As far as James goes, the physical performance is what stands out to me. There's so many instances where his body language and facial expressions perfectly convey his internal state. None so incredibly, however, as the look on his face in the TV reflection when it cuts back to him after watching the tape. Such utter defeat, guilt, shock, and anguish all in that one look, it's incredible.
@@RealJeffTidwell devs mentioned that they knew they had to get a screen actor (not voice actor) so they could mocap the properly directed physical performance that perfectly matches the voice performance. None of the technologies they used are particularly new, but they put it together so well, that yeah, as you say, they stopped being game characters.
They really hit a home run. Bloober really shut me up. This game is amazing. The mannequins are the MVP of this game. Can't believe they turned one of the lesser monsters of the original and turned it into an absolute nightmare. 10/10 for me.
I never thought I'd say this, but I missed the wall penises in the Abstract Daddy fight. That is still one of the most disturbing imageries in any form of media I've ever seen.
@@Stigmatix666the bed springs in the song, the closet Angela hides in, the controller vibrating in motion with the pistons in the ceiling that keep pumping and pushing... If anything it's more disturbing
Maybe the best sound design of any video game I have ever played. It's downright terrifying to simply exist in this game world, and not even due to anything your eyes are telling you.
right on. i didn't play the original, the sound after you walk a little after seeing the first enemy walking away made me exit the game. NOPE. came back to it after watching someone else play it
Silent Hill Movie: IT'S OVER! Origins: IT'S OVER! Homecoming: IT'S OVER! Shattered Memories: we're kinda back? Downpour: IT'S OVER! Book of Memories: IT'S REALLY OVER! Ascension: IT'S OVER! IT'S NEVER BEEN MORE OVER THAN IT IS NOW! Silent Hill 2 R: WE'RE SO BACK!!
You only see a blanket, but the way James keeps looking towards the backseat in the In Water ending, and MARY ACTUALLY SITYING IN THE BACKSEAT in the new ending was perfect. No room for doubt this time. Like Ito said, he wouldn't put her in the trunk. He loved her.
James' performance in the new "Stillness" ending is one of the best VO performances in gaming. It's rare for performances in gaming to reach that level of sorrow and catharsis. I'd say the game is a win just for that scene alone, but fortunately that's not the only thing the game has going for it. In fact, it's only possible because of all the combined moments and emotional beats the game makes you feel all throughout that makes it so good. Great video, and I agree 100% with you.
It's almost better for me than In Water (OG), makes up even for Remake's In Water. While it was good at the start, the last 2 paragraphs sounded far less raw and knife twisting than the original... supposedly the actual VA was breaking into tears herself in the OG which was why it sounded that way, but I rly loved the first half of the reading
@@hanslim7 His line work in the In Water reading is intentional. Luke Roberts is a very talented actor. His performance in stillness is easily performance of the year. But I would argue everything he does in this game is with purpose. The reason he delivers everything flatly in the in water ending is because he's mirroring Angela who also kills herself. He has numbness and apathy before he is going to commit suicide. If you look at the Stillness ending, he is much more emotional in it because during this ending he actually chooses to not die and to try to live on. He's allowed himself to feel instead of being numb, which is why lives. So Stillness is actually read as the mirror of in water. Below is a reply I posted on another video that listed why I thought that. It's a little lengthy, but if you have the time, read it and then watch both endings back to back and see what you think. 1. The tone/delivery of his conversation in Stillness vs In Water. During Water he has the same apathy Angela has. He's given up, his line delivery is intentionally flat even though he starts by saying the exact same lines in both."I can't go on without you, etc". Depression/suicidality is often very numbing to those struggling with it. In Stillness, his line delivery of all of these lines is done with sadness and emotion. It culminates in him crying when he says he can't forgive himself for what he's done. He doesn't cry in the Water ending. This is important, bc he's allowing himself to feel in Stillness. (I'll tie this up at the end) 2. What happens after is completely different. During Water he states he knows this isn't what she would want and then can't bring himself to look at her body (in his backseat). He just looks blankly ahead and goes through the act. In Stillness he manifests Mary (again facing her and his act, looking at the backseat) and she forgives him. This doesn't mean he's forgiven himself, but it implies he can at least see that as a possibility in his future. Remember, Mary is a projection of his mind. And then more importantly he ends with the line "Will you wait for me?". In the afterlife is the implication. This line makes no sense if he immediately offs himself afterwards. He's asking her to wait because he is going to try to live on. He then looks at Mary's letter (the content of that letter is her telling him to live on after her death). This again is more subtle messaging that he's in a different headspace here. 3. Finally after the screen goes black the scenes are again different. In the Water ending the car immediately revs and takes off implying his death. In Stillness there's a moment where you hear the car door open (but not close again), the rain gets louder and then you hear something thud before the car takes off (I read this as James putting an object on the accelerator. The car crashing into water also sounds more distant than in water. Implying James is outside of it. 4. This is more speculation, but this is my read of the intent of the devs with a game design choice. Stay with me. You can only get Stillness on NG+ AND after you've unlocked In Water once. Why? It's because it's the same James. He can't escape silent hill until he comes to terms with his past. In the first playthrough your James has to be apathetic with disregard for his life (low health, looking at Angela's knife, etc) and can't bear the loss of Maria to get In Water. After that happens, he then repeats the cycle in NG+ bc he didn't get the lesson of Silent Hill. (He didn't really confront his trauma fully). To get his absolute he has to obtain the Key of Sorrow to unlock Stillness. It's a bit on the nose, but sorrow literally unlocks this ending. Not depression/apathy, but normal sadness/grief over his loss. He has to be allowed to feel the pain before he can live again. Anyway that's my two cents lol. Thanks for reading it
Honestly I thought it was shit and people talk about good acting like they actually work in film and act. All the performances feel detached in the worst way and the tone of scenes are way off from the original lacking energy. Just my opinion tho.
Also been a hardcore fan for about 15 years. Although some parts left me slightly disappointed, I spent 90% of the time just saying and thinking "I can't believe this is real". The whole experience was amazing.
@@miliIguess I found the otherworld hospital to be really underwhelming. The puzzles while mostly decent though didn't feel satisfying to solve personally. I thought some of the music changes didn't have a great impact, especially music at the last boss and for Mary's letter was an odd choice. The change of Maria being more timid and softer confused me as I prefered the Maria who had a touch of venom to her. I was sad I got the In Water ending first, which I think most new players will get - and for that ending they removed the bedside conversation, and that part was really important to me for how impactful the story was when I first played it. I was hoping there would be at-least an original monster, I do remember reading Team Silent wanted some creatures that were cut. The fighting while really great in SHR was let down by the repeated enemies. Saying this though, the main experience was incredible, Bloober really knocked it out of the park.
14:42 - After about 30 hours of playing, I still will get jumpscared by the Mannequins, I hate them so much for it but that's also why I love them, they were done so amazingly
In regards to combat I will go back to something I read in one of the User Manuals: "Harry/James are not members of STARS, or trained agents. They're everyday people and wont always hit their targets." It's paraphrased, of course, but fits perfectly.
When you first get the pistol, if you hold the ADS button while he is reloading, James will actually fire off a shot accidentally, without the player pressing the shoot button. The detail is amazing.
The OG Silent Hill can catch you off guard with that. If you try to quickdraw, Harry Mason can actually miss point blank range shots. But if you keep yourself steady and give him time to aim, he will hit his target.
Also abstract daddy fight was absolutely perfect, the sound design, the way it looked, the claustrophobic area you had to fight in, the detail like the little hiding hole in the wall, oh my God they could not have done it better, I’ve never clenched my bootyhole so hard in a game ever
Yeah. The house getting further and further ruined as you run circles in it, the machinery, the audio... Pure art! At first I was like... "Oh they gave up on the wall pistons thing? What a shame..." Little did I know, what was waiting for me.
Funny you say that, I watched a playthrough of the bosses and was facepalming so hard specifically at that boss fight. Couldn’t believe they turned it into a super generic run and gun segment down a hallway. Hilariously bad
@@doctorsex7255 I don’t think the original was generic. The room was interesting with lots of symbolism, and Angela was actually present which felt very uncomfortable. I’m not going to lie and say the actual “fight” was great, but I can’t believe how bad the new combat looks overall. In the original you could basically play the game without fighting save for the small number of bosses. It let you focus on the atmosphere and become immersed in the world and story. Now they tacked on this crappy over the shoulder gun play that doesn’t look or feel anything like a silent hill game. Well, except for Homecoming. You know, one of the really bad ones?
I still can’t believe the twist behind the woman’s gasps you sometimes hear throughout the game. Like I was speculating the whole game about its nature (if it’s from that specific moment iykyk) and when the moment hit, I couldn’t believe they got me. Incredible sound design.
I see people have already modded Maria's original outfit back on, but I really hope someone will make a version where it's implied that she steals the outfit from the Motel after asking James what he thinks about it, and then when she runs off ahead during the Heaven's night cutscene, she changes into it before walking out onto the stage for the big reveal! 🙏 I really miss her old outfit and an edit to the existing mod would make her being in the original outfit again tie in naturally with the new game.
I actually deep-cried during the credits, tears falling over my cheeks and leaky nose. I have never cried during a game or with a credits before, but this game has been my favourite game since 2001 and all the memories of me and a friend of mine (who plays it now) all rushed back to me and the game (Sh2Remake) was so perfect for me it was also tears of relief and joy.
The prison is scary as fuck in this, the labyrinth is S+ and the direction of the entire scene where he's watching the tape is not only flawless but improve the original.
I much prefer the aerial shot in the original of the truth scene. The way that James is left with the revelation for about a full minute before Laura comes in. The way the music fits so perfectly with Mary's call to him
My absolute favorite part of this was the fog world just before the apartments, when the wind suddenly picks up a lot. I hadn't felt an atmosphere in a game like that since when I first played the original Silent Hill. I'd been chasing that feeling again for decades.
Yeah, that moment was pretty intense. The way the wind howls and the controller has just the right amount of rumble to make it feel like the wind is tugging at your clothes.
I think the original got that incredible vibe that cannot be recreated, but my god i loved the remake so much. I never really cared much for James as a protagonist in the og, but in this one i couldn't help but feel so bad for him. His actor did an incredible job.
James, is my favorite protagonist in the series because i just understand his struggles the most like i can’t relate to Heather having a demon growing inside her you know, and Harry isn’t really the one suffering it’s Cheryl.
@@joshshrum2764 that's completely fair, but for me as a woman 3 will always be my favorite and the most terrifying. Also i have a special place in my heart for Harry. Now if only they could do something about Henry 😂.
You may not care but he was amazing complex characters whim u could relate to understand near the end and he was sibtel and uninged etc etc and it was so great at the final reveak. the remake one misses the point he is just sad typical depressed man (he played great, but nah)
Or the people who've only ever seen the movies but feel they're fully qualified to criticize/critique the games. I was watching gameplay of the remake and someone in the comments was like, "Oh, they added the air raid sirens from the movie!" 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
I can't wait for you to analyze the new Stillness ending, it might be simple on the surface but it adds so much to the game that it's shocking it wasn't in the original
I just finished the remake last night (got "Leave"). I cried twice during the last half hour, during the Angela staircase/Mary Hallway and during the Letter read. I stand by any criticisms I had of Konami and Bloober team before this game released, but I have nothing but praise for this remake. It's wonderful. A, leaning close to A+. If I had to give it a number, it'd be a 93. Bloober did a fantastic job and I would put this in the same league as the GameCube RE1 Remake. If someone has never played SH2 before, I do genuinely believe that this is a *very* good substitute for the original. I always advocate playing the original, but this is close enough to the original that it won't change the impact of experiencing it the first time.
I like how you can stagger enemies by shooting them in the legs then finish them off with a melee weapon. The combat system in this game surpassed my expectations too.
@JC-kl3uc that was always my pet peeve about re4. Why can I just use a melee weapon that doesn't break? Can't Leon pick up a longer weapon than a tiny knife?
as a side note, its genuinely shocking or disturbing to me when we talk and think of life in terms of "chunks of time spent waiting for games." Like, as an example, Final Fantasy XV basically took 10 years, right? And to know that not only did 10 years pass for it to manifest in any meaningful sense, but that it was itself released 8 years ago... just... I literally can't. A whole new Final Fantasy cameout since then which took a few years too. A whole new generation of adults were born and grew up in that time! Like what?! Its just like, living in a way where you're waiting for games and then reflect on whats been and gone when they do come out just ruins me hahahaha Where is the time going?!
