Silent Hill 2 Remake Out October 8th

[Scoops]

So this comes out Tuesday next week (Sunday if you preorder the Digital Deluxe Edition). Interested to see how this turns out, I'm cautiously optimistic. As someone that enjoyed the western Silent Hills for the flawed gems they were and probably views Shattered Memories as my favorite in the series, I'm always game for more Silent Hill. Good or bad, I'll still get plenty of enjoyment out of this and have plenty fun just exploring the town again.

The review embargo lifts tomorrow, which seems to signal a confidence, but some early impressions have already come out. Famitsu gave it a good score but they're not really a good indicator of quality. I've checked all over Twitter, Reddit, and Resetera for impressions, while trying not to get too spoiled, and as of right now it's been mostly positive with even the more negative impressions giving it props for some of its choices. The most comprehensive assessment I found was on Reddit (He could be bullshitting though). The user was a fan of the original and currently feels this game was a 9/10. He praises the bosses, Maria, and the Lakeview Hotel the most. He also said it took him 22 hours to beat but that's with a lot of time spent looking at every nook and cranny. He only found one bug as well.

From what I've heard the game is much longer than the original (around 16 hours) with more emphasis on having to explore more parts of the town to solve "lore adding" puzzles. Haven't really heard much about the quality of the new content or if Born from a Wish is integrated to the base game but I'm guessing it isn't.

[Confused Mark Wahlberg]

The original freaked me out so much I returned it the next day because I didn't even want it in my house.

[Lizuka #BLM]

Early word from the people who've been playing it since it leaked is that it's pretty good. Which is kind of shocking given how absolutely dire this thing looked in the early previews.

That said it being twice the length of the original sounds like a major mistake, especially since there are apparently two new endings on top of all of the existing ones.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

I never played the original, so I'm looking forward to playing this one!

[BorneAgain]

I wonder if this is a case where Blooper’s passion/enthusiasm effectively canceled out Konami’s tendency to play things safe while in turn Blooper’s pattern of dumb ideas was toned down by Konami’s experience.

Basically for this project the two elevated their strengths and downplayed their weaknesses.

[Ryback on a Pole!]

I will likely get this when its on sale. Not a day one purchase for me, and if I'm not buying it day one or close too I always wait until it's reduced.

It looks good. I don't think I played SH2 so will be a new experience entirely.

[crowley1986]

Oct 3, 2024 7:56:46 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

I never played the original, so I'm looking forward to playing this one!

same i got the bug from playing the remasters of Resident Evil and the Last of us....hope its good

[Scoops]

Oct 3, 2024 7:56:46 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

I never played the original, so I'm looking forward to playing this one!

But you can get it for the low low price of $150 (plus around $50-$100 for a PS2)!

[Koda, Master Crunchyroller]

Oct 3, 2024 10:37:00 GMT -5 BorneAgain said:

I wonder if this is a case where Blooper’s passion/enthusiasm effectively canceled out Konami’s tendency to play things safe while in turn Blooper’s pattern of dumb ideas was toned down by Konami’s experience.

Basically for this project the two elevated their strengths and downplayed their weaknesses.

If it actually ends up good and doesn’t screw up the handling of the subject matter that will actually be doubly surprising for me. Bloober is already a known quantity on screwing up handling mental health themes and stories, but Konami themselves seemed to have lost the sauce as well because Silent Hill: The Short Message’s handling of such material was also…woof. Not as bad as Bloober, but still.

[Scoops]

Reviews just dropped, and while it's very early with just around 30 counted, it's currently at an 87 on Metacritic.

www.metacritic.com/game/silent-hill-2/

I haven't read any yet because I want to go in fairly fresh but a great start and good for Bloober.

Edit: Now at 57 reviews, score unchanged.

Edit edit: Nothing new, this just made me laugh.

[trollrogue]

For the people who've never played SH2 before, but HAVE watched the film(s), you're in for a nice treat since the Silent Hill movie specifically used music from 'Silent Hill 2' in the film. So you'll recognize some of the songs right away (unless the soundtrack has been completely changed, and I don't know why on any Earth they would change literal perfection).

SH2 was my favorite game on PS2, full stop. So I can't wait for this to drop.

[Hot Noodle Truck]

Been wary of this since it was announced but so far it looks like they did a really good job with it. The original scared the shit out of me when it first came out so I'm looking forward to seeing what it feels like with the new tech.

[Scoops]

Wondering if I'm gonna bite for the Digital Deluxe edition at the last minute like I did for RE4 Remake. On one hand I want the physical edition and will wind up just buying that years down the line anyway like I plan to with RE4. On the other, none of the bonuses other than the 48 hours early access interest me and I'm going to buy the Soundtrack on Vinyl anyway, artbook too if they sell one.

[Scoops]

So I said screw it and listened to a bunch of reviews. This was the best one I found, mainly since the reviewer is a big fan of the series, and is the only person I found that accurately remembered that the original was actually pretty easy.

