Silent Hill 2 remake: Is the long boat ride necessary? 

After defeating Eddie Dombrowski, players get on a boat and row to the Lakeview Hotel. While this could have been done in a cutscene, both Silent Hill 2 and its remake decide to give players full control of this rather monotonous boat ride. Is the boat ride necessary? What is its role in terms of the game’s narrative? 

A lot has happened since James was last above ground 

The boat ride takes place after multiple jarring events have occurred. As James Sunderland, players went down the Silent Hill Historical Society building, entered a monster-infested Toluca Prison, fought Angela’s Abstract Daddy, traversed the hellish Labyrinth, and killed the human Eddie Dombrowski. That’s a lot to go through in such a short time, and it’s a wonder James is still sane enough to continue searching for Mary (if he can still be considered sane at this point). 

The boat ride is meant to be a time of reflection for James and the player 

With more than enough experiences to traumatize him, the boat ride is a way for James (and the player) to collect his thoughts, gather his resolve, and push forward. The boat’s controls are clunky and unresponsive, but players will be able to reach the Lakeview Hotel as long as they steer James towards the light in the distance.  

If the section required you to just hold down a single button, players might be tempted to check their phones or stretch their legs, but without guidance, the boat will gradually veer off course. Constant redirection is needed, forcing the player to focus on where the boat is going.

The “Scourge of Toluca Lake” reinforces the significance of the boat ride 

The “Scourge of Toluca Lake” achievement requires players to spend 10 whole minutes out on Toluca Lake. This could serve as proof that the boat rides in Silent Hill 2 and the remake were meant to be long and reflective, as players can normally go through these segments in about 3 minutes. You don’t need to be rowing the boat to get the achievement, but the game has to be unpaused while in the lake for a total of 10 minutes. With that much time to kill, players will likely think about the game’s past events. 

As with the staircase leading to Toluca Prison and the corridor leading to the final boss, the boat ride is one of the lengthy segments in Silent Hill 2 that allows players to take in everything that has just happened. These moments are mostly devoid of sound and usually have just a single audio source to focus on (in the boat ride’s case, it is the lapping of the waves against the boat).  

As players reach the Lakeview Hotel, they might find themselves rejuvenated by the boat ride. The rest of the game gets just as heavy as the last few hours, but thanks to the momentary reprieve, they will be a little more prepared for the Lakeview Hotel, the epicenter of James’s nightmares.