We want THE ROOM. It's my favorite but in its original form janky in so many ways. A remake in Bloober's hands could be spectacular and finally give us the fully fleshed out (no pun) game we deserved 20 years ago.
I think SH 1 its the most difficult to remaigine since it requires the hardest we work, also I think the "rules of the town" are very important to SH1 and 3 but a lil less than in 2 or 4, specially in one since the burden of understanding the story is knowing why and when the town shifts
The Abstract Daddy part of the game had a much bigger impact than the original SH2, mostly because you’re being chased around by Angela’s abuser in her CHILDHOOD HOME. The teddy bear and blanket inside the closet BROKE ME. It’s not something I’ll soon forget, which is *asinine*, because while I loathe it, I appreciate the hell out of that sequence for making me squirm. I hated the implications in both games, but the remake made my insides twist uncomfortably. Also: Pyramid Head, man. I loved that you had to use him to cut a path through the hallway of tendrils. Bloober did a fantastic job taking something we adore, and giving it justice and then some. They obviously respected and appreciated the original game.
Yeah....I think the reason Bloober did such a good job was because all their past games were psychological horror and heavily inspired by silent hill. Which means that, for most of the staff most likely, SH2 is their favourite game..And when you get the chance to work on a remake of your favorite game, it is very exciting but at the same time, you know how much it means to others and you don't want to fuck it up...
The silent hill 2 remake is literally a game made by fans of the original series. Sometimes, fans can make something of a series better, because they obsess over it and know it better than the developers at times.
@@voyaage1969 they were not fans of the original, because if they were, they wouldn't have changed the game so much. There was fan made mod remakes that were more Faithul to this slop remake.
@differentsame9402 I mean, what counts as a fan of the og at this point? One of the developers from bloober team that I know of played the game on release back in 2001. Would you consider that a hard-core fan? Idk. Bloober Team really put a lot of heart and soul into this remake, that's for sure. With the homage to the original with glimpses of the past or references to other silent hill games, I love their new approach. If they were to make the game exactly the same people would complain too. I'm honestly glad they switched things up a bit while not diverging from the main story, and they never did. In essence, they kept faithful to their source material while working around it. Many thought it would flop but it hasn't. The reviews speak for themselves, honestly.
@darthbane2669 I also suffered performance issues until I tweaked the settings and found what worked for my graphics card. After that it was all smooth and I enjoyed every second of the experience.
Silent Hill 2 Remake is, honestly, shockingly good. I absolutely love horror, and even though I still didn't finish it (I'm 17 hours into it, about 2/3), it will most likely become my favorite horror game ever. I did not expect to adore this game as much I do. I love the exploration, the story, the atmosphere, sound design, soundtrack, and the puzzles. My god, these are probably my favorite puzzles ever in a horror game! There's so much to enjoy in this game. This might be the biggest and best surprise I have ever had in gaming. I went into it cautiously optimistic, but with low expectations, and I'm still constantly being impressed and blown away with its quality.
I'm just so happy they didn't add an unkillable patrolling enemy like EVERY new or remade horror game seems to. Maybe now we can finally break the Amnesia trend of "running away" simulators.
I also love the mannequins in this remake. They had me entering every room and area on edge, checking corners, under tables, every fucking nook and cranny - and they STILL managed to pop out and surprise me sometimes. The wall crawling variants are genius as well. The sound of them scuttling overhead is just so unsettling. It’s so good. And even though they’re somewhat douchey-feeling enemies with how often they spring outta nowhere and bitchkick you, I never disliked that. Idk, they should be annoying, but they never did actually annoy me. I felt like they were essential to the game and made it a lot of fun. I just love that hide and seek shit, especially when they see you and fuck off to a different room to hide and wait.
24:00 My favourite piece of subtle reveal into James' real character as a despicable person was in the introduction of Angela, when he touched her shoulder without asking instead of speaking to her before and putting himself in her line of sight while staying out of her personal space, and then instead of apologizing for touching her he says "I didn't mean to scare you" dodging accountability, and Angela is the one who appologized for "overreacting" to being touched.
@@powerbelly211 Yes! I honestly think that if anything, and for having such a massive, judgemental af fandom against them, they had the best possible outcome for the game. I'm so happy to see SH is relevant again.
It's funny cos it literally sums up how so many of us felt about the game leading up to release😂 they showed it to us in 2022, we were worried they'd get it right, we sighed at every reveal, and when it came out we loved it thank god!! The marketing really didn't do this game justice
My favorite bits of the sound design were the random gasps you would hear extremely rarely at totally random times, and the prison yard. There are literally zero threats in the prison yard, but it sounded like something was walking around, just out of view, circling around you. Terrifying.
Im just glad games like these are making a comeback. Kinda tired of the 50 hour rpg games nowadays, sometimes I just want a linear story where I don’t have to fill a skill tree and have hundreds of items in front of me
that moment at the end of the game, when James finishes the VHS tape, and Black(blank?) Fairy starts to play hit me hard. walking the halls of the hotel while that song droned on was a feeling no other game has made me feel.
I really loved the expression of complex emotions via the face and specifically the eyes. That scene in the very beginning when James lingers with a side-eye towards his own reflection... beautiful. 👌
You CANNOT OVERSTATE how big of an achievement to make a remake of Silent Hill 2 that is so good and faithful that some people even prefer it to the original (I am some people). Remakes are often either bad or just a good enough representation of the original. Blooper knew that the new technology available in today's gaming world should be used to enhance the game and they did. The quality of the graphics and mocap technology made it possible to portray so much of James' character in subtle details in his face. The actor did an amazing job.
The remake is great because "hey you beat the og and want some more but don't feel like ruining the experience with a replay? Play the remake? Same but the remake? Play the original!". The only wrong opinion is dismissing the original, and that's the definitive mark of a filthy tourist.
That the video from Stephanie Sterling yesterday was mostly about the manikin enemies, but no other major quibbles about the remake were forthcoming speaks volumes.
Its absolutely stunning that we got a Triple A game, thats seemingly released flawlessly, no major game breaking bugs, only small bugs and a few performance issues. Hell the only bug I ever saw from a friend when I was watching him playing it, was the occasional lighting Artifacting which would result in a bright white flash and the shadow of the character for a brief moment, but other than that his playthrough was seemingly flawless with no major problems.
Also the fact the cutscenes are capped to 30, upscalers are all broken visually and frame gens don't work right for pc, the hair is broken on all systems, the reflections are all broken as well, the animation framerate link and traversal stutter are major issues, the floor is black when u use hdr or have an old screen, there's no fov slider, the particle trails, fog noise, the broken pop in, the no RR on nvidia on pc, the real low shadow res for some reason and reflections, these are just from memory and can mostly be solved or improved with Ultra Plus on nexus but still real bad perf and bug wise
Actually it has a lot of problems, but I think they will fix them soon. There are texture issues everywhere, performance is dissapointing, and all of the above comment.
@@Chris-ko7ov I’ve heard from some friends before the comment bnb made the game does TEND to have texture loading issues where somethings look like clay. But that’s about as far as I’ve seen regarding that, I wouldn’t call visual bugs game breaking however. But FPS is honestly hit or miss, I did genuinely expect FPS to be an issue with this given how it was appearing on trailers. And I did notice when said friend in my original comment reached prison the frame rate dipped like mad.
@@LynxRecruit Yeah I wouldn't call them game breakers either. It does have problems, specially stuttering and UE5 poor performance, but I wish Bloober would at least communicate their commitment to try mitigate most of them. Still nothing from what I've seen. Either way I need a new GPU to run it like it should, so can't say for sure all those bugs are from the game itself or my poor performance lol. Going far that route, Cyberpunk or No Mans Sky were a total mess when they came out, and their devs redeemed themselves years later so, minor bugs and performance issues are no big deal since it just came out. Honestly I love modding community and they are already giving us performance and visual upgrades so to me, it doesn't matter that much.
'Good food' in this case being like a greasy cheeseburger compared to the gourmet dinners they used to be. It's good enough and hits the spot, but it's not exactly a memorable high-class experience
Well the concern in that case is whether to start playing from this or the original. I think I am still gonna go for the original first since yeah...they did in fact change some scenes, so I rather have a more "faithful" first time
@@Aranelyn i love both ver. anyway, and the remake doesn't replace the original imo since some aspect the original did it better than the remake ( voice delivery is one of them and some cinematic camera angles in cutscenes ), while the remake did better that the OG didn't, better boss fights and more character interactions, both are equally great and have the original plot and themes, so im happy either on both and are equally great, and so happy that my favorite horror franchise is back in baby steps
I'm so glad you brought up how they added new areas to explore because I think that's one of the most important things to get right in survival horror and that's my favorite thing about this remake
Most importantly, we now exactly know where all stars pizza is made. There is restaurant you can find after leaving the hospital. They got all star pizza boxes in there !!!!
Fantastic review! I'm a series newcomer thinking about dipping my toe in, and this is the first review that's given such love and care to this game. Your joy has rubbed off on me!!
My only complaint is I think they over did the amount of enemies in the "regular" version of the town. I feel like if there were maybe 25% less it would make the transition to the other world more jarring. Other than that I'm LOVING it
It feels that combat was more of a focus in this game. I knew it would be changed since the original's combat was janky but with reason. With how bloated the game feels the constant fighting feels like a chore more than a puzzle or scary. Needed less of it overall.
For real. I've been hardcore naysaying since the reveal. I've also been saying I'll be more than happy to eat my words and I can say i was right. Now license the hd mod and release the og on steam with it integrated, konami you twats. !
@chukyuniqul I've seen a lot of people who were hardcore shitting on this game come back around and say "hey actually it's great." And I just wanted to say I'm really happy to see so many people able to admit their opinion has changed, because so often people will just double down and review bomb a game or something. Glad you ended up enjoying it
@@ruiner3137 yeh, it's why I don't fuss over hardcore naysaying. If the game ends up being good I'll take that egg on my face and enjoy it-if anything-even more. Admittedly I'm only just now in brookhaven and have heard it takes a hit afterwards (even here, I have criticisms in how I'd much prefer it to be) but I'm enjoying myself too much to focus on those. If you're curious: The time of day changing. Ok it serves to give the hospital its unique feel but it's too blatantly genius loci. The combat. It's brutal and ruthless (if you get that reference yiu are officially a friend) but you can get too good at it. I should not be going toe to toe with pyramid head or dodging outta the way of surprise attacks for being on my toes rather than being attentive. At times I'm worried I might find James pulling out Angela's knife for a doom-style finisher. The nurses just kinda...don't hit. Somethin ain't clicking and it's partly because they lack some ability to really fuck you over, like the manequins' stealth or the lying figures' fast crawling. I think they should either avoid open areas entirely and camp you out in tight spaces where their greater melee danger shines or they should really lean into flanking and blindsiding you, on their own or helping the "lighter" monsters get in on you.
feels like they took lessons from the criticism (these days it's called "hate") instead of acting offensively Mad respect - not many devs (especially in the west) can do that
@@chukyuniqul The original had a "time of day" change as well at the same moments (when you get to the hospital). Instead of a cool foggy grey. it changed to a dawn-like colour from that start of Pete's Bowlerama to the Hospital. Even I had to go back and recheck that. The difference with the remake... is you aren't limited with light / rendering tech... so you can see the global illumination outside pass through windows (which is covered by dirt / grime) and affect the inside of the hospital.
SH2 is amazing. I love how Eddie is always breathing out cold air to represent a frozen silent Hill within his Psche and Angela with the opposite in a flaming Silent Hill. I felt I got such a better understanding with the situation in the Remake than I ever would have connected the dots in the original. 8.6/10
Genuinely curious/somewhat serious line of questioning: 8.6 is a very specific/nuanced rating - do you have a game review formula/checkbox list you use to calculate ratings? If so, do you apply it to all games regardless of genre, etc...? If not, how did you arrive at a decimal/what was the line of thought that put the game between an 8 and a 9?
