Silent Hill 2 and hypocritical reviews

I want to share with you a video that was inspired by the recently released remake of Silent Hill 2. This video is quite personal. It’s not even a direct review of the remake of Silent Hill 2 from Bloober Team, but rather a story about everything that accompanied the game in the information space.

I especially emphasize what kind of nonsense video bloggers sometimes talk about.

Please watch this video.

If you prefer text format. Hm. So what?. I can offer a text! It’s a little shorter. times twice, but the main points are also preserved here. Enjoy watching/reading!

Like Final Fantasy, I knew there was a Silent Hill video game series, but the first thing I was exposed to in the franchise was the movie. The same movie that some people like, some don’t, some even scare. This is what I mean Silent Hill, not about Advent Children. The film made an impression on me… meh? I didn’t like him, and I didn’t dislike him, the scene with Pyramidhead at the church (this is where they flayed the woman’s skin), and the final act with all those wires stuck in my head for a long time.

Games are a little more difficult. Even though I had a PSOne, I played a lot of survival horror games like Resident Evil, Alone in the Dark, Countdown Vampires, Parasite Eve (?), but I didn’t catch the original Silent Hill. Then I remember how my uncle played the second and third Silent Hill on the PlayStation 2. Having matured a little, I got a disc with Homecoming… which didn’t start for me.

Nevertheless, as an outside observer, the series was interesting to me. This interest especially developed after a series of videos from Vasily Galperov with his history of the series. With this inspiration, I even decided to try Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and the first Silent Hill. I didn’t pass them, for reasons unknown to me.

Therefore, as a true fan of the series (and as we know, to be a fan of something you don’t have to be familiar with it, that’s right, Persona fans?), I often looked at various essays, reviews, read Bernard Perron’s book with an analysis of the series, really enjoyed Akira Yamaoka’s music, and what’s more, I even attended his concert where he played the entire Silent Hill 2 soundtrack!

2022. The gentlemen from Konami are announcing a whole presentation entirely devoted to Silent Hill and its future. Let me remind you that at that time the last game in the series, if you leave out the pachinko machine, was Silent Hill: Book of Memories… released in 2012 for PS Vita hack’n’slach in familiar scenery. Although the deeply respected gentlemen from WayForward worked on it, the Silent Hill game turned out to be extremely disgusting. The start of the presentation, everyone is excited: fans are waiting for the resumption of work on the franchise, announcements, trailers. And Konami didn’t disappoint (for once): they showed FOUR new games and a movie. I’ll omit the series and Townfall, which didn’t bother anyone, because the main stars were the mysterious Silent Hill f and the remake of everyone’s favorite Silent Hill 2! I’m interested.

If Silent Hill f intrigued me with its concept and atmosphere, then the SH2 remake was interesting for other reasons. Firstly, to finally play Silent Hill, and not just any one, but a new and relevant one. Secondly: I was interested in evaluating the game from the point of view of a player who did not play the original. I am (now without irony) a big fan of the Resident Evil series, and when I played the latest remakes of the series I wondered: if I had not played those original games, without a nostalgic connection, would I have had such pleasure? Reviewers and critics say yes, but it was interesting for me to realize it myself.

I’m deliberately missing the announcement of Silent Hill 2 and all the hype that happened during the advertising campaign. As if people haven’t learned that the quality of the final product is hard to determine from trailers. Every second person said that the remake would be unsuccessful, otherwise, you see, the combat was made normal, and the characters somehow don’t look right, and in general, an over-the-shoulder camera would ruin the whole atmosphere. No, maybe it’s for the best that the players expressed their emotions so fiercely. As a result, the comrades from Bloober Team corrected a lot for the release, the same appearance of Angela, but still.

Yes, even when the game came out, such seethings did not end. Almost every review of the Silent Hill 2 remake begins with the phrase “The game is great, but when compared to the original…”. Oh my god! They made some kind of holy cow out of the original SH2, which is simply perfect in every way, brilliant, except that it doesn’t make coffee. I may not fully understand something, because as I said earlier, I haven’t played the original, but I can understand why this game is so good and why it has sunk into the souls and hearts of players. But shieesh, the cries of some individuals that the remake will kill the original..

