Silent Hill 2 remake

[Grumpyboy]

I tried to play SH2 Remake but took one look at Angela now ugly face, and decided just couldn't take it and quit , not because she's hideous or anything, but just I'm sick of the BS , and I feel making concessions is hypocritical on my part

[wndrbr]

I've finished it. It's kind of an OK game - not great, but not bad enough to make fun ot it. Competently made, looks fine, runs sort-of fine, besides the two female characters having their looks downgraded it doesn't really have any woke **** added in.

Most of the remake's problems stem from the fact that it's a modern remake made for gamers with modern sensibilities.

[logincrash]

The "tee-hee, remember how **** and tasteless the previous game was" ******** with the original Maria outfit was enough for me to know that it's rotten.
And it's not the coomer in me speaking. Making El Donte from DMC say "Not in a million years" when he sees himself with the proper white Dante hair showed the same disdain for the original from the devs of the new one.
You ******* scumbags, you're using the name of the original to profit and yet you spit on it at the same time. It's literally the same with any other sequel and or remake in the last 10-20 years or so.

[Bing_xiLim]

I've finished it. It's kind of an OK game - not great, but not bad enough to make fun ot it. Competently made, looks fine, runs sort-of fine, except for the two female characters having their looks downgraded it doesn't really have any woke **** added in.

Most of the remake's problems stem from the fact that it's a modern remake made for gamers with modern sensibilities.

Normie **** will eat it up and they have. Being a modern remake, the game "improves" upon the original in every aspect except the one that matter. Like you said, Silent Hill was always about the atmosphere, vibe and the audio design. And SH2 used all that to a convey an interesting story (at least as far as videogames are concerned) in an interesting way. Take all that away, and it feels like a game trying very hard to be like the Resident Evil remakes with a Silent Hill story but none of the charm of the original

And so I found myself asking, why would I bother ever replaying this game and not the original? But the normie does not care. As long as something is "competently made" they will be satisfied and insist the game is a masterpiece. I suspect if Konami remakes any other Team Silent games, and Bloober is given the project, we'll see the exact same thing - modern remake made for gamers with modern sensibilities.

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

I've finished it. It's kind of an OK game - not great, but not bad enough to make fun ot it. Competently made, looks fine, runs sort-of fine, except for the two female characters having their looks downgraded it doesn't really have any woke **** added in.

Most of the remake's problems stem from the fact that it's a modern remake made for gamers with modern sensibilities.

Normie **** will eat it up and they have. Being a modern remake, the game "improves" upon the original in every aspect except the one that matter. Like you said, Silent Hill was always about the atmosphere, vibe and the audio design. And SH2 used all that to a convey an interesting story (at least as far as videogames are concerned) in an interesting way. Take all that away, and it feels like a game trying very hard to be like the Resident Evil remakes with a Silent Hill story but none of the charm of the original

And so I found myself asking, why would I bother ever replaying this game and not the original? But the normie does not care. As long as something is "competently made" they will be satisfied and insist the game is a masterpiece. I suspect if Konami remakes any other Team Silent games, and Bloober is given the project, we'll see the exact same thing - modern remake made for gamers with modern sensibilities.

Have to wonder what other Silent Hill games would Konami remake. I believe SH2 was the only that sold well ( Think SH3 sold ok)

[Element]

It wont be talked about 20 years down the line, that's for sure

[Element]

I've finished it. It's kind of an OK game - not great, but not bad enough to make fun ot it. Competently made, looks fine, runs sort-of fine, except for the two female characters having their looks downgraded it doesn't really have any woke **** added in.

Most of the remake's problems stem from the fact that it's a modern remake made for gamers with modern sensibilities.

Normie **** will eat it up and they have. Being a modern remake, the game "improves" upon the original in every aspect except the one that matter. Like you said, Silent Hill was always about the atmosphere, vibe and the audio design. And SH2 used all that to a convey an interesting story (at least as far as videogames are concerned) in an interesting way. Take all that away, and it feels like a game trying very hard to be like the Resident Evil remakes with a Silent Hill story but none of the charm of the original

And so I found myself asking, why would I bother ever replaying this game and not the original? But the normie does not care. As long as something is "competently made" they will be satisfied and insist the game is a masterpiece. I suspect if Konami remakes any other Team Silent games, and Bloober is given the project, we'll see the exact same thing - modern remake made for gamers with modern sensibilities.

