I’ve been playing Silent Hill HD Collection and Konami’s classic Silent Hill games are just as eerie as I remember. However, Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 aren’t exactly the same. Both games got a graphical overhaul with upgraded character models and cleaner textures. Areas in Silent Hill HD Collection look brighter, which feels off since Silent Hill is a horror game. On the plus side, the flashlight effect looks slicker in Silent Hill 3 when it cuts through the dense fog.
While most remastered video game collections are just upscaled games, Konami recorded new voiceovers for both titles. Fans reacted negatively to the decision, but after playing Silent Hill HD Collection I found myself fond of the new voice acting. The dialogue sounds more natural and up to par with recent voiceover tracks. Having an option to switch between new and old voiceovers would be the perfect solution, but unfortunately only Silent Hill 2 has that option. Silent Hill 3 has new voiceovers only. It feels like Konami was trying to polish Silent Hill HD Collection to introduce these games to a new generation, but the tank-like movement will probably make them feel archaic to players who didn’t play them a decade ago.
I just wish Konami spent more time debugging the game. I have the Xbox 360 version, so I haven’t seen the share of problems that plagued the PS3 release. Apparently, they were so problematic Konami rushed a patch out the door. The Xbox 360 version still has slowdown issues where the framerate suddenly drops in Silent Hill 3. Silent Hill HD Collection also has audio sync issues when listening to the classic voiceover track for Silent Hill 2.
After multiple delays, Konami should have ironed out any issues with Silent Hill HD Collection. The quality of the new voiceovers is debatable, but the bugs and slowdown especially in Silent Hill 3 make this port inferior to the original games. If you want to replay Silent Hill 2 or Silent Hill 3 dust off your PS2.