@TheHi-NoteFunClub-BeatsByMike that's a good comment. I tried to take nostalgia out of it. I played it with my brother in 2001 and about 4 /5 times over the years so I took nostalgia out of it. I came to that rating over the overall game feel. I feel the ambience in the game was terrifying. The legs in particular were arseholes, which I loved. The change up to the boss fights was a great change in improvement from the original was there too see. I thought the character progression and giving me a new understanding of the game in particular was a great feel. Hence my comment as well as. Believing she died 3 years ago throughout my playthroughs. This game changed it up and realizing she died 1 week ago in Mary's home visit, its why he has her body in the back seat covered. But it was actually 3 years to the date of the timeline of her illness so to me that was fantastic. Not to to mention the puzzles. I couldn't give it a 10 as I don't this it is a 10 out of 10. What stopped me from giving it a 9 was down to its frame glitches and bugs that happened on my playthroigh. It didn't particularly bother me the jank (random load in on bullets in the drawers etc with a delay) but felt it was a fair rating I try to give games an honest verdict I felt it was not an 8 or closer to an 8 but more to a 9 rating. If that makes sense. I don't specifically have a checklist or anything just how I feel about the game and the downtime after it to appreciate it.
@TheHi-NoteFunClub-BeatsByMike I forgot to mention that the enemies became a bit stale after a point and needed a change and felt Bloober could have created have added an extra enemy or 2. Especially in the prison .
Question, I completely understand why Angela’s silent hill is on fire, but what about Eddie’s story/ trauma makes his silent Hill frozen? I don’t completely understand how his hatred and self loathing gluttony would be parallel to a cold environment . Thanks!
This game did the impossible..... It made me actually like Laura by the end of the game 😮💨 But in all seriousness, other than a couple visual bugs, this game was perfect. Not only did they capture what made the original so great, they greatly improved it. The boss fights were exciting, gone are the days of running corner to corner in a single room. The monsters were imposing and actually terrifying and you didn't know what they were going to do next. The characters were more fleshed out and the voice acting was great, Angela ended up being one of my favorites this time around. The town and fog was beautiful to look at and the fog storm section felt intense. And lastly the other world was PERFECT. It was dark, terrifying and the monsters seemed even stronger making it even more intense. The ONLY thing I think was not improved on was Mary's letter at the end of the game. In the original I cry every time I hear those last five words. It isn't as powerful this time around and that's okay because they made it their own instead of trying to recreate what made it so heartbreaking in the original. But I will say the big reveal on the tape was absolutely horrifying. This is a game I see my self playing again and again and I can't wait to find out what I missed in my first playthrough. Strong 9/10.
I do agree, OG letter hits different. That line delivery was perfect. I wish they’d kept it more faithful to that original line delivery. But it’s a small gripe. I will say that the Stillness ending (it’s one of the NG+ endings) is so fucking good. There’s a lot to analyze, especially if you listen closely to the sound design when it cuts to black. I won’t spoil anything, though.
@@Herpusderpus you don't know how much I appreciate you not spoiling it bro. I'm really looking forward to seeing all the new endings, but that'll be the first one I go for.
completely agree. i even got taken out of the vibe for a minute when she said the iconic "james.... you made me happy" i made a face of confusion. idk, the original it almost sounds like shes barely holding back just completely bawling while also being calm? hard to describe, but the new ending was just not the same. granted thats like my only complaint
@@jeffreyrobert1598 I feel like the letters have two different tones. In the original Mary sounds like she's still very much afraid to die while she sounds much more accepting of death in the remake. I don't think they could've recreated the tone of the original if they tried. The voice actress was sobbing by the end of her letter and you can't really recreate that kind of emotion and have it feel so real.
@@Oxcymoron oh definitely. Different tones for sure, the ending was just the most obvious. And yea the voice acting on the original can't be recreated. It's part of why I love the og one. So damn unique in such a weird way.
One thing they ruined about Angela, is in the final scene with her. Instead of cutting to James watching her walk up the cutscene ends and dumps you back out of the stairs. Like it is minor but it makes the aftershock of that scene just not hit as hard.
@@maxderratrank these plz in a reply, remake, OG on crt, OG on modern screen, OG with improved visuals on emulator, HD collection(lol) Enhanced Edition PC
@@bnbnism No remake on CRT? I still have a widescreen Trinitron that does 1080i (been sitting in storage for nearly 10 years though so no idea if it still works.).
I was disappointed in Mary’s va at the end. In the og when she was reading the letter there was so much emotion behind it, it was so powerful and a perfect way to end an emotional game. In the remake it felt flat like reading a essay in class.
I would agree. Mary's reading in the original almost always evokes tears from me, but the remake didn't quite get me there. The actress is great, but the original reading is just soaked with emotion in a way that they didn't capture this time.
I appreciate your fair and nuanced take on this game. I've seen too many people be all too willing to trash this game before even giving it a go. As for me, I must say this game is among few that consistently kept on edge and unnerved. The combat in this game could not get enough praise imo. No other horror's game combat has so consistently make me so anxious every time my character ready his weapons. The little touches like James' breaths becoming unsteady or his gutteral screams and grunts as he dodges and swings really sells the fact the man is fighting for his very life. The fact that as you said, enemies can be extremely unpredictable with their attacks and combos. Excited to see your next video analyzing the deeper meaning of the game as always!
A lot of people are saying the combat is mid, or monotonous, but for me it feels pretty dynamic. Enemies are really good at using a varied attack style, so if you’re not paying attention to their every move, you’ll take a hit. The tension is always there due to the random nature of enemy attacks. Especially the quick jabs or headbutts they throw out with little warning.
Playing on hard, the combat is absolutely thrilling. Every single enemy encounter is such a desperate struggle to stay alive while preserving resources and they scale so well throughout the game with your arsenal. Hard mode is definitely the way to play this game for the proper, terror inducing stressful experience imo
@@Herpusderpus Game can be absolutely brutal on Hard combat. I highly recommend you replay the game on hard, each encounter with monster is unnerving because you can't take more then 3-4 hits before dying and they can chain-attack you.
I was crying the whole last hour too. This game broke me even though I played the original. Bloober team did a fantastic job with this remake. It's the same game and story but improved and modernized.
Complete newbie to the franchise here. I wanted to see what all the hype was about regarding Silent Hill 2. I always heard it was one of the strongest in the franchise, being able to experience this game for the first time in this gorgeous remake was quite a treat. They did such a good job with darkness my little flashlight felt like it was barely enough making me feel extremely vulnerable. Then the amount of relief I felt when I finally made my way out of that labyrinth into the foggy outside again. Loved every minute of it.
Hey Max!. I was subscribed to you, when you did the video on silent hill synchronicity all i got to say, is i love your video's and make more of them , and take care
I definitely count as a newcomer as I've always heard of the Silent Hill series but never played it until the remake and I thought it was fantastic. I really enjoyed James's voice acting and visual performance. Definitely up there on my list of regular dudes just trying their best in horrific scenarios alongside Alan Wake and Isaac Clarke.
Thank you for the honest and passionate review Max. I can’t wait to play this game next year on the Xbox, for now I’m gonna just chill and wait to see what happens. I’m happy to hear that Bloober Team did their best on this game!
Overall I loved it, and so much of what was added only enhanced what was already great! I did have a few nitpicks though: . 📌 Pretty much every location, enemy, and puzzle has been expanded from the original. Bloober Team went with the "more is better" approach, but at times it felt like it hurt the story's pacing. This game is twice as long as the original; I finished the game in 16 hours and that was WITH the puzzle solutions. . 📌 The place where Bloober went with the "less is more" approach is with the dialogue. A lot of the fat was trimmed, lines were restructured to flow better, but some memorable lines were removed like "I can't tell you to remember me, but I can't bear for you to forget me" from Mary's letter. While some scenes now take their time others feel like they have little breathing room (e.g. end of final boss battle immediately cuts to ending without pause). . 📌 The voice actors are great, but when it came to the emotional highs needed for Mary & Maria's performances the actress at times fell flat (e.g. the bombastic "Anyway?! What do you mean anyway?!", the venomous "I'm not your Mary", the tearful Mary letter reading). There were also moments her Icelandic accent slipped into her characters. There are side-by-side comparisons on TH-cam so you can see for yourself. . 📌 The original soundtrack has been remixed with new melodies and instruments. Some tracks are made better for it, while others now feel unnecessarily bloated (e.g. Null Moon, Laura Plays the Piano, True) when their minimalist originals made a bigger impact. Also, they cut the beautiful "Peace and Serenity" song from the Leave ending and replaced it with a much less impactful piano song instead. . 📌 The Hospital Chase scene was poorly executed. They added a great new intro of Maria expressing fear something was about to happen but when they get to the elevator the emotional intensity of the original is stripped away. To illustrate, simply mute the volume in the scene and it comes off like they're just struggling to hold the doors open, not frantically get away from Pyramid Head. . Again, these are nitpicks, but overall I'm happy to see SH2 got the remake it deserved! ♥️
The padding was real. Especially felt this starting at Brookhaven and in later parts of the game. I still think it's a great remake, just the pacing was much better in the original.
Agree with most of this but I’ll be the black sheep about the runtime. For me, the tension was always present and kept the game from feeling padded (even if it arguably was). But it also fits the theme of James being trapped in the labyrinth of his own subconscious. I kinda like the feeling of “it never ends, there’s always another layer of fresh hell waiting” and the slower pace / expanded maps gave me that feeling. For me, it worked. But I’m also really patient with horror and love a slow burn. I can see how others would feel different.
And how authentic of a performance would you think it was if she just copied the previous voice actors? Be honest. People would complain still, even if her acting was exactly the same. It’s okay to prefer one delivery over the other but let’s not act like some people wouldn’t complain no matter how amazing she was. And she was btw, in pretty much every scene except one line I prefer the previous voice actor for. The unrealistic standards placed on her by some fans is asinine.
With this remake and all the new silent hill stuff that’s gonna be coming out I’m just happy we getting more content from Max “The Legend” Derrat ! Can’t wait to see all the upcoming content you got in store for us !
The two reviews I've been eagerly anticipating, yours and Yhatzee's. His, more for amusement haha. But yours. You pretty much nailed my exact feelings about... well all of it. Verbatim. I'm still wrestling with the seemingly impossible fact that Bloober pulled this off. They have officially earned all of the praise, respect and trust they are now receiving. On a side note, my girlfriend was right there with me from beginning to end. This was her first exposure to Silent Hill outside of the movies that shall not be named. So seeing her emotional response so closely mirror my own from over 20 years ago was the most reaffirming part of the whole experience.
Didn't Yahtzee retire a year ago? It is a shame we aren't going to see his reaction. It's kind of like Thunderf00t watching SpaceX catch their rocket with their tower on their first attempt.
@@NotAGoodUsername360 Yahtzee didn't retire, he RESIGNED from Escapist out of protest for them firing a co-worker (along with everyone else who'd been doing the actual content creation from that place) now he works on a new channel called 'Second Wind'
@@navyhusky2020 I don't think so. Dude has the ability to give a remake, credit where it is due. Hell, he can generally be positive about a game and NOT shit on it (the Spec Ops: the Line review is a good example of a review where he near enough says only positive things).
As somebody who had faith in this remake since it was announced, it's very gratifying to see and hear all of the praise it's been getting, even from all of the naysayers.
I think that Bloober forget, or didn't know, that flashlight that James was using shoud have stop working after him watching the tape in room 302. Flashlight was still on. I'm suprised that you didn't mention it.
You pretty much nailed it with this video. Looking forward to the follow up videos. I can’t wait to hear what you thought of the different endings especially the infamous new one that I adored.
What I found terrifying in this game was that every single room you walked into, and I mean every room, had a story to tell. The amount of detail put into this masterpiece was phenomenal.
I'm absolutely shocked that it's this good. I haven't touched it yet, but honestly every single person whose opinion I actually trust on games has been positively singing and throwing roses at its' feet. I'm so happy and relieved to see how much of a bloody slam dunk this is. I think I said it on a previous video, but to voluntarily take on the task of remaking one of the most revered video games of all time would almost have to be an act of Luciferian arrogance, but they landed it. They really, well and truly landed it. God, I'm so happy.
Man this remake is PHENOMENAL! Im not a huge fan of the original, ive only played it once, and while i really appreciated its story, i wasnt really a fan of the mechanics. The atmosphere and story telling gave off a very distinct feeling of despair and anguish, playing it made me feel.... gross? if that makes sense. And that feeling is amplified 10 fold in the remake while in my opinion, drastically strengthening the storytelling through its multitude of technical enhancements. This is everything a remake should be and strive to be. Its so good that it made me rethink my view RE2R and how much that game left to the wayside. This game is just so GOOD. Bloober team knocked it out of the park.
The remake was incredible but my only real complaint is what you said as well (about pacing) I also wish they added some more rewards/unlocks like costumes etc for NG+ to make the runs for all 8 endings a bit more fun.
