Silent Hill 2 remake

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

Also I find it funny how Masashi Tsuboyama ("director" of SH2) created a twitter account just weeks away from the launch of the remake, and then started promoting the remake. Totally nothing weird about that.

Speaking of which, I wanted to share some info on Takoyashi Sato, who was one of the people leading the project, and had a role of "CG director and character artist". Like Owaku, I think he was essential to the success of SH2 (and 1).

The more I read about him, the more I like him.. and the more depressed I have gotten.

Lots of interesting info on him, like how he had a background in oil painting (studied sculpture and fine art at Tama University) and singlehandedly made ALL the CG cutscenes for Silent Hill 1.

Apparently, when he started working for Konami they wouldn't let him work on a serious project (that allowed him to used his knowledge of 3D rendering like Metal Gear Solid), despite him applying over and over. He transitioned from 2D to 3D art (on the software side of things) within 5 months but found getting a 3D job within Konami very difficult. There were a lot of older artists in Konami but they didn't have the 3D knowledge that he did. So he created his a small 4-second movie and basically went to the higher-ups behind his boss' back to show it to them, which allowed him to start getting 3D work (on Silent Hill). 8 months later, Silent Hill 1 was shown at E3 which people liked, and Sato was "in charge" the cinematics and characters, but his title didn't show that because of Japanese work hierarchy. He had 30-40% of the CG scenes for the game done when his boss decided to place a supervisor over him (they didn't want someone as young as him to get the credit). A fight broke out between them and ultimately his boss said he will have to do all the work alone and Sato accepted. So, he ended up making everything by himself ("from scratch"). He basically "lived there" for 3 years from that point on, sleeping under the desk and once everyone had left at midnight, he would have a "real chance" at doing work since he could use all the computers (~150) to render the scenes (running on Unix OS at the time).

The success of SH1 led him to have a lot higher degree of control over SH2 including its story. He wrote the script (alongside Hiroyuki Owaku who was the primary writer) and directed the "storytelling aspects" of SH2. And as a art director he had control over the character design and the town/environment design. He said he (and the team) wanted to "avoid shallow illustrative monsters or atmosphere...", stating "we carefully chose the inspirations rather ambiguous and chaotic, or the very twisted art generated by twisted mind."

For the character design process, back when he was with Konami and did not have show his work to anybody or get approval, Sato said he would "spend a lot more time with character development beforehand; making notes, keeping a diary about the character, and kind of defining exactly what the character is, psychologically." After that, he would not do much but start modelling. "Especially with Silent Hill 2, where there was nobody to approve or disapprove. So once I nailed the psychological side, I would start modelling..."

He was drafting a script for Silent Hill 3 before he left Konami. He said he liked deep, introspective, psychological horror, which is what he had in mind for Silent Hill 3, but "that kind of complicated thought process was not as apparent in Silent Hill 3, which was more like pure horror. It didn’t feel like psychological horror anymore, to me." When asked how he felt about SH3 and 4 being completely different to 2, he said "It’s normal that a change of team changes the feel of the product. That’s what happened with Silent Hill 3 & 4"


Sources:
https://web.archive.org/web/20110831193 ... /sato.html

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/si ... al-journey

You should honestly make written reviews here on the Silent hill games since you have a good understanding of the games for that series.

[Zothique]

Also I find it funny how Masashi Tsuboyama ("director" of SH2) created a twitter account just weeks away from the launch of the remake, and then started promoting the remake. Totally nothing weird about that.

Speaking of which, I wanted to share some info on Takoyashi Sato, who was one of the people leading the project, and had a role of "CG director and character artist". Like Owaku, I think he was essential to the success of SH2 (and 1).

The more I read about him, the more I like him.. and the more depressed I have gotten.

Lots of interesting info on him, like how he had a background in oil painting (studied sculpture and fine art at Tama University) and singlehandedly made ALL the CG cutscenes for Silent Hill 1.

