• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The face of James Sunderland in the Silent Hill 2 remake is changing

ChoosableOne

ChoosableAll


pDzGqEA.png


He looks better now that he's freed from the telltale character appearance and facial expressions, but it seems like he still has a bit of a way to go.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Quite confident that Bloober will make SH2 look good, art's always been their strongest attribute. Animation has been stiff in the past, which is a potential area of concern, but it all pales into insignificance when the game itself is problematic in the sense of that long-time fans will demand fidelity to the original, and the original was quite dated and primitive even in its day outside its presentation.

Said it before, I'll say it again. The *only* way this game works is if it incorporates a perfect 1:1 remaster of the original (old VA and all), plus a modernized "remake" which addresses all the short-comings of the original as designed. e.g. updated dynamic combat, even at a cost of changing its overall feel - and maybe even story.

The more I've thought about this project, the more convinced I've become that its a poison chalice. Especially because clearly the "lesser of two evils" approach is to update to modern standards and expectations and let legacy/traditionalist fans be damned. 2001 is a long time ago and things have changed greatly since then; for a start-off the atmosphere and story first approach that was genuinely novel back then is (imho) simply not enough to sell as a $70 game in 2024. The audience will expect more, even when that "more" will change the essence of what made the original so special.
 

magnumpy

Member
IMO SH2 as great as it is/was, nevertheless has some serious drawbacks and it would be great to play a more modern updated version of the game. the original came out in freaking 2001 for crying out loud lol xD
 
IMO SH2 as great as it is/was, nevertheless has some serious drawbacks and it would be great to play a more modern updated version of the game. the original came out in freaking 2001 for crying out loud lol xD
I don't think that's relevant, personally. There are games from the SNES era and up, that totally transcend their release date (Chrono Trigger, Metroid Fusion, so on), The PS2 library had a bunch of them.

I'm totally not gonna argue with you that Silent Hill 2 is perfect, it's clearly not (Some people may argue that it being imperfect is the charm of it, but that's besides the point here)

I think the updates that it needs, would be quality of life ones. Make the game a bit less obtuse (It's an issue SH 1 has as well, some people may need guide to know where to go or what to do, not to mention getting the "right" ending), or play better (while keeping the whole concept of you not being as skilled as a Resident Evil protagonist)

And arguably visual updates. I still think the original looks good (SH 3 as well, Jesus Christ, that game...), but it's a biased opinion (I don't mind old graphics at all). I can see a new generation of gamers not being found of the visuals.

The issue most people are iffy about, is the plot, characters, and writing part.
And we will see that when it comes out 😐 If it's gonna be an updated or a complete parody.

Anywah, no beef with what you said, by the way.
Just that last part made me want to reply.
 
Strap in, because i bet Konami is going to comission an original game from Bloober after this. I would play a direct sequel with adult laura going back
 
  • Thoughtful
Reactions: Isa

SHA

Member
I don't get why back in 2001 a lot of people hated silent hill 2, the community is a bunch of hypocrites.
 
Last edited:

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
I don't get why back in 2001 a lot of people hated silent hill 2, the community is a bunch of hypocrites.

Noone hated it as far as I recall, but it was given a lot of slack for it being a mood-piece and not an action game despite having its combat being recognized as being relatively weak.

Trying to solve this exact "problem" is pretty much what ended up killing the franchise back then.

Better combat was not, and is not, going to improve SH in the same way it improves RE. Trying to wedge it in is just a waste of time because a huge part of the vibe is the feeling of being in a nightmare you cannot fight your way out of.
 

SHA

Member
Noone hated it as far as I recall, but it was given a lot of slack for it being a mood-piece and not an action game despite having its combat being recognized as being relatively weak.

Trying to solve this exact "problem" is pretty much what ended up killing the franchise back then.

Better combat was not, and is not, going to improve SH in the same way it improves RE. Trying to wedge it in is just a waste of time because a huge part of the vibe is the feeling of being in a nightmare you cannot fight your way out of.
The internet wasn't a safe place to express your gratitude towards what you like especially if hating is common towards that thing, I don't want to mention sites but I'm certain it wasn't entirely their fault.
If it wasn't hating then it could mean a 100 different perceptions like
-Prior Expectations
-Gameplay
-Different povs initiated from different set of games collections
-Wrong audience
-friends
-poor judgment,
You could tell, even with respect, someone's opinion is bad news, it doesn't matter if that person watched his language or not, that doesn't change his view a bit.
 

Killer8

Member
Noone hated it as far as I recall, but it was given a lot of slack for it being a mood-piece and not an action game despite having its combat being recognized as being relatively weak.

Trying to solve this exact "problem" is pretty much what ended up killing the franchise back then.

Better combat was not, and is not, going to improve SH in the same way it improves RE. Trying to wedge it in is just a waste of time because a huge part of the vibe is the feeling of being in a nightmare you cannot fight your way out of.

At the time some fans wanted more of SH1 and found SH2's psychological horror and storytelling too opaque. The move towards more bloody horror in SH3 was because of Silent Hill 2 failing to meet fan and sales expectations. This is what Jeremy Blaustein, the voice director and translator of the games said in a deleted tweet:

The thing is, when SH2 came out, I will NEVER forget the fan reaction. "Why wasn't it more like SH1??" "It's too psychological"" THAT is why SH3 went in the direction IT went. Creators should not listen to their critics and fan base overly much or their creativity will be diluted until it is beige, bland and boring.