19:46 and the good news is she is reprising her role for Return to Silent Hill and if she manages to keep that feel in live action. It would probably make the movie a lot better
Cannot put into words how good the Silent Hill 2 remake is. As someone who never played the original game and never knew about the story, I am STILL in shock by the twist at the end and I was left in tears. I personally had no issues with the line delivery with the female actors since I don't have the original game to compare it to, but I will say for new players they all did a wonderful job. My only issues were the pacing as you mentioned and the performance issues. Even with a GTX 4090 I ran into many frame dips below 60 FPS with DLSS enabled and running at high settings that ruined my emersion throughout the entire game. Once those performance issues get fixed, this easily could be my GOTY. Amazing game. Amazing Story. 9/10
@@VicariousNickk either you a shill or a fake SH fan. Goty? Are you serious? This game flopped and failed to outsell the OG. Don't believe me? Look it up.
@chandlerburse it's most definitely a flop. This demake failed to sell any units after it's first week. It sold 1 million copies it's first week and it still at 1 million today, almost two months later. Most games that sell 1 million units in a week will surely reach 5 or 3 million at least by now. This Demake flopped and failed to outsell the OG. Sales halted because consumers realized it wasn't a faithful remake.
I'm about half way through the prison currently, I've loved every terrifying second. I don't know the original like the back of my hand, but it hits all the same beats, and feels so faithful that the new puzzles and level layout feels like it was always there
I wish I could like this video twenty times. I feel like you perfectly summed up my thoughts on the remake as well. I always cry at the end of Silent Hill 2, but I was legit bawling from the same feelings of shock and relief that just overwhelmed me when the credits started rolling. Thanks for all your amazing Silent Hill content over the years, Max. Stay yellow 🥹
Just finished my run, the remake is ALMOST PERFECT! My only gripes were - 1. I think the Letter Reading at the end of the game falls flat. The OG is such a GUT PUNCH every time you hear it. This version doesn’t carry as much weight. 2. The Mary boss fight is way too similar to the Flesh Lips boss fight. 3. I’m surprised and disappointed they used a remixed version of Theme of Laura during the end credits. The original is arguably Akira Yamaoka’s most recognisable tune and the Remix lacks the EPICNESS. All in all though. Phenomenal remake and I would’ve put MY HOUSE on it SUCKING… But it doesn’t. I’ve never been so glad to be WRONG in my life. EDIT - Agreed Max, the famous “ANYWAY!?, WHAT DO YOU MEAN ANYWAY?!” scene certainly does fall flat. Maria isn't aggressive enough in her line delivery.
@@TheNomadJack No, it's the same composer as the original, but the soundtrack came incomplete with only 10 tracks, and somewhere on TH-cam, I read that the full soundtrack will be available that day. All we have for now is a preview of that version of the _'Theme Of Laura'._ That's the one.
Damn, you trolled me good at the start. :) I'll post here what I've said elsewhere. The original SH2 was probably my fav all-time game. I played it when my kids were toddlers. So my pov may be different than yours. That said... there were things about it I always wanted to be different for 22'ish years. It had flaws and could have been better in some ways... as a "game". The remake for me... was the hope that I could finally have a version of SH2 that made the "game" parts the way I always wanted while retaining the parts of SH2 that were special (its a game that changed my life) while also having modern visuals and sound (important to me). Nothing can ever replicate that experience I had with the original, and that's ok. The remake doesn't need to. So I was never ever trying to compare it as a 1:1 of the original. Its a new yet different experience of a story I loved. That's what I wanted and expected. Are there things I can nitpick as someone who played the original MANY times? Sure. There are some changes that I felt weren't for the better, but not for the worse either... but those were VERY few. The acting / VO / motion capture / dialogue was WAY better in almost all regards. The new actress for Mary/Maria is great (in fact some parts I like her better)... it's just hard to top Monica's original performance of the hallway dialogue and the letter when that is what broke my heart 22 years ago, and its hard to detach from that. I also like this new Maria. That said... I loved... repeat, LOVED the remake. Simply put... they not only made the kind of game I've always wanted... they went far above what I was expecting. Every aspect of this "game" experience was an absolute joy. I never felt frustrated, angry, or disappointed (minus a couple of smaller things narratively). Gameplay mechanics were so much more enjoyable compared to any SH game before. OTS view worked great for me. If this was SH1-Remake... I for sure would want an alternate camera view for those alley scenes though! Combat... was almost PERFECT for what I wanted for SH... and... it was actually "fun" yet challenging at times. I loved the monsters, and their behavior. By far the best in the series! That said... this was a WAY more intense game than any other SH game. Puzzles were a perfect balance for me. Kept me engaged enough to not frustrate me and had enough variety to keep me interested. They were far more enjoyable than most puzzles in the older games. In the end... with the exception of how a few things were delivered narratively... this game blew me away in almost all regards. I'm legit happy as hell to see such a turn around and see this game get the praise it has by the majority. It may not work for everyone in all regards, and that's ok... but there is no doubt... it is a success while also feeling like a new game. That is what I wanted.. and my heart is filled because of it in ways I haven't felt in many years. I couldn't be happier.
the only review that matters ❤ so happy you loved it, max! i’m still in the apartments, playing in short sessions and savoring everything (while also having my ass BEAT by the mannequins on hard mode). i can safely say that this will be a 10/10 experience and the love bloober poured into this project shows on every scene. as a queer person, horror was always an escape from the ACTUAL horror going on in my life; silent hill being the biggest source of that since i was a teen. it molded my adolescence and gave me a deeper interest on human psyche - i owe being a psychologist and psychoanalyst today to this franchise. it is so special and i totally get your emotional response to this remake. ❤
After my playthrough of the new remake of sh2 I think I finally may have answered a persisting question regarding the 3 year inconsistent lapse of time between Marys death and when James talks to Laura about it and she says that's wrong. I'm starting to believe the reason why James keeps saying 3 years because in his mind when Mary first got so unmanageably sick 3 years ago that it consumed his life that's when in his mind she died as apposed to her official passing. He then kills her, puts her body in the baskseat of his car, stops by a local restroom to compose himself before he pursues his next coarse of action, then time for him stops after 9 and it's reflected on all of the clocks and he is trapped in an psychological eternal recurrence.
My biggest issue with the remake: There is way too much focus on combat. It feels more like an action game in the long run. It starts out great, but becomes somewhat tedious by the end. Way too many enemies imho. Sometimes it would feel like a classic Doom game, where if you pick up an item or interact with something to progress, it would spawn in enemies to ambush you. Some areas also felt bloated and they over-stayed their welcome imo. Despite these complaints, I think the remake is "fine". I obviously prefer the original, the horror comes less from the danger of the enemies and centers more on the surreal nature of the town. I feel the remake focuses on the former a bit too much. The characters were well made, or should I say well "remade"
Yeah, prison and labyrinth in particulary could use less enemies encounters. By that point I just started to run past them, as there's not enough enemy variety to keep me ingaged.
You are not meant to fight all of them, you can run past lot of them and you can sneak past lot of enemies like in original if you turn off flashlight and don't bump directly into them.
What did you think of the remake?
From masterclass to masterpiece
“Not good”
Anthony Fantano
Damn good.
It sucks.
@@MillywiggZ Good job you dont matter
As far as James goes, the physical performance is what stands out to me. There's so many instances where his body language and facial expressions perfectly convey his internal state. None so incredibly, however, as the look on his face in the TV reflection when it cuts back to him after watching the tape. Such utter defeat, guilt, shock, and anguish all in that one look, it's incredible.
So true. He feels real. Human.
@@RealJeffTidwell devs mentioned that they knew they had to get a screen actor (not voice actor) so they could mocap the properly directed physical performance that perfectly matches the voice performance. None of the technologies they used are particularly new, but they put it together so well, that yeah, as you say, they stopped being game characters.
I would describe him as "unfortunate" looking, like bad things would happen to him and everyone (him included) would secretly think "of course"
I also LOVE how it "mirrors" the first shot of him in the restroom.
His face when the box is empty. I didn't even experience disappointment myself, I just wanted to put my hand on his shoulder.
So pleased to hear it hits the mark mate - was waiting for your review. Will be picking it up!
Normies will love it
I love your lore videos!
Elden Ring is my favorite game of all time.
@SmoughTown What is this, a crossover episode?!
You won’t be disappointed. Damn good remake. Loved your LotF video btw!
@@SmoughTown I remember you mentioning that you watch my guy here. I guess I'll share.
Dont buy a censored dei bs
They really hit a home run. Bloober really shut me up. This game is amazing. The mannequins are the MVP of this game. Can't believe they turned one of the lesser monsters of the original and turned it into an absolute nightmare. 10/10 for me.
GOTY SH2
@@nn99nn99 absolutely
I never thought I'd say this, but I missed the wall penises in the Abstract Daddy fight. That is still one of the most disturbing imageries in any form of media I've ever seen.
@@clarenceoveur9497 Absolutely.
The more disturbing parts are undoubtedly toned down in the remake..
@@Stigmatix666the bed springs in the song, the closet Angela hides in, the controller vibrating in motion with the pistons in the ceiling that keep pumping and pushing... If anything it's more disturbing
Maybe the best sound design of any video game I have ever played. It's downright terrifying to simply exist in this game world, and not even due to anything your eyes are telling you.
Cannot wait to play because of the sound. Sound desgin is why I LOVED Alien ISO. I'm sure this game delivers as well
right on. i didn't play the original, the sound after you walk a little after seeing the first enemy walking away made me exit the game. NOPE. came back to it after watching someone else play it
When the opening screen suggested to use headphones I decided to do it, and I'm so glad I did. The directional sound adds so much to the experience.
Silent Hill Movie: IT'S OVER!
Origins: IT'S OVER!
Homecoming: IT'S OVER!
Shattered Memories: we're kinda back?
Downpour: IT'S OVER!
Book of Memories: IT'S REALLY OVER!
Ascension: IT'S OVER! IT'S NEVER BEEN MORE OVER THAN IT IS NOW!
Silent Hill 2 R: WE'RE SO BACK!!
I'd change the last part to: YOU HAVE MY INTEREST KONAMI
I feel like one game isn't enough to warrant a full come back after years of mistreatment.
We’ve just been fed shit for so long that we’ve forgotten what good food tastes like
Silent Hill 2 Remake should've never been made. th-cam.com/video/pWw35U2wXzE/w-d-xo.html
@@AR-bj5et true
Why Origins? Wasn't it a decent game, apart from the story not making much sense???
When I realized that you could see Mary’s body in the back of the car is when I realized this game was going to be something very special.
Facts
To be fair, it is just a blanket. But I get it
Such a thing gives quite the macabre twist to the Leaving "positive" ending... Poor girl is in for a shock
@@anthonyf616 it's still a very clear indication of her body being there. that's literally the whole point of it being there.
You only see a blanket, but the way James keeps looking towards the backseat in the In Water ending, and MARY ACTUALLY SITYING IN THE BACKSEAT in the new ending was perfect.
No room for doubt this time. Like Ito said, he wouldn't put her in the trunk. He loved her.
James' performance in the new "Stillness" ending is one of the best VO performances in gaming. It's rare for performances in gaming to reach that level of sorrow and catharsis. I'd say the game is a win just for that scene alone, but fortunately that's not the only thing the game has going for it. In fact, it's only possible because of all the combined moments and emotional beats the game makes you feel all throughout that makes it so good. Great video, and I agree 100% with you.
It's almost better for me than In Water (OG), makes up even for Remake's In Water.
While it was good at the start, the last 2 paragraphs sounded far less raw and knife twisting than the original... supposedly the actual VA was breaking into tears herself in the OG which was why it sounded that way, but I rly loved the first half of the reading
James Roberts was phenominal in the renake. Easily one of the greatest performances of all time.
His acting in the bliss ending gave me goosebumps
He is incredible in this. But personally I think I still prefer In Water.
@@hanslim7 His line work in the In Water reading is intentional. Luke Roberts is a very talented actor. His performance in stillness is easily performance of the year. But I would argue everything he does in this game is with purpose.
The reason he delivers everything flatly in the in water ending is because he's mirroring Angela who also kills herself. He has numbness and apathy before he is going to commit suicide. If you look at the Stillness ending, he is much more emotional in it because during this ending he actually chooses to not die and to try to live on. He's allowed himself to feel instead of being numb, which is why lives. So Stillness is actually read as the mirror of in water. Below is a reply I posted on another video that listed why I thought that. It's a little lengthy, but if you have the time, read it and then watch both endings back to back and see what you think.
