And... Predictably, people are already complaining.

[WhiteHarbor]

I was so prepared to hate the very notion of a remake. But I have to be honest that the trailer floored me. Goosebumps, teary eyes, all the emotions going crazy. For me it was a thing of beauty.

But of course this is the internet in 2022... And of course Konami did what they did a couple years back... And of course Silent Hill pachinko's still exist... And of course PT and Silent Hills were canceled... So I you understand the reluctance.

But seriously I've seen some people picking at the tiniest stupidest things just to complain. "James has eyes are not covered in shadows in the mirror." Sure, and maybe that's not exactly how I thought James's face would look but one of the things Silent Hill was famous back in the day was the level of facial expression that they could bring out in a character, and the expressions in that trailer were beautiful.

"They're updating the design of the Monsters." Of course, it's an HD remake they need to have more detail and be touched up. The designs look like more detailed versions of what we already knew, and they kept the original Pyramid Head, not the buff sexy Pyramid Head!

"You can see through the fog too much." Again, HD remake. Atmospheric it's not supposed to be the sole source of fear. And they got it so many touches to make it look amazing. Also you can totally see the point where the fog makes the background completely white.

"Bloober team is a good team but they haven't made any huge hits and Silent Hill 2 should be made by a more successful team." I have honestly liked the games that Bloober team has made. I know there was a lot of controversy about their treatment of mental illness but that is a social concern not a development concern. Additionally the story is already written for them so they would really need to work hard to screw that up.

I don't know if maybe I'm being too naively optimistic. But all I got from that trailer were positive feelings.

Thoughts?

[LittleNightma]

It’s okay to be optimistic and it’s okay to be critical, but people are being too much of both and are clashing with one another. Personally I am excited and think the trailer was cool and sure, they are going to change things, like James’ model. As long as they are not messing with the story or canon too much, I’m open to more of these changes happening.

All in all, we should give these guys a chance and see what they bring to the table.

[jdnation]

In terms of technical proficiency, the game does look great. There's no question about that.

But I've got complaints too. I'll get to them eventually, but basically my complaints will be more in how tone and depictions can significantly change the mood and expression of a scene.

The mirror scene does represent several changes away from what the original scene depicts (as far as we've seen). Film has a language, and changing the words, changes the perception. And so do games the more they imitate film. Even a change of diction in written prose can make a big difference. Line delivery, less versus more, etc. etc.

I'm not going to lose my mind that they've changed things, nor am I going to hop on board the hate train and declare the game to be "absolute shite" or whatever hyperbole is out there, but they have in fact changed things, they are not insignificant, and that deserves scrutiny and comparison.

Depending on how the whole thing turns out, I think I'll probably be one of those people who recommend the original over the remake, but for many, if that's the only option, the remake is better than nothing. And I will at least say I'd recommend the Remake over the botched HD Collection, no problem. Better and diminished experience than a horrible one.

[Wigeke]

I genuinely think people are only complaining because Bloober, it's too early and we haven't seen enough to judge anything like direction. I'm sure that if the exact same trailer came out but with Kojima's name attached to it people would be flocking all over it with praises.

[aj4x94]

I would expect nothing less from the Silent Hill community. We're such a fickle bunch.

I, for one am just so glad that we're getting new Silent Hill projects period, and they all look intriguing.

[WhiteHarbor]

I mean I get it we were burned hard last time. The loss of PT and Silent Hills is still felt today. "F Konami" is still not gone from our brain. (Wouldn't it be funny if the title screen for the new game read: SILENT HILL f Konami due to some unfortunate design choice?)
So I get it
But right now I'm A 42-year-old man seeing the franchise that convinced him he should become a writer twenty years ago come back. I was 21 when Silent Hill 2 came out.
This means so much to me.
Right now I'm just happy.
Can Konami and Bloober and Annapurna screw it up? Yes. Yes they can. And if they do, the world will feel my rage. But for now I'm just so happy.

And I can bet you everything in the universe, that if these games are a success, Konami and Sony will hunt down Guillermo del Toro and Hideo Kojima and throw a bunch of money at them to bring those projects back.

[Jonipoon]

I would expect nothing less from the Silent Hill community. We're such a fickle bunch.

I think the Star Wars community is worse, but... the Silent Hill community is considerably smaller and still manages to be almost as butthurt.