Have to wonder what other Silent Hill games would Konami remake. I believe SH2 was the only that sold well ( Think SH3 sold ok)

iirc the sales were halving for every Team Silent game shipped. From ~2m copies for SH1 to ~250k for the fourth.

[Bing_xiLim]

It wont be talked about 20 years down the line, that's for sure

Exactly what I think. I'm waiting for the day people take Bloober's **** out of their mouth and admit the remake is painfully overrated and something that, instead of trying to do something different to its contemporaries, chooses to basically copy them to achieve success.

[SpellSword]

This isn't Silent Hill 2... It's Resident Evil 4.

I tried to play SH2 Remake but took one look at Angela now ugly face, and decided just couldn't take it and quit , not because she's hideous or anything, but just I'm sick of the BS , and I feel making concessions is hypocritical on my part

[J-12]

I've finished it. It's kind of an OK game - not great, but not bad enough to make fun ot it. Competently made, looks fine, runs sort-of fine, except for the two female characters having their looks downgraded it doesn't really have any woke **** added in.

Most of the remake's problems stem from the fact that it's a modern remake made for gamers with modern sensibilities.

Normie **** will eat it up and they have. Being a modern remake, the game "improves" upon the original in every aspect except the one that matter. Like you said, Silent Hill was always about the atmosphere, vibe and the audio design. And SH2 used all that to a convey an interesting story (at least as far as videogames are concerned) in an interesting way. Take all that away, and it feels like a game trying very hard to be like the Resident Evil remakes with a Silent Hill story but none of the charm of the original

And so I found myself asking, why would I bother ever replaying this game and not the original? But the normie does not care. As long as something is "competently made" they will be satisfied and insist the game is a masterpiece. I suspect if Konami remakes any other Team Silent games, and Bloober is given the project, we'll see the exact same thing - modern remake made for gamers with modern sensibilities.

You forgot to mention what exactly you don't like about it besides that it is a remake.

[A Chinese opium den]

Get back to me when they remake silent hill 1.

[wndrbr]

It's funny how the game's main menu is just a dirty public bathroom. At first I thought the menu's background is going to change depending on at which stage of the story you currently are (kinda like in Half-Life 2), but nope - it's just this dingy public bathroom. It only changes once you finish the game, just like in RE4.

Dunno, if I were the developer I wouldn't have wanted to use public bathroom as a background image for the main menu of my game. It doesn't even hold any symbolic importance in game's plot, it's just a place where the game starts.

[Bing_xiLim]

You forgot to mention what exactly you don't like about it besides that it is a remake.

I already did in some other thread.

Firstly, way too much padding. Too many puzzles (and steps to solve them) that were initially interesting but started to get annoying and felt like arbitrary roadblocks that gutted the pacing. It introduces a lot of wandering around, fighting the same monsters, finding a key or memo, opening some door, moving some box or just finding some supplies.

Combat is improved but suffers due to how often the game chucks enemies at your face. The fear factor dies quickly after the opening hours because you are able to figure out how to quickly dispatch and deal with all of them. The audio design is what maintains some leve of tension and anticipation with some clever jumpscares here and there. Even then, there's only so many times a mannequin hiding in a corner will be able to scare me before I get bored of it. The fact that the game also provides you invincibility frames right as you dodge provides another sense of security, especially if you're an adept player that has the timing down.
Speaking of which, the combat (I mentioned this in another thread) feels like a budget version of the last of us, better than the original, but not quite polished to feel fun and engaging to avoid feeling excessive. The monsters are also a lot more aggressive and unavoidable so you have no choice but to keep fighting them until you get used to it. Also, the environments are usually too small which makes dodging incredible annoying as you have wrestle with the camera in tight situations. Funnily enough, navigating narrow corridors and tight spaces is also when I found the game to be the most effective in making you tense and sit up in anticipation.

Another small gripe I had about the gameplay is scripted sequences, like when you pass some corpses in a hallway and beat them to make sure they are dead, but it doesn't matter what you do because they are scripted to come alive later when you pass them by after unlocking a puzzle item or getting a key.

But like I said, my main issue is with the story, which depending on your point of view, could be chalked down the game just "being a remake". In general, the way the game handles its story and presentation lacks the Lynchian/ surreal vibe that the original had. Which was essential for this game to feel like an authentic and faithful re-imagining of the original game, and not just a competently made, Silent Hill inspired game that lacks its soul.