Apparently, when he started working for Konami they wouldn't let him work on a serious project (that allowed him to used his knowledge of 3D rendering like Metal Gear Solid), despite him applying over and over. He transitioned from 2D to 3D art (on the software side of things) within 5 months but found getting a 3D job within Konami very difficult. There were a lot of older artists in Konami but they didn't have the 3D knowledge that he did. So he created his a small 4-second movie and basically went to the higher-ups behind his boss' back to show it to them, which allowed him to start getting 3D work (on Silent Hill). 8 months later, Silent Hill 1 was shown at E3 which people liked, and Sato was "in charge" the cinematics and characters, but his title didn't show that because of Japanese work hierarchy. He had 30-40% of the CG scenes for the game done when his boss decided to place a supervisor over him (they didn't want someone as young as him to get the credit). A fight broke out between them and ultimately his boss said he will have to do all the work alone and Sato accepted. So, he ended up making everything by himself ("from scratch"). He basically "lived there" for 3 years from that point on, sleeping under the desk and once everyone had left at midnight, he would have a "real chance" at doing work since he could use all the computers (~150) to render the scenes (running on Unix OS at the time).

The success of SH1 led him to have a lot higher degree of control over SH2 including its story. He wrote the script (alongside Hiroyuki Owaku who was the primary writer) and directed the "storytelling aspects" of SH2. And as a art director he had control over the character design and the town/environment design. He said he (and the team) wanted to "avoid shallow illustrative monsters or atmosphere...", stating "we carefully chose the inspirations rather ambiguous and chaotic, or the very twisted art generated by twisted mind."

For the character design process, back when he was with Konami and did not have show his work to anybody or get approval, Sato said he would "spend a lot more time with character development beforehand; making notes, keeping a diary about the character, and kind of defining exactly what the character is, psychologically." After that, he would not do much but start modelling. "Especially with Silent Hill 2, where there was nobody to approve or disapprove. So once I nailed the psychological side, I would start modelling..."

He was drafting a script for Silent Hill 3 before he left Konami. He said he liked deep, introspective, psychological horror, which is what he had in mind for Silent Hill 3, but "that kind of complicated thought process was not as apparent in Silent Hill 3, which was more like pure horror. It didn’t feel like psychological horror anymore, to me." When asked how he felt about SH3 and 4 being completely different to 2, he said "It’s normal that a change of team changes the feel of the product. That’s what happened with Silent Hill 3 & 4"


Sources:
https://web.archive.org/web/20110831193 ... /sato.html

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/si ... al-journey

You should honestly make written reviews here on the Silent hill games since you have a good understanding of the games for that series.

There would be literally ZERO ******* point to this, as everyone knows about that series already. And also, **** ******/slopes, they don't need ANY ******* MORE fanfare from the gwailo.

[Bing_xiLim]

There would be literally ZERO ******* point to this, as everyone knows about that series already. And also, **** ******/slopes, they don't need ANY ******* MORE fanfare from the gwailo.

Pretty much. I thought it would be better to talk about the development and the philosophy behind the second game, since all the ******* ******* who "played" the game through YouTube and say the game is "art" but don't even know why exactly it turned out that way - because it was clearly made to be as such. Also, I think Sato's story would be something incredibly rare in today's time, and reading it was a stark reminder on just how much different the industry is now. That said, I may write some reviews later down the road if I feel I have something distinct and noteworthy to add.

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

There would be literally ZERO ******* point to this, as everyone knows about that series already. And also, **** ******/slopes, they don't need ANY ******* MORE fanfare from the gwailo.

Pretty much. I thought it would be better to talk about the development and the philosophy behind the second game, since all the ******* ******* who "played" the game through YouTube and say the game is "art" but don't even know why exactly it turned out that way - because it was clearly made to be as such. Also, I think Sato's story would be something incredibly rare in today's time, and reading it was a stark reminder on just how much different the industry is now. That said, I may write some reviews later down the road if I feel I have something distinct and noteworthy to add.

What a shame. Your information is actually very insightful which I haven’t seen on YouTube for Silent Hills retrospective/analysis video, which trust me there is a ceaseless supply of silent hill content on YouTube.