The most loveable fandom I've come across however is the Life is Strange community.

[Skele]

It's only natural for people to complain. I think the remake will end up being better than the original so long as Bloober nails the gameplay and mood, with the latter being a much tougher goal imo.

[Chris Sunderland]

I'm dropping this from the thread I'd started since I missed this topic:


I've seen a lot of discourse claiming that everything is wrong about the trailer for the remake and while it's A)expected knowing how passionate our fambase is for these games,2 in particular. B) Good to be cautious, never over hype yourself unless Team Silent themselves got back together.C)Konami fucked with us with Homecoming and Downpour and 10 years of nothing. I just feel that maybe just mabe we should give them a chance. Bloober might not have a perfect track record but it took From soft 20 years to get to Demons Souls with a less than perfect set of games. Also fans have to realize that these remakes are reimagineings of the concepts of the original. Team Silent themselves were the black sheep of Konami untill they were able to blossom.The point is to capture the story, atmosphere and horror of the game it's remaking while adding modern controls, graphics and sounds. It's never going to be a 1:1 because that's not what is going to move copies. It's a tough balance to capture but you can reinterpret SH2 or any games through a modern lense with the right team. Over analyzing ever tiny differences to a remake of a 20 years old game in a 10 year dormant franchise is okay but realize that it may have a good reason for being different. I just hate seeing fans after 10 years of begging for something, hell anything look at the project with nothing but contempt. If you say without a doubt your going to hate it, you no doubt will. Be open minded and maybe at the very least the remake can be appreciated as a half decent reimagine of SH2 that gives a new generation a way to play one of the best games ever made. If it sucks then we can burn Konami and bloober team to the ground.

Btw this isn't a comment on anyone here. I've been pleasantly surprised by you guys and I've been reminded why I love to come here. YouTube on the other hand.....goddamn.

[WhiteHarbor]

I'm dropping this from the thread I'd started since I missed this topic:


I've seen a lot of discourse claiming that everything is wrong about the trailer for the remake and while it's A)expected knowing how passionate our fambase is for these games,2 in particular. B) Good to be cautious, never over hype yourself unless Team Silent themselves got back together.C)Konami fucked with us with Homecoming and Downpour and 10 years of nothing. I just feel that maybe just mabe we should give them a chance. Bloober might not have a perfect track record but it took From soft 20 years to get to Demons Souls with a less than perfect set of games. Also fans have to realize that these remakes are reimagineings of the concepts of the original. Team Silent themselves were the black sheep of Konami untill they were able to blossom.The point is to capture the story, atmosphere and horror of the game it's remaking while adding modern controls, graphics and sounds. It's never going to be a 1:1 because that's not what is going to move copies. It's a tough balance to capture but you can reinterpret SH2 or any games through a modern lense with the right team. Over analyzing ever tiny differences to a remake of a 20 years old game in a 10 year dormant franchise is okay but realize that it may have a good reason for being different. I just hate seeing fans after 10 years of begging for something, hell anything look at the project with nothing but contempt. If you say without a doubt your going to hate it, you no doubt will. Be open minded and maybe at the very least the remake can be appreciated as a half decent reimagine of SH2 that gives a new generation a way to play one of the best games ever made. If it sucks then we can burn Konami and bloober team to the ground.

Btw this isn't a comment on anyone here. I've been pleasantly surprised by you guys and I've been reminded why I love to come here. YouTube on the other hand.....goddamn.

I couldn't possibly ads anything else to this. Bravo!

[jdnation]

Some people are jumping to conclusions based on this recent article.
https://nichegamer.com/silent-hill-2-re ... temporary/

Particularly this part:

"“As you see, we are not straying away from the original concept of making this cult classic; we just have some ideas on how to make the peculiar scare factors more appealing to the contemporary audience.”"

But these are largely the same typical empty statements that we'd expect someone who is the Chief Marketing Officer is trained to sprinkle into interviews verbatim, so I wouldn't take that to mean much of anything. For all they mean is that they are taking the new 3rd person camera angles and modern audio conveniences into account.

[phantomess]

I hadn't posted in this thread before, but I have absolutely been excited about this ever since the live stream! I'm not expecting an exact replica/remaster of SH2, and folks who are will be very disappointed. I don't need a replacement for SH2. I just hope this will be something awesome based on it, and I've liked what I've seen and heard so far.

