Bloober Team, the developer behind the Silent Hill 2 remake (SH2R), is on the offensive and, when speaking to Rolling Stone, asked gamers to “give us a chance” in the wake of mounting issues being pointed out about the game. From Silent Hill 2 remake’s lack of atmosphere, inability to get basic things right, changes to characters, and DEI involvement, these are just some of the reasons why gamers are reticent in giving Bloober Team a chance and should not purchase the Silent Hill 2 remake.
When it comes to horror games, in general, there is one franchise that will be consistently recommended if you were to ask fans of the genre: Silent Hill. Known for its extremely ominous and gritty atmosphere, psychological elements, emotional storytelling, disturbing monster designs, stress-inducing sound effects, and phenomenal music the Silent Hill franchise beautifully combined all of these elements to produce a truly memorable and anxiety-inducing gaming experience that makes it one of the pinnacles of the horror game genre and, specifically, psychological horror.
Without a doubt, the initial games are dated in terms of graphics and voice acting to a point. Which is not surprising when it comes to English voice acting for games released in the 1980s and 1990s from Japan. The English voice acting wasn’t exactly stellar compared to the original voice acting – a similar issue when it comes to anime English dubs during that same period. So of course fans would love to see a remake of their favorite games with modern graphics without compromising the core elements of the game.
Which brings up the first main issue with the Silent Hill 2 remake: the fog.
One of the things that the Silent Hill games were known for was the fog. While it was originally created as a means of dealing with the first PlayStation’s hardware limitations, it quickly became a prominent reason for the game’s atmosphere. The fog in Silent Hill, and Silent Hill 2 (SH2), became an integral part and was this dynamic, encompassing, and ever-shifting element around the player and the world. It hid the world around the player, slowly and unwillingly revealing what was hidden, yet still present enough to be seen around the player and immediate vicinity adding to a sense of claustrophobia.
The fog in Silent Hill 2 remake is, while visually impressive, static and dead. Rather than being a part of the atmosphere, it is just a tool of obfuscation and doesn’t even fulfill that function very well. While SH2’s fog felt like a living, breathing part of the game and atmosphere, SH2R’s fog is just there. It is sterile and devoid of expression – a visual element that simply pulls back as the player gets close so that everything revealed is crystal clear. It doesn’t shift or move. Whereas SH2’s fog dispersed just enough to give players the ability to see where to go and what was coming, but never fully went away and was still present around the character and between the player’s view of the character.
Bloober Team’s poor use of fog in SH2R greatly diminishes the horror and psychological impact that the original games had. It is odd and highly disconcerting at how badly the developer has fumbled this basic element of the game. Yes, the fog in SH2 was to deal with hardware limitations, but it was utilized in a way that made it an asset to the game rather than a hindrance or obstacle.
While, on the surface, the fog may be seen as a basic thing in video games, that is hardly the case when it comes to Silent Hill. A fact that Bloober Team either was not aware of, didn’t care for, or just didn’t understand for one reason or another.
Another, but more crucial, thing about SH2, which the Blooper Team either fails to understand or does not care about, is sexuality. For Silent Hill 2, sex and sexuality are a prevalent theme. In fact, it is personified in a couple of forms with the most obvious being the character of Maria. Maria, is James’s sexualized idea of his wife Mary given form. From the bare mid exposing a butterfly tattoo on her stomach, a leopard print skirt with matching choker, plunging neckline exposing some cleavage, to red lipstick, long, painted nails, and light pink hair tips it is all used to provide a visual, sexualized representation to James. But that isn’t all. How she talks, walks, poses; it is all sexual.
While Bloober Team has yet to show more of Silent Hill 2 remake’s version of Maria, what little we have seen isn’t promising. Gone are all exterior forms of sexuality. In fact, the Maria 2.0’s outfit is very conservative by today’s standards. Gone is the exposed midriff with the butterfly tattoo relocated to the upper right section of the chest. A bared chest that shows no cleavage on a body that has no figure with a chubby face featuring a widened jaw that is all the rage for western developers these days – a character design that is not popular with the majority of gamers.
The only things similar are the hair with the dyed tips, a choker, but different style, and the knee-high boots.
Putting both versions side-by-side, it is clear as day which version fulfills the role of being a sexualized idealization of James’s dead wife. It is puzzling to see this incongruent interpretation of the Maria character inserted into a game that explores the theme of sexuality. SH2R’s Maria looks like a two-bit cosplay version where the cosplayer was scared to, or doesn’t know how to, be sexually attractive. Or, put another way, Maria 2.0 looks like she is going to an office party in her casual work outfit while Maria is dressed for a night out in the town.
However, it isn’t just the lack of dressing to look sexually attractive that is a problem. It is SH2R’s physical features as well. The aforementioned chipmunk face with the wider jawline, the lack of a figure that doesn’t include a more pronounced bosom or curvature of the buttocks. There is barely anything physical that makes Maria 2.0 sexual.
Attractive for some? Sure
But sexy? Not at all.
Nevertheless, chipmunk syndrome didn’t affect just Maria in SH2R. Both Angela and Laura were infected by the chipmunk virus as they, too, feature chubby ugly faces (chugly). The Angela character takes it even further with a voice that sounds like she has a couple of Willy Wonka’s everlasting gobstoppers in her mouth.
