Silent Hill 2 Gameplay Trailer: Why It Could Actually be a Good Remake
Many were disappointed by Silent Hill 2 Remake’s trailer during PlayStation’s State of Play on January 31st. This is due to two things. First, we were expecting at least a release date, which we never got. The second is that the trailer focused heavily on combats, more than the general gameplay, scenery, and feel of this remake.
But in the middle of these unmet expectations, many lost sight of what made the original game so powerful. Silent Hill 2’s newest trailer – while a missed opportunity – is I believe reassuring in many respects as to the vision taken by Konami and Bloober Team on this remake.
How Bloober Team rendered Silent Hill's atmosphere
In my analysis of the first trailer, I expressed concerns about the remake’s atmosphere. The focus on dramatization and jumpscares felt too remote from the original game in many ways. But fortunately, I feel the new trailer turned things around for the better!
Despite many combats, the overall pace and feel are quieter than in the first trailer. More importantly, we get many glimpses at environments and their design: the beautiful fog effects outside, the worn out, desolate interiors, buildings, rooms and other sceneries that are modernized and yet directly recognizable.
The graphics themselves could look better – though I’ll get to an explanation further down – but the fog and light effects are in my opinion already very well rendered, and perfectly transcribed what I imagined the remake would look like. More importantly, the artistic direction overall demonstrates great care and attention to detail in staying true to the mood, vibe, and layout of what is this series’ most important feature: the town of Silent Hill itself.
Masahiro Ito’s Beautiful Creature Design
We could already be quite confident about this one. Masahiro Ito, who had already designed the original game, is back for the remake. The first trailer showed us a very convincing design for Pyramid Head.
This second trailer’s focus on combats naturally leads us to encounter many other creatures: Mannequins, Bubble Head Nurses, and the “Lying Figures” (yes, the armless ones looking like they’re in a straitjacket actually have a name.)
Their design hasn’t changed much from the original game, but the level of detail in-game is definitely worth noting from the trailer. The monsters’ features, movements, clothing, or colors are exactly in line with what we would expect, and very small details previously established in the lore – like the tubes hanging out of the mannequins’ abdomen – haven’t been omitted.
If the recent rumors that this gameplay footage is actually from an early build are true, then I can’t wait to see how Ito’s beautifully deranging creatures will be rendered in the game’s final version!
Dealing with James' Appearance
A big controversy surrounding the first Silent Hill 2 trailer was James’ face. Some believed James should look a bit less rugged, mature, and somehow “assertive”. Personally, I was more concerned with how exaggerated his facial expressions and demeanor felt, but in the end, I feel most people felt something was not quite recognizable in the vibe James pulled off.
Now, it’s very hard to judge only based on a couple of trailers, but Bloober Team seems to have responded to this criticism. James’ face, that we can only glimpse out for a second in the new trailer, seems a bit softer, his demeanor more passive and somewhere closer to how James felt and looked like in the original game.
In the same vein, this new trailer shows how the over-the-shoulder camera can actually contribute to the remake’s narrative and symbolic representations of James. What I liked about early PlayStation 2 graphics was precisely that we couldn’t read too much on James’ face. He felt, throughout the original game, quite stoic and emotionally distant from what he was witnessing, doing, or fighting.
And this made perfect sense in regards to the scenario down the line. The remake’s camera still prevents us from scrutinizing too much his face as he spirals down the streets and nightmares of Silent Hill. And that may add a lot to the game’s atmosphere and narration.
Akira Yamaoka’s Music Rearrangements
Just like Masahiro Ito for the creatures’ design, a veteran and legend of the original game, Akira Yamaoka, is involved in the remake’s soundtrack. So obviously, things can’t go wrong. But with just one trailer, it was difficult to get an idea of the extent to which the original score – which is still to this day one of the best video game soundtracks ever produced – would be rearranged in a remake.
This new trailer gives a better sense of how Yamaoka is envisioning the modernization and rearrangement of a soundtrack that over time became almost untouchable. It’s hard to convey what I perceived in writing so you can click on the links below to hear the specific moments I’m referring to in the trailer.
The first track we hear is “Magdalene”, and besides a slightly slower tempo and a couple of new fills, remains a sober piano piece like the original. In other words, that’s an example of a very conservative rearrangement, and I think we can expect quite a few of the more melodic, atmospheric songs: “Forest”, “Laura Plays the Piano”, and “True” for example.
The second track, however, has been heavily re-arranged. The remake’s “Promise” maintains the same structure and tonality, but is given much more orchestration. The first segment now includes violins and a much heavier rhythm guitar. The guitar solo also feels heavier, and fuller, holding notes for longer and with more effects. Hopefully, a similar approach will be taken in the pop/rock hits of the original game: “Theme of Laura”, and “Love Palm”.
It was hard to make out how the more atmospheric elements of the soundtrack will be rearranged. Or “Angel’s Thanatos” for that matter. But given the quality of what we have heard so far, and Yamaoka’s involvement to begin with, I’m not worried at all.
A lot of Puzzles for a “Combat” trailer
Silent Hill 2’s newest trailer also filled a major gap from the previous trailer, which showed no puzzle whatsoever.
It may sound like a detail, but puzzles were an integral part of the original Silent Hill 2, and strangely enough one of the things that stick to my mind the most decades later.
It’s true that exploration relied on fairly conventional, old-fashioned puzzles. Find the combination to a safe. Play a song on a piano. Set up a clock at the right time. All things we had already seen in other games.
But Silent Hill 2’s exploration was also not only about unlocking doors. It was about unlocking the psyche of our character and understanding the true nature of Silent Hill. It was about those sudden discoveries, those sudden shifts in behavior, or a sudden passage into the Otherworld.
This meant that every puzzle was met with a high degree of anticipation, but also anxiety. We never knew what would happen when solving them. Access to a new room, surely, but also providing us with new lore or scenario elements? Making us discover something extremely unsettling about a character we had learned to appreciate? Triggering a nightmarish sequence? Opening up the way to horrific monsters we thought we had escaped?
The fact that the new trailer showed so many puzzles, especially when it was supposed to focus on “combats” is in my opinion very reassuring of how Silent Hill 2 Remake will set up its exploration phases and narrative progression in a way that will stay true to the original game.
Why We Shouldn't Read Too Much Into Combats & Animation
Now, you may have noticed I haven’t engaged in the trailer’s main concerns: the animations, and the combats. It is pretty much a consensus that they fell below our expectations. But I think we shouldn’t worry too much in this regard. For two reasons:
First, a recent and reliable leak from Dusk Golem has suggested that most of the footage comes from an early build dating from May 2023 that is not representative of what the game looks like.
As already mentioned in my previous article, combat has been the greatest effort, and probably the biggest challenge, Bloober Team had to undertake in remaking Silent Hill 2. Finding a balance between accommodating long-term fans of the original and modern audiences is going to be tricky. I understand how lots of fine-tuning might be necessary, and I’d rather wait for more recent footage to have an informed opinion.
The second reason is that some research I’ve done and shared on X(Twitter) leads me to believe that Bloober Team spent a lot of resources, efforts and time into crafting solid combats and animations that will “feel right” more than “look right”. They’ve had publicly funded Research & Development Projects focusing specifically on combats and enemies’ behaviors, including bosses. And these projects officially ended in December 2023.
This is why I think we’re far from seeing what Silent Hill 2’s gameplay really has to offer.
But when it comes to the atmosphere and the art direction, and when keeping in mind what the original game was all about, I’m convinced.
Credits
All visuals are © Konami