[Bing_xiLim]

What a shame. Your information is actually very insightful which I haven’t seen on YouTube for Silent Hills retrospective/analysis video, which trust me there is a ceaseless supply of silent hill content on YouTube.

Well, that's good to know. Truth be told, I avoid writing reviews and mini-essays mainly because I want hate to waffle on regurgitating **** that people already know, and would rather write something unique and insightful. Not as easy as it sounds since I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and seldom provide critique on something unless I have acquired deep knowledge and understanding of the game down to its core mechanics and design philosophy.

The case of Silent Hill 2 is a special one since the mechanics are quite simple (at least as far survival horror is concerned) and the strength of the game lies in its overall design philosophy and execution (and leaning heavily into being "artsy" but not being pretentious about it). The remake was the perfect indicator (to convince those who were on the fence_ that gaming is indeed filled with normies and ******* who parrot the phrase "videogames are art" until they are presented with unique mechanics and techniques used in older games. Then all of a sudden, things are "outdated" and need to be "remade" or "improved"... by throwing it all away and replacing it with whatever the current standard is.

But I digress. If my input is appreciated, I might revisit the Team Silent games later and write some proper, in-depth reviews (but only if I find unique to share that hasn't been done to death).

[Element]

After watching the cutscene with Angela's death, I'm depressed with bloober and their audience's inability to grasp the intent of the original. Modern libs are obsessed with 'trauma' and they attach great status to certain subsets (women, ethnic minorities, sexual deviants) who have, or pretend to have, suffered it. So bloober follows the path of least resistance - Angela is a victim of rape at the hands of her father, therefore she must be pitied. Have her look sad, have her speak in a depressed, medicated voice, employ every rudimentary trick in the book just to browbeat the player over the head with her past and how much trauma she's gone through. Don't you feel bad yet? She was raped!

Yet this was never the intent of the original. Team Silent showed you the truth - Angela was not a person whose presence was in any way pleasant. Her manic mood swings and eccentric behaviour made you feel awkward. When she approaches James at the stairs and asks 'Will you love me? Take care of me? Heal all of my pain?', it was a question that was not entirely rhetorical. And the only answer that you, the person behind the screen, would give to that question is the very same one that James gives - silence. You cannot bring yourself to like Angela. You want to take a step back as she puts her hands on James's face. The game breaks the fourth wall as it reaches through the screen and shows you the tragedy in all its glory - trauma is not endearing. Rather the opposite. You want to shield yourself from her words, and so does every person in society at large. And James reflects the player's feelings when he remains at the foot of the stairs with his head slumped, watching the woman walk away to die in the blazing inferno without uttering a word. There is nothing left to say.

[rusty_shackleford]

Don't you feel bad yet? She was raped!

@Red7

[Red7]

After watching the cutscene with Angela's death, I'm depressed with bloober and their audience's inability to grasp the intent of the original. Modern libs are obsessed with 'trauma' and they attach great status to certain subsets (women, ethnic minorities, sexual deviants) who have, or pretend to have, suffered it. So bloober follows the path of least resistance - Angela is a victim of rape at the hands of her father, therefore she must be pitied. Have her look sad, have her speak in a depressed, medicated voice, employ every rudimentary trick in the book just to browbeat the player over the head with her past and how much trauma she's gone through. Don't you feel bad yet? She was raped!

Yet this was never the intent of the original. Team Silent showed you the truth - Angela was not a person whose presence was in any way pleasant. Her manic mood swings and eccentric behaviour made you feel awkward. When she approaches James at the stairs and asks 'Will you love me? Take care of me? Heal all of my pain?', it was a question that was not entirely rhetorical. And the only answer that you, the person behind the screen, would give to that question is the very same one that James gives - silence. You cannot bring yourself to like Angela. You want to take a step back as she puts her hands on James's face. The game breaks the fourth wall as it reaches through the screen and shows you the tragedy in all its glory - trauma is not endearing. Rather the opposite. You want to shield yourself from her words, and so does every person in society at large. And James reflects the player's feelings when he remains at the foot of the stairs with his head slumped, watching the woman walk away to die in the blazing inferno without uttering a word. There is nothing left to say.

i think i would want to shield myself from her face, like with paper bag.
i mean she should be happy some courageous ****** raped her in first place.
i would NOT let her guilt trip me into mercy **** tho, no sir.

[Red7]

i think all that emo silent hill foggy regret/sentimental ******** mood building could work if, guess what, there was ******* something good enough worthy to rape and eat (not necessarily in that order) that was gone before u raped it enough.

ultimate design failure by not building char and giving him something to take away before expecting player to care about any of that ****

[Trickster]

After watching the cutscene with Angela's death, I'm depressed with bloober and their audience's inability to grasp the intent of the original. Modern libs are obsessed with 'trauma' and they attach great status to certain subsets (women, ethnic minorities, sexual deviants) who have, or pretend to have, suffered it. So bloober follows the path of least resistance - Angela is a victim of rape at the hands of her father, therefore she must be pitied. Have her look sad, have her speak in a depressed, medicated voice, employ every rudimentary trick in the book just to browbeat the player over the head with her past and how much trauma she's gone through. Don't you feel bad yet? She was raped!

Yet this was never the intent of the original. Team Silent showed you the truth - Angela was not a person whose presence was in any way pleasant. Her manic mood swings and eccentric behaviour made you feel awkward. When she approaches James at the stairs and asks 'Will you love me? Take care of me? Heal all of my pain?', it was a question that was not entirely rhetorical. And the only answer that you, the person behind the screen, would give to that question is the very same one that James gives - silence. You cannot bring yourself to like Angela. You want to take a step back as she puts her hands on James's face. The game breaks the fourth wall as it reaches through the screen and shows you the tragedy in all its glory - trauma is not endearing. Rather the opposite. You want to shield yourself from her words, and so does every person in society at large. And James reflects the player's feelings when he remains at the foot of the stairs with his head slumped, watching the woman walk away to die in the blazing inferno without uttering a word. There is nothing left to say.

Exactly. I checked out SyntheticMan's comparison between the two scenes and they're super different artistically. The original tried hard to make us feel uneasy and confused, like a person dealing with someone else's trauma. James even recoils and the camera changes to first person so we get a feel for it. But in the remake, everything's simplified, feels fake, and like they were trying too hard for some sympathy for Angela. It's terrible. Literally scribbling their own stuff on someone else's work.

[Rand]

Honestly, as someone who is a woman in college, I see a lot of these women who get pump out from these colleges and universities and become "True Believers" who believe that their cause is righteous. However, these young women were molded to be like this. You know what, for fun I'll show you what I had for my math homework last week.
https://imgur.com/6NABjkw
I **** you not. I had to do this for ******* MATH! So it is no wonder why so many young girls come out of college and university as "True Believers" who want to take down American society and its values.

This was just 2006, by the way.
Prophetic.
Also, Nelson calls Skinner a "******".

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

After watching the cutscene with Angela's death, I'm depressed with bloober and their audience's inability to grasp the intent of the original. Modern libs are obsessed with 'trauma' and they attach great status to certain subsets (women, ethnic minorities, sexual deviants) who have, or pretend to have, suffered it. So bloober follows the path of least resistance - Angela is a victim of rape at the hands of her father, therefore she must be pitied. Have her look sad, have her speak in a depressed, medicated voice, employ every rudimentary trick in the book just to browbeat the player over the head with her past and how much trauma she's gone through. Don't you feel bad yet? She was raped!