1. The tone/delivery of his conversation in Stillness vs In Water. During Water he has the same apathy Angela has. He's given up, his line delivery is intentionally flat even though he starts by saying the exact same lines in both."I can't go on without you, etc". Depression/suicidality is often very numbing to those struggling with it. In Stillness, his line delivery of all of these lines is done with sadness and emotion. It culminates in him crying when he says he can't forgive himself for what he's done. He doesn't cry in the Water ending. This is important, bc he's allowing himself to feel in Stillness. (I'll tie this up at the end)
2. What happens after is completely different. During Water he states he knows this isn't what she would want and then can't bring himself to look at her body (in his backseat). He just looks blankly ahead and goes through the act. In Stillness he manifests Mary (again facing her and his act, looking at the backseat) and she forgives him. This doesn't mean he's forgiven himself, but it implies he can at least see that as a possibility in his future. Remember, Mary is a projection of his mind. And then more importantly he ends with the line "Will you wait for me?". In the afterlife is the implication. This line makes no sense if he immediately offs himself afterwards. He's asking her to wait because he is going to try to live on. He then looks at Mary's letter (the content of that letter is her telling him to live on after her death). This again is more subtle messaging that he's in a different headspace here.
3. Finally after the screen goes black the scenes are again different. In the Water ending the car immediately revs and takes off implying his death. In Stillness there's a moment where you hear the car door open (but not close again), the rain gets louder and then you hear something thud before the car takes off (I read this as James putting an object on the accelerator. The car crashing into water also sounds more distant than in water. Implying James is outside of it.
4. This is more speculation, but this is my read of the intent of the devs with a game design choice. Stay with me. You can only get Stillness on NG+ AND after you've unlocked In Water once. Why? It's because it's the same James. He can't escape silent hill until he comes to terms with his past. In the first playthrough your James has to be apathetic with disregard for his life (low health, looking at Angela's knife, etc) and can't bear the loss of Maria to get In Water. After that happens, he then repeats the cycle in NG+ bc he didn't get the lesson of Silent Hill. (He didn't really confront his trauma fully). To get his absolute he has to obtain the Key of Sorrow to unlock Stillness. It's a bit on the nose, but sorrow literally unlocks this ending. Not depression/apathy, but normal sadness/grief over his loss. He has to be allowed to feel the pain before he can live again.
Anyway that's my two cents lol. Thanks for reading it
Honestly I thought it was shit and people talk about good acting like they actually work in film and act. All the performances feel detached in the worst way and the tone of scenes are way off from the original lacking energy. Just my opinion tho.
"I watched her with _the most discerning critical eye"_ yeah I bet you did big dawg
Also been a hardcore fan for about 15 years. Although some parts left me slightly disappointed, I spent 90% of the time just saying and thinking "I can't believe this is real". The whole experience was amazing.
What exactly left you slightly disappointed?
@@miliIguess I found the otherworld hospital to be really underwhelming. The puzzles while mostly decent though didn't feel satisfying to solve personally. I thought some of the music changes didn't have a great impact, especially music at the last boss and for Mary's letter was an odd choice. The change of Maria being more timid and softer confused me as I prefered the Maria who had a touch of venom to her. I was sad I got the In Water ending first, which I think most new players will get - and for that ending they removed the bedside conversation, and that part was really important to me for how impactful the story was when I first played it. I was hoping there would be at-least an original monster, I do remember reading Team Silent wanted some creatures that were cut. The fighting while really great in SHR was let down by the repeated enemies. Saying this though, the main experience was incredible, Bloober really knocked it out of the park.
14:42 - After about 30 hours of playing, I still will get jumpscared by the Mannequins, I hate them so much for it but that's also why I love them, they were done so amazingly
In regards to combat I will go back to something I read in one of the User Manuals: "Harry/James are not members of STARS, or trained agents. They're everyday people and wont always hit their targets." It's paraphrased, of course, but fits perfectly.
When you first get the pistol, if you hold the ADS button while he is reloading, James will actually fire off a shot accidentally, without the player pressing the shoot button.
The detail is amazing.
@@funk3795lmao I thought I missclicked and scared the shit outta me
What's ironic is that the original protagonists of STARS were not as good at fighting as Harry or James were in the OG Silent Hill games.
The OG Silent Hill can catch you off guard with that. If you try to quickdraw, Harry Mason can actually miss point blank range shots. But if you keep yourself steady and give him time to aim, he will hit his target.
That’s what I thought too, the combat is clunky and cumbersome but not in a way that ever annoyed me, it made sense and worked with the game
Also abstract daddy fight was absolutely perfect, the sound design, the way it looked, the claustrophobic area you had to fight in, the detail like the little hiding hole in the wall, oh my God they could not have done it better, I’ve never clenched my bootyhole so hard in a game ever
Yeah and its design is just gross. Felt like I needed a shower after fighting that thing.
Yeah. The house getting further and further ruined as you run circles in it, the machinery, the audio... Pure art! At first I was like... "Oh they gave up on the wall pistons thing? What a shame..." Little did I know, what was waiting for me.
Funny you say that, I watched a playthrough of the bosses and was facepalming so hard specifically at that boss fight. Couldn’t believe they turned it into a super generic run and gun segment down a hallway. Hilariously bad
@scrungo7610 as apposed to a generic fight in a small arena? I love the original and this remake gave us what we had and more.
@@doctorsex7255 I don’t think the original was generic. The room was interesting with lots of symbolism, and Angela was actually present which felt very uncomfortable. I’m not going to lie and say the actual “fight” was great, but I can’t believe how bad the new combat looks overall. In the original you could basically play the game without fighting save for the small number of bosses. It let you focus on the atmosphere and become immersed in the world and story. Now they tacked on this crappy over the shoulder gun play that doesn’t look or feel anything like a silent hill game. Well, except for Homecoming. You know, one of the really bad ones?
I still can’t believe the twist behind the woman’s gasps you sometimes hear throughout the game. Like I was speculating the whole game about its nature (if it’s from that specific moment iykyk) and when the moment hit, I couldn’t believe they got me. Incredible sound design.
What was the twist?
@@Oliver-cv7xw Mary's dying breath
I see people have already modded Maria's original outfit back on, but I really hope someone will make a version where it's implied that she steals the outfit from the Motel after asking James what he thinks about it, and then when she runs off ahead during the Heaven's night cutscene, she changes into it before walking out onto the stage for the big reveal! 🙏 I really miss her old outfit and an edit to the existing mod would make her being in the original outfit again tie in naturally with the new game.
That would actually be so good, especially since that whole interaction in the motel is optional
They delivered a new experience, accompanied by the same spirit of the original. Threading the needle like that ain't easy. Bravo.
They cannot convey the same spirit. Logically impossible.
Its weird how memory works. I haven't played the original since it released.
This is roughly how I remember it.
That's how I know they did a good job
Most importantly it feels great on its own. Its not fanservicy. It blends in all the iconic moments seemlessly
In my restless dreams... I awaited this Tuesday review. And Tuesday is almost over 😅
I actually deep-cried during the credits, tears falling over my cheeks and leaky nose. I have never cried during a game or with a credits before, but this game has been my favourite game since 2001 and all the memories of me and a friend of mine (who plays it now) all rushed back to me and the game (Sh2Remake) was so perfect for me it was also tears of relief and joy.
Jesus christ dude, pull yourself together.
@@jayl5032 let people have their feelings man
It’s just that letter.
@@jayl5032 Emotional gatekeeping is probably the thing you learned early on didn't you? I'm sorry for that.
@@jayl5032video games can make you cry okay especially this depressing game.
The prison is scary as fuck in this, the labyrinth is S+ and the direction of the entire scene where he's watching the tape is not only flawless but improve the original.
Can definitely agree on the first two, the tape scene misses the point to me
I much prefer the aerial shot in the original of the truth scene. The way that James is left with the revelation for about a full minute before Laura comes in. The way the music fits so perfectly with Mary's call to him
Yeah, I think it's an improvement upon the original scene as well.
im on the prison section now and its taking me too long to get through haha
It was the level I was dreading, in a "good" way as it the same for me in the original lol.
My absolute favorite part of this was the fog world just before the apartments, when the wind suddenly picks up a lot. I hadn't felt an atmosphere in a game like that since when I first played the original Silent Hill. I'd been chasing that feeling again for decades.
If you haven't already, give Darkwood a try. The game is steeped in atmosphere!
Yeah, that moment was pretty intense. The way the wind howls and the controller has just the right amount of rumble to make it feel like the wind is tugging at your clothes.
I think the original got that incredible vibe that cannot be recreated, but my god i loved the remake so much.
I never really cared much for James as a protagonist in the og, but in this one i couldn't help but feel so bad for him. His actor did an incredible job.
James, is my favorite protagonist in the series because i just understand his struggles the most like i can’t relate to Heather having a demon growing inside her you know, and Harry isn’t really the one suffering it’s Cheryl.
@@joshshrum2764 that's completely fair, but for me as a woman 3 will always be my favorite and the most terrifying. Also i have a special place in my heart for Harry. Now if only they could do something about Henry 😂.
You may not care but he was amazing complex characters whim u could relate to understand near the end and he was sibtel and uninged etc etc and it was so great at the final reveak. the remake one misses the point he is just sad typical depressed man (he played great, but nah)
@@FIREDAN075 never said he was a bad character. I think he's great, just didn't like him the same way i liked Harry and Heather.
@@joshshrum2764 Try looking at it this way. Can you relate to Heather not wanting to have a demon growing inside her?
you missed the 5th set of fans: people who haven't actually played sh2, but still complain about any changes.
Or the people who've only ever seen the movies but feel they're fully qualified to criticize/critique the games.
I was watching gameplay of the remake and someone in the comments was like, "Oh, they added the air raid sirens from the movie!"
🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
Or the ones (like me) who only watched video essays but never played the games 😂
@@jconny65 6th fans, doesn't know anything about Silent Hill but complains anyway
Those aren't fans.
If they’ve watched it that’s fine.
I can't wait for you to analyze the new Stillness ending, it might be simple on the surface but it adds so much to the game that it's shocking it wasn't in the original
It’s my new canon ending.
Seeing James cry ...💔
It’s a total mindfuck.
If Sony was Max they would call this video a "SILENT HILL 2 REMAKE review: Director's Cut"
I just finished the remake last night (got "Leave"). I cried twice during the last half hour, during the Angela staircase/Mary Hallway and during the Letter read.
I stand by any criticisms I had of Konami and Bloober team before this game released, but I have nothing but praise for this remake. It's wonderful. A, leaning close to A+. If I had to give it a number, it'd be a 93. Bloober did a fantastic job and I would put this in the same league as the GameCube RE1 Remake.
If someone has never played SH2 before, I do genuinely believe that this is a *very* good substitute for the original. I always advocate playing the original, but this is close enough to the original that it won't change the impact of experiencing it the first time.
I like how you can stagger enemies by shooting them in the legs then finish them off with a melee weapon. The combat system in this game surpassed my expectations too.
And no shity QTE pop ups for finishing enemies like in RE4
@JC-kl3uc that was always my pet peeve about re4. Why can I just use a melee weapon that doesn't break? Can't Leon pick up a longer weapon than a tiny knife?
as a side note, its genuinely shocking or disturbing to me when we talk and think of life in terms of "chunks of time spent waiting for games."
Like, as an example, Final Fantasy XV basically took 10 years, right? And to know that not only did 10 years pass for it to manifest in any meaningful sense, but that it was itself released 8 years ago... just... I literally can't. A whole new Final Fantasy cameout since then which took a few years too. A whole new generation of adults were born and grew up in that time! Like what?!
Its just like, living in a way where you're waiting for games and then reflect on whats been and gone when they do come out just ruins me hahahaha
Where is the time going?!
Stop, you're making my age peek through lol
I'm happy to be alive and part of our generation, that childhood nostalgia of videogames is priceless
elder scrolls 6.. *sigh*
Now let's get Silent Hill and Silent Hill 3 reimagined!
We want THE ROOM. It's my favorite but in its original form janky in so many ways. A remake in Bloober's hands could be spectacular and finally give us the fully fleshed out (no pun) game we deserved 20 years ago.
I'd only want SH1, honestly. If they do any of the others that's ok but SH1 would be amazing
I want a new game that’s actually on par with sh2
Let's not and say that we did.
