound quality for your home cinema system.
There is an additional setting in accessibility if you want to turn off the annoying static function that plays via the radio whenever you're close to an enemy. This is, once more, a preference thing, so don't feel obligated in turning this off or on, though I personally keep it on for immersion's sake.
With that you're all set to tackle the mind-rending world of Silent Hill 2 Remake and its ambient synth-fueled score. The dark and suspenseful, often even industrial-sounding world of Silent Hill is made so much better when you have one of the best soundbars and speaker systems paired alongside it, making it the perfect escape this Halloween season — if, of course, you're willing to traverse the nightmare.