Someone is taking away this very original from you? You won’t be able to run it anymore? The remake replaces the original? This is not a situation on the level of WarCraft III: ReForged, where, indeed, the 2002 game was removed from sale and forced to play the remake with a bunch of questions from the players. Frankly, I am amazed at modern reviewers. There’s nothing wrong with Silent Hill 2 being compared to the Silent Hill 2 remake. Moreover, this is quite expected. But when they start, literally, sucking out claims… that’s why I wanted to write this text: to describe the impression of the game of a person who is getting acquainted with the story of James Sunderland for the first time (on his own, at least) and discuss the “problems” of the game.

One thing you can’t take away from Silent Hill 2 is the atmosphere. The atmosphere here is so thick and dense, you could even scoop it up with a spoon and spread it on bread. And it’s hard to explain what exactly creates it. I believe, however, that this is a combination of detailed, but loose, aged, peeling surroundings, thick fog, dull color palette… and a lot of things, actually. There are so many different details in the game that you don’t even notice right away. Here, the appearance of everything and everyone undergoes changes over time: the walls begin to crumble, James becomes more shabby, dirt appears under his nails, bruises under his eyes. If you hit an enemy and he begins to bleed, a trail of blood will follow his route. And if a wounded enemy falls and crawls somewhere, then behind him there will already be another trail of blood, worn out like this.

In general, Silent Hill 2 creates a https://potsofgold-casino.co.uk/login/ strong impression with its picture (and also its sound component). Strange, of course: oppressive, viscous, lonely, uncomfortable, but I like it.

I mentioned there about “hitting opponents”? Local combat system is good. Somewhat reminiscent of the analogue from Callisto Protocol, only done correctly. On the surface everything is the same: mostly hand-to-hand combat with the ability to dodge and the function of getting a firearm out of wide trousers. But unlike "we’ve got Dead Space at home," Silent Hill 2’s combat doesn’t feel like a hit-and-bounce rhythm game, but rather like trying to survive. The opponents themselves are not trivial, they have a specific goal – to kill the player. If you can still somehow “play around” with one adversary, then now having two is a big problem. Although there are not many types of opponents (4 per game), fighting with each is a separate dance, where the enemy is sometimes able to surprise with an unexpected action.

Even the combat system has great attention to detail. I have already mentioned the wounding of opponents, but James himself is also covered in abrasions. This is hard to surprise, since many games have this. But the way James fights… he’s not a seasoned Special Forces fighter. Each blow is given hard, with strain, which is expressed both in the animations where James directly applies the weapon, and in the hero’s screams. Even the way James holds the weapon: unlike Leon Kennedy, who dealt with a firearm, James always keeps his finger on the trigger. Even in the scene when the hero first picks up the gun and starts aiming at the wall, James himself accidentally fires a shot, which shows his inexperience with firearms.

I was also extremely pleased with the local puzzles. I played through the game on medium difficulty (and the degree of difficulty of the puzzles differs from difficulty) and sometimes I actually stopped for ten minutes and tried to understand how to implement everything correctly. Yes, most of the tasks involve finding an item and using it in the right place, but those puzzles that require some kind of mental balancing act from the player cause sincere pleasure in solving. The last time I experienced this was in Portal 2, and that was thirteen years ago. Most of all I remember the puzzles with moths and bracelets. Here, where, and on them I experienced the highest delight from the decision.

Literally before Silent Hill 2 I completed The Last of Us Part I and in the latter I not only yawned at the local “tasks”, moreover, sometimes I got annoyed. Move the board, roll the box. SH2 also has tasks involving carrying boxes, but it is only a small part of the puzzle, and not your only entertainment besides fighting and exploring locations. And upon completion of TLoU, I even tried to justify the game, like, what kind of puzzles will you put into the game with an emphasis on narrative and realism?. You can’t make a door with a worms logo like in Resident Evil. But Silent Hill 2 opened my eyes. Well, you could make the player look for some kind of wrench to open a door or go looking for a password not for a safe with an optional note.

The sound design of the game is simply gorgeous. Various sounds at locations that make it clear that you are not alone in the city (but I would really like to), ambient. Of course, I was somewhat surprised that those very popular acoustic compositions by Akira Yamaoka are rarely played, mainly during the end credits. But when they reproduce, then yeah… it gives me goosebumps. When that hackneyed Theme of Laura started playing at the end, I went into a kind of trance and, to the wonderful accompaniment, I remembered the best moments that had happened to me over the past 14 hours.