[Jonipoon]

There were some people in the Facebook group who said that "the butchering of a classic has begun" after a recent article mentioned that the monsters will be "scarier" in the remake.

Predictable, yes.

What exactly do they think is gonna happen? That Pyramid Head will take his helmet off and reveal a scary clown face?

[alone in the town]

Present company excepted, Silent Hill fans are really insufferable and impossible to please.

It does make me chuckle watching these people act like they're the ones who spent 20 years examining and critiquing this game on the atomic level, just because they've watched YouTube analyses derived from the discussions we started.

[The Adversary]

^ Oh same. It's comical the amount of people who "know everything" because they read Silent Hill wiki articles, which were almost entirely established by the likes of us, then try to debate or bitch about us not knowing what we're talking about.

Guess I'm just an old fogey now.

Wish I could find the old screenshot of someone on Reddit accusing me of being a "newbie" and that I don't know what I'm talking about because they'd been researching for like FIVE WHOLE YEARS.

Like, Do you know who you're talking to? Shut the fuck—I'm still researching this shit.

[Yuki]

Some people seem to think that any sort of modification whatsoever inherently devalues things and insults the original, and I just can't get down with that. Whether or not you think the original voices' stiltedness adds to the game's atmosphere, voice acting has come a long way since 2001. We have technology now that can let us use the fog for atmosphere and dread without needing to rely on it to have the game run better. Gameplay conventions have changed, and art details (whether monster design elements or environment textures, etc.) may not work as well in full HD as they did previously. Not every creative choice will work, but my god, you'd think Konami personally stole every copy of the original, the way some fans are acting. JFC.

^ Oh same. It's comical the amount of people who "know everything" because they read Silent Hill wiki articles, which were almost entirely established by the likes of us, then try to debate or bitch about us not knowing what we're talking about.

Guess I'm just an old fogey now.

Wish I could find the old screenshot of someone on Reddit accusing me of being a "newbie" and that I don't know what I'm talking about because they'd been researching for like FIVE WHOLE YEARS.

Like, Do you know who you're talking to? Shut the fuck—I'm still researching this shit.

yiiiiiiikes. I don't blame people for not really knowing who you are, especially with how old the games are now and how much fandom relies on video content nowadays. But acting out of pocket like that? Come on, now. There's no reason for SH fans to be so fuckin awful to each other. I don't get it.

Part of me feels like the series being so psychological driven gets a lot of fans thinking it's just Smarter Than Others which means, clearly, those fans are Better. At the end of the day, it's still a video game and we're all still passionate about it. There's no need for them to scream that you're a newbie because they disagree. Ughhhh.

[The Adversary]

I ended up finding the thread but the person deleted all their posts and profile. They claimed to have discovered the so-called "Ambulance" ending in SILENT HILL, which is a long-standing rumor with absolutely no veracity. They claimed in the Japanese version of the game you could hear the siren outside Alchemilla Hospital and that the gate would be open, allowing Harry access to the ambulance. Of course this is all bullshit, and I—very politely, I might add—told them as much. They were not happy and essentially called me a newb and a troll, and that they've been playing since they were 19. Weird flex, but cool. I was 17 when it was released.

Oh well.

And, yeah, for sure—It's a smart person's game, you wouldn't understand it because I'm smart. Kinda like TOOL fans, who are arguably the worst fanbase in music for that very reason.

[Jonipoon]

It would be pretty ironic if someone tried to put you in place by referencing your own timeline.

[The Adversary]

Oh it's bound to happen. It may very well have already, I forget.

I mean I've definitely been "corrected" by using my own theories against me by strangers before, so that's cute.

[DinoNerd89]

I see the same type of "fans" in other franchises i love and follow, and i sometimes can't help but think that a few of them gotta be bots, or something. They always follow the same script too, "the franchise is dead/ruined" "X team working on it doesn't know what their doing" "the gameplay mechanic updates/story additions is awful", ect, ect, and so fourth, that we all seen a million times before.


While people are entitled to feel how they want, im not trying to deny that, I however, am a strong proponent of seeing how things actually turn out before i pass judgement. Game is as the good orginal? good for them, nice to have a great experience. Its just average? thats cool, at least were getting something. Its actually awful? sure, then lets tear bloober and konami apart for it.