This is corroborated by Ito:



It was particularly worse in his homeland:



I think the mythology of Silent Hill on forums is that it was this dream team of avant-garde artists who could just do whatever they wanted, creating 3 of the greatest games of all time and then just imploded due to corporate meddling. A supposed perfect example of what artists can do when free to create. The truth is that the series development was always a reactive one, adapting to circumstance as well as fan and market forces since the very start. Creator Keiichiro Toyama left after just one game and Ito said that the team was ordered to create a SH2 which appealed more to Westerners (which is possibly why it didn't appeal as much to the Japanese). SH3 was then changed in response to SH2's own failures, and SH4 apparently wasn't even meant to be a Silent Hill game originally. Beyond the breakout success of the first game, the continued success of the series to me was more of a happy accident, and i'd also say the bulk of the reverence for it has actually come in the decades after.
 

Audiophile

Member
Never played the Silent Hill games. Need to pick up a PS2 so I can play SH1, SH2 & SH3. Think I'd rather experience the originals in their original form before this (assuming this remake is any good and worth playing to begin with).
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
If you look at all of Bloober's horror games lately, they get about a 70/100 score. Style and creeps are fine. Graphics, frame rate and animations are sketchy. I dont remember how good their audio quality is (music and VA).

On the plus side for SH, they already got an established franchise and plot to latch onto. So really, all they got to do is stay true to the core game and just amp up everything better instead of starting from scratch making a new IP.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Isa

magnumpy

Member
I don't think that's relevant, personally. There are games from the SNES era and up, that totally transcend their release date (Chrono Trigger, Metroid Fusion, so on), The PS2 library had a bunch of them.

I'm totally not gonna argue with you that Silent Hill 2 is perfect, it's clearly not (Some people may argue that it being imperfect is the charm of it, but that's besides the point here)

I think the updates that it needs, would be quality of life ones. Make the game a bit less obtuse (It's an issue SH 1 has as well, some people may need guide to know where to go or what to do, not to mention getting the "right" ending), or play better (while keeping the whole concept of you not being as skilled as a Resident Evil protagonist)

And arguably visual updates. I still think the original looks good (SH 3 as well, Jesus Christ, that game...), but it's a biased opinion (I don't mind old graphics at all). I can see a new generation of gamers not being found of the visuals.

The issue most people are iffy about, is the plot, characters, and writing part.
And we will see that when it comes out 😐 If it's gonna be an updated or a complete parody.

Anywah, no beef with what you said, by the way.
Just that last part made me want to reply.

I see what you're saying, the whole remake/remaster "genre" has a questionable track record. there's also the question of how soon is too soon, is ~a decade enough time for this to be necessary at all?

as always the proof is in the pudding, this can be done either well OR poorly. here's hoping for me at least this proves itself to be done well!
 

SenkiDala

Member
Zero hopes in the Remake. End of last year I played again the original and with some mods it is still great, so we don’t really need the remake.

I would be more hopeful if Konami would care about the quality, but they showed with the recent Silent hill releases that they don’t care at all.
Agreed, blooper just make average games, it can change but that last action trailer made me lose all hopes. And updating the face of the protagonist with a "cleaner /softer" one... I really think they don't understand what is Silent Hill.

Why the fuck did those devs gain enough notoriety to be given the responsibility of remaking SH2...
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Why the fuck did those devs gain enough notoriety to be given the responsibility of remaking SH2...
Probably because there arent a lot of studio that can make horror games for cheap. There is no way a studio like Bloober is a super expensive studio to run. Their games arent rated great, but they do have a steady stream of experience making them.
 

SenkiDala

Member
Probably because there arent a lot of studio that can make horror games for cheap. There is no way a studio like Bloober is a super expensive studio to run. Their games arent rated great, but they do have a steady stream of experience making them.
Yeah you're right, but of course the fact that the priority of Konami when they searched a dev for the remake of SH2 is "cheap", is just sad.

We lost the opportunity of the Kojima's SH but imagine a SH by the Resident Evil team of Capcom, would be fun, or even from Miami. Or Frédérick Raynal, the creator of Alone in the Dark.
 

peronmls

Member
Yeah you're right, but of course the fact that the priority of Konami when they searched a dev for the remake of SH2 is "cheap", is just sad.

We lost the opportunity of the Kojima's SH but imagine a SH by the Resident Evil team of Capcom, would be fun, or even from Miami. Or Frédérick Raynal, the creator of Alone in the Dark.
Absolutely not. Please keep that in your dreams.
 
  • LOL
Reactions: Isa

CGNoire

Member
Noone hated it as far as I recall, but it was given a lot of slack for it being a mood-piece and not an action game despite having its combat being recognized as being relatively weak.

Trying to solve this exact "problem" is pretty much what ended up killing the franchise back then.

Better combat was not, and is not, going to improve SH in the same way it improves RE. Trying to wedge it in is just a waste of time because a huge part of the vibe is the feeling of being in a nightmare you cannot fight your way out of.
I think the SH1 had the best balance.
 

Calverz

Member
With how good silent hill 2 enhanced edition is, I have very low expectations for this remake. So I’m feeling quite chill about it now. At least his face looks less like a caricature.
 
Noone hated it as far as I recall, but it was given a lot of slack for it being a mood-piece and not an action game despite having its combat being recognized as being relatively weak.

Trying to solve this exact "problem" is pretty much what ended up killing the franchise back then.

Better combat was not, and is not, going to improve SH in the same way it improves RE. Trying to wedge it in is just a waste of time because a huge part of the vibe is the feeling of being in a nightmare you cannot fight your way out of.
I have an idea…improve the combat but remove all crosshairs, like Condemned. That way everyone wins.
 
Top Bottom