I doubt you want to hear me talk about that **** so I'll leave that out. Unless you want specific examples where I think the story and overall presentation greatly falters.

[J-12]

You forgot to mention what exactly you don't like about it besides that it is a remake.

I already did in some other thread.

Firstly, way too much padding. Too many puzzles (and steps to solve them) that were initially interesting but started to get annoying and felt like arbitrary roadblocks that gutted the pacing. It introduces a lot of wandering around, fighting the same monsters, finding a key or memo, opening some door, moving some box or just finding some supplies.

Combat is improved but suffers due to how often the game chucks enemies at your face. The fear factor dies quickly after the opening hours because you are able to figure out how to quickly dispatch and deal with all of them. The audio design is what maintains some leve of tension and anticipation with some clever jumpscares here and there. Even then, there's only so many times a mannequin hiding in a corner will be able to scare me before I get bored of it. The fact that the game also provides you invincibility frames right as you dodge provides another sense of security, especially if you're an adept player that has the timing down.
Speaking of which, the combat (I mentioned this in another thread) feels like a budget version of the last of us, better than the original, but not quite polished to feel fun and engaging to avoid feeling excessive. The monsters are also a lot more aggressive and unavoidable so you have no choice but to keep fighting them until you get used to it. Also, the environments are usually too small which makes dodging incredible annoying as you have wrestle with the camera in tight situations. Funnily enough, navigating narrow corridors and tight spaces is also when I found the game to be the most effective in making you tense and sit up in anticipation.

Another small gripe I had about the gameplay is scripted sequences, like when you pass some corpses in a hallway and beat them to make sure they are dead, but it doesn't matter what you do because they are scripted to come alive later when you pass them by after unlocking a puzzle item or getting a key.

But like I said, my main issue is with the story, which depending on your point of view, could be chalked down the game just "being a remake". In general, the way the game handles its story and presentation lacks the Lynchian/ surreal vibe that the original had. Which was essential for this game to feel like an authentic and faithful re-imagining of the original game, and not just a competently made, Silent Hill inspired game that lacks its soul.

I doubt you want to hear me talk about that **** so I'll leave that out. Unless you want specific examples where I think the story and overall presentation greatly falters.

No, it's fine, feel free to rant about it more.

To be honest, i never finished any game in this series, but i did liked watching reviews for them.

[J-12]

[wndrbr]

i never finished any game in this series, but i did liked watching reviews for them.

gay

[Bing_xiLim]

No, it's fine, feel free to rant about it more.

To be honest, i never finished any game in this series, but i did liked watching reviews for them.

Playing the game for the first time was definitely an interesting experience. Almost felt like a fever-dream, the way everything came together, including the jank controls and basic, dated combat; parts of the game that should be terrible by themselves, ultimately coming together to create something unique and worth remembering. Perhaps it might just be that I'm imagining things (playing the game decades after its release), but this game definitely felt like a niche product created for an entirely different audience, even within the already much smaller "gamer" demographic of that time. I mean, I would assume they knew that making a horror sequel that was incredibly different from the first, focusing on psychological themes and subtle storytelling, may not jive with the broader audience. In fact, I think there was a quote in their documentary that explicitly said they were not going for mainstream appeal but rather creating a game that could be considered a form of art, and they drew inspiration from work of various artists, most obvious being David Lynch (Lost Highway) and Adrian Lyne (Jacob's Ladder).

The remake feels like a highly polished re-telling of the original game, but with the design philosophy changed, no longer being about creating something "unique" or artistic (if I get a bit pretentious), and more about "modernising" an existing piece of 'art' to conform it to current standards so that it can compete with its contemporaries. Not to say that something being "artistic" means its automatically good. I can certainly see people not rating the original very highly and that's understandable, but the "artistic" approach of Team Silent is incredibly apparent and something I find a lot of people commend (even if they feel the game is overall not that amazing).