Yet this was never the intent of the original. Team Silent showed you the truth - Angela was not a person whose presence was in any way pleasant. Her manic mood swings and eccentric behaviour made you feel awkward. When she approaches James at the stairs and asks 'Will you love me? Take care of me? Heal all of my pain?', it was a question that was not entirely rhetorical. And the only answer that you, the person behind the screen, would give to that question is the very same one that James gives - silence. You cannot bring yourself to like Angela. You want to take a step back as she puts her hands on James's face. The game breaks the fourth wall as it reaches through the screen and shows you the tragedy in all its glory - trauma is not endearing. Rather the opposite. You want to shield yourself from her words, and so does every person in society at large. And James reflects the player's feelings when he remains at the foot of the stairs with his head slumped, watching the woman walk away to die in the blazing inferno without uttering a word. There is nothing left to say.

Exactly. I checked out SyntheticMan's comparison between the two scenes and they're super different artistically. The original tried hard to make us feel uneasy and confused, like a person dealing with someone else's trauma. But in the remake, everything's simplified, feels fake, and like they were trying too hard for some sympathy to Angela. It's terrible. Literally scribbling their own stuff on someone else's work.

What’s worse there are YouTube content creators who I like and respected that played the silent hill games saying the remake did the original justice.

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

I don't think there's much "DEI money" at all and they're doing this because they genuinely believe in the cause. The reason they don't seem to have any regard for the consequences of their action are a combination of womanbrain and being True Believers who believe their cause is so righteous it cannot fail.

Honestly, as someone who is a woman in college, I see a lot of these women who get pump out from these colleges and universities and become "True Believers" who believe that their cause is righteous. However, these young women were molded to be like this. You know what, for fun I'll show you what I had for my math homework last week.
https://imgur.com/6NABjkw
I **** you not. I had to do this for ******* MATH! So it is no wonder why so many young girls come out of college and university as "True Believers" who want to take down American society and its values.

Yesterday parody has become today’s reality.

48C6E873-66D3-453B-B651-3C3EE90944AC.jpeg

[Zothique]

After watching the cutscene with Angela's death, I'm depressed with bloober and their audience's inability to grasp the intent of the original. Modern libs are obsessed with 'trauma' and they attach great status to certain subsets (women, ethnic minorities, sexual deviants) who have, or pretend to have, suffered it. So bloober follows the path of least resistance - Angela is a victim of rape at the hands of her father, therefore she must be pitied. Have her look sad, have her speak in a depressed, medicated voice, employ every rudimentary trick in the book just to browbeat the player over the head with her past and how much trauma she's gone through. Don't you feel bad yet? She was raped!

Yet this was never the intent of the original. Team Silent showed you the truth - Angela was not a person whose presence was in any way pleasant. Her manic mood swings and eccentric behaviour made you feel awkward. When she approaches James at the stairs and asks 'Will you love me? Take care of me? Heal all of my pain?', it was a question that was not entirely rhetorical. And the only answer that you, the person behind the screen, would give to that question is the very same one that James gives - silence. You cannot bring yourself to like Angela. You want to take a step back as she puts her hands on James's face. The game breaks the fourth wall as it reaches through the screen and shows you the tragedy in all its glory - trauma is not endearing. Rather the opposite. You want to shield yourself from her words, and so does every person in society at large. And James reflects the player's feelings when he remains at the foot of the stairs with his head slumped, watching the woman walk away to die in the blazing inferno without uttering a word. There is nothing left to say.

Exactly. I checked out SyntheticMan's comparison between the two scenes and they're super different artistically. The original tried hard to make us feel uneasy and confused, like a person dealing with someone else's trauma. But in the remake, everything's simplified, feels fake, and like they were trying too hard for some sympathy to Angela. It's terrible. Literally scribbling their own stuff on someone else's work.

What’s worse there are YouTube content creators who I like and respected that played the silent hill games saying the remake did the original justice.

Sucking another dude's **** and getting ****** in the *** is a virtuous act now. All is possible in the Kali Yuga.

[wndrbr]

What’s worse there are YouTube content creators who I like and respected that played the silent hill games saying the remake did the original justice.

that should be a lesson not to respect any content creators.

[Red7]

Exactly. I checked out SyntheticMan's comparison between the two scenes and they're super different artistically. The original tried hard to make us feel uneasy and confused, like a person dealing with someone else's trauma. But in the remake, everything's simplified, feels fake, and like they were trying too hard for some sympathy to Angela. It's terrible. Literally scribbling their own stuff on someone else's work.

