'Silent Hill 2 Remake' - A Hopeful Yet Jaded Review of the Combat Trailer

First question: Has Silent Hill 2 ever had good combat?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Sure, if you like battling the camera and butt demons at the same time.

Believe it or not, my problems with this combat trailer are the monsters rather than the combat, though it does look rusty. Even Bloober Team, the developer, had grievances with how Konami was marketing the game. The CEO of Bloober Team, Piotr Babieno, stated that the combat trailer didn't "reflect the spirit of the game." I have to agree with Babieno because the point of Silent Hill 2 is not its combat or even the monsters, though Konami's reliance on Pyramid Head's bankability wouldn't tell you that. The point is the story and the atmosphere. The monsters are just the obstacles in your way.

After watching and reading other people's opinions of the combat trailer, some that are positive and many that are negative, I'm still prepared to side with Bloober Team here because Konami is one of the worst video game companies in this day and age. Awful workplace practices like crunch time and overworking their programmers and developers, despicable handling of their IPs like canceling Silent Hills to produce a goddamn gambling machine, and their willingness to latch onto the most unethical, parasitical forms of corporate greed in the form of pay-to-win money grabs like Silent Hill: Ascension.

I still have my gripes because Silent Hill 2 is one of my favorite games ever tied with Silent Hill 3 and I hate to see its legacy marred by shitty mismanaging on Konami's part. Let's head into the run-down with the understanding that this is a game still in development, so I will be gentle with criticisms of the environments. I'm even going to watch the trailer in the highest resolution I can because maybe low resolution was missing a lot of detail. Obviously, this will have a little bit of spoilers because I'll possibly mention differences between the old and new versions.

The trailer starts off with James presumably in the apartment level where the dead body is lying in a chair in front of the TV. We get screenshots of several iconic elements. It seems like most of the trailer's footage is from the apartments and hospital, lending credence to the "still-in-development" theory. We see the puzzles are still in the game, like the coin puzzle, the disgusting toilet wallet safe puzzle (which is a baffling description out of context), and James throwing some trash down a chute. We see a body stuffed into a fridge, no longer just a pair of legs sticking out.

I'm interested to see how a third-person point of view will serve the game. The original game had dynamic camera angles which obscured some stuff for dramatic effect. It's the whole "what you don't see, you imagine worse" kind of trope. We hear the first few keys of "Magdalene" from the soundtrack. Akira Yamaoka came back for the remake as did Masahiro Ito, which made me a least a little hopeful.

Then I saw the monsters in this combat trailer. Uhhhh...

It could be just nostalgia or personal taste, but I'm not sure if I like the "taped-together" design of the Mannequin. These are supposed to be monsters, supernatural entities born of James Sunderland's psyche, so why are we trying to add logical reasons for a a weird four-legged creature? Also, I liked the plastic shine they had in the PS2/PC version.

The monsters shouldn't make sense. None of what we're experiencing in Silent Hill 2 is logical or rational. I don't know. Am I nitpicking? Am I pretentious Silent Hill purist? Probably.

What I will freely bitch about is this:

Why does an armless monster...have a QTE prompt? Better question, why are there QTEs? This shit was old when Silent Hill: Origins did it. What are we doing here? I guess James is trying to push the monster away so he doesn't puking acid on him? James...buddy...are your legs broken? Just run! You have four limbs and it doesn't, run!

I've read posts on people complaining about this, saying it gives away the ending. Also a lot of "Christianity ew!" complaints. But Silent Hill has always included influences of Judeo-Christian myths and scripture. The Gaming Muse has excellent videos about Christian and Jewish references in the Silent Hill series, I highly encourage you to check out their YouTube channel.

The game references James' guilt quite often. I mean, he has a geometric guilt monster, for crying out loud. You find messages all over town about how he's done something awful and he spirals into an underworld manifested from his own deepening psychosis. So, maybe quit your crying.

The nurses have me most concerned.

If you told me this was a Silent Hill 2 Mod for Resident Evil 2 Remake before I watched the combat trailer, I would have believed you.

They switched out the cleavage for some stockings and garters to portray James Sunderland's sexual frustration. What is up with their heads though? I knew the original nurses had fucked-up heads but the camera angle obscured their faces which I felt was intentional for symbolism's sake. The heads burst, leaking some corrosive liquid. This was an original design Masahiro Ito had for the nurses but the PS2 couldn't render such an effect. They're just less creepy to me now. One of them vaulted over a wall in the trailer, so that's interesting.

I'll give one thing to Konami, they showed restraint and didn't show Pyramid Head blatantly in the trailer. There's the tiniest glimpse of him when James is walking into a room filled with cages and metal stuff with an over-the-top siren. I just hope they still have the subtle Pyramid Head introduction of James hearing a noise and walking up to the bars, seeing this thing.

No introduction cutscene, just James walking up to the bars with his radio static going nuts, and Pyramid Head standing there menacingly.

Let's discuss Pyramid Head's new design from the brief glimpse the first trailer gave us.

Why is Pyramid Head in a torrential downpour? Is that a reference to Downpour? He was never outside in the game unless you count the hospital roof. He appears to be coming in a doorway from the outside. Is his head/hat dented on one side? I fucking hope there's a mod to reskin Pyramid Head wearing a traffic cone and other pyramid shapes. Cheese-Head, Pizza Hut Roof-Head...Tofu-Head!

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