First of all, in the remake, the camera work for some of the cutscenes just does not work. I already gave an example of this in another thread, but it's more appropriate to write it here. The scene where James watches the videotape is probably the best example of this. It's a great "show don't tell" moment. The camera hover over James' head as he's sitting motionless on the sofa, hunched forwards, elbows on his knees, head hung down, with 'True' playing in the background. The game leaves you to imagine James' reaction and what he must be feeling inside after being confronted by the truth, and I think that's so much more effective at conveying the gravity of the scene than a shot of his face or some exaggerated action. The remake focuses on the reflection of James' face in the TV screen, before cutting to a direct shot of his face before Laura enters the room; he doesn't react to the tape, most likely to show he enters a state of shock but it's just not as effective. It doesn't help that the remake rendition of 'True' is just so lacklustre. Like many of the remake songs, it's way too overproduced, lacking the simplicity of the original and being too meandering. That said, I do like the shot of James slowly looking at Laura and staring at her before saying "I killed her". His face looks lifeless in that particular shot. But it's an overall inferior scene imo.

Another example is in the Maria ending where the camera is overlooking the observation desk from a distance as James and Maria approach his car and share a last bit of ominous dialogue. It is now replaced with close up shots and the camera work you can expect from mainstream AAA games like the new God of War.

The shift to photorealism also did not do the game any favours. It's hard to replicate the exact visual aesthetic of the original - like the scene with Maria in the labyrinth cell. The lighting and colour palette of the original produces a very distinct result which you can't achieve by making things more realistic. Symbolism aside, the visuals are what really make this scene iconic for me.

The entire scene is enveloped in this dingy lighting that casts deep shadows across the environment, and you get this cool contrast between the characters and their surroundings. The result is also the characters' faces being partially covered with shadows. The lights also briefly flicker in intensity when Maria asks "James is something wrong?"

It all feels so meticulous, how the lighting draws your attention to specific details, such as Maria’s face, the bars of the prison cell, her features; it makes her look alluring but also a bit ghostly, even when she doesn't speak.

Then there's the colour palette. It looks desaturated and washed-out. It removes any vibrance and warmth in the scene and instead enhances the bleakness/coldness. Very fitting how that reflects the lifelessness of the cell and the emptiness inside James.

Speaking of which, the walls are also interesting. They reflect light in an unnatural way, despite how low-key the lighting is, which adds to that sense of unreal-ness. Think about it - the way the prison walls appear in the original CG cutscene's lighting is totally unrealistic, unless the entire room is well-lit and illuminated but it doesn't feel that way at all. This is something modern tech can't achieve by itself, you would have to manually mess with all the parameters, altering each one to create this effect. And I'm assuming this was all due to the hardware limitations of the time; Team Silent couldn't brute force their game to look photorealistic so they had to come up with something else.

Then there's the contrast between the surrounding and Maria's outfit and makeup. Her clothing especially stands out against the drab background (symbolism for James desire most likely). It draws your eyes to her. James on the other hand, while I won't say he "disappears" into the background, he blends in far more than she does. Stuff like this what created that dreamy, unnatural, lynchian atmosphere that people associate with the game. And I'll be honest, I was always fascinated by the visual style of the game, but it was only when I thought a bit about "why" these scenes worked so well that all these observations came to mind.

Do these elements exist in the remake? Possibly. But that's the problem with going the "photorealistic" route, it becomes harder to make things stand out and look interesting unless you heavily alter something and make it look stylised, which is where I think the original CG cutscenes, being a lot less detailed and lower resolution, benefitted greatly.

Then there's the voice acting which is also off-base. It's definitely more polished as you'd expect with any triple A game nowadays, and Bloober clearly tried to make the characters feel more human but this falls flat more often than it shouldn't. James isn't as bad as Maria, but he went from a confused man going through a dissociative episode to sounding like a generic movie protagonist stuck in a weird place figuring out what to do. Maria is much worse. She no longer looks or nor sounds like a seductive, alluring yet enigmatic person with a strange aura around her. The way the voice actress delivers her line feels fake and flat as hell, especially when she's reading Mary's letter (but to be fair, it would be very difficult to top the original here).

The subtlety is also gone from a lot of the key scenes. The most obvious example is regarding the reason why the characters are in Silent Hill. You can immediately tell something is wrong with them, and it's very obvious in the case of Angela her abuse and rape is made abundantly clear in the Abstract Daddy boss fight. On one hand, I liked how they expanded on the boss fight, by having you dodge and shoot the monster as it chases/charges at you through the narrow corridors of a house (breaking through the walls and ****). As the boss fight progresses, the house becomes more and more decrepit until you enter a room that resembles the original boss fight location. On the other hand, it is undoubtedly much more on the nose and little is left for you to ponder about.

