Silent Hill

[Wesker]

All it took for me was a single snippet of uninterrupted gameplay footage and the bloober logo and I knew the game was going to be fucking ass.

I guess you could get some minor enjoyment out of seeing old locations remade in a fancy new engine, but that's about it.

The need to include multi segmented boss battles alone is the epitome of normieslop.

Abstract Daddy running around like a retard. Go fuck yourselves.

 

[blackface enthusiast]

I guess my expectations are really low after the HD Collection and Homecoming/Downpour. I didn't think the remake was that bad considering what it looked like it was shaping up to be. The new James is a little too obviously a crazy guy but I did appreciate the different take on the character, and I can tell the actor was actually serious about the role unlike Troy Baker who literally did not give a shit and phoned in his HD Collection performance. Seeing Eddie as more of a resentful, cowardly slob did bring a different dimension to his character, but I think he misses the mark along with Angela who is inferior in every way. The effect of the original where she looks/sounds so much older creates this shock when you learn that she's actually a teenager, but making her obviously a teenager from the get go loses that effect. I also don't think they understood that you're meant to simultaneously be attracted to these characters because they are the only other human beings in this creepy town full of monsters but simultaneously repulsed by how offputting and crazy they are, even if their mental stuff isn't upfront right away. The remake missed the mark with that by making it a little too obvious upfront. Mary and Maria are inferior in every way but I find it hard to hold that against the remake because the original performances were perfect and can't ever be topped. But again, at least the actress gave a shit and wasn't like Mary Elizabeth McGlynn who also phoned in her HD Collection performance and had no understanding or admiration for the characters or story.

The sound design was great, probably having Yamaoka babysitting them helped. There's definitely a novelty to walking around these environments, some of them recreated 1:1, in full HD with a free camera. (There is a free camera mod for the PC version of the original game as well that's pretty good.) I thought the visuals were great too, again the benefit of having Ito involved and babysitting the devs, not quite the same level of charm or detail as the original games (the texture work on the monsters in the original were incredible and had a lot of character, but are lacking here and feel more generic like stock assets) but they got the job done. Heading into the hospital, you can see the sun beginning to set with a gloomy pink haze starting to settle in. The hospital itself including the nightmare segment were all well done and the outdoor segment after the hospital was great. Pitch black darkness all around you, as if the entire town has been engulfed in this black void that you can never escape from - one thing you get with a free camera you can't get with fixed camera angles. The lighting was excellent, I still recall the way that diner sits in the middle of one area with its red neon light reflecting off everything, seeing the Nurses twitch and hobble around in the darkness and neon red. Good use of darkness and shadows, it really just needed a noise filter so that said darkness and shadows would constantly have that noise tricking you into thinking that there's a figure or something in the darkness.

I appreciate what they were going for with the combat, trying to make something a little more 'gamey' but not making you feel like a badass Resident Evil protagonist. James is just Some Guy, he can't fight, he's probably never shot a gun in his life before and it all comes across okay. Sometimes enemies are annoying, the mannequins got grating after awhile because I found that they would often hide and trigger from behind walls and corners and things before I could possibly react, and they were placed so frequently that even when I was surprised by one it was predictable. I think that on Hard mode the enemies have way too much health, but I intend on doing another playthrough with mods to see if that helps. There are some that reduce enemy HP a bit and increase weapon damage that might have a better flow.

Abstract Daddy running around like a retard. Go fuck yourselves.

Yeah I have really mixed feelings about that. The original fight's nothing to write home about, but the focus is really on Angela and her trauma. I think there's an argument to be made that turning this fight into some giant spectacle takes away from that - are people remembering the fight for Angela's trauma, or are they remembering it because WHOA DUDE EPIC THREE STAGE BOSS FIGHT, AWESOME!

