Skip To...
The latest trailer for the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake hit the internet during the most recent PlayStation State of Play event, and it’s garnered a lot of outrage and frustration from fans of the iconic horror gaming masterpiece. Internet backlash exists on a sliding scale that can place its importance anywhere between “genuinely relevant” and “this is why people think gamers have no lives,” but in the case of this Silent Hill 2 trailer, the anger is genuinely justified since it seems Konami continues to miss the entire point and appeal of its biggest names.
Silent Hill 2 Backlash: Missing The Whole Point
For any veteran players who have survived the haunting fog of the original Silent Hill 2, the fact that the latest promotional video is titled a “combat trailer” may be immediately disconcerting. That’s because anyone who’s played the original knows that Silent Hill 2, and all of the other classic entries in the franchise, isn’t really a game that emphasizes its combat.
It’s certainly possible for the player to fight back against the many horrors that creep slowly toward them. Still, the combat mechanics are unreliable, and even when the player can make it work, James’ damage output is low to the point of it hardly being worth it most of the time. All of this to say, the Silent Hill 2 remake getting a combat trailer at all reeks of big changes being made that may hurt the overall experience, and watching the trailer itself seems to confirm that. It seems like someone at Konami saw the success of the Resident Evil remakes and was more interested in remaking those games than remaking Silent Hill 2 because the shooting mechanics look far closer to what players got from the recent remakes of Resident Evil 2-4.
What Makes A Silent Hill?
There’s obviously nothing wrong on the surface with wanting to be more like one of the classic Resident Evil titles, they are fantastic games. It doesn’t work for Silent Hill 2, though. Silent Hill was always distinct from the Resident Evil series at a time when both franchises were heavily competing for horror gaming dominance. Still, the edge of Konami’s terror title feels pretty self-evident in the name: It’s the quieter and more subtle of the two series. Contrast the fact that Silent Hill 2‘s opening menu is mostly black with dissonant synth tones playing as the player cuts through the menu, whereas Resident Evil 4 opens with a gravelly voice saying the title with an iconic presence. There’s nothing wrong with either approach, but it’s important to know the difference to understand why these are equally iconic but very different horror games.
This is a pattern with Konami. The infamous situation surrounding Hideo Kojima’s firing followed by the swift release of the absolute worst game in the Metal Gear Solid franchise being released as the first post-Kojima title showcases how little this company understands its own IP. Everything new about this Silent Hill 2 remake confirms that this course hasn’t been changed.