Changes to Eddie are also something I'm mixed about. I appreciate how they make him look more unsettling but the problem is the game ends up going too far and portraying him as a crazed fatso that is doomed from the start, as opposed to a tragic character (like Angela) who succumbs to his personal demons. The pizza scene, for example, is completely replaced. Now you will find him sitting in a theatre having finished the entire box and now licking ice-cream from a huge tub like a disgusting fat slob.

The final letter scene was also a letdown (leave ending), and I think that was arguably the most important scene of the game. The voice acting is of nowhere near as impactful as the original. Certain lines were also removed which alters the message of the letter, lines that expressed how sad and regretful Mary was of her disease destroying her and James' life. She also expresses her fear of dying and her fear of James forgetting about her. The remake changes it so that she has accepted her death and wants the pain to end, which completely fucks up the moral dilemma of James' actions.

The choice for the music and visuals for this scene were also bizarre and felt like a huge mismatch for the scene. Gone is the lingering shot of the background of the cemetery, replaced with different shots of the town, the purpose which I still don't understand. The letter text that would slowly scroll past the screen is also removed. All that is left are the subtitles for the voiceover. The original game understood just how significant and impactful the letter was and let Mary's voice (unedited) and the text on the screen be the only thing that you focus on.

Either Bloober thought they had a better idea, or they just did not understand what made the final scene work.

As you can tell, I really like SH2. I'd be hesitant to call it "one of the best games ever" and I don't want to put it on a pedestal but I have a deep appreciation for it. The psychological themes it explores, particularly regarding guilt and punishment resonated with me strongly. Moreover, it gave me the push to go out there and start playing older and different games, and seek out new experiences. And the soundtrack is incredible, which is what initially drew me to the game.

[Jordy]

I haven't watched it but this keeps showing up in my YouTube feed and makes me laugh.

[Oyster Sauce]

I haven't watched it but this keeps showing up in my YouTube feed and makes me laugh.

How did they know?

[Faceless_Sentinel]

Thanks to @rusty_shackleford, I watch this guy more than half a year. He made great video that everybody should watch:

[Trickster]

I haven't watched it but this keeps showing up in my YouTube feed and makes me laugh.

How did they know?

Hurr hurr women always looking like that! Y...you are chud!

[Vergil]

btw you would be a *** for playing this remake even without the manjaw ****** replacements anyway

[wndrbr]

Now they are going to remake SH1, 3 and 4.

[rusty_shackleford]

videoframe_66069.jpeg

[RangerBoo]

Now they are going to remake SH1, 3 and 4.

This game came out a week ago and has only sold one million copies. Meanwhile Space Marine 2 sold that many in its first hour. These devs are desperate to spin the poor sales of this game as a win.

[wndrbr]

Now they are going to remake SH1, 3 and 4.

This game came out a week ago and has only sold one million copies. Meanwhile Space Marine 2 sold that many in its first hour. These devs are desperate to spin the poor sales of this game as a win.

the image says "as of 10/11/2024", so it sold one million copies in three days. And it's not actually a poor number. Consider these facts:

- the game was developed by an eastern euro indie studio, so the budget was likely not too big;
- the survival horror genre was never a major money maker. Resident Evil is basically the only series that consistently performed well, every other horror franchise have died;
- SH series was on a downward spiral since the second game. SH1 sold 2M copies, SH2 sold 1M copies, SH3 sold even less and was considered an under-performed, SH4 was a flop;
- Konami's reputation has been in taters ever since they fired Kojimbo and cancelled his Silent Hill reboot, I don't think they expected this game to sell gazillions right from the get go.

[rusty_shackleford]

japslop fans eating up some more remakeslop

[Vergil]

This game came out a week ago and has only sold one million copies. Meanwhile Space Marine 2 sold that many in its first hour. These devs are desperate to spin the poor sales of this game as a win.

lol this cope

[RangerBoo]

japslop fans eating up some more remakeslop

Lets be real, a majority of the players are going to just get the game on PC and mod the female characters back to their original state. There are already mods that fix both Angela and Maria. Assuming of course that Robin, aka Dark0ne, isn't a **** and bans the mods in order to please his masters at BlackRock. Given the numerous porn mods that people have made for Skyrim for Serena (who, like Angela is also a victim of sexual assault) it would be peak hypocrisy on his part.

[Oyster Sauce]

Lets be real, a majority of the players are going to just get the game on PC and mod the female characters back to their original state. There are already mods that fix both Angela and Maria.