After years of begging, Silent Hill followers are lastly getting every little thing they’ve ever dreamed of … kind of.
Konami just lately hosted a Silent Hill-themed livestream that confirmed the corporate is severe about reviving the lengthy dormant IP. How severe? It’s at the moment engaged on a film, three new video games, and one huge remake. The final a part of the listing is probably the most intriguing, as Konami is giving beloved horror basic Silent Hill 2 a completely fashionable replace with the assistance of Bloober Team, the studio behind The Medium.
With followers chomping on the bit for any scrap of stories through the years, you’d count on the announcement to be the most important story of the yr. Instead, it’s been met with one thing of a blended response. The remake specifically has spurred some debate, as some followers simply aren’t assured that Bloober Team is the best studio for the job. That’s not by any fault of its personal, although. Remaking Silent Hill 2 is one thing of an inconceivable process, as a result of its messy PlayStation 2 DNA is strictly what makes the sport so memorable.
Otherworldly jank
Silent Hill 2 tells the story of James Sunderland, a person seeking solutions after receiving a letter from his spouse — which is bizarre since she died three years earlier. She summons him to the city of Silent Hill in rural Maine, the place it’s just a little too foggy for consolation. James quickly discovers that the city is overrun with monsters, together with creepy nurses and the long-lasting Pyramid Head.
The narrative is unnerving sufficient by itself, particularly because of the psychologically harrowing path it takes in its later moments, however a lot of its horror comes from its environment. To at the present time, there actually isn’t a online game that feels as unsettling as Silent Hill 2 — and far of that may be chalked as much as the constraints of the period. Take its signature fog, as an example. It isn’t a practical white mist casting a semitransparent veil over the city. That nuance wasn’t totally doable with the PS2, nevertheless it was to the sport’s profit.
The authentic Silent Hill 2’s fog is darkish and thick, nearly smoke-like in high quality. It obscures every little thing in rapid sight, placing a haze over objects even two toes away. That permits the sport to ship extra stunning scares, as creatures that could possibly be simply averted usually will abruptly seem out of nowhere. The fog itself looks like a monster in its personal proper — it is going to billow backwards when James approaches it as if it’s on the run. It’s not life like, however that’s the enchantment. The overly thick fog lends the sport a claustrophobic aura, because it all the time feels prefer it’s about to squeeze in on James and suffocate him.
The sport’s fog is so instrumental to its horror that any adjustments to it have resulted in controversy. When Konami gave the sport an HD remaster in 2012, it loosened the fog up within the course of. The adjustments could be delicate to the informal participant, however the end result was that the world grew to become extra seen, which made the impact really feel extra akin to a fog machine billowing on stage throughout a play. It feels foolish to say, however fog shall be a make or break side of the upcoming remake, as a practical strategy may additional reduce into the city’s mystique.
Fog is the first instance of the place PS2 restrictions create alternative, however you possibly can see it in different technical points too. Enemies are particularly creepy within the authentic Silent Hill 2 because of the restricted animation potential of the time. Enemies like Nurses jitter and jerk round unnaturally as they transfer, their heads swiveling round as in the event that they’re connected by a properly oiled ball joint as an alternative of a neck. When James kills one, they plummet to the bottom immediately, like a spirit that’s reanimated them has abruptly flown off and left a dead-weight husk as a replacement. Nothing strikes in a means that makes you’re feeling prefer it was a human being. Whatever you’re up in opposition to feels prefer it was pulled from one other dimension, making it onerous to ever actually predict motion patterns or behaviors.
Good unhealthy performing
Those emotions translate to the sport’s performing, which is probably its most fascinating side. Let’s be clear upfront: Silent Hill 2’s performing is unhealthy. James specifically is a cardboard field of a person. During the sport’s most dramatic second, he emotionlessly mumbles with the power of a single AAA battery. Other performances are on the opposite aspect of the spectrum totally, with aspect characters like Eddie totally overreacting like they’re auditioning for a ’90s academic video concerning the significance of staying away from medication.
I don’t imply any of this in a unfavourable means, although. In truth, the stilted performances are a big a part of what makes the sport so unsettling — even when that wasn’t the creators’ intent on the time. Much like enemy actions are simply off sufficient to really feel alien, the characters are simply distant sufficient from actual people to be uncanny (the facial animations assist in that regard too). That scene I discussed the place James barely reacts to probably the most distressing information of his life? It’s partially as uncomfortable as it’s since you’re anticipating him to have a loud, melodramatic breakdown. Instead, he speaks like a person underneath hypnosis, making a genuinely haunting disconnect between the horror of the reveal and his flat response.
A whole lot of video games get in comparison with the works of David Lynch for superficial causes (“It’s so weird!”), however Silent Hill 2 is likely one of the few video games that truly deserves that comparability. Lynch’s work tends to really feel as surreal and otherworldly because it does partly as a result of his distinctive directing fashion, which pulls purposefully off-kilter performances out of very succesful actors. Mulholland Drive is as disconcerting as it’s as a result of Naomi Watts’ Betty all the time feels simply left of human, however good of actor. It’s one thing that performs into a few of Lynch’s big-picture concept about identification and the characters that wrestle to search out their very own (see Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks: The Return).
It’s maybe no shock that that’s a core theme in Silent Hill 2 as properly. From James coming to grips with the monster he actually is, to the unusual doppelganger dynamic between Maria and Mary, we by no means meet the actual model of the sport’s characters. Instead, we’re launched to fragments of their shattered selves caught in a single massive supernatural jail disguised as a rural city. The odd performances are an ever-present reminder to not take something that unfolds on this world at face worth.
Is that on objective? Most assuredly not. The HD remaster options rerecorded voices which might be a notably extra conventional. Troy Baker voices James, making him extra emotive and anguished — a change that turns the sport into extra of a straight melodrama. The unhealthy performing within the authentic is extra doubtless a byproduct of online game voice performing at a time when the business wasn’t actually invested in Hollywood-caliber storytelling. But the artists’ intent or the tech that drove choices is irrelevant; these decisions can tackle a lifetime of their very own and outline the work regardless.
That’s the story of Silent Hill 2, an excellent PS2 sport that creates horror out of mess. Its tough edges aren’t errors to be smoothed over by a contemporary remake; they’re an essential a part of its form.
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