Before recently, one of the only crownsSilent Hill: Homecomingcould hoist on its head was that it arguably had the best boss fights in the entire series, largely due to superb art direction. But, as should be expected with any remake that takes huge liberties in reworking the fundamental bones of a classic game for modern sensibilities, Bloober’sSilent Hill 2is now poised to take the cake. It’s easy to overlook how lacklusterSilent Hill 2’s boss fights can be because of how phenomenal the game is otherwise, especially with opponents as iconic as Pyramid Head capable of making even the most basic of combat controls feel a bit more hectic.
Indeed, theSilent Hill 2remake doesn’t massively change or improve Pyramid Head’s Blue Creek Apartments encounter aside from giving it a new, expanded arena with obstacles for the Bogeyman to destroy. Likewise,Eddie Dombrowski’s boss fightis made more dynamic simply by having more severe visibility limitations in the meat freezer. That said, two of the original game’s most unsatisfying and unmemorable boss fights have fortunately been given huge, positive overhauls and rendered them completely differently: Flesh Lips and Abstract Daddy.
Silent Hill 2’s Flesh Lips is Ordinarily a Forgettably Straightforward Encounter
Silent Hill 2’s Flesh Lipsconsists of revolting sacks of flesh in cages that dangle from the ceiling. Given how unnerved James Sunderland is when Laura locks him in a room with this boss it is then fairly underwhelming and almost comical that players learn they’ll be spending the entirety of the fight walking about in a claustrophobic room as the cages slowly shift around from above.
Firing on these cages until they are eventually all felled, this is undoubtedly one of the quickest boss fights in the originalSilent Hill 2—a game whose bosses are all tackled the same way regarding anticlimactic combat mechanics. Not having much to work with as a foundation, theSilent Hill 2remake’s Flesh Lips boss fight has enough meat on its bones to at least feel more three-dimensional.
Players only battle one spongy Flesh Lips figure in theSilent Hill 2remake, but it behaves like the start of theResident Evil 2remake’s William Birkin G2 boss fightwhere players initially duck around a room with a low ceiling as Birkin attacks unseen from above. Flesh Lips’ cage eventually drops from the ceiling, though, and the cage unravels to create sharp, spider-like appendages of rusted metal that it then slashes at James with. In a surprising bout of speed and aggression the original never had, Flesh Lips also darts around the room and lunges hastily at players, making use of the remake’s vital dodge mechanic.
The only disappointing fact about Flesh Lips’ reimagined boss fight is that the remake’s final boss, Mary/Maria/Her, is essentially an apparating version of the same encounter with a cage whose thin metal legs swipe at James, though she does transmit a slow swarm of butterflies at the player.
Silent Hill 2’s Abstract Daddy is Now as Cinematic as It is Traumatic
Silent Hill 2’s Abstract Daddy boss fightis memorable because of how poignant the enveloping context is concerning Angela Orosco. But, on a granular level, the boss itself is yet again a leashed fight confined to a single, tiny room and consists wholly of players attempting to dodge around the foe to create distance and fire at it before having to maneuver around it again.
In the remake, however, this encounter is turned into a cinematic sequence that further embellishes Angela’s trauma with visual representations, including a narrow squeeze-through hole in the wall she may have used to hide or take refuge in. The boss fight is no longer restricted to a single room and instead takes place throughout a series of corridors that gradually descend into Otherworld imagery, and players are free to side-step dodge out of the way of Abstract Daddy’s swiping attacks and lunges so long as it doesn’t have them pinned in a long hallway.
Players even get glimpses of Angela on the other side of corridor walls as she herself flees from her father, Thomas Orosco. Thus, as a more vivid depiction of what Angela’s tragedies are, Abstract Daddy transcends a simple boss fight and becomes a truer reflection of theinner workings of Angela’s tortured psyche.