I think SH 1 its the most difficult to remaigine since it requires the hardest we work, also I think the "rules of the town" are very important to SH1 and 3 but a lil less than in 2 or 4, specially in one since the burden of understanding the story is knowing why and when the town shifts
The Abstract Daddy part of the game had a much bigger impact than the original SH2, mostly because you’re being chased around by Angela’s abuser in her CHILDHOOD HOME. The teddy bear and blanket inside the closet BROKE ME. It’s not something I’ll soon forget, which is *asinine*, because while I loathe it, I appreciate the hell out of that sequence for making me squirm. I hated the implications in both games, but the remake made my insides twist uncomfortably. Also: Pyramid Head, man. I loved that you had to use him to cut a path through the hallway of tendrils. Bloober did a fantastic job taking something we adore, and giving it justice and then some. They obviously respected and appreciated the original game.
Wtf bro i didn’t know they changed it up that’s some resident evil seven shit.
Yeah....I think the reason Bloober did such a good job was because all their past games were psychological horror and heavily inspired by silent hill. Which means that, for most of the staff most likely, SH2 is their favourite game..And when you get the chance to work on a remake of your favorite game, it is very exciting but at the same time, you know how much it means to others and you don't want to fuck it up...
The silent hill 2 remake is literally a game made by fans of the original series. Sometimes, fans can make something of a series better, because they obsess over it and know it better than the developers at times.
@@voyaage1969 they were not fans of the original, because if they were, they wouldn't have changed the game so much. There was fan made mod remakes that were more Faithul to this slop remake.
@differentsame9402 I mean, what counts as a fan of the og at this point? One of the developers from bloober team that I know of played the game on release back in 2001. Would you consider that a hard-core fan? Idk. Bloober Team really put a lot of heart and soul into this remake, that's for sure. With the homage to the original with glimpses of the past or references to other silent hill games, I love their new approach. If they were to make the game exactly the same people would complain too. I'm honestly glad they switched things up a bit while not diverging from the main story, and they never did. In essence, they kept faithful to their source material while working around it. Many thought it would flop but it hasn't. The reviews speak for themselves, honestly.
I'm so glad it turned out better than anyone thought it would.
Very happy to see the outcome!
For me is a 10/10, not only as a remake but as a standalone game release. They did it with love and it shows.
10/10??? No. But still pretty good but the performance issues can be kinda jarring at times.
@darthbane2669 I also suffered performance issues until I tweaked the settings and found what worked for my graphics card. After that it was all smooth and I enjoyed every second of the experience.
@@darthbane2669bruh it's his opinion, wtf u mean "10/10???? No"
@@darthbane2669 What part of "for me" did you not get?
We NEED these guys to remake The Suffering
Silent Hill 2 Remake is, honestly, shockingly good. I absolutely love horror, and even though I still didn't finish it (I'm 17 hours into it, about 2/3), it will most likely become my favorite horror game ever. I did not expect to adore this game as much I do.
I love the exploration, the story, the atmosphere, sound design, soundtrack, and the puzzles. My god, these are probably my favorite puzzles ever in a horror game! There's so much to enjoy in this game.
This might be the biggest and best surprise I have ever had in gaming. I went into it cautiously optimistic, but with low expectations, and I'm still constantly being impressed and blown away with its quality.
We NEED these guys to remake The Suffering.
I'm just so happy they didn't add an unkillable patrolling enemy like EVERY new or remade horror game seems to. Maybe now we can finally break the Amnesia trend of "running away" simulators.
there is a section like this in the hotel, although it is very easy as long as you don't panic
@@chets7529 if its Pyramid head then that's fine.
One of the things I hated most about Silent Hill 4.
There's a short one with Pyramid Head in one very small part of the labyrinth, but it's the kind that doesn't drag on.
What do you mean? the enemies come back to life in this game just like the in og. 😂
I also love the mannequins in this remake. They had me entering every room and area on edge, checking corners, under tables, every fucking nook and cranny - and they STILL managed to pop out and surprise me sometimes. The wall crawling variants are genius as well. The sound of them scuttling overhead is just so unsettling. It’s so good. And even though they’re somewhat douchey-feeling enemies with how often they spring outta nowhere and bitchkick you, I never disliked that. Idk, they should be annoying, but they never did actually annoy me. I felt like they were essential to the game and made it a lot of fun. I just love that hide and seek shit, especially when they see you and fuck off to a different room to hide and wait.
the wall variants are like assassins ambushing me that i had to resort to use the shotgun against them.
@ They’re a menace on hard mode lol
24:00 My favourite piece of subtle reveal into James' real character as a despicable person was in the introduction of Angela, when he touched her shoulder without asking instead of speaking to her before and putting himself in her line of sight while staying out of her personal space, and then instead of apologizing for touching her he says "I didn't mean to scare you" dodging accountability, and Angela is the one who appologized for "overreacting" to being touched.
The only thing I needed more in my life than SH2R, is Max's review of it. YAAAAAY
@@powerbelly211 Yes! I honestly think that if anything, and for having such a massive, judgemental af fandom against them, they had the best possible outcome for the game. I'm so happy to see SH is relevant again.
I was so scared when you sighed, then I got happy that you liked it, thank god.
It's funny cos it literally sums up how so many of us felt about the game leading up to release😂 they showed it to us in 2022, we were worried they'd get it right, we sighed at every reveal, and when it came out we loved it thank god!!
The marketing really didn't do this game justice
We did it boys.
I’ve been waiting for your review. You are the very first exposure I had to Silent hill, and your review carries the most weight to me: by far.
Thanks Max. It makes me so happy to hear that I have earned your trust.
This verdict coming from you is high praise indeed, and it means that all my worries were unfounded. Thank you so much!
My favorite bits of the sound design were the random gasps you would hear extremely rarely at totally random times, and the prison yard.
There are literally zero threats in the prison yard, but it sounded like something was walking around, just out of view, circling around you. Terrifying.
I'm extremely happy that we're at where we're at. Not many franchises come back this strong!
Is there any hope they can remake The Suffering while they’re at it? That series also deserves a revival
@@JohnYourubethis will probably start a horror game/ movie craze… don’t be surprised to see a lot of Og horror games getting remakes cause of this
And this series deserves it more than most
Im just glad games like these are making a comeback. Kinda tired of the 50 hour rpg games nowadays, sometimes I just want a linear story where I don’t have to fill a skill tree and have hundreds of items in front of me
@@zaiasm2305 those aren't even proper RPGs in the traditional sense. Those deserve some love too
that moment at the end of the game, when James finishes the VHS tape, and Black(blank?) Fairy starts to play hit me hard. walking the halls of the hotel while that song droned on was a feeling no other game has made me feel.
I’ve always seen it as James going into full numbness, and he doesn’t recover until he wakes up against pyramid head.
@@joshshrum2764 precisely
I really loved the expression of complex emotions via the face and specifically the eyes.
That scene in the very beginning when James lingers with a side-eye towards his own reflection... beautiful. 👌
Im so glad to see you growing Derrat. I found your channel when you were at 80k. The attention to detail is always a wonder.
You CANNOT OVERSTATE how big of an achievement to make a remake of Silent Hill 2 that is so good and faithful that some people even prefer it to the original (I am some people). Remakes are often either bad or just a good enough representation of the original. Blooper knew that the new technology available in today's gaming world should be used to enhance the game and they did. The quality of the graphics and mocap technology made it possible to portray so much of James' character in subtle details in his face. The actor did an amazing job.
The remake is great because "hey you beat the og and want some more but don't feel like ruining the experience with a replay? Play the remake? Same but the remake? Play the original!". The only wrong opinion is dismissing the original, and that's the definitive mark of a filthy tourist.
That the video from Stephanie Sterling yesterday was mostly about the manikin enemies, but no other major quibbles about the remake were forthcoming speaks volumes.
I feel this way about the Dead Space remake as well.
Yeah I finished it yesterday night and was not going to do another run for awhile but I am feeling the need to.
@@chukyuniqul "tourist"
opinion invalidated
Its absolutely stunning that we got a Triple A game, thats seemingly released flawlessly, no major game breaking bugs, only small bugs and a few performance issues.
Hell the only bug I ever saw from a friend when I was watching him playing it, was the occasional lighting Artifacting which would result in a bright white flash and the shadow of the character for a brief moment, but other than that his playthrough was seemingly flawless with no major problems.
Also the fact the cutscenes are capped to 30, upscalers are all broken visually and frame gens don't work right for pc, the hair is broken on all systems, the reflections are all broken as well, the animation framerate link and traversal stutter are major issues, the floor is black when u use hdr or have an old screen, there's no fov slider, the particle trails, fog noise, the broken pop in, the no RR on nvidia on pc, the real low shadow res for some reason and reflections, these are just from memory and can mostly be solved or improved with Ultra Plus on nexus but still real bad perf and bug wise
@@bnbnismWomp womp
Actually it has a lot of problems, but I think they will fix them soon. There are texture issues everywhere, performance is dissapointing, and all of the above comment.
@@Chris-ko7ov I’ve heard from some friends before the comment bnb made the game does TEND to have texture loading issues where somethings look like clay.
But that’s about as far as I’ve seen regarding that, I wouldn’t call visual bugs game breaking however.
But FPS is honestly hit or miss, I did genuinely expect FPS to be an issue with this given how it was appearing on trailers.
And I did notice when said friend in my original comment reached prison the frame rate dipped like mad.
@@LynxRecruit Yeah I wouldn't call them game breakers either. It does have problems, specially stuttering and UE5 poor performance, but I wish Bloober would at least communicate their commitment to try mitigate most of them. Still nothing from what I've seen. Either way I need a new GPU to run it like it should, so can't say for sure all those bugs are from the game itself or my poor performance lol.
Going far that route, Cyberpunk or No Mans Sky were a total mess when they came out, and their devs redeemed themselves years later so, minor bugs and performance issues are no big deal since it just came out.
Honestly I love modding community and they are already giving us performance and visual upgrades so to me, it doesn't matter that much.
As a Long time Silent Hill fan, it's so bizzare that we fans final ate a good food for so long
'Good food' in this case being like a greasy cheeseburger compared to the gourmet dinners they used to be. It's good enough and hits the spot, but it's not exactly a memorable high-class experience
Pizza!
Well the concern in that case is whether to start playing from this or the original. I think I am still gonna go for the original first since yeah...they did in fact change some scenes, so I rather have a more "faithful" first time
@@Aranelyn i love both ver. anyway, and the remake doesn't replace the original imo since some aspect the original did it better than the remake ( voice delivery is one of them and some cinematic camera angles in cutscenes ), while the remake did better that the OG didn't, better boss fights and more character interactions, both are equally great and have the original plot and themes, so im happy either on both and are equally great, and so happy that my favorite horror franchise is back in baby steps
Is that a jojo.
I'm so glad you brought up how they added new areas to explore because I think that's one of the most important things to get right in survival horror and that's my favorite thing about this remake
Most importantly, we now exactly know where all stars pizza is made. There is restaurant you can find after leaving the hospital. They got all star pizza boxes in there !!!!
Fantastic review!
I'm a series newcomer thinking about dipping my toe in, and this is the first review that's given such love and care to this game. Your joy has rubbed off on me!!
My only complaint is I think they over did the amount of enemies in the "regular" version of the town. I feel like if there were maybe 25% less it would make the transition to the other world more jarring. Other than that I'm LOVING it
I'm feeling that way about the hotel. Constant mannequins are pulling me out of immersion.
Could just be a skill issue on my part tho
It feels that combat was more of a focus in this game. I knew it would be changed since the original's combat was janky but with reason. With how bloated the game feels the constant fighting feels like a chore more than a puzzle or scary. Needed less of it overall.
I absolutely loved this game. Bloober did the impossible.
For real. I've been hardcore naysaying since the reveal. I've also been saying I'll be more than happy to eat my words and I can say i was right.
Now license the hd mod and release the og on steam with it integrated, konami you twats.
!
@chukyuniqul I've seen a lot of people who were hardcore shitting on this game come back around and say "hey actually it's great." And I just wanted to say I'm really happy to see so many people able to admit their opinion has changed, because so often people will just double down and review bomb a game or something. Glad you ended up enjoying it
@@ruiner3137 yeh, it's why I don't fuss over hardcore naysaying. If the game ends up being good I'll take that egg on my face and enjoy it-if anything-even more.