I won’t say anything about the plot. Most of you already know everything perfectly well. But if it turns out that you haven’t heard anything about the story of Silent Hill 2, then my sincere advice: play it yourself. This is a story you have to experience for yourself. The retelling does not convey even a fraction of what the game wants to tell. Most of the plot is presented in the form of a puzzle, where the player independently puts together various facts from notes, symbols and short dialogues in order to paint a picture of the action with his own hands. Plus, Silent Hill 2 has multiple endings. 6 came from the original game, and 2 more Bloober Team added independently. It’s curious which one you’ll end up with, because what kind of ending the player will end up with is based on non-obvious choices and the behavior of the player himself (at least half of the endings).

Thank you so much to the reviewers. The game is a little over a month old, and almost all reviews contain an incredible amount of spoilers! And okay, some plot points, the original game is already 23 years old, and even then it’s a stretch, many players who will now play the remake of Sillent Hill 2 were not even born at the time of the original’s release and will be looking for Mary in the foggy city for the first time. It’s okay to say that new endings have been added to the game or that the comic ending with the UFO has changed, but showing them in the video… this is no longer respect for the viewer, I think. And it would be okay if they warned you, they say, “now there will be a spoiler, the time code is on the screen,” but no, they just shove new content in your face, which you, as a player, might have wanted to get acquainted with. Some even retell the entire passage. Here’s the title of the video like “Review of the remake of Sillent Hill 2”, and the guy on the screen just retells it all the way to the credits. Well, then call the video “Retelling Sillent Hill 2” or “What was Sillent Hill 2 about”. Yes, or at worst: warn me that you are about to retell the whole game, God!

I can’t wait to get to the "nitpicking" part. Let’s say this: Silent Hill 2 is not a perfect game, just like the original, actually. It has its own problems: the gameplay sags in places, when running errands from point A to point B, frankly, drags on, technical flaws. But what YouTube creators sometimes give out is just quiet horror. I don’t even know where to start.

I’ll start with the combat system. Well, they say, in the original the combat system was inconvenient, so that the player would feel uncomfortable fighting with opponents and would not get into battle again. Seriously? Did I mention that 2001’s Silent Hill 2 was made into a holy cow?? Frankly, in “serious cabbage soup”, to defend the technical limitation, they say, this is how it was intended? The original’s combat system is simply not convenient – that’s all. Still, no one is stopping you from approaching and hitting everyone you meet with a metal pipe. And the game gives out so much ammunition that sometimes there is no need for a pipe. “For some reason they added dodges”… These connoisseurs of the “original combat” are generally aware that in the original Silent Hill 2 there was a block? Useless block. In the remake, fighting is more comfortable, you don’t want to throw the gamepad into the wall because James is punching the air instead of the nurse. Although it is more comfortable, as I said above, the combat system does not seem to be an easy plug. Yes, the camera is over the shoulder, but that doesn’t turn it into an analogue of Resident Evil. “That’s right, it’s more comfortable in surviv-horar”. This doesn’t bother Resident, but if you really want to suffer from combat, then play some really bad survival-horror game, where the character simply doesn’t listen to you. Then tell me how you liked the game after this.

Don’t get me wrong, I grew up on survival horror games with a fixed camera and a crooked combat system. But then they didn’t know how to do it any other way! The original Resident Evil had a fixed camera due to the drawn backdrops, which would have made the environment look richer. But with painted backgrounds you can’t move the camera, that’s why you have to fight with the camera that they give. Yes, the first Sillent Hill was already in a full-fledged three-dimensional environment, but since the game was made as a response to Resident, the combat was left the same, because they didn’t know how to do it differently? And not only Team Silent, but everyone then followed the Resident Evil formula, and until the cult Resident Evil 4 came out with its innovative over-the-shoulder camera, everyone attached the camera to the ceiling. RE4 set a new standard and subsequent games in the genre, like Dead Space, The Evil Within, Siren: Blood Curse, oh my God, Sillent Hills, starting with Homecoming, also began to give the player the ability to conduct aimed fire. And this standard remained, leaving the combat system of the first survival horrors to indie developers. And even then they constantly experiment with it. Look at the same Crow Country. In the game, the camera is under the ceiling, but with the ability to look around. Shooting also happens with the same camera, but there is one important thing: you can aim normally! In general, I will add all this to the fact that the combat system of the original Sillent Hill 2 is outdated and remains the lot of enthusiasts, and in no way for the mass consumer, for whom the remake of Sillent Hill 2 is also designed.