Yet, to say that they got the chipmunk treatment may not be wholly accurate. In fact, one could say that these chuglies were all Eddie-fied, when it comes to their faces. It’s a very odd design change to be applied to every female character in the remake and makes one wonder why it was done.
Why the similar uglification of all three female characters in Silent Hill 2 remake?
This is a pertinent question to ask since the design wasn’t just limited to one female character, but all of them. And yes, they are uglier compared to the original character designs.
No matter how you look at the character designs and sexuality, there also needs to be a discussion around Silent Hill 2’s main antagonist Pyramid Head. An instantly recognizable and iconic video game villain, Pyramid Head certainly enhances the horror and psychological aspect of the game for good reason. However, the character has some scenes that a few modern gamers will find disturbing. I’m talking about the kind of gamers who laughably think that something such as teabagging is sexual assault.
For gamers who played the original Silent Hill 2, you know the scenes that I am talking about. The introduction scene and one or two other scenes that follow a similar pattern. Mostly, the implied act that Pyramid Head is using on the nurses before snuffing them out.
While we saw a brief second of the Pyramid Head intro scene in the teaser trailer for Silent Hill 2 remake, it is not a 1:1 recreation. The angle of the shot blocks more than what was shown in the original game. So it wouldn’t be surprising if Bloober Team changes those scenes to take out the implications of what many gamers assumed might be happening.
And just to make things clear, even though the scenes were designed to appear sexual, that wasn’t the case for what was happening. But the effect, impact, and shock value it had on gamers and the discussions around Pyramid Head shows how brilliantly this psychological horror game implemented the scenes.
The problem is, some gamers just can’t handle those kinds of scenes anymore.
At least, Bloober Team thinks that is the case. But they make the mistake in thinking that there are more of those consumers than there are regular gamers who can handle an M-rated game. After all, Silent Hill 2 remake is being promoted as a “horror classic for modern audiences.” A “modern audience,” that the video game “journalists” and western developers pontificate about constantly, who don’t like attractive female characters, difficult gameplay, and must adhere to DEI guidelines. A “modern audience” that is nothing more than a minority of gamers and grifters trying to ruin video games.
Enter Hit Detection: a DEI videogame consultancy group that lists Bloober Team as one of their clients. Hit Detection, like other DEI companies such as Sweet Baby Inc, have been getting more exposure as high-profile games are being released to negative reactions due to a focus on DEI rather than storytelling and gameplay. Hit Detection is no different as one of its services involves Sensitive Issues Assessment which, according to them, involves their company assessing “the risk factors for depictions of character from underrepresented groups, themes, and potential community reactions.
As a result of women being underrepresented, it could be the reason why chugly female characters have become far too common in western games thanks to this woke agenda, spurred on and enforced by DEI consultancy groups, that says designing attractive women is verboten. A design template being pushed for this mythical “modern audience” that, allegedly, brings in all of the money to make games successful so that this farce can continue which is why all three female characters in SH2R have been given the chugly treatment.
Yet, another issue with Bloober Team and what doesn’t make me have any hope for Silent Hill 2 remake is the game producer Piotr Babieno saying,
“We tried to make all possible fans happy, but, at the same time, be very faithful to ourselves.”
This one sentence perfectly encapsulates what is wrong with the Silent Hill 2 remake. It is a fact of life that you can’t make everyone happy. It’s impossible. But rather than focus on making the Silent Hill fans happy, and staying true to the source, Bloober Team decided to cater to the “modern audience” and, in the process, lose the support of the fans who made the franchise a success.
However, what is really puzzling is how Babieno says that they want to be “faithful to ourselves.” A statement that tends to be made by narcissistic, self-absorbed social warriors who ignore everything that makes gaming great in order to insert their beliefs or ideas. It’s why we see so many movies and tv show adaptations failing such as The Witcher, The Woman King, Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and so many other IPs where the writers behind it had that same, exact mentality. That they needed to write for the “modern audience” and that their views supersede the views, themes, and ideas of the source material. It is why we are seeing games such as Concord and Flintlock failing during a beta or upon release.
The purpose of an adaptation is to be as true to the source material as possible. After all, there is a good reason why the source material or, in this case, a game became popular. Because it got things right. Bloober Team forgets this, like so many egotistical modern-day creators have done, much to their detriment and to the IPs they poison.
Finally, the last reason why no one should purchase Silent Hill 2 remake is the $70 price tag. Why would anyone in this current economic environment want to pay $70 for a single-player game that will take about 10 hours to play? With inflation, the economy’s continual collapse, and an uncertain future, there are far better and cheaper options for gamers to pick up that will keep them entertained for a longer period of time.
If you are a fan of Silent Hill, don’t buy this game. If you are a regular gamer, don’t buy this game. But, if you want to play it for the sake of curiosity, then at least wait until it is in the bargain bin for $10 at most. Don’t reward developers that are incapable of sticking to the source material.
Though, ideally, we should all boycott Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake.
Author’s Note: Support this site by donating via Paypal or even checking out our merchandise on RedBubble where you can find designs that cater to writers and readers. Money donated and raised goes into paying for this website and equipment.
