After years of begging, Silent Hill followers are lastly getting all the things they’ve ever dreamed of … type of.

Konami not too long ago hosted a Silent Hill-themed livestream that confirmed the corporate is critical about reviving the lengthy dormant IP. How critical? It’s at present engaged on a film, three new video games, and one huge remake. The final a part of the listing is essentially the most intriguing, as Konami is giving beloved horror traditional Silent Hill 2 a totally fashionable replace with the assistance of Bloober Team, the studio behind The Medium.

With followers chomping on the bit for any scrap of stories over time, you’d anticipate the announcement to be the most important story of the yr. Instead, it’s been met with one thing of a blended response. The remake specifically has spurred some debate, as some followers simply aren’t assured that Bloober Team is the fitting studio for the job. That’s not by any fault of its personal, although. Remaking Silent Hill 2 is one thing of an unimaginable activity, as a result of its messy PlayStation 2 DNA is strictly what makes the sport so memorable.

Otherworldly jank

Silent Hill 2 tells the story of James Sunderland, a person searching for solutions after receiving a letter from his spouse — which is bizarre since she died three years earlier. She summons him to the city of Silent Hill in rural Maine, the place it’s slightly too foggy for consolation. James quickly discovers that the city is overrun with monsters, together with creepy nurses and the enduring Pyramid Head.

The narrative is unnerving sufficient by itself, particularly due to the psychologically harrowing route it takes in its later moments, however a lot of its horror comes from its ambiance. To at the present time, there actually isn’t a online game that feels as unsettling as Silent Hill 2 — and far of that may be chalked as much as the constraints of the period. Take its signature fog, as an example. It isn’t a sensible white mist casting a semitransparent veil over the city. That nuance wasn’t solely attainable with the PS2, however it was to the sport’s profit.

The unique Silent Hill 2’s fog is darkish and thick, virtually smoke-like in high quality. It obscures all the things in fast sight, placing a haze over objects even two ft away. That permits the sport to ship extra shocking scares, as creatures that might be simply prevented usually will all of a sudden seem out of nowhere. The fog itself seems like a monster in its personal proper — it is going to billow backwards when James approaches it as if it’s on the run. It’s not sensible, however that’s the attraction. The overly thick fog lends the sport a claustrophobic aura, because it at all times feels prefer it’s about to squeeze in on James and suffocate him.

The sport’s fog is so instrumental to its horror that any modifications to it have resulted in controversy. When Konami gave the sport an HD remaster in 2012, it loosened the fog up within the course of. The modifications is perhaps delicate to the informal participant, however the end result was that the world grew to become extra seen, which made the impact really feel extra akin to a fog machine billowing on stage throughout a play. It feels foolish to say, however fog will likely be a make or break facet of the upcoming remake, as a sensible method might additional lower into the city’s mystique.

Fog is the first instance of the place PS2 restrictions create alternative, however you possibly can see it in different technical elements too. Enemies are particularly creepy within the unique Silent Hill 2 due to the restricted animation potential of the time. Enemies like Nurses jitter and jerk round unnaturally as they transfer, their heads swiveling round as in the event that they’re connected by a properly oiled ball joint as an alternative of a neck. When James kills one, they plummet to the bottom straight away, like a spirit that’s reanimated them has all of a sudden flown off and left a dead-weight husk as an alternative. Nothing strikes in a method that makes you are feeling prefer it was a human being. Whatever you’re up towards feels prefer it was pulled from one other dimension, making it laborious to ever actually predict motion patterns or behaviors.

Good dangerous performing

Those emotions translate to the sport’s performing, which is probably its most fascinating facet. Let’s be clear upfront: Silent Hill 2’s performing is dangerous. James specifically is a cardboard field of a person. During the sport’s most dramatic second, he emotionlessly mumbles with the power of a single AAA battery. Other performances are on the opposite aspect of the spectrum solely, with aspect characters like Eddie solely overreacting like they’re auditioning for a ’90s instructional video in regards to the significance of staying away from medicine.

I don’t imply any of this in a destructive method, although. In reality, the stilted performances are a big a part of what makes the sport so unsettling — even when that wasn’t the creators’ intent on the time. Much like enemy actions are simply off sufficient to really feel alien, the characters are simply distant sufficient from actual people to be uncanny (the facial animations assist in that regard too). That scene I discussed the place James barely reacts to essentially the most distressing information of his life? It’s partially as uncomfortable as it’s since you’re anticipating him to have a loud, melodramatic breakdown. Instead, he speaks like a person beneath hypnosis, making a genuinely haunting disconnect between the horror of the reveal and his flat response.

Numerous video games get in comparison with the works of David Lynch for superficial causes (“It’s so weird!”), however Silent Hill 2 is among the few video games that truly deserves that comparability. Lynch’s work tends to really feel as surreal and otherworldly because it does partially as a result of his distinctive directing type, which pulls purposefully off-kilter performances out of very succesful actors. Mulholland Drive is as disconcerting as it’s as a result of Naomi Watts’ Betty at all times feels simply left of human, however good of actor. It’s one thing that performs into a few of Lynch’s big-picture concept about id and the characters that battle to seek out their very own (see Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks: The Return).

It’s maybe no shock that that’s a core theme in Silent Hill 2 as properly. From James coming to grips with the monster he actually is, to the unusual doppelganger dynamic between Maria and Mary, we by no means meet the true model of the sport’s characters. Instead, we’re launched to fragments of their shattered selves caught in a single large supernatural jail disguised as a rural city. The odd performances are an ever-present reminder to not take something that unfolds on this world at face worth.

Is that on goal? Most assuredly not. The HD remaster options rerecorded voices which might be a notably extra conventional. Troy Baker voices James, making him extra emotive and anguished — a change that turns the sport into extra of a straight melodrama. The dangerous performing within the unique is extra possible a byproduct of online game voice performing at a time when the trade wasn’t actually invested in Hollywood-caliber storytelling. But the artists’ intent or the tech that drove selections is irrelevant; these decisions can tackle a lifetime of their very own and outline the work regardless.

That’s the story of Silent Hill 2, an excellent PS2 sport that creates horror out of mess. Its tough edges aren’t errors to be smoothed over by a contemporary remake; they’re an essential a part of its form.

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