Second complaint: the jukebox puzzle at the beginning of the game. So, they say, in the original James initially knew that he needed to go to the park, but here he understands it only after a new riddle. Well… how did James know in the original that he needed to go to the park?? The letter that brought the hero to Silent Hill simply says: “Waiting for you in our special place.”. Yes, James could assume that this park was special for James and Mary and they should check it out. I might not even have guessed it. In our case, the second option worked. Also, I understand this decision from the point of view of game design: for the old people who know Silent Hill 2 inside and out, it was necessary to introduce something new to surprise. I agree that remembering where to go and check on your wife because of the melody is a little strange, but not impossible. But no, this fact “ruined everything”.

Without departing far from the problem with the jukebox. “Why does James need to look for a coin for the machine?? Doesn’t he have one of his own??“… Why he doesn’t have glue with him right away, I don’t know… Firstly: for the jukebox in all sorts of pubs you needed a coin to play music. Secondly: this is a game, so it. Well, of course you will need to look for the item, and at the same time get to know the city. The location of the jukebox is in the conditional center of the map and the game designer directs you in three different directions to explore the open location. “Doesn’t he have one of his own??». You often carry small change with you? Let’s say yes. Let’s even take into account that the game takes place somewhere in the 90s, bank cards are not yet so common and James could have a coin. There’s just one nuance… the machine uses a special coin with the logo of the very bar where this very jukebox is located. How would James put his quarter in there?? You yourself didn’t look attentively, you yourself found fault, you yourself complain about the “unrealism” and at the same time you yourself are running around the city with a dog mask on your head for pre-ordering and complaining that the game is somehow not serious and in general the atmosphere is lame.

Regarding the “dog mask”. Konami followed in the footsteps of modern nasty trends and promised a whole bunch of goodies for pre-ordering the game. Among them were various hats for James, which are available from the very beginning of the game. I, of course, agree that such content should not be closed due to some kind of pre-order. I generally prefer to buy games on physical media, and for people like me, such bonuses are not provided, only for digital purchases. Of course, it would be much better if such masks were a reward for completing the game or something like that. But gentlemen found that the presence of these masks leads to the fact that James himself originally came with them and, like a madman, walks around the city wearing a mask of Pyramidhead, whom he had never seen before. They themselves put them on on the first playthrough and complain about the crap atmosphere. Why, then, is there no such complaint about the Resident Evil remakes, where you could also get unique costumes for pre-ordering and wear them from the very beginning?. So, Leon’s femboy costume doesn’t spoil the atmosphere of Resident Evil 4? And anyway, what kind of person “came with them in the first place”?? These costumes are not equipped from the inventory, but from the settings menu. People have been playing video games for many years, they should have already learned to distinguish between gaming conventions. But giving early access to the game for pre-order is yes, disgusting. But again, it’s very funny to hear such a claim from a person who himself gives out early access to his videos only to a paid subscriber to Busti. It smells like hypocrisy, don’t you think so??

And, well, yes, SONY wasn’t only satisfied with the console exclusivity of Silent Hill 2, they also decided to reserve an additional costume for themselves. If only they gave it to PS5 players for free back then.

Claim number three. “First of all, I went to check the car for a corpse. If he hadn’t been there, I would have dropped the game right away.”. In the original Silent Hill 2, the corpse in the car was very clearly visible? You know, when the camera is under the sky and the screen resolution is wide-to-wide? Yes, no one knew about any corpse in the car when the game came out. Yes, over time a theory appeared, which was confirmed by Masahiro Ito, art director of the series, on his Twitter (sorry, in X).

I’m too lazy to translate the entire post, but in short, Masahiro-sensei here confirms that yes, the corpse is in the car.

In the remake of Silent Hill 2, a corpse can be seen in the car. And then only if you know that he should be there. You need to turn the camera upside down and look closely (especially without filters on the picture). If you start the game with an empty head, you won’t notice anything. I think this is the right decision: for beginners nothing will be spoiled, for old-timers it’s a balm for the soul that the developers remember everything and understand everything. But if there wasn’t a corpse in the car, how much would the game have suffered?? It would really be worth turning it off right away? There are people here who abandoned the Resident Evil 4 remake because there was no laser scene or escape from the dwarf statue? Without them the game immediately became disgusting?