What’s worse there are YouTube content creators who I like and respected that played the silent hill games saying the remake did the original justice.

Sucking another dude's **** and getting ****** in the *** is a virtuous act now. All is possible in the Kali Yuga.

but kali yuga period ended/ing and now we are entering galacitc equator increased energy/frequency period

[rusty_shackleford]

Massive majority of sales were on PS5, barely any PC sales(78-22 in euroland)
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2024/10 ... sed-on-ps5

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

Another good Silent Hill 2 Remake critique.

[wndrbr]

Massive majority of sales were on PS5, barely any PC sales(78-22 in euroland)
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2024/10 ... sed-on-ps5

if we extrapolate this onto the whole world, it would mean that the game is a decent success.
The various analytical sites like Steamspy or VG Insights claim that the game sold around 500 copies on PC.

Also, the 22% may look like a small share, but it's not 2% or 5% that could be ignored. Still a large amount of money.

[Bing_xiLim]

Another good Silent Hill 2 Remake critique.

That bit about Ito going off on fans and "correcting" theories is why I can't stand the ****.

I really wish Owaku and Sato would make a Twitter account and pitch in what their contributions were, because I find it increasingly hard to believe that SH2 turned out the way it did without their influence playing the biggest part. Especially given Sato's departure after 2 and his idea of wanting SH3 to also be psychological horror focused; and SH3 is very clearly different from SH2. For all we know, Ito could be making **** up regarding his involvement, misrepresenting/over-emphasising his contributions to the game and no one would be able to correct him, since (excluding Tsuboyama) he was the only Team Silent to have any contact with the western fanbase for years.

[KnightoftheWind]

Silent Hill 1 is the best, and I couldn't care less about the rest

[Bing_xiLim]

Silent Hill 1 is the best, and I couldn't care less about the rest

SH2 >= SH1 >>>>>>>>> SH3 > SH4

[rusty_shackleford]

Massive majority of sales were on PS5, barely any PC sales(78-22 in euroland)
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2024/10 ... sed-on-ps5

Gamalytic estimates about half of all copies on Steam were bought by americans
https://gamalytic.com/game/2124490


(52.8% for USA is significantly higher than most other titles on gamalytic's frontpage 'top new sellers')

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

You know if someone said I only watch the RoboCop 2014 remake and never the original there not going to say I experience the original film version.

Because there fundamental changes to the sound, art direction, acting , cinematography that makes it a different film entirely.

People have this ******** notion that playing a remake is same experience that you shouldn’t brother with the original ,when those same changes happen like movie remakes but to even a bigger degree of changes.( Gameplay)

[KnightoftheWind]

There are rare cases, such as the Resident Evil 1 Remake and Kirby Super Star Ultra, which are objective improvements and can serve as 1:1 replacements for the original. RE1 less so, but it does a much better job 'being' RE1 than the SH2 remake does at being SH2.

[DDC]

This is on sale in a bundle with Silent Hill F for $60 on steam right now and I slightly thought of getting it but watched a video on Silent Hill F first since I had mostly ignored the game and totally lost it at the fact that you get an invincible devil trigger powerup. Then I remembered that the length of SH2 had been padded out with extra enemies and puzzles, watched some raw gameplay videos, and realized I wouldn't have fun playing it. I've finally accepted that Silent Hill isn't for me anymore. I'll try to find a vid comparing all of the cutscenes to the originals since there is still some latent curiousity there, but after that I'm done with "Silent Hill."

[DDC]

I went in and watched a full cutscene video and I have no regret whatsoever that I did not buy this game. Sinking 15+ hours into this nonsense would have just ****** me off. I am so glad I did not slog through all of the combat and padded length to see this. The environments look absolutely incredible, but somehow they managed to completely ruin the characters, story, and just about every iconic moment. This is by no means an exhaustive list of complaints, but these things really stuck out (and I haven't played SH2 since the original came out, so if 25 years removed from playing the game, I can instantly tell something is "wrong" with key moments in the remake without needing to reference the original, you know the remake missed the mark badly).

