Fingers-On: Silent Hill 2 feels prefer it’s getting the Capcom-style remake therapy it deserves

Trendy remakes of basic survival horror video games have a gold customary – Capcom‘s remake of Resident Evil 2.

It’ll be of nice aid to Silent Hill followers, then, that we had been shortly reminded of the present customary bearer as we performed the Silent Hill 2 remake for the primary time.

Bloober Workforce‘s tackle the sport basically serves two functions. It’s an apology from Konami for the state it’s left the franchise in for years, and it’s a reintroduction to the sequence for a brand new technology of gamers who’ve solely heard it spoken about in whispers.

“We wished to evoke this sense of ‘oh, I do not forget that’ despite the fact that it’s not the identical factor,” artistic director Mateusz Lenart advised us. “It performs in another way, it’s structured otherwise. What counts, in our opinion, is the second that gamers assume they’re enjoying the unique, as a result of that’s what stays with you.”

That’s inherently the problem on the coronary heart of all of those remakes. Do you make one thing structurally the identical, however gussied as much as fashionable aesthetic requirements, or do you are taking the composite elements of what makes a recreation iconic, and re-apply them to the trendy requirements of the medium?

For Silent Hill 2, thus far the sport appears like one thing that’s faithfully invoking the spirit of the unique wrapped in a satisfying and scary fashionable survival horror.

Our demo consisted of the sport’s opening three hours. As we arrived within the hills, made our means down the trail to the cemetery after which into the middle of the city, the sport nails its tone from the soar.

Following James down the steep hillside into the wooded space forward of the cemetery, we had been reminded of Alan  Wake 2’s imposing forests and foreboding environment.

The descent into the fog, this time an atmospheric device quite than a mechanical crutch, provides gamers each new and outdated a way of what they’re moving into. The sport is performed in third-person and controls equally to the current Resident Evil remakes or the aforementioned Alan Wake 2.

We had been quickly stalking by way of the city with nothing however an outdated piece of wooden with nails in it to keep at bay the shambling creatures that screeched at us as we ran from constructing to constructing.

James, the sport’s protagonist, is now way more agile than within the authentic, capable of dodge and counter enemy assaults. The timing isn’t inconceivable, however you’ll nonetheless should preserve your guard up. We regularly discovered ourselves operating round with the crimson halo of impending loss of life clogging up the display screen, following our failed makes an attempt to dodge correctly.

Whereas Silent Hill 2 nails the tone of the unique, we had been considerably nervous beforehand about how among the authentic scares would translate into the trendy period. Within the eyes of some followers, it’s a can’t-win state of affairs. You both change issues, subsequently annoying the hardcore base, otherwise you retain the whole lot, cheesiness and all, and doubtlessly flip off new followers.

“That’s essentially the most fascinating side of remaking a recreation like this,” Lenart tells us. “Within the authentic, the mounted digital camera allowed the builders to cover threats. Not solely this, the outdated period of consoles didn’t have the facility to indicate the entire issues that exist within the area. An enormous a part of the horror was created within the participant’s thoughts, so recreating that feeling is a problem.

“We wanted to develop on the design of enemies. Model, for instance, has extra mechanics. She will be able to disguise, she will be able to shock the participant.”

Can she ever. It’s an unedifying expertise getting caught by a soar scare in the midst of a packed room of different journalists enjoying the identical demo,  however greater than as soon as we had been caught on the again foot because the model charged out of a dimly lit cabinet at us.

Each room we entered within the highly-detailed complicated featured on the finish of the demo was crammed with misdirects, and locations for enemies to cover. Even in rooms during which it felt like we may belief that we had been alone, each decrepit wardrobe or jacket hanging on a coat rack had us on edge.

We talked about in the beginning that Silent Hill 2 is just not solely a remake for hardcore followers who’ve been omitted within the chilly for years, however it’s additionally an introduction to the sequence for a brand new technology. With that in thoughts, there’ll most likely be quite a lot of gamers asking if they should play the non-existent Silent Hill 1 remake earlier than diving into this.

Lead producer Maciej Glomb laughs as we broach the topic of beginning with a sequel. “In the event you’re asking why begin with Silent Hill 2, the choice wasn’t ours to be made. Konami wished to revitalise the franchise with this one because it’s essentially the most well-known and thought of to be one of the best.

“It labored out for one of the best, as a result of Silent Hill 2 suits what Bloober Workforce can do one of the best. For our workers, that is their absolute dream challenge. Everyone wins.”

As we performed by way of the sport’s opening, we couldn’t assist imagining what enjoying by way of these precise sequences can be like for essentially the most devoted followers of the franchise, when the sport is launched in a couple of quick weeks.

Whereas they’ll know the unique recreation just like the again of their hand each deviation, each reimagined cutscene, and crucially each location that’s now in beautiful 4K will both be a second of aid or justification for his or her doubts.

“We’re typically requested if the strain from the followers bought to us, to some extent, it positively did,” Glomb tells us. “We all know each trailer, and each asset we launch is so intently watched, each second directed into little elements. It’s onerous, we haven’t skilled it earlier than. Our video games weren’t as excessive in individuals’s regard earlier than. The factor that we all the time say is that the most important strain was coming from ourselves.

“If we weren’t making this recreation, we might be these individuals on Reddit checking each body. It’s enriched the expertise. After each trailer we get lots of suggestions – destructive or optimistic, we don’t actually care, so long as we are able to take one thing out of it to make the sport higher.

“If we weren’t making this recreation, we might be these individuals on Reddit checking each body. It’s enriched the expertise. After each trailer we get lots of suggestions – destructive or optimistic, we don’t actually care, so long as we are able to take one thing out of it to make the sport higher.”

“There are issues that folks have observed that we didn’t discover earlier than, and it’s impacted a few of our selections. Not all of them – in some instances we’ve already examined one thing they advised – however it was a case-by-case state of affairs.”

We got here away from Silent Hill 2 way more assured in regards to the remake than we had been earlier than we performed it. The gameplay feels nice, the sport is graphically spectacular, and the environment of the unique has been replicated completely. It’s an inherently completely different expertise within the transition between mounted digital camera to third-person, however at no level does it really feel like the guts of Silent Hill 2 has been misplaced.

Crucially, for the well being of the sequence, Silent Hill 2 feels prefer it’ll be precisely the type of shot within the arm that may carry the sequence again into vogue. The Resident Evil remake comparisons will seemingly be inescapable, however is {that a} dangerous factor when Capcom’s newest efforts have been simply as genre-defining for contemporary survival horrors as each Resident Evil and Silent Hill had been within the style’s nascent days?