Well, the point that inspired me for this whole speech. “Why is there no fixed camera moments in the game like in the original??». This is, perhaps, the most sucked-out moment, not just from a finger, but from a hangnail. Let’s start in order. Silent Hill: Downpour had fixed camera moments. And how? This made Downpour a good game?

Next. I’m probably already tired of comparing the Silent Hill 2 remake with the Resident Evil remakes, but what can I do, they are very close in meaning and convenient for comparison (thank you that when I talked about dodges I didn’t compare SH2 with Dark Souls, like a real gamer). Why didn’t anyone sue Resident Evil 2 for not having an angle camera?? And local fans also like to show the camera, remember the cries that Resident Evil 7 with a first-person camera is no longer “resident”.

Well, now, let’s imagine that a big shot from Konami drops by and says that we need to insert moments with a fixed camera into the game. Well, let’s think like novice game designers.

So we introduce the camera from an angle. But how can we shoot now, since we are aiming from behind the shoulder?. Each time move the camera from the corner to the shoulder and from the shoulder back? It will either be too slow and the combat turns into a nightmare, or too abrupt and it will be nauseating and unsightly. And with such pirouettes, do we need this camera in the corner in moments where a fight is possible?? Okay, then we can make it so that when the camera is fixed, the combat becomes similar to the original Silent Hill 2, comparable to the first survival horror games from PSOne and PS2. Amazing. Only the balance is built for shooting from over the shoulder. The player has the amount of ammunition he needs to kill opponents with relatively accurate shooting. You can aim at the head and waste less ammunition. As it stands, we will have to allocate resources differently in locations with a camera in the corner. And now we need to do more of them because you can’t aim properly, or vice versa, less of them, because we will make automatic targeting to match the original? I’m fine with my shooting, let’s do this trick with the camera before James finds the weapon yet. That is, for a short moment in the game? As a one-time promotion? And the meaning?

Okay, okay, let’s, when we have the camera from an angle, we will take away the player’s ability to fight! Firstly, players don’t really like it when some opportunity is taken away from them, especially if it is important for their survival. Secondly, on what basis will we take away the opportunity to fight?? That is, introduce some kind of gag, which the fans will then spit bile at.

Okay, let’s make a similar camera then only in those moments where there are no opponents. Great! Now we, in survival-horror, openly show the player areas in which he is safe. Yes, there are obviously quiet moments in the game, like going to the hospital. All this soft, warm light, silence. Yes, calmly, yes quietly, but no one gives you a guarantee that there may be a monster behind the next door. Well, it was possible to do something similar in the moment when James goes down into the hotel basement without a weapon, even though there are opponents in the location, but there is no need to fight there! Well, if we are ready to agree to a “one-time promotion”, then the game has these very one-time moments with a fixed camera! For example, in the historical center, when you enter a room with a hole into which you need to jump. Few? When you find local “collectables”, echoes of the past, when the game differs from what was in the original and is fixed on this, the camera can also go to the ceiling, similar to the angle in the original Silent Hill 2.

That’s really it. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. It’s like people really need to find fault with the Silent Hill 2 remake. As if if they praised it, they would be dishonoring the honor of the untouchable, great and beautiful Silent Hill 2 of 2001. Yes, it’s a great game, especially for that time. But it’s not without its flaws, just like the remake. I accept complaints about the camera being jerky at times, fps dropping at times, and some moments being drawn out. But when they start to find fault with the lack of their own wants or have done something differently than before, I begin to slap myself in the face (or face my slap). Yes, let’s do everything as before, let’s live in the past. Look, a “remake” of The Last of Us, Part I, was released, in which only the graphics were changed. And how? An absolutely justified remake that makes sense, right??

Anyway, I’m excited about Silent Hill 2. At the moment I have completed the game with 4 endings and still can’t stop. This city continues to attract me and will continue to do so until I get the Platinum trophy. And who knows, maybe I’ll go for two new endings, which are not required for platinum.

Sillen Hill 2 is a truly unique game! I understand perfectly why there are so many different essays on the topic of the game, because SH2 raises so many topics for discussion: feelings of attachment, accumulated anger, love for loved ones, unnatural love for loved ones, starting life over, hatred and much more. Even without all the plot implications, this is still a great Survival-Horror with a capital S and is genuinely fun to play.

Without a doubt, I will now be keeping an even closer eye on the Sillent Hill brand and expecting new (good) games in the franchise. Well, for now I need to play something that has already come out a long time ago and passed me by.