Admittedly I'm only just now in brookhaven and have heard it takes a hit afterwards (even here, I have criticisms in how I'd much prefer it to be) but I'm enjoying myself too much to focus on those. If you're curious:
The time of day changing. Ok it serves to give the hospital its unique feel but it's too blatantly genius loci.
The combat. It's brutal and ruthless (if you get that reference yiu are officially a friend) but you can get too good at it. I should not be going toe to toe with pyramid head or dodging outta the way of surprise attacks for being on my toes rather than being attentive. At times I'm worried I might find James pulling out Angela's knife for a doom-style finisher.
The nurses just kinda...don't hit. Somethin ain't clicking and it's partly because they lack some ability to really fuck you over, like the manequins' stealth or the lying figures' fast crawling. I think they should either avoid open areas entirely and camp you out in tight spaces where their greater melee danger shines or they should really lean into flanking and blindsiding you, on their own or helping the "lighter" monsters get in on you.
feels like they took lessons from the criticism (these days it's called "hate") instead of acting offensively
Mad respect - not many devs (especially in the west) can do that
@@chukyuniqul The original had a "time of day" change as well at the same moments (when you get to the hospital). Instead of a cool foggy grey. it changed to a dawn-like colour from that start of Pete's Bowlerama to the Hospital. Even I had to go back and recheck that. The difference with the remake... is you aren't limited with light / rendering tech... so you can see the global illumination outside pass through windows (which is covered by dirt / grime) and affect the inside of the hospital.
SH2 is amazing. I love how Eddie is always breathing out cold air to represent a frozen silent Hill within his Psche and Angela with the opposite in a flaming Silent Hill.
I felt I got such a better understanding with the situation in the Remake than I ever would have connected the dots in the original. 8.6/10
Genuinely curious/somewhat serious line of questioning:
8.6 is a very specific/nuanced rating - do you have a game review formula/checkbox list you use to calculate ratings? If so, do you apply it to all games regardless of genre, etc...? If not, how did you arrive at a decimal/what was the line of thought that put the game between an 8 and a 9?
@TheHi-NoteFunClub-BeatsByMike that's a good comment. I tried to take nostalgia out of it. I played it with my brother in 2001 and about 4 /5 times over the years so I took nostalgia out of it. I came to that rating over the overall game feel. I feel the ambience in the game was terrifying. The legs in particular were arseholes, which I loved. The change up to the boss fights was a great change in improvement from the original was there too see. I thought the character progression and giving me a new understanding of the game in particular was a great feel. Hence my comment as well as. Believing she died 3 years ago throughout my playthroughs. This game changed it up and realizing she died 1 week ago in Mary's home visit, its why he has her body in the back seat covered. But it was actually 3 years to the date of the timeline of her illness so to me that was fantastic. Not to to mention the puzzles. I couldn't give it a 10 as I don't this it is a 10 out of 10. What stopped me from giving it a 9 was down to its frame glitches and bugs that happened on my playthroigh. It didn't particularly bother me the jank (random load in on bullets in the drawers etc with a delay) but felt it was a fair rating
I try to give games an honest verdict I felt it was not an 8 or closer to an 8 but more to a 9 rating. If that makes sense. I don't specifically have a checklist or anything just how I feel about the game and the downtime after it to appreciate it.
@@philiphall6351 It does make sense and thank you.
@TheHi-NoteFunClub-BeatsByMike I forgot to mention that the enemies became a bit stale after a point and needed a change and felt Bloober could have created have added an extra enemy or 2. Especially in the prison .
Question, I completely understand why Angela’s silent hill is on fire, but what about Eddie’s story/ trauma makes his silent Hill frozen? I don’t completely understand how his hatred and self loathing gluttony would be parallel to a cold environment . Thanks!
this iteration of james was phenomenal, luke roberts blew my mind
Phenomenal video man
This game did the impossible..... It made me actually like Laura by the end of the game 😮💨
But in all seriousness, other than a couple visual bugs, this game was perfect. Not only did they capture what made the original so great, they greatly improved it.
The boss fights were exciting, gone are the days of running corner to corner in a single room. The monsters were imposing and actually terrifying and you didn't know what they were going to do next.
The characters were more fleshed out and the voice acting was great, Angela ended up being one of my favorites this time around.
The town and fog was beautiful to look at and the fog storm section felt intense.
And lastly the other world was PERFECT. It was dark, terrifying and the monsters seemed even stronger making it even more intense.
The ONLY thing I think was not improved on was Mary's letter at the end of the game. In the original I cry every time I hear those last five words. It isn't as powerful this time around and that's okay because they made it their own instead of trying to recreate what made it so heartbreaking in the original. But I will say the big reveal on the tape was absolutely horrifying.
This is a game I see my self playing again and again and I can't wait to find out what I missed in my first playthrough. Strong 9/10.
I do agree, OG letter hits different. That line delivery was perfect. I wish they’d kept it more faithful to that original line delivery. But it’s a small gripe.
I will say that the Stillness ending (it’s one of the NG+ endings) is so fucking good. There’s a lot to analyze, especially if you listen closely to the sound design when it cuts to black. I won’t spoil anything, though.
@@Herpusderpus you don't know how much I appreciate you not spoiling it bro. I'm really looking forward to seeing all the new endings, but that'll be the first one I go for.
completely agree. i even got taken out of the vibe for a minute when she said the iconic "james.... you made me happy" i made a face of confusion. idk, the original it almost sounds like shes barely holding back just completely bawling while also being calm? hard to describe, but the new ending was just not the same. granted thats like my only complaint
@@jeffreyrobert1598 I feel like the letters have two different tones. In the original Mary sounds like she's still very much afraid to die while she sounds much more accepting of death in the remake. I don't think they could've recreated the tone of the original if they tried. The voice actress was sobbing by the end of her letter and you can't really recreate that kind of emotion and have it feel so real.
@@Oxcymoron oh definitely. Different tones for sure, the ending was just the most obvious. And yea the voice acting on the original can't be recreated. It's part of why I love the og one. So damn unique in such a weird way.
Bloober are goobers for not letting me use the great knife
GOD YES!!!!!!!! I was so bummed
Something you'll probably never use.
In the original game james couldn't move with the great knife so it would be very impractical in the remake.
@@phantombigboss8429 I used it all the time in the original even when it wasn’t practical, it’s just fun. Chopping Eddie up with it is so satisfying
@@M.sami12 it wasn’t very practical in the original either, but it was fun either way. Let me decide what’s impractical
One thing they ruined about Angela, is in the final scene with her. Instead of cutting to James watching her walk up the cutscene ends and dumps you back out of the stairs. Like it is minor but it makes the aftershock of that scene just not hit as hard.
100% agree.
@@maxderratrank these plz in a reply, remake, OG on crt, OG on modern screen, OG with improved visuals on emulator, HD collection(lol) Enhanced Edition PC
@@bnbnism No remake on CRT?
I still have a widescreen Trinitron that does 1080i (been sitting in storage for nearly 10 years though so no idea if it still works.).
Can't wait to see your follow up videos in the years to come
I was disappointed in Mary’s va at the end. In the og when she was reading the letter there was so much emotion behind it, it was so powerful and a perfect way to end an emotional game. In the remake it felt flat like reading a essay in class.
I would agree. Mary's reading in the original almost always evokes tears from me, but the remake didn't quite get me there. The actress is great, but the original reading is just soaked with emotion in a way that they didn't capture this time.
Idk why but remake Mary reading the letter got me more emotional than the og
The mannequins are the most scariest enemies in the remake.
*annoying..
Scary AND annoying lmao
Scary at first but are overused after a while and just became annoying.
@@ValorDucky I tend to agree. What made it more scary to me is that playing in hard a single hit from them can put you on red.
I appreciate your fair and nuanced take on this game. I've seen too many people be all too willing to trash this game before even giving it a go.
As for me, I must say this game is among few that consistently kept on edge and unnerved. The combat in this game could not get enough praise imo. No other horror's game combat has so consistently make me so anxious every time my character ready his weapons. The little touches like James' breaths becoming unsteady or his gutteral screams and grunts as he dodges and swings really sells the fact the man is fighting for his very life. The fact that as you said, enemies can be extremely unpredictable with their attacks and combos.
Excited to see your next video analyzing the deeper meaning of the game as always!
A lot of people are saying the combat is mid, or monotonous, but for me it feels pretty dynamic. Enemies are really good at using a varied attack style, so if you’re not paying attention to their every move, you’ll take a hit. The tension is always there due to the random nature of enemy attacks. Especially the quick jabs or headbutts they throw out with little warning.
Playing on hard, the combat is absolutely thrilling. Every single enemy encounter is such a desperate struggle to stay alive while preserving resources and they scale so well throughout the game with your arsenal. Hard mode is definitely the way to play this game for the proper, terror inducing stressful experience imo
@@Herpusderpus Game can be absolutely brutal on Hard combat. I highly recommend you replay the game on hard, each encounter with monster is unnerving because you can't take more then 3-4 hits before dying and they can chain-attack you.
@@J.J.Jameson_of_Daily_Bugle I’m already planning to do my next playthrough on hard. Looking forward to a steeper challenge.
This was the one review I was most curious about. Appreciate your take.
I was crying the whole last hour too. This game broke me even though I played the original. Bloober team did a fantastic job with this remake. It's the same game and story but improved and modernized.
Complete newbie to the franchise here. I wanted to see what all the hype was about regarding Silent Hill 2. I always heard it was one of the strongest in the franchise, being able to experience this game for the first time in this gorgeous remake was quite a treat. They did such a good job with darkness my little flashlight felt like it was barely enough making me feel extremely vulnerable. Then the amount of relief I felt when I finally made my way out of that labyrinth into the foggy outside again. Loved every minute of it.
Also, when finding the tape and going into the Employee section with NO equipment feels SO much more intense than in the original.
the amount of respect from bloober for the original. Future remake needs to study this if they want to succeed
Npc comment
Fake SH fan detected.
Hey Max!. I was subscribed to you, when you did the video on silent hill synchronicity all i got to say, is i love your video's and make more of them , and take care
I definitely count as a newcomer as I've always heard of the Silent Hill series but never played it until the remake and I thought it was fantastic. I really enjoyed James's voice acting and visual performance. Definitely up there on my list of regular dudes just trying their best in horrific scenarios alongside Alan Wake and Isaac Clarke.
Thank you for the honest and passionate review Max. I can’t wait to play this game next year on the Xbox, for now I’m gonna just chill and wait to see what happens. I’m happy to hear that Bloober Team did their best on this game!
Overall I loved it, and so much of what was added only enhanced what was already great! I did have a few nitpicks though:
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📌 Pretty much every location, enemy, and puzzle has been expanded from the original. Bloober Team went with the "more is better" approach, but at times it felt like it hurt the story's pacing. This game is twice as long as the original; I finished the game in 16 hours and that was WITH the puzzle solutions.
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📌 The place where Bloober went with the "less is more" approach is with the dialogue. A lot of the fat was trimmed, lines were restructured to flow better, but some memorable lines were removed like "I can't tell you to remember me, but I can't bear for you to forget me" from Mary's letter. While some scenes now take their time others feel like they have little breathing room (e.g. end of final boss battle immediately cuts to ending without pause).
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📌 The voice actors are great, but when it came to the emotional highs needed for Mary & Maria's performances the actress at times fell flat (e.g. the bombastic "Anyway?! What do you mean anyway?!", the venomous "I'm not your Mary", the tearful Mary letter reading). There were also moments her Icelandic accent slipped into her characters. There are side-by-side comparisons on TH-cam so you can see for yourself.
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📌 The original soundtrack has been remixed with new melodies and instruments. Some tracks are made better for it, while others now feel unnecessarily bloated (e.g. Null Moon, Laura Plays the Piano, True) when their minimalist originals made a bigger impact. Also, they cut the beautiful "Peace and Serenity" song from the Leave ending and replaced it with a much less impactful piano song instead.
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📌 The Hospital Chase scene was poorly executed. They added a great new intro of Maria expressing fear something was about to happen but when they get to the elevator the emotional intensity of the original is stripped away. To illustrate, simply mute the volume in the scene and it comes off like they're just struggling to hold the doors open, not frantically get away from Pyramid Head.
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Again, these are nitpicks, but overall I'm happy to see SH2 got the remake it deserved! ♥️
Anyway!! Whatdoyoumean Anyway is soooooo god inte original!!
The padding was real. Especially felt this starting at Brookhaven and in later parts of the game. I still think it's a great remake, just the pacing was much better in the original.