On the other hand, I don't think it was really about making a spectacle for the sake of it, or to court normies. I appreciate that they were expanding upon the meeting between worlds as James and Angela's nightmares touch, and we get to experience Silent Hill the way Angela does, something that's really only hinted at in the Hotel when we meet her in the flaming staircase. The entire thing is chaotic, disjointed and messy, really showing you that this Silent Hill thing is just pure chaotic energy and not something with fixed rigid rules like an American horror movie as reality is constantly crunched and viscerally changed around you as you sink into Angela's nightmare. As much as James is chased and tormented by Pyramid Head, you get the impression that Angela similarly spends a lot of time being tormented by the Abstract Daddy. And during that moment we get to experience a piece of her trauma, both what originally happened to her and what she experiences in Silent Hill regularly. Some of the audio is great too, you can find an area where you can actually hear Angela's father verbally abusing her which is skin crawling. The whole hide and seek, hunter/hunted dynamic also plays into that.

I do think that making the final battle against Mary/Maria a BIG EPIC MULTI STAGE BOSS FIGHT was retarded though. They should have done that with the fight with the two Pyramid Heads instead. The fight against Mary/Maria is more cathartic and about James confronting his own trauma, it's meant to be part of the descending tone of the game. It's the PH fight that's the high octane one. I really think that the multi-stage nature of this fight takes away from it moreso than with Angela because it doesn't really do anything to inform the characters or the relationship between Mary and James the way I would argue the Abstract Daddy fight at least shows more about Angela and her trauma or gives the player some experience of living out that trauma, if only for a few moments.

There's also probably something to be said about how much Team Silent were limited by the technology of the time. Various team members involved have commented on the remake since its release, Masashi Tsuboyama made some interesting tweets if you can find them. He talked about how he found the free camera in the remake really endearing because they wanted the camera in SH2 to be free as well but were restrained by technical limitations. Given the chance, would Team Silent have made any of these fights a similar spectacle? I could see the argument for them going for something similar with Abstract Daddy, but I can't see them turning the final Mary/Maria fight into such a spectacle myself.


Overall I don't think the remake is that bad. It's not as good as the original, but it stands on its own and has some cool segments. It's sufficiently atmospheric and creepy enough it feels like you're playing a real Silent Hill game even if it's obviously built on the bones of something greater than itself - compared to Homecoming or Downpour which just feel like generic third person games with extremely generic creature designs and environments. I'd really be curious to see them take a crack at remaking Silent Hill 4. I think it's the only Team Silent game that could actually benefit from the treatment, and there's less 10/10 gold in the base game for them to rely on to carry them.

 

[Marc]

To reiterate all I agree with in the preceding post: Technical limitations made SH2 more of a character-focused and -driven story than what was expected of video games of the time, and the remake is less character-focused for the sake of being more video game-y.

 

[blackface enthusiast]

Definitely. I found the remake too video game-y in general as well. The prison and maze were way too streamlined and it just felt like another level because of how much it held your hand. It was also way too combat focused (which is another issue with parts of the remake) and instead of taking in the vibe or thinking about the story/setting, you're focused on combat mechanics and resource management. Silent Hill 2's combat was very easy and wasn't amazing, but it really allowed you to soak in the vibe and atmosphere more. The prison and maze also really lacks the surrealism that the original had. You're really left questioning in the original everything about the prison and maze, how much of it is real, how it CAN'T be real, how James must be losing his mind, or if all of this is real how is it possible. But in the remake you're just collecting items and clearing required rooms in a very prescribed, designed, video gamey way. You don't have that feeling of utter insanity like how in older cartridge based games you could overflow the memory and the game starts to randomly generate everything using garbage data - the way the maze feels like reality has started to glitch and "run out of memory" using generic assets because the utter insanity of your situation is too much for reality to even depict.

The camera differences also change a lot I feel. The more detached, fixed camera angles in the original make it feel more like you're a passive observer, watching these things happen to James. While the generic modern third person 'cinematic' perspective is meant to immerse you and put yourself in James' shoes. That definitely colors how someone feels about James and his actions I'm sure, not just with Mary but how he treats the other characters over the course of the game.