-The pyramid head rape scene is massively censored, destroying most of the impact it had.

-Angela's character has been completely changed. In the original, she is an unhinged older woman who is unsettling to be around. In the remake, she is much younger and written more sympathetically. The difference is between a character the player wants to wash their hands of, and a character that the developers are absolutely begging you to feel sorry for in an over the top way.

-Eddie is much fatter and over the top disgusting. I am guessing this is because in 2026, too many soy redditors have the body type of original Eddie, so new Eddie had to be made fatter to contrast with the current playerbase.

-James is a completely different character. In the original, he was earnest and a nice guy, flustered and stressed out by the situation he was in. Voice would go high-pitched in times of stress. The remake James is darker, calmer, more serious, aggressive. Some of this comes down to changes in the voice actor, but his reactions in key plot moments are different too. He yells at Laura when she says something about Mary, which he didn't do in the original. He punches Eddie before the boss fight, which is drastically out of character and didn't happen in the original. And many other similar things.

-Maria's character model has been uglified and desexualized to be less racy than the average soccer mom, eviscerating one of the main themes of the plot, but that has been talked about plenty already. What hasn't been discussed much is that she has zero chemistry with James in the remake. It's not just a character model revision--their relationship is very different. In the original game, the contrast between Maria's sexuality and Mary's innocence was used to great effect to create tension. James was attracted to Maria and implicitly at war with the temptation to stop looking for Mary because she never (even when healthy) fulfilled his lustful side. In the remake, James seems creeped out by and dismissive of Maria anytime she flirts with him, and never displays much attraction to her.

-This culminates in the most important and iconic scene in the entire game -- the prison cell. In the original, Maria propositions James with probably her best line: "Come and get me. I can't do anything through these bars." And James's response is ambiguous enough that the interpretation is left open to the player: "Stay right there, I'll be there soon." He might just be showing decisiveness and urgency about saving her, or he might want to take her up on the offer. The delivery leaves it entirely unclear what his motivation is.



In the remake, James is clearly unnerved when Maria tries to seduce him. At the end, when he promises to come back for Maria, he seems indecisive about even rescuing her, like he just wants to get away from her. The body language, the downcast eyes, the hesitation in his voice -- there is no indication whatsoever that he might be thinking of getting to the other side of those bars as quickly as possible to bang it out. In fact, it looks more like he feels guilty about the lie that he'll come back for her. And Maria's line -- "I'll be waiting," isn't nearly as forward and over the top as the original.



-The video tape scene (the other most important scene in the game) has been completely censored. In the original, it showed a top-down view of James approaching and standing over Maria and then making an aggressive move to suffocate her before the footage becomes scrambled and hard to make out. That has been entirely taken out, leaving only the unclear portions of the tape.

-Maria's death scene has been censored. The original shows pyramid head rearing back with his spear and then beginning the stabbing motion before the camera cuts to a closeup of Maria's face. The remake does not show pyramid head in the process of striking the blow. It just has an awkwardly long closeup of Maria's face.

-James's dialogue before the final pyramid head has been completely changed. He no longer discusses pyramid head "punishing him for his sins." He just says he knows why pyramid head is there and doesn't need him anymore. I guess any reference to sin is too biblical for these ***** devs to include?

-Key lines in Mary's letter were changed and/or removed. I'm thinking if there's one part of Silent Hill 2 that should be off limits for revision, it's Maria's letter.

-A couple of new endings were added, but they are inconsequential and too similar to the endings that were already there. If they really wanted to change SH2 (as it's clear that they did), they should have just faithfully remade the game and put their new spin in alternative endings and cutscenes. They could have had several versions of each cutscene based on plot flags that had been triggered to that point. For example, there are some endings that their version of the Maria/Prison cutscene could match up with, but it doesn't work as the sole, canon version of that scene. Overall, a big missed opportunity to please fans of the original game while still adding to it.