Agree with most of this but I’ll be the black sheep about the runtime. For me, the tension was always present and kept the game from feeling padded (even if it arguably was). But it also fits the theme of James being trapped in the labyrinth of his own subconscious. I kinda like the feeling of “it never ends, there’s always another layer of fresh hell waiting” and the slower pace / expanded maps gave me that feeling. For me, it worked. But I’m also really patient with horror and love a slow burn. I can see how others would feel different.
@@kosmosyche Nah, there's no padding. It's all meaningful
And how authentic of a performance would you think it was if she just copied the previous voice actors? Be honest. People would complain still, even if her acting was exactly the same. It’s okay to prefer one delivery over the other but let’s not act like some people wouldn’t complain no matter how amazing she was. And she was btw, in pretty much every scene except one line I prefer the previous voice actor for. The unrealistic standards placed on her by some fans is asinine.
14:47 ah yes, I was edging on mannequins for the whole game
Just mentionning that the locked 30FPS during cutscenes is very easily solved with a tiny, tiny mod.
With this remake and all the new silent hill stuff that’s gonna be coming out I’m just happy we getting more content from Max “The Legend” Derrat ! Can’t wait to see all the upcoming content you got in store for us !
The two reviews I've been eagerly anticipating, yours and Yhatzee's. His, more for amusement haha. But yours. You pretty much nailed my exact feelings about... well all of it. Verbatim. I'm still wrestling with the seemingly impossible fact that Bloober pulled this off. They have officially earned all of the praise, respect and trust they are now receiving.
On a side note, my girlfriend was right there with me from beginning to end. This was her first exposure to Silent Hill outside of the movies that shall not be named. So seeing her emotional response so closely mirror my own from over 20 years ago was the most reaffirming part of the whole experience.
Oh Yahtzee's gonna be on the exact opposite spectrum from Max I already know it lol
Didn't Yahtzee retire a year ago? It is a shame we aren't going to see his reaction. It's kind of like Thunderf00t watching SpaceX catch their rocket with their tower on their first attempt.
@@NotAGoodUsername360 Yahtzee didn't retire, he RESIGNED from Escapist out of protest for them firing a co-worker (along with everyone else who'd been doing the actual content creation from that place) now he works on a new channel called 'Second Wind'
@@navyhusky2020 I don't think so. Dude has the ability to give a remake, credit where it is due. Hell, he can generally be positive about a game and NOT shit on it (the Spec Ops: the Line review is a good example of a review where he near enough says only positive things).
As somebody who had faith in this remake since it was announced, it's very gratifying to see and hear all of the praise it's been getting, even from all of the naysayers.
I think that Bloober forget, or didn't know, that flashlight that James was using shoud have stop working after him watching the tape in room 302. Flashlight was still on. I'm suprised that you didn't mention it.
You pretty much nailed it with this video. Looking forward to the follow up videos. I can’t wait to hear what you thought of the different endings especially the infamous new one that I adored.
What I found terrifying in this game was that every single room you walked into, and I mean every room, had a story to tell. The amount of detail put into this masterpiece was phenomenal.
I'm absolutely shocked that it's this good.
I haven't touched it yet, but honestly every single person whose opinion I actually trust on games has been positively singing and throwing roses at its' feet. I'm so happy and relieved to see how much of a bloody slam dunk this is.
I think I said it on a previous video, but to voluntarily take on the task of remaking one of the most revered video games of all time would almost have to be an act of Luciferian arrogance, but they landed it. They really, well and truly landed it. God, I'm so happy.
Man this remake is PHENOMENAL! Im not a huge fan of the original, ive only played it once, and while i really appreciated its story, i wasnt really a fan of the mechanics. The atmosphere and story telling gave off a very distinct feeling of despair and anguish, playing it made me feel.... gross? if that makes sense. And that feeling is amplified 10 fold in the remake while in my opinion, drastically strengthening the storytelling through its multitude of technical enhancements. This is everything a remake should be and strive to be. Its so good that it made me rethink my view RE2R and how much that game left to the wayside. This game is just so GOOD. Bloober team knocked it out of the park.
The remake was incredible but my only real complaint is what you said as well (about pacing)
I also wish they added some more rewards/unlocks like costumes etc for NG+ to make the runs for all 8 endings a bit more fun.
Informative as always.
19:46 and the good news is she is reprising her role for Return to Silent Hill and if she manages to keep that feel in live action. It would probably make the movie a lot better
This game was so beautiful, I loved it soooooo much!! More silent hill remake’s PLEASEEEE
Well it's good to see we're living in a good timeline then
Yee-yuh.
That’s great to hear because your review is absolutely the one I trust the most.
Thanks Max, I was waiting for a trusted reviewer.
Been waiting for this review, man!
This game absolutely blew me away: loved hearing your thoughts on it!
Waiting for that review of "Epic Rap Battles Of Silent Hill: Harry Mason Vs James Sunderland" by Max Derrat. 😂
Wait wait wait... please tell me that's actually a thing!
@@maxderrat, yes! Check it out - a very hilarious video.
@@maxderrat, indeed, it is real.
@@maxderrat, it is real, check it out.
Lmao wait I saw your comment on that video
Cannot put into words how good the Silent Hill 2 remake is. As someone who never played the original game and never knew about the story, I am STILL in shock by the twist at the end and I was left in tears. I personally had no issues with the line delivery with the female actors since I don't have the original game to compare it to, but I will say for new players they all did a wonderful job.
My only issues were the pacing as you mentioned and the performance issues. Even with a GTX 4090 I ran into many frame dips below 60 FPS with DLSS enabled and running at high settings that ruined my emersion throughout the entire game. Once those performance issues get fixed, this easily could be my GOTY.
Amazing game. Amazing Story. 9/10
Shill.
@@greatestnitemare6626 Bro, how tf am I a shill?
@@VicariousNickk either you a shill or a fake SH fan. Goty? Are you serious? This game flopped and failed to outsell the OG. Don't believe me? Look it up.
@ it isnt a flop really
@chandlerburse it's most definitely a flop. This demake failed to sell any units after it's first week. It sold 1 million copies it's first week and it still at 1 million today, almost two months later. Most games that sell 1 million units in a week will surely reach 5 or 3 million at least by now. This Demake flopped and failed to outsell the OG. Sales halted because consumers realized it wasn't a faithful remake.
I'm about half way through the prison currently, I've loved every terrifying second. I don't know the original like the back of my hand, but it hits all the same beats, and feels so faithful that the new puzzles and level layout feels like it was always there
I wish I could like this video twenty times. I feel like you perfectly summed up my thoughts on the remake as well. I always cry at the end of Silent Hill 2, but I was legit bawling from the same feelings of shock and relief that just overwhelmed me when the credits started rolling. Thanks for all your amazing Silent Hill content over the years, Max. Stay yellow 🥹
Just finished my run, the remake is ALMOST PERFECT! My only gripes were -
1. I think the Letter Reading at the end of the game falls flat. The OG is such a GUT PUNCH every time you hear it. This version doesn’t carry as much weight.
2. The Mary boss fight is way too similar to the Flesh Lips boss fight.
3. I’m surprised and disappointed they used a remixed version of Theme of Laura during the end credits. The original is arguably Akira Yamaoka’s most recognisable tune and the Remix lacks the EPICNESS.
All in all though. Phenomenal remake and I would’ve put MY HOUSE on it SUCKING… But it doesn’t. I’ve never been so glad to be WRONG in my life.
EDIT - Agreed Max, the famous “ANYWAY!?, WHAT DO YOU MEAN ANYWAY?!” scene certainly does fall flat. Maria isn't aggressive enough in her line delivery.
They say the actual Theme Of Laura will come November 20th.
@@jeansynklar386Really? Was it a licensing issue?
@@TheNomadJack No, it's the same composer as the original, but the soundtrack came incomplete with only 10 tracks, and somewhere on TH-cam, I read that the full soundtrack will be available that day. All we have for now is a preview of that version of the _'Theme Of Laura'._
That's the one.
The letter change, as well as adding music and visuals took a lot of the life out of it. It's always been so emotionally charged by itself.
Yup the letter from the og felt deeper. Remake fell a bit short. I think Maria could better. Still a great remake that stays true and respectful.
Damn, you trolled me good at the start. :) I'll post here what I've said elsewhere. The original SH2 was probably my fav all-time game. I played it when my kids were toddlers. So my pov may be different than yours. That said... there were things about it I always wanted to be different for 22'ish years. It had flaws and could have been better in some ways... as a "game". The remake for me... was the hope that I could finally have a version of SH2 that made the "game" parts the way I always wanted while retaining the parts of SH2 that were special (its a game that changed my life) while also having modern visuals and sound (important to me). Nothing can ever replicate that experience I had with the original, and that's ok. The remake doesn't need to. So I was never ever trying to compare it as a 1:1 of the original. Its a new yet different experience of a story I loved. That's what I wanted and expected.
Are there things I can nitpick as someone who played the original MANY times? Sure. There are some changes that I felt weren't for the better, but not for the worse either... but those were VERY few. The acting / VO / motion capture / dialogue was WAY better in almost all regards. The new actress for Mary/Maria is great (in fact some parts I like her better)... it's just hard to top Monica's original performance of the hallway dialogue and the letter when that is what broke my heart 22 years ago, and its hard to detach from that. I also like this new Maria.
That said... I loved... repeat, LOVED the remake. Simply put... they not only made the kind of game I've always wanted... they went far above what I was expecting. Every aspect of this "game" experience was an absolute joy. I never felt frustrated, angry, or disappointed (minus a couple of smaller things narratively). Gameplay mechanics were so much more enjoyable compared to any SH game before. OTS view worked great for me. If this was SH1-Remake... I for sure would want an alternate camera view for those alley scenes though! Combat... was almost PERFECT for what I wanted for SH... and... it was actually "fun" yet challenging at times. I loved the monsters, and their behavior. By far the best in the series! That said... this was a WAY more intense game than any other SH game. Puzzles were a perfect balance for me. Kept me engaged enough to not frustrate me and had enough variety to keep me interested. They were far more enjoyable than most puzzles in the older games.
In the end... with the exception of how a few things were delivered narratively... this game blew me away in almost all regards. I'm legit happy as hell to see such a turn around and see this game get the praise it has by the majority. It may not work for everyone in all regards, and that's ok... but there is no doubt... it is a success while also feeling like a new game. That is what I wanted.. and my heart is filled because of it in ways I haven't felt in many years. I couldn't be happier.
We are so back.
the only review that matters ❤ so happy you loved it, max! i’m still in the apartments, playing in short sessions and savoring everything (while also having my ass BEAT by the mannequins on hard mode). i can safely say that this will be a 10/10 experience and the love bloober poured into this project shows on every scene. as a queer person, horror was always an escape from the ACTUAL horror going on in my life; silent hill being the biggest source of that since i was a teen. it molded my adolescence and gave me a deeper interest on human psyche - i owe being a psychologist and psychoanalyst today to this franchise. it is so special and i totally get your emotional response to this remake. ❤
After my playthrough of the new remake of sh2 I think I finally may have answered a persisting question regarding the 3 year inconsistent lapse of time between Marys death and when James talks to Laura about it and she says that's wrong. I'm starting to believe the reason why James keeps saying 3 years because in his mind when Mary first got so unmanageably sick 3 years ago that it consumed his life that's when in his mind she died as apposed to her official passing. He then kills her, puts her body in the baskseat of his car, stops by a local restroom to compose himself before he pursues his next coarse of action, then time for him stops after 9 and it's reflected on all of the clocks and he is trapped in an psychological eternal recurrence.
My biggest issue with the remake: There is way too much focus on combat. It feels more like an action game in the long run. It starts out great, but becomes somewhat tedious by the end. Way too many enemies imho. Sometimes it would feel like a classic Doom game, where if you pick up an item or interact with something to progress, it would spawn in enemies to ambush you. Some areas also felt bloated and they over-stayed their welcome imo.
Despite these complaints, I think the remake is "fine". I obviously prefer the original, the horror comes less from the danger of the enemies and centers more on the surreal nature of the town. I feel the remake focuses on the former a bit too much. The characters were well made, or should I say well "remade"
Yeah, prison and labyrinth in particulary could use less enemies encounters. By that point I just started to run past them, as there's not enough enemy variety to keep me ingaged.
You are not meant to fight all of them, you can run past lot of them and you can sneak past lot of enemies like in original if you turn off flashlight and don't bump directly into them.