She says that most of the increased time comes from more buildings being open to explore throughout the town and locations (Apartment, Prison, Hotel, etc) being expanded. She said that it does get to feel like padding, particularly the last part of the game which another reviewer brought up going on too long. But she also brings up how much she loved exploring everything.

She says that it's a lot harder and more combat heavy, mainly because it's hard to run away and escape, and you're more likely to take damage when fighting. There may also be more bosses or perhaps stages in boss fights.

She brings up that there's additional notes and pick ups that adds to previous lore.

Others have brought up puzzles are expanded (one example was the clock puzzle now needing its hands found), she just says they're subtly remixed and good. She did find most of them easy on normal but some were tricky to her.

For those nervous on Bloopers approach to more complicated subjects, she praises their handling of them, and says that one sub plot is even more sympathetic than the original.

Other than some of the padding and combat she said she wouldn't change anything about it, and gave it a 5/5.

[UN PLOMBIER NIGHTMARE #blm]

This has to be one of the most unexpected and seemingly great games in a really long time. I had been on the side of hating Bloober because I thought all of their games were very dull at best but this looks to be amazing.

[Scoops]

Played about two hours last night, so far it's alright. I think I was tired because I was not really feeling a lot of it, but I don't think that was the game's fault. Some notes:

Combat is much harder, exploring the town I was using pretty much using every health item I found. Others have said it reminds them of The Calisto Protocol, and I agree, but it's no where near as irritating. At first, I would have said its monsters are aggressive for a silent hill game but thinking about it, it's more akin to the other silent hills where dogs and winged monster would chase you down the street. A problem though with the new game is that with no loading screens, monsters can now chase you every where. So it's either kill the f***ers in front of you or be chased into the buildings you want to explore.

The town is greatly expanded but within reason so far. The town feels around the same size, probably bigger, but there are a handful of buildings now open. A big change is now rather than just finding a key and going to the apartment building, it's more like SH1 where you have to explore the town to get multiple items to get inside. Not sure how I feel about this, it is padding, but I would have killed for this in the original SH2 and would have explored all these areas anyway, but it did get to feel like a bit much.

The UI is very customizable and that's great for purists. I turned off every hint and tutorial, and none of them felt needed after a few minutes of playing around with the controls, which speaks well to the game's design. Currently I just have prompts show up for items and interactables, but i may turn them off eventually because there's enough environmental hints (yes, there's yellow but it's pretty muted) to see the interactive items and James looks at items and notes near him and will follow them with his head like in the original. Also, turn off the crappy red border that shows up when you take a lot of damage, you don't need it. James will limp and shuffle when he's greatly hurt, blood appears on his jacket to indicate damage, and if you're playing on the PS5, the light on the controller will show green, orange, or red for your health. I wouldn't be shocked if Bloober were forced to put in the border for newcomers and just slapped it in. Overall, the lack of need for a UI speaks to the great environment and character designs, A+ job by Blooper (and also the SH Downpour team since most of this is all in that game too but no one cared).

Luke Roberts is an excellent James, and if he keeps it up I can see him sweeping all the "Best Actor" awards. Angela is great too, a couple awkward line reads but overall a great job.

Edit:The cutscenes have been pretty good so far, no real complaints. The opening in the bathroom was pretty much perfect imo and kept the spirit of the original.

The radio is kind of finicky at the moment. Another problem with each room and building not having loading screens and enemies being more aggressive is that the radio will play loudly even if a monster isn't in the room with you. On one hand that makes for great tension and unease as you don't know where the threat is but you know it's there, on the other, I can't just explore a room in peace until I find and murder the f***er. It's also loud as f***, but I haven't seen anyone else complain about that, so it could just be my headphones.

One thing I don't like is that the melee weapons are now just triggered by R2 button and you don't square up with L2 anymore, you just automatically get in fight mode when an enemy is right next to you. A problem with this is that your weapon will just pop out when enemies are close and spoil the surprise if you can't see them. I hope they patch that out or give you the option to turn it off in future updates.

[Ryushinku]

I don't know that I'd play a version of SH2 again, but, I am glad to hear the reviews have been very positive.

There was a lot of negativity about the remake in general and also towards Bloober Team. Nice to see expectations subverted.

[King Devitt: What Plants Crave]

SH2 is my favorite in the franchise. I played the original version so much back in the day just to try and get all of the endings.
Fantastic story, and the music is so f***ing good.

I'm glad it (from what reviews say) ended up being a good remake.

I didn't think it was necessary, and with the studio involved I had very low expectations. I'll pick it up eventually when it goes on sale.

[chazraps]

Do I need to play Silent Hill 1 before this, or is it like Resident Evil 2 and Assaassin's Creed 2 where I'm best advised to just jump in here?

[Wiz Backman]

Oct 6, 2024 21:29:26 GMT -5 chazraps said:

Do I need to play Silent Hill 1 before this, or is it like Resident Evil 2 and Assaassin's Creed 2 where I'm best advised to just jump in here?

No, it doesn't matter. 1 and 3 are really the only games in the series that are connected.