SILENT HILL 2 REMAKE
Recently, Konami announced several new Silent Hill projects.
In this article, I will analyze all information about the Silent Hill 2 Remake.
And in the next articles I will analyze all other new projects.
Developers
The remake is being developed by the Polish studio Bloober Team, known for the horror games "Layers of Fear”, "Observer” and "Blair Witch”.
In 2021, they also released the survival horror "Medium", that was created under the strong influence of the early Silent Hill games.
Therefore, we can say that the company already has some experience in making SH-inspired games. Let's hope that this experience will help the developers to create a worthy remake.
Participation by Masahiro Ito
and Akira Yamaoka
A pleasant surprise was that two people from the original Team Silent also took part in the development:
Masahiro Ito will once again serve as a monster designer. He will also advise developers on story and dialogues.
In an interview, Ito says that he initially refused to participate in the project and believed that Silent Hill 2 doesn't need any remakes at all. But in the end, he agreed to take part so that the updated version of the game would not lose the signature style of the original.
And Akira Yamaoka is writing the music. Apparently, the remake will feature an updated soundtrack for the game.
But Yamaoka will not be the only composer for the SH2 Remake. Polish composer Arkadiusz Reikowski (who previously worked on many games from Bloober Team) would also participate in writing music for the remake.
Start of the Project
The head of Bloober Team (Piotr Babieno) said in an interview that for several years, starting from 2015, his studio had been negotiating with Konami and trying to get a license to develop some SH-related project (at first they wanted to make a new part of the series or a spin-off).
These proposals were refused for a long time - however, in 2019, Konami finally agreed and invited the Bloober Team to work on the remake of Silent Hill 2.
Why did Konami suddenly decide to remake SH2 after so many years? It can be assumed that the successful release of "Resident Evil 2 Remake", which took place at the beginning of 2019, played a big role here.
Konami saw that the remakes of retro horror games could sell well - and wanted to try it too.
And in addition to the remake, Konami also decided to make a new movie - "Return to Silent Hill", which will be an adaptation of Silent Hill 2. This is a profitable marketing strategy. Anyone who plays the remake will want to watch the film. And whoever watches the movie will want to buy the game.
Gameplay and new features
The main essence of the gameplay will remain unchanged: we will wander through locations with a third-person view, fight monsters, and solve puzzles.
But some changes will affect the camera and game mechanics:
1) The original game mostly used fixed "cinematic" camera angles for the indoor locations. But the remake will use a dynamic "behind-the-back" camera.
2) The game will have an "over the shoulder” manual aiming system (instead of auto-aiming).
3) Monsters react differently when the player shoots them in different parts of the body. For example, if they are shot in the leg, they may fall to their knees.
4) Now monsters can run and jump over obstacles.
5) During the battle, blood from monsters can get on our character's clothes, leaving bloody stains on him.
6) James has a new skill - dodge. It makes our hero invulnerable to attacks for 1 second.
7) Map viewing will now occur in real time. This means that monsters can attack us while we are standing still and looking at the map.
8) While walking around the town, players will be able to break the windows of some cars and find useful items inside. It's also possible to break the windows of some houses to get inside the building.
Different versions of monsters
You can also notice in the trailers that monsters will have several versions of their design.
For example, there is a regular mannequin and a bloody mannequin.
There is an ordinary nurse - and a nurse covered in black liquid. Plus, nurses have different types of weapons - they can be armed not only with a metal pipe, but also with a knife.
The "Lying Figure" monster also now has two design variations (the second one has shards of broken glass sticking out of its head).
By the way, a similar idea was present in Silent Hill 1. There, some of the monsters had 2-3 design variations with slight differences in strength and health. It's nice that after 25 years, this idea has been revived.
Silent Hill Map
In the first trailer, we can see a glimpse of a map for the southern region of Silent Hill:
If you look closely, you will notice that the map looks the same as in the original version of SH2:
That means that the structure of the town and its streets will not undergo significant changes in the remake. Although, it is possible that the developers will add some new optional locations to the game (just like a supermarket or a police station in SH1).
New Character Designs
James Sunderland
Angela Orosco
Eddie Dombrowski
Maria
Laura
James' wedding ring?
If you watch the trailer in high resolution, you can notice a strange detail. James has a ring mark on his finger. But the ring itself disappeared somewhere.
This "ring mystery" was not present in the original version of SH2. So apparently Bloober Team is planning to add some new story elements related to a lost wedding ring.
But to be honest, I am a bit skeptical about attempts to make changes to the plot of the game. If the original scenario writer (Hiroyuki Owaku) is not involved in the project, then it would be better to not make any changes to his story.
New endings?
In 2022, a screenshot of Sony's internal presentation leaked online. According to it, the developers are planning to add two new endings to the remake:
update:
The leaked info was confirmed, the remake will indeed have two new endings. They are called "Stillness" and "Bliss".
My impressions and thoughts
Now let's talk about my personal impressions. And about what I liked and what I disliked in the trailers.
What I liked:
1) The town and locations look quite realistic and atmospheric. Bloober Team clearly put a lot of work into environments. So I'm sure that it will be a pleasure to walk through the foggy streets of Silent Hill.
2) Judging by the trailers, the developers do not plan to change the game too much. You can see familiar scenes, locations, dialogues, and puzzles in the videos. And even the town's map was not changed. This approach is in many ways reminiscent of the Fatal Frame 2 Remake. I think this is the right direction.
3) The idea with different variations of monsters is a good addition.
What I didn't like:
1) In terms of gameplay mechanics and visual style, the game is somewhat reminiscent of the infamous Silent Hill Homecoming. And this is a serious problem. Even if SH2 Remake would turn out to be an objectively good game, such associations with Homecoming will still spoil the impressions for many fans.
2) There is a feeling that the cutscene direction in the remake is not very good. The developers are trying to make the cutscenes look slightly more "Hollywood-ish" - and sometimes it looks a bit forced and cringey. But we've only seen a few short moments of the game so far, so it's too early to judge.
3) James' redesign doesn't look great either. In most scenes, he resembles an aged Leon Kennedy. Perhaps in this way the developers were trying to sell the game to the fans of RE2 and RE4.
4) No new monsters were shown in the trailers. And this can become a problem. Because the weakest side of SH2 gameplay was the small amount of enemy types.
Essentially, in SH2 there were only 3 standard enemies (not including bosses and rare monsters): a lying figure, a mannequin, and a nurse. However, they were almost no different from each other in terms of gameplay. If the remake again would feature only these 3 enemies, it will be sad. I hope that Masahiro Ito will create several new creatures for the game in his signature style.
Bottom Line:
Overall, the trailers for the remake leave a mixed impression. In some things, the developers from Bloober Team are following the right path, but in other aspects they are clearly at risk of messing things up.
But in any case, it would be nice to play an alternative version of one of my favorite games. Plus, I hope that the release of the remake will revive people’s interest in the Silent Hill series and in Japanese retro horror games.
Therefore, I look forward to the remake. And even if the the remake will turn out to be weak, we will not lose anything. Because the original version of SH2 will always be with us.
UPDATE 2024:
The remake was finally released in October 2024. The game is available on PC and PS5.
Also, I wrote a detailed review of the remake:
Other interesting articles
about horror games on our website
>> Horror Game Reviews <<
>> Articles in English <<
>> Horror Games Museum <<
Also, you can subscribe to our
YouTube channel and Telegram channel
YouTube channel and Telegram channel
Author of the article: SilentPyramid
Publication date: 20.10.2022
Article update: 05.11.2024
If you like this article,
share the link with your friends:
share the link with your friends:
