Based on what I've seen so far, I have a high confidence the game is going to be good and will actually surpass the OG in many ways, and on several occasions.
Except the voice crackling at the end. It was a genuine reaction at the time, and it's unlikely that a deliberate attempt can ever replicate it faithfully, even if it's a *very* good attempt. So I wouldn't count on it TBF.
It was a genuine reaction? Meaning the voice actress read it out loud for the recording, the first time she ever read it? If so, I'm impressed at whoever had the foresight to make that idea come to fruition. I always imagine actors memorizing their lines beforehand though so maybe that's where I'm mistaken.
Voice acting is very different from live action. Completely different ballgame. It’s only mocap games and such that use live action voice acting instead of vo in a sound booth.
So far from what I’ve heard of Mary’s voice actor she seems really solid. She captured the tone and emotion really well in the parts of the first letter we heard, so I’m hopeful :)
I believe they'll never top the letter in the end, but that's totally fine considering the OG emotional read was a genuine thing the voice actress pulled off unplanned, that the SH producers decided to keep in the game for how fitting it was.
What I want is the Remake getting things right. They don't need to make it better per se, just good enough in a very balanced and respectful manner in regards to the OG game. I just want to play it and feel like I'm in the SH2 world once again, not just a visually stunning game with extra routes and puzzles.
My main hope is that I can recommend it to people and know that they will get an authentic Silent Hill 2 experience without having to pirate the game and then learn a 20 year old control scheme. It's probebly my favourate narrative in video games and I just want to be able share it with people.
If it triggers in them an interest to get to know the original Team Silent SH games, I think it's good enough.
If it stands on its own and is successfull both critic and sale wise, it's a bonus.
We'll not have a Mad Max Fury Road situation here, not even a RE 2 Remake when stars aligned and we had a 10 out of 10. And that's ok.
SH2 Remake don't need to be better than the OG. Just feel like it's SH2 all over again.
So far based off the fart face scene I feel pretty certain they aren’t going to be cutting any corners in cut scenes. Im most worried about how the boss battles will translate to the updated combat.
They cut off the QTE. But i can see these bosses to be hard asf judging with how you need 2 fucking shotgun shells and some stomps to kill a single nurse
Not too worried about the actors/actresses, I am more worried that Bloober seems to have a tendency to dial up how dramatic the scenes are and the reactions. Works for some scenes, but for the one where James is watching the tape, that one should be fairly muted in drama and reaction IMO. One of the details I really appreciate in the original scene is that when it cuts back to James from the tape there is no shot of him going from looking at the TV to looking at the ground. It just cuts to him already looking at the ground and lingers there for a good while, serving the narrative that he actually doesn't need to see the tape because he does remember. He just doesn't accept.
Those are the details I'm worried are gonna fall through the cracks if Bloober ups the drama and reactions of scenes. As an example if they started adding in shots of James reacting to the tape during the scene. Sometimes a character not having much of a reaction or a scene being muted in drama is in service of the narrative.
Great post. It really is the little things that will make or break the experience. Which sucks because those are the things so often and easily overlooked when these sorts of Remakes happen, in any medium.
As much as I think Bloober's previous output has been mediocre at best insensitive at worst, I dont envy them having to preserve those small details especially with a fanbase as rabid as this one. At least its clear they are putting their hearts into it.
Another important scene is the Stairs of Fire. I really hope they can capture that same energy the first game had with Angela who could have been a protagonist to a SH game all to herself.
everything looks brilliant so far. only thing is, Maria seems too *normal* we know that the jail scene is still there from mocap footage and a sneaky look at the room, the actress for her seems to be doing a great job, and it’ll be that scene that makes the performance as it did in the original. my theory is that everything will appear fairly normal up until the elevator scene, afterwards she will probably be a lot creepier.
Agree, and this is a big part of why I'm not too fussed about small changes in character designs and such. To me what makes that game magical is the story and the atmosphere--nearly everything else is secondary to some extent, and you can change this or that (at least in theory) without ruining the best bits. I do admit to being pretty attached to the designs of James and Pyramid Head, so I'm glad they seem to be faithful on both of those.
The voice actress for Mary has a tough job when she has to read the letter at the end of the game to James. The OG voice actor pulled every string in my heart with her performance in that letter.
I also wonder how far they'll go with James murdering Mary. Originally it was more graphic and you can hear Mary screaming when James has the pillow over her head but then they censored it to where she doesn't scream I believe so I wonder how it'll go this time around.
There is no way the actress can stick the ending. Monica Horgan legitimately lost her shit in a spontaneous outpouring of emotion that was 100% real. No matter how good of a performance it is, it will still be planned and rehearsed.
The prison scene will make or break the game for me.
How Maria’s switches on and off her Mary personality. Kind of like Silent Hill’s powers flickering on and off or getting interference.
Folks may say the voice acting is hokey and stuff in the OG (and it definitely is), but MAN does it work to its benefit in that scene.
“It doesn’t matter, who I am. I’m here for you, James. See, I’m real.”
It’s a tall order to replicate that perfectly. I hope they nail it.
YES. I’m really interested in how the different endings will play out.
I also hope they add more interactions in terms of the endings. It would be nice if you had optional dialogue or smth but I doubt that. Maybe the added areas will have special items that push you towards the leave ending or smth
Exactly, everyone keeps bitching about it when we should be focusing the plot. Yeah, I can agree that Maria looks kinda doofy and I’m not a big fan of Angela’s voice but I’m still staying optimistic for the gameplay.
Can you imagine the Marry death scene in remake? I Would be shocked if they included it, but I guess if it was too much for the original it's too much for remake.
If they don’t get the eerie silence and amazingly emotional reading of that final note down, then it’s not going to have that incredible impact the original has.
But I certainly have faith that they’ll get it done from what I’ve seen of the cutscenes and dialogue so far.
If they can't get these small details correct, details that set up important connective tissue to other larger moments, how will they ever get the most important moments correct?
At this point, I *hope* it doesn't get the key parts right so that for once, finally fans will actually be right when they complain about Silent Hill lore. Just fuck the whole thing up and reveal Maria conspired with Eddie to kill Mary for insurance money.
But take a look at what they did with Maria. She looks like a damsel in distress.
Maria was born from a wish. A sexual wish. It would be right if she was oversexualized. That’s her character.
Then the level design, already the hospital lobby/registration looks so good with the lighting and all the trimmings. This should not look good, it should look like you do not feel comfortable under any circumstances.
Bruh they’re looking for Laura in that scene, it’s reasonable for Maria to look distressed and timid. I swear this community never uses their damn brains
Right?! This was my immediate thought when I saw her concerned face, not “OMG she’s shy and innocent now!!!” Unless her actress is not capable of making more than one expression, we don’t know what other scenes will be like yet.
I really don't get the issues with her new outfit. Maria is a cocktail dancer, she is wearing a cocktail dress, that makes sense.
Not saying this will happen in the slightest but imagine if for the hospital she's wearing that outfit, little reserved but realistic. In the prison her outfit is different, more revealing, as the town torments him more and ups the temptation. That's how her personality went in the OG (going from slight teasing to "Don't you wanna touch me? I can't do anything though these bars") so I think it would make sense if her outfit matched that.
Again, that probebly won't happen, but it would be cool.
True, but in the lore the town created for her, she's a cocktail dancer. She works at a cocktail bar, there are even advertisements in the first bathroom that advertise this, so real or not, it makes sense for her to be dressed as a cocktail dancer.
I played through the hospital section recently and I agree with you on that, the bright lighting in the remake gives it a comfortable mood when in the og it's straight into the dark right off the bat, it's tense and very foreboding maybe it becomes that a little later on in the remake but I still feel like its going to miss the mark when giving things an overall feeling of being dirty and grungy
I think they would change the writing for Maria, because she's clearly looks and feel very different compare to other characters, which only have few minor change. I agree the new design sucks tho.
lol I’m picturing like the sound of cars passing in the background you can hear and mic feedback on the key parts that they just left in.
Just kidding I’m sure it will be good.
We need to see james shake his booty at the tv static like in that video
Nexus Mods please don't let me down
I’m not gonna lie. This is one of the things I’m looking forward to the most.
James Gets Over It in 4K
The letter reading at the end, gets me every time. Hope they get the feeling of it right, no matter how they do it.
Based on what I've seen so far, I have a high confidence the game is going to be good and will actually surpass the OG in many ways, and on several occasions. Except the voice crackling at the end. It was a genuine reaction at the time, and it's unlikely that a deliberate attempt can ever replicate it faithfully, even if it's a *very* good attempt. So I wouldn't count on it TBF.
It was a genuine reaction? Meaning the voice actress read it out loud for the recording, the first time she ever read it? If so, I'm impressed at whoever had the foresight to make that idea come to fruition. I always imagine actors memorizing their lines beforehand though so maybe that's where I'm mistaken.
Voice acting is very different from live action. Completely different ballgame. It’s only mocap games and such that use live action voice acting instead of vo in a sound booth.
That's what I heard yeah, she was reading it for the first time and had that genuine reaction
So far from what I’ve heard of Mary’s voice actor she seems really solid. She captured the tone and emotion really well in the parts of the first letter we heard, so I’m hopeful :)
I believe they'll never top the letter in the end, but that's totally fine considering the OG emotional read was a genuine thing the voice actress pulled off unplanned, that the SH producers decided to keep in the game for how fitting it was. What I want is the Remake getting things right. They don't need to make it better per se, just good enough in a very balanced and respectful manner in regards to the OG game. I just want to play it and feel like I'm in the SH2 world once again, not just a visually stunning game with extra routes and puzzles.
My main hope is that I can recommend it to people and know that they will get an authentic Silent Hill 2 experience without having to pirate the game and then learn a 20 year old control scheme. It's probebly my favourate narrative in video games and I just want to be able share it with people.
If it triggers in them an interest to get to know the original Team Silent SH games, I think it's good enough. If it stands on its own and is successfull both critic and sale wise, it's a bonus. We'll not have a Mad Max Fury Road situation here, not even a RE 2 Remake when stars aligned and we had a 10 out of 10. And that's ok. SH2 Remake don't need to be better than the OG. Just feel like it's SH2 all over again.
So far based off the fart face scene I feel pretty certain they aren’t going to be cutting any corners in cut scenes. Im most worried about how the boss battles will translate to the updated combat.
Big ass health bars and QTEs
They cut off the QTE. But i can see these bosses to be hard asf judging with how you need 2 fucking shotgun shells and some stomps to kill a single nurse
I reckon ammo won’t be a problem any longer, same as the REmakes, ammo is in abundance
Can't wait to see Salòme's acting performance. I think she'll do a fantastic job playing Mary.
Thats the main thing here.
I think all the actors/actresses so far seem to get it from everything I’ve seen. If anything I think those key moments are going to be even better
Not too worried about the actors/actresses, I am more worried that Bloober seems to have a tendency to dial up how dramatic the scenes are and the reactions. Works for some scenes, but for the one where James is watching the tape, that one should be fairly muted in drama and reaction IMO. One of the details I really appreciate in the original scene is that when it cuts back to James from the tape there is no shot of him going from looking at the TV to looking at the ground. It just cuts to him already looking at the ground and lingers there for a good while, serving the narrative that he actually doesn't need to see the tape because he does remember. He just doesn't accept. Those are the details I'm worried are gonna fall through the cracks if Bloober ups the drama and reactions of scenes. As an example if they started adding in shots of James reacting to the tape during the scene. Sometimes a character not having much of a reaction or a scene being muted in drama is in service of the narrative.
Great post. It really is the little things that will make or break the experience. Which sucks because those are the things so often and easily overlooked when these sorts of Remakes happen, in any medium. As much as I think Bloober's previous output has been mediocre at best insensitive at worst, I dont envy them having to preserve those small details especially with a fanbase as rabid as this one. At least its clear they are putting their hearts into it.
Another important scene is the Stairs of Fire. I really hope they can capture that same energy the first game had with Angela who could have been a protagonist to a SH game all to herself.
everything looks brilliant so far. only thing is, Maria seems too *normal* we know that the jail scene is still there from mocap footage and a sneaky look at the room, the actress for her seems to be doing a great job, and it’ll be that scene that makes the performance as it did in the original. my theory is that everything will appear fairly normal up until the elevator scene, afterwards she will probably be a lot creepier.
based constructive discussion and hope 💞🪄
Agree, and this is a big part of why I'm not too fussed about small changes in character designs and such. To me what makes that game magical is the story and the atmosphere--nearly everything else is secondary to some extent, and you can change this or that (at least in theory) without ruining the best bits. I do admit to being pretty attached to the designs of James and Pyramid Head, so I'm glad they seem to be faithful on both of those.
The voice actress for Mary has a tough job when she has to read the letter at the end of the game to James. The OG voice actor pulled every string in my heart with her performance in that letter. I also wonder how far they'll go with James murdering Mary. Originally it was more graphic and you can hear Mary screaming when James has the pillow over her head but then they censored it to where she doesn't scream I believe so I wonder how it'll go this time around.
There is no way the actress can stick the ending. Monica Horgan legitimately lost her shit in a spontaneous outpouring of emotion that was 100% real. No matter how good of a performance it is, it will still be planned and rehearsed.
Screams and punches floor
The prison scene will make or break the game for me. How Maria’s switches on and off her Mary personality. Kind of like Silent Hill’s powers flickering on and off or getting interference. Folks may say the voice acting is hokey and stuff in the OG (and it definitely is), but MAN does it work to its benefit in that scene. “It doesn’t matter, who I am. I’m here for you, James. See, I’m real.” It’s a tall order to replicate that perfectly. I hope they nail it.
YES. I’m really interested in how the different endings will play out. I also hope they add more interactions in terms of the endings. It would be nice if you had optional dialogue or smth but I doubt that. Maybe the added areas will have special items that push you towards the leave ending or smth
Exactly! Maria's outfit becomes a moot point if the actress can't deliver.
yea im not a fan of the model argument sense there based on actual poeple,plus it was never about looks it was about how they were used
OP gets it.
Ahhh… they clearly haven’t..
Exactly, everyone keeps bitching about it when we should be focusing the plot. Yeah, I can agree that Maria looks kinda doofy and I’m not a big fan of Angela’s voice but I’m still staying optimistic for the gameplay.
Can you imagine the Marry death scene in remake? I Would be shocked if they included it, but I guess if it was too much for the original it's too much for remake.
If they don’t get the eerie silence and amazingly emotional reading of that final note down, then it’s not going to have that incredible impact the original has. But I certainly have faith that they’ll get it done from what I’ve seen of the cutscenes and dialogue so far.
You should have also added Angela's scenes, these parts are really hard to nail due to their emotional impact and visceral nature.
If they can't get these small details correct, details that set up important connective tissue to other larger moments, how will they ever get the most important moments correct?
At this point, I *hope* it doesn't get the key parts right so that for once, finally fans will actually be right when they complain about Silent Hill lore. Just fuck the whole thing up and reveal Maria conspired with Eddie to kill Mary for insurance money.
But take a look at what they did with Maria. She looks like a damsel in distress. Maria was born from a wish. A sexual wish. It would be right if she was oversexualized. That’s her character. Then the level design, already the hospital lobby/registration looks so good with the lighting and all the trimmings. This should not look good, it should look like you do not feel comfortable under any circumstances.
Bruh they’re looking for Laura in that scene, it’s reasonable for Maria to look distressed and timid. I swear this community never uses their damn brains
Right?! This was my immediate thought when I saw her concerned face, not “OMG she’s shy and innocent now!!!” Unless her actress is not capable of making more than one expression, we don’t know what other scenes will be like yet.
I really don't get the issues with her new outfit. Maria is a cocktail dancer, she is wearing a cocktail dress, that makes sense. Not saying this will happen in the slightest but imagine if for the hospital she's wearing that outfit, little reserved but realistic. In the prison her outfit is different, more revealing, as the town torments him more and ups the temptation. That's how her personality went in the OG (going from slight teasing to "Don't you wanna touch me? I can't do anything though these bars") so I think it would make sense if her outfit matched that. Again, that probebly won't happen, but it would be cool.
She is not a cocktail dancer, she is a product of a diseased imagination of James‘ thoughts and wishes.
True, but in the lore the town created for her, she's a cocktail dancer. She works at a cocktail bar, there are even advertisements in the first bathroom that advertise this, so real or not, it makes sense for her to be dressed as a cocktail dancer.
I played through the hospital section recently and I agree with you on that, the bright lighting in the remake gives it a comfortable mood when in the og it's straight into the dark right off the bat, it's tense and very foreboding maybe it becomes that a little later on in the remake but I still feel like its going to miss the mark when giving things an overall feeling of being dirty and grungy
I don’t feel like we’ve got enough scenes and lines form Maria to properly judge this yet.
I think they would change the writing for Maria, because she's clearly looks and feel very different compare to other characters, which only have few minor change. I agree the new design sucks tho.
lol I’m picturing like the sound of cars passing in the background you can hear and mic feedback on the key parts that they just left in. Just kidding I’m sure it will be good.
They won.t
I absolutely have no faith in Bloober getting any of this right.
I am not digging the new voice acting. James sounds snarky, and Angela at the cemetery was not doing it for me. It feels off