 

[Marc]

 

[Shaneequa]

Why would you post this content mill shit

 

[cactus]

Fuck off with this fake ass AI shit.

 

[Nameless One]

All it took for me was a single snippet of uninterrupted gameplay footage and the bloober logo and I knew the game was going to be fucking ass.

I guess you could get some minor enjoyment out of seeing old locations remade in a fancy new engine, but that's about it.

Speaking of which, Silent Hill 2 remake camera hacked playthrough by Nubzombie has an extremely valuable and chill showcase of the detail and environments Bloober and konami were proud of. It's pretty good and they included off-camera details from the original like the two creepy masks in the prison. They did cut corners in weird areas but there are so many deep cut references for fans like Shoot and Crusher Dan labeled on VHS tapes in the first house you encounter a lying figure. I suppose Bloober Team really did have actual fans on-board and maybe some original Team Silent members.


Nub is the only Silent Hill creator worth watching in my opinion despite him being what he is.

 

[Michael Wade]

Not gonna lie. Silent Hill F looks ballsy. They didn't hold much back with the gore and nudity.
I expect nothing less from makers of when they cry.

 

[umseriously]

Not gonna lie. Silent Hill F looks ballsy. They didn't hold much back with the gore and nudity.
I expect nothing less from makers of when they cry.

If it's anything like higurashi and umineko, the game won't hold back at all and will be extremely violent.

 

[PuffMacMuffin]

Haven't touched SH after 4 entirely on principal. Is there any explanation on how why or how other parts of the world are now experiencing the otherworld stuff? I thought it was isolated mainly to the area in and around SH?

 

[RIPRhongoBongo]

Not gonna lie. Silent Hill F looks ballsy. They didn't hold much back with the gore and nudity.
I expect nothing less from makers of when they cry.

Oh boy, it really does still exist

 

[SSJ4Goku]

I'm cautiously optimistic about Silent Hill F. Silent Hill has had so many L's it really needs more wins.

 

[Jace on ice]

It does look cool but melee only may have been a bad choice.

It looks goofy as fuck watching this 4,11 85 pound schoolgirl beating hulking monsters to death with a lead pipe and parrying knife attacks.

If she had a gun it would look a lot less stupid.

Like at least James is a big dude and even he had guns.

 

[Marc]

Haven't touched SH after 4 entirely on principal. Is there any explanation on how why or how other parts of the world are now experiencing the otherworld stuff? I thought it was isolated mainly to the area in and around SH?

There were no Silent Hill games after 4. And there never will be. There is nothing to understand, and no additional canonization to incorporate into your memories of the franchise.

Unrelated: I want a Chris Chan Silent Hill game.

 

[PuffMacMuffin]

Fuck, this game dropped off the radar within the first month. I briefly gave it a pass until I saw more of it through streamers, and it's just more modern worthless remake slop to pacify literal fucking retards that think tank controls are too hard in the original.

The most infuriating part (at least for me) are the retards/unfortunate souls who's first entry into SH is the remake and gurgle out the vile slop that the remake is the definitive way to experience the story and does it better than SH2 did.

 

[Flopper]

Fucking hell, I watched new trailer for Silent Hill f, and the enemies shown off are creaking mannequin/zombie things swinging bladed weapons around. Creativity is fucking dead.

 

[Shaneequa]

 

[Lady Adjani]

Have a feeling this is going to be just like the SH2 remake with a heavy focus on combat, which doesn't look very deep or interesting with a bunch of close-quarters fights where you're incentivized to fight rather than avoid the enemies.

Obviously the comments are glazing SH2R because of course they are

 

[Hemorrhoy Rogers]

Yeah I ain't spending 70 bucks for f, let alone 80. Latest trailer killed what little interest I had in it. It'll probably be half price in less than a year though if the remake of Silent Hill